Rob Babcock
Rob Babcock
Rob Babcockis the former Vice President of Basketball Operations with the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA. He is also the former general manager of the Toronto Raptors...
both excited game hard past season throughout worked
We are excited to have Pape back with us. He has worked very hard on his game over the past year, both during the season and throughout the summer.
cutting guys hard learning plan realize starting turning understand
We still have a long way to go, but we have the guys here now who see what the plan is, and they understand it, ... They realize that there's no cutting corners, that it's going to be a lot of hard work, learning to play as a team, doing things the right way ... Our guys are starting to get that and things are turning around.
based hoped last optimistic turned
Things didn't go as well as we would have hoped last year, but I was very optimistic that would have been turned around based off our discussions and the way things were going with our workouts,
basically message plan
The message that we want to get out there is basically what our plan is,
exception integral last less team
We more or less have the same team back with the exception of Donyell Marshall, who was an integral part of our team last year. We're replacing him with rookies.
certainly changed deal felt fit gives good guards healthy last point regards road signed year
We signed Rafer to a six-year deal last year without any really healthy point guards other than Milt Palacio. Things kind of changed over the summer. Rafer still would have been a good fit for our team, but we felt this was a better fit and certainly gives us more flexibility down the road in regards to the cap.
basketball certainly draft early gets money season
We certainly would like to have him back on our basketball team. But we have to take a look at everything when the season ends, that gets into money situations, roster spots, draft picks. We have to look at all the different things, so it's too early to tell anything.
agreeing anticipate close
We are very close to agreeing to something with Matt. I anticipate it getting done quickly.
kinds looked waited
We had to do something with our roster. We could have waited but we looked at all kinds of different possibilities, two-for-one (trades), things like that. We just couldn't come up with anything that worked.
bad coach news teams
Even bad teams have optimism. The Bad News Bears' coach wouldn't even tell his team that.
eventually
First, we eventually are going to need that roster spot,
afraid compete guards knowing likely point range
Other point guards in his range are not likely to want to come in here and compete with Rafer and Calderon, ... He wasn't afraid to come in here knowing what we had.
course pulling
Of course I'm still pulling for (the Raptors).
clear force player team trade
No one is going to force me to make a trade. I've made it very clear the only way I would trade any player on our team is if it's a trade that makes us a better team.