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Q & A Portland's Dunleavy discusses the challenges ahead
The Blazers' front office has done its job in the offseason by adding some big talent. This year, Shawn Kemp and Dale Davis will join forces with Rasheed Wallace at power forward. Now the onus falls on head coach Mike Dunleavy, who talked with CNNSI.com's Vince Cellini about the challenges of the upcoming season and the chances for the team's success. Vince Cellini: Mike, before we look ahead to this season, we can't help but look back. I have to ask you how you get past the killer Game 7 loss [89-84] to the Lakers. I mean, were there nights when you saw that in your sleep for a while? Mike Dunleavy: Well, actually it was quite easy to get through. I watched a few times after we played the game just to make sure that I had every detail down. I felt good about the way our guys played. I thought they played a great game. We executed well, we had good shots in the game, and we turned the ball over one time in that fourth quarter. For the most part, we only made one defensive mistake on a rotation. And the fact is, we missed 13 shots in a row, and out of 13 shots, five or six of them were in and out. So it was just one of those things where the ball didn't go in. It just happened at a tough time. Cellini: Okay, let's move ahead now. Shawn Kemp comes over [from Cleveland]. He really took a lot of flak last year, mainly because of the weight. Reportedly he was over 300 pounds prior to last year's training camp. Why are you willing to take a gamble on a guy at age 30? And do you expect that he'll be in the kind of shape he needs to be in? Dunleavy: Well, first of all, age 30 is when a guy in this league is in his prime. So the age part of it really wasn't an issue. The bigger issue is his conditioning. But having met with Shawn, I think he's very focused and very motivated to get himself back in the type of shape that's necessary to take it to the next level. Cellini: You also gave up a young talent in Jermaine O'Neal, and Dale Davis comes over [from Indiana]. Tell us about acquiring Davis and the thought process behind that. Dunleavy: Jermaine had asked to be traded. Jermaine is 21 years old with a big upside, and he had been in a situation here where he had been playing behind Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant for a number of years. But given the opportunity to get Dale Davis for Jermaine, I think that [president] Bob Whitsitt felt like it was a great move for us. Dale is obviously an established player. Jermaine has the ability to get to the point where Dale is, but Dale is there right now. He's a great defender in the low post and a great rebounder, one of the top rebounders in our league on a permanent basis. It was a good pickup for us.
Cellini: Now you have kind of a pleasant problem for a coach. You have a lot of talented players, All-Star players, in particular at the power forward position. How do you keep everybody happy and make sure they get enough minutes night after night? Dunleavy: Actually, it is a little worrisome, because there really aren't enough minutes for everybody. If you look at it, you have two power positions -- power forward and center. If you divide the minutes up, there are 96 minutes in a ballgame, and we have four guys who have either been All-Stars -- or in the case of [Arvydas] Sabonis, if he had been over here at an earlier age, he definitely would have been an All-Star in our league. So we have a lot of talented guys there. And all I know is, if I divide their minutes by 24 minutes a piece, I'm probably going to have four guys mad at me, and I'm just going to have to figure a way out or around it. I'm hoping that they're willing to sacrifice and do whatever is necessary to blend in and be with a team that has a chance to win a title. Cellini: [Lakers head coach] Phil Jackson said last year heading into the Western Conference finals, "If Scottie Pippen doesn't take them by the horns, they're not going to get us." Now I know Phil does a lot of psyche jobs on different teams. Does that sound like just psychology, or do the Blazers have a legitimate leadership question? Dunleavy: I thought it was very interesting. I think it was an opportunity for Phil to try and use psychology. He coached Scottie, and maybe he was trying to put him in an uncomfortable situation. But I thought Scottie responded terrifically for us throughout the whole playoffs. He took his time during the year from the standpoint of blending in with his teammates, showed the work ethic and professionalism that he was all about. And then when it came time for the playoffs, he made his final surge and put us on his back a couple of games. But he set the tone defensively, and in other games he also set it offensively. He hit a lot of big shots for us during the season. And in the playoffs, I really felt he did a tremendous job coming in and leading our team. Therefore, we probably need to thank Phil, because Scottie accepted that challenge and did a great job with it. Cellini: You've been around the league a long time as a player and a coach, and I think we can both agree, it's better to have too much talent than not enough talent in the NBA. Dunleavy: I don't think there's any question about that. Cellini: Thank you for joining us and best of luck to you in the upcoming season.
Dunleavy: Thanks, Vince.
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