Game On!

Friday - 12:40 a.m.

Isiah Thomas gave just one interview on Draft Night and I was there to soak it all in. Here's what Zeke had to say:

1) Wilson Chandler

The first time he caught my eye, I was actually watching a game against Kansas. I turned on the game to watch Brandon Rush and Julian Wright.  DePaul upset Kansas and I noticed this guy Chandler.  The more I watched him play, the more I did the background checks and the more I liked what I kept finding out.He went to DePaul and we are very well connected there and have a great connection with the coach he played for.  He was probably the guy in the draft that we did the most work on and understood the best.  Being from Ben Harbor, Michigan and playing in Chicago, I know him pretty well and I like what we're getting.

2) Demetris Nichols

Nichols actually just impressed us all season long with the way he shoots the basketball.  Syracuse is a team that definitely should have been in the tournament, and when he came down to Orlando and worked out, I just was extremely impressed by his defensive abilities, and his shooting caught my eye.  The way we want to play inside-out, he is a guy that can definitely spot up outside the three-point line and knock it down.

3) Comparisons of Randolph Morris, Chandler and Nichols to Channing Frye, David Lee and Nate Robinson of two years ago

I hope they can play as well as those three can because Nate, Channing and David Lee were pretty special.  But Randolph Morris, Wilson and Nichols will hold their own.  They are good players and we are very happy to have him.

4) Zach Randolph playing with Eddy Curry

We are a team that pounds the ball inside.  We win by going to the foul line and out-scoring teams in the paint and we are a big power team.  Those two guys on the block will be tough to handle and will have the ball in their hands a lot.

5) Randolph in the East

Well, I think the style of basketball will be different and he will have to make the adjustment from the Western Conference, which is kind of more wide-open than the Eastern Conference, which is more of a half-court game. But I am sure he will play well.

6) The deal

There were a couple of guys we had been pursuing since the season ended, and Zach was a player we had talked about moving on and had interest in.  He has what we are looking for in a power forward, playing alongside Eddy and taking some of the scoring load off him.  He was a guy that when you look at his body of work, his numbers are very impressive. And when you combine that with his age, he is definitely a guy who is on the upswing compared to the downswing.

7) Frye and Francis

It was definitely tough moving Channing because he is one of my favorite players and one of my favorite people.  But it is a going to be a great situation for him in Portland alongside Greg Oden.  Channing and Greg will be a nice front-court, and people will definitely have to deal with them out west.  But I like what we did.

Steve was great when he was here.  We have a very crowded back-court, but I thought he was very professional and that he handled it like a gentleman with class.  He is an "A" player in this league when playing 35-plus minutes a day.  He is a great player, but a lot of nights he only played for 10-15 minutes a night, and he accepted that with a lot of class.  I appreciated that.