Us: You had a pretty tough matchup there with Battier, he had some height on you...
Kelly: Yeah, a lot of height on me. The only thing I could do was make him hit some tough shots, and he hit some tough shots. He's a good player, so, ya know, you expect things like that.

Us: Any thoughts on your first action with some of these second year guys, and players like that? Kelly: It's fun, ya know, ummm, it's fun but, you ask me two years ago, ya know, I never thought I'd be here, but it's actually just fun to come out here and play against some of the best. Mainly just fun. A lot of fun.

Us: If you don't end up making this squad, do you think you'd play overseas, or anything like that?
Kelly: Well, we'll see. You know, the thing for me is gonna be the best situation whatever it is. Right now I'm just trying to have some fun, while I'm here anyway, cause when it comes down to it I think having to go overseas, I'd definitely go. If the situation was right for me. Right now I just don't know.

Us: Allright, well thanks Darren. Nice game.

Larry Smith & Jim Boylen
Us: In the timeout, you sounded pretty animated in the first half, what were you telling them?
Larry: Oh, I get a little excited, that's all. Just a little excited. You know, I thought the guys came out and played hard. We guarded people today. We played with a lot of energy.

Us: Anything else?
Larry: Well me made shots.

Us: That helps doesn't it?
Larry: Yeah it does. (laughs)

Us: They looked a lot more crisp today, than yesterday. Did y'all work on anything?
Larry: No...pretty much no. We just shot the... we didn't shoot the ball very well yesterday. I think, if we'd have made some shots yesterday, the outcome would have been a little different. But uh, we really put the ball.. I thought we were good with defensive hands, they got a lot of easy baskets, but we did put a lot of pressure, pressured the wing, did a good job in that area. I think overall performance all the guys performed well.

Us: Kelly had a nice game today.
Larry: Yeah I thought he was great defensively. Made some key stops, and he had about six steals, he really did a good job on the defensive end. And he made shot. Overall performance of our guys I think was really really good.

Us: He had a tough matchup there against Battier for a while.
Larry: Yeah, what I like about his toughness, and he did a good job. Battier...he's gonna be a really good player.

Us: Battier is great. You can tell he gonna be good.
Larry: Yeah, yeah... (smiles)

Us: Not many roster spots available, though, are there...?
Larry: (laughs) Well they put a lot of pressure on us. The guys playing well, and they put it in our hands. We gotta make those decisions, so we just trying to let the guys come out and play and do the best thing they can, and hopefully some of these guys get a job.

Us: What did you think about Omar? He had a pretty good first half.
Larry: Oh yeah, he's been solid for us. I thought Eddie was phenomenal today. He made shots, he'd go to the defensive end, and he played with a lot of energy. I thought he did a really good job today.

Us: How many boards did he have to today?
Larry: Oh, I don't know, I think seven today.

Us: Seemed like more, the way he gets inside there.
Larry: Yeah, he made big shots though.

Us: Pretty nice having some threes fall today.
Larry: Yeah, (laughs) no kidding...

Us: Does he have that kind of range?
Larry: Yeah, he's got three point range. (sounds very certain)

Us: What's the status on Collier?
Larry: Well, he's still... we're still working him out down in Houston. He is still sore, and we're just still hoping to get him ready for the season. His knee is still sore, and we're just still hoping we can get him ready in time for the season.

Us: Did he tweak it again in practice?
Larry: Yeah, he came out here. Actually he did a couple of times... so, hopefully we'll have him back there before training camp..

Us: Are y'all looking at any other options at center, with Hakeem still unresolved?
Larry: Well we're looking at everything right now, we're looking at all options. We're not gonna tell you no to anything right now. Look around, see what happens.

Us: Anything you're going to try to do different this season with the new personnel, as opposed to last year?
Larry: Well no, we think that we added... we did real well in the draft, we're real excited about our draft picks. And I think... our guys are a year older, and we should be very competitive.

Us: Nothing really new? Just minor things maybe added to the offense?
Larry: Well yeah, we feel we got good players that can really put the ball in the basket. I think that, uhh, we got some... we got good creativity in our guards. I think our bench shoots the ball very well, so, we are very blessed in that area. We got guys who can really put the ball in the basket. But I think we've gotta get better from the defensive end. I think we will.

Us: As far as Morris is concerned this year, do you think he'll mainly have a complementary roll when he's in there, instead of being really a go-to guy, just go in there and not make any mistakes and play defense?
Larry: (laughing)
Jim Boylen: Don't know. (laughs)

Us: Up to them?
Larry: Yeah, up to them. You can say that now, but it's tough to look at.

Us: Morris being older, I've heard that maybe you expect Griffin to put on some weight and play power forward in a couple of years.
Jim: He's still growing.
Larry: Yeah, what we like about our guys... we have versatile guys. So, these guys are 2 and 3 position guys, so we are really really fortunate in that area. Our guys can switch off and play whatever position, so like I said, we're excited about our guys. Excited about the year, and I think a lot of good things are gonna happen for us.

Us: Are we gonna see Langhi at the two? (laugh)
Larry: (chuckles) We've been experimenting with it, but I don't think he's really to...

Us: We were talking to him yesterday, and he said he's been playing it.
Larry: Yeah, but... he's a 3.

Us: Yeah... Too big.
Larry: Yeah right now... like I said, some situations we might throw him in there, in matchups and situations like that, and see what happens, but right now we're just weighing him, see if he can play a little bit, and let the year go along, we'll experiment a little more.

Us: We know on things that are pending you can't really talk about it, negotiations or trades or things like that, but let me ask you this, now that it's over, did you guys think that you were going to wind up with Eddie, be able to trade for Eddie before the draft? Jim: No, I have no idea about what happened with that situation.

Us: That was a shock I think to everybody. Jim: Trading for Eddie?
Larry: Trading for who?

Us: Eddie... (ackward confused silence) Griffin?
Larry: OH! Oh, okay... (laughs)

Us: I think it was a suprise to everybody

(small talk for a while)

Us: (missed the question, but it was basically how did the whole draft thing come about...)
Jim: Well, we really got the guy we wanted in Eddie, we haven't done that in a long time. So when that call came up, do you wanna trade your 3 picks for Eddie, we had already agreed if that happened we would do it, and that was just good preparation on Rudy's part. We were ready for it.

Us: Did you expect him to fall that far on draft day?
Jim: Oh, you never know. He had been up and down, 1 all year, then he was down to 5, and you know. See, once it's get past those first couple picks, sometime it comes out need, too. New Jersey has Van Horn and Martin, you know what I'm saying? They took the best asset they could get, in him, and they moved him for something else they needed, that's the way it works.

Us: What did you guys think about Diop?
Jim: We liked him. He's a good player. (reserved tone)

Us: Would you have traded to get him if he was there?
Jim: Umm... probably not. But, you know. You don't make those decision beforehand, you make 'em, you know...

Us: By contengencies?
Jim: Yeah.. (laughs) We liked him though, we really liked him...