Jerry West at the mic....

On the Grizzlies Offseason Moves, including the Shane Battier trade:

"In this sport, I think you look at your team and you say to yourself, 'Are we good enough to take it to another level?' I don't think any of us believe that. I thought we got the maximum, out of sometimes the minimum. I'm not belittling our players at all.

"It's a risk-taking business. Obviously, people value Shane very highly. In the years I've been here, I was getting questions: 'Is he available?'

"'No, he's not available.' But we felt that we had a chance to get the very best talent in the draft. And we still be that he's the best talent in the draft.

"And in the process we get back Stromile Swift, another shot blocker, we know him, he's going to help us win games also. But our team hasn't changed that much with the exception of the addition of these three young rookies who we value a lot. I can tell you in that draft room that night, it was a very, very exciting time. We're all just thrilled. Losing Shane is painful, OK. He's someone I respect, he's someone who I felt we were confidants, and talked about everything.

On Rudy Gay:

"Knowing that you traded someone like [Battier], and it does bother you. But when people have the opportunity to see Rudy Gay, you're going to see a really special player, incredibly gifted. He's a basketball player. He's a tremendous physical specimen in terms of athletic ability, but he's also a really good player.

"We might have a player here who will bring people in every night to see him play. He's that exciting. I think he's going to be a big favorite here. I think he's going to be a player who jumps out at you when you see him play."

On the Grizzlies three rookies:

"We thought [Gay] was the best talent in the draft, period. I know that Toronto was thinking about taking him No. 1, there was a division up there. But, to get an opportunity to get a talent like this, and again, I'm not talking physical talent. To me there's physical talent and a basketball player. But it was exciting to get someone of his size, who can play all over the place. Absolutely incredible kid, a wonderful person.

"On top of that, we got a young point guard [Kyle Lowry] who's a tough, hard-nosed kid who was terrific for us in the summer league and then we got a kid in the second round, Alexander Johnson we think is going to be a significant factor in this league. He was tremendous in the summer league -- now, that's the summer league.

"But, we're very excited about these three players. And you don't want to go out and jump on a limb and say, 'Well, we've done something special.' We're not going to know that until we get into the year and watch the development of these young players.

On Summer League play:

"We're hopeful that what we saw in them and what we saw of them in the Summer League, it's going to give us something we didn't have. We're much more athletic. We got two tough guys in the Draft. I'm talking physically tough, they compete like crazy in Kyle Lowery and Alexander Johnson. These kids just play so hard. They're going to be real crowd pleasers. People can see effort. People can see it, and I think one of the complaints we had was some of your guys don't look like you're playing really hard.

"Good players don't look like they're playing hard sometimes because of their talent. It's an easy game for them. We got two guys, two young kids -- Lowery and Johnson -- you can see the energy and enthusiasm they have for the game.

"Rudy Gay is like a ballerina, bounding all over the place, pretty to watch. He's probably be the fastest guy on our team. He's 6-9 and a quarter. He's got over a 40-inch vertical jump. He can reach seven feet five ... that's an enormous advantage. And he's basketball player on top of it."

On Expectations:

"Once I get through training camp, I do something every year. I write down a number of games I think we can win. And, I put it in a drawer. I seal it and that was my guess, and I cannot change it, I cannot change it. And I do it every year.

"I usually do it during training camp, and particularly when exhibition season starts. But, we haven't changed that team that much. Not at all. I know we have more talent. I don't think it's close."

On Damon Stoudemire's rehab:

"Remarkable, fantastic. He's a workaholic. It's remarkable where he's come from his injury. We've had him in here. He was limping around, obviously favoring his leg. Last time he was here, you could hardly tell the difference. We felt he was like 90 percent. That was a month ago.

"He's one of the most dedicated players I've seen. We have three or four of them here who are unbelievably dedicated. We think he's going to be fine."

On Shaq's place in history:

"I've seen some awfully great big guys and to try to pick one would be grossly unfair. I'll say this about him, obviously I'm very prejudiced when it comes to him, I like him as a person, I admire what he accomplished as an athlete, plus he's a great guy.

"And, when you look at all the truly great centers and you look at him and you ask how he would compare? He's so different from the rest of them, but so similar. Teams win with someone like him. He draws a crowd maybe more than any player that I've seen. When you play with him you're going to be wide open all the time."

On how Shaq affects the game:

"Dwyane Wade is an incredible player, but the person people worry about most is Shaquille O'Neal.

"You're going to get more wide open shots because of those players. If you can make a shot, you'll be able to play with him. Shaquille takes up a lot of space in the middle there. Players don't like playing against him because he is so physical. He kicks people's fannies in there. I wouldn't want to play him, I know that. It's gotta hurt.

"Having him out there creates so many more opportunities for other players. I've never seen so many open shots when teams he plays with."