2008-09 News and Features

Ed Stefanski Q&A transcript

Transcript Audio

Yesterday, Sixers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski addressed the media prior to the team’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Below is the transcript from his question-and-answer session.

On their current record...
No one in that locker room is happy. I’m not going to say I’m shocked that it’s taking us a little bit of time to get this all figured out. We have to play the way we envision how we’re going to play basketball – by playing good, strong defense and taking teams out of their patterns and get out on the open floor. Then we have to execute on the offensive end. I thought we saw more signs of that last night and maybe in the Orlando game, too, we did it, but we need to do more of that and do it for 48 minutes. The one word I would use is inconsistent.

On Elton Brand being the final piece of the puzzle...
We expect to be a good basketball team, but one thing we do feel is that we threw all our eggs in one basket – that being Elton Brand. And I would do it again in a New York Second. I think Elton’s getting better every game, but we still have areas that we have to improve upon and after that huge commitment we didn’t have the money to collect a bargain agreement or to tap in order to do any more than that so we have to keep tinkering with this and we’re not perfect yet and that’s what we’re going for, but getting a guy like Elton – there’s no question that’s helped us.

On a void in the court that...
I think it’s too early to just say what guy you would like to get a replacement for. We’ve asked a lot of Andre Iguodala – moving him from his natural 3 to more of a 2 spot. We’ve asked a lot of Thaddeus Young, moving him from a power forward, 4, where he was effective because of his quickness and moved him to the 3 – so that’s been part of the thing, too, here is that we ask people to do things; we try to put the best people on the floor. But I go back to what I said earlier, we have to know what kind of a team we are and play to who we are, and that’s what we’re trying to do. Coaches are trying to get them to do more of what they did last night in other games.

On Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young...
With Thaddeus – he was a very effective 4. And if we look at teams around the league, not tonight, but if we look around the league there is a lot of small basketball being played. There are not a lot of centers on some teams so they go small – Now tonight with Bynum and Gasol, you’ve got to go big, and going with Andre Iguodala – I think there is still a lot of upside to Andre. Andre’s disappointed in his game – he’s said it. He doesn’t feel he’s played up to his level of basketball. He’s not making any excuses at all, which I don’t expect him to make, and hopefully last night’s performance is something we can see more of. I don’t expect him to get 25 every night.

On Lou Williams and Samuel Dalembert...
Well Lou – going back to last night, I was proud of Lou. He played defensively and he took people out of their games. He was all over Rose and made him work for it. His shot is not going – he’s in a slump. He’s got to shoot his way out of it. He’s that kind of player, he’s an offensive player so he’s got to stay positive and shoot his way out of it. Sam, last night, what happened was that Marreese Speights played a terrific game and Mo Cheeks went with the hot hand. The kid made some unbelievable plays in the 4th to help us win the game. And Sam’s happy we won the game, which is the bottom line – we won the basketball game.

On adjusting...
You have to adjust at times, and you have to go small. It’s up to the coaches to have a feel for that, but we can go small and big as we proved last year. We can go small easily with Thaddeus and Andre Iguodala.

On Coach Cheeks’ position...
Well I’ll answer that to say that Mo is coaching, the players are the players – they all have to figure it out with me. We talk and communicate daily to try to straighten this out, but all of us, including everyone in that locker room, we’re not happy ... right now.

On Elton Brand’s shot accuracy...
He was over 45 going into last night’s game. Like I said earlier, if we had to do that deal over I’d do it in a second. I think every game he’s getting better and better. I’m very happy with Elton Brand. He’s 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 1½ blocks a game. He’s giving to us.

On players adjusting...
There’s no new style. Maybe that’s part of the problem. The style is there. We have to play to that style.

On making trades...
We always look at how we can get this team better. We are constantly talking to teams and we’ll look, but we have what we have now and we have to just perform better.

On when it will all come together...
I don’t have a date on it, but I know it’s going to take us a while to try to adjust. We’ve had 18 games now, we have to start putting it more consistently together – we’ve had good stretches of basketball, but we’ve got to make them longer stretches.

On having patience in Philadelphia...
No one’s going to be patient. You’ll never hear patience come out of my mouth! I know the fans – I’m one of the fans – so I know how they are. I’m not going to use that word.