Kenny Vance: Let's start out with Nicolas Batum, we've been hearing rave reviews...

KP: Yeah, when we first drafted Nic, we really felt like he had a lot of growth left in him, in terms of him getting better year in, year out. But I do believe he's made a huge leap this summer. Talking to him and his agent, one of the things we talked about is that he got a lot of confidence being our defensive stopper. Going against LeBron and K*be and all those guys...so when he's going against European guys...he just feels comfortable and confident, and so he's playing as well as any player in Europe, right now. He's scoring, he's getting to the basket, he's had some phenomenal dunks in traffic where he's elevating over people. He has that tremendous length. On defense he's still as disruptive as he's ever been, but he's also putting the ball in the basket and he's playing with a lot of confidence...and again, we thought he'd have some growth but he's an intelligent player and he's really "coming" a lot faster than we even expected and hopefully that can transfer over to the season, because if he does he's really gonna help us.

Jay Allen: I read some reports that Nic played PG...

KP: When Tony Parker goes out of the game the French coaches don't feel as comfortable with some of their backup guys handling the ball as much as they have been with Nic, so they have experimented and he's done a good job. We've always felt that one of the areas of improvement for him was being able to create and put the ball down on the floor because if you ever have a 3-man who can shoot it, defend, has athletic ability and can slash then you've really got a player and so he's worked on that and he's gotten better at it and what I think is making him different is the fact that now he's attacking the basket but when he's getting at the basket he's really finishing strong, he's not trying to lay anything up. He looks more explosive and he's finishing above the rim on people and that's pretty exciting.

Kenny Vance: What about Rudy and Claver?

KP: Spain is really the 2nd best team in the world...they're so deep at every position. Rudy hasn't played a lot, but you'll see him "ramp up" as they get closer to the championships. Claver has started some games, there was a game where he came out in the 2nd half and had 8 straight points...Victor's got a chance to become a really good pro, we're excited about his prospects...we're looking forward to seeing his growth this year...if he improves he can come in here pretty quick and help us.

Jay Allen: Did you see Koponen and Freeland?

KP: I saw Freeland, I didn't see Koponen. Finland played France in a game and Koponen had a huge game against Tony Parker. I haven't seen the video yet...I just read about it on the internet and saw the boxscore...I talked to his agent after that...this should help him going into the season. Finland is out of it, now, but France is still in it...I saw Joel Freeland in 3 games...he's rebounding his tail off, I mean he was the best rebounder, playing against some pretty good NBA guys, he had 16 rebounds in 24 minutes one game, and he's improving. His shot's gotten a little flat, we gotta get Townsend over there and help him with his shot, but there's no doubt about it he's an NBA player. I think he made the right decision...when we talked at the end of this past season he talked about coming over, he talked about having a 2 year plan to stay over there, so when he comes over he's really ready to play, and we subscribe to that.

Jay Allen: Do you think Freeland and Koponen fit in your plans, moving forward?

KP: We put plans in place but it's important for us to see these guys make progress, whether they're with us or with some other team. I want to be flexible and I want them to improve.

Kenny Vance: How do you feel about Dante Cunningham?

KP: We feel great about Dante, he exceeded all our expectations in summer league...he can be a utility player, play multiple positions...he is as tough as they get, he's not going to back down from anyone in practice, he's gonna go at it, he's starting to get confidence in his shot and when he makes his shot it's like icing on the cake 'cause he does so many (what we call) "winning basketball plays". We saw it in summer league and when we broke down some of the film and looked at it again it was amazing how he was at the right place at the right time making the right play. We really feel good about that and I don't know how much he'll play, we're gonna have competition at every position, that's the one thing that we've always wanted...that, coupled with the character of our team we feel pretty good going into the season.

Jay Allen: Where are you at with Pendergraph?

KP: Working on his contract. Again, it does take time we want to do these things the right way and there's a lot of more deal points that you've gotta talk about than people even realize...but we're working on it.

Kenny Vance: What about LMA?

KP: That's priority #1 right now, it has been for awhile. I sat down with Brandon today probably for an hour and a half and I'm very happy that we have Brandon done...we know how important these 2 guys have been...we know that they're the foundation pieces to our organization...they've helped us get to where we've gotten and we've made such a huge jump in the last couple years...it's all about "us" it's not about 1 or 2 players but when you look at what these 2 guys have done for us, you know how important they are.

Jay Allen: Update fans on Martell...

KP: Martell's doing great, my guess is that in the middle of Sept he's cleared to go 5 on 5...he's out here shooting he's doing some light running...he's never been out of shape in his life...he's a little bit obsessive about his work ethic and we love that about him and we expect him to be at full strength on the first day of camp. He's gonna compete, he gets after it. He's a hard worker, he's a hard player. We added Andre Miller and Martell to a team that was pretty good last year...so we feel pretty good about our team.