When you look at this year, doesn’t it still come down to Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) and (Dwyane) Wade? If that is the approach you are taking, is it that the other guys are helping them be better and the team be better?

Stan Van Gundy: “I think the second part of that is true. They are our two best players, I think everyone coming in has an understanding of that. But it goes beyond that, it doesn’t just come down to those two guys. We need everybody on this team, particularly the veteran guys to make a contribution for us to be successful and to get to where we want to go. The teams that have won it in the last couple of years have had those kind of stars, but they haven’t done it because of one or two guys. I think everybody has to take responsibility and ownership in this and we need contributions from a lot of people.”

Do you expect Shaq and Dwyane to be at the same level as last year or is this a way to ease the burden?

SVG: “Number one, I always expect guys to play at the same level or higher. You don’t want anyone to play at a lower level. At the same time, that doesn’t necessarily equate to numbers because there are more guys around now that can score points and so you don’t know how the distribution of shots is going to work out on any given night. But I expect those guys to play at an even higher level because I think we got some guys that can make the game a little bit easier for them. That is what we are looking for from every guy on our roster, they need to play the game at a higher level.”

Do you expect Dwyane to be better due to natural progression? What kind of ways do you expect him to be better, specifically, in terms of leadership or what have you?

SVG: “I think there are three steps. Number one, I think his leadership has to take a bigger role, way more so than a lot of younger guys in the league and more so among all these veterans because Dwyane and Udonis (Haslem) have more experience in this system. Particularly here in training camp, he needs to show the way. Number two, he has to continue to progress defensively, particularly in guarding two guards. I think James Posey in particular and Shandon (Anderson) both have very good defensive dispositions, but they are more of a true three than Eddie (Jones) was, so Dwyane has to take on the challenge of playing the great two guards on a nightly basis. The third thing, which he improved upon last year, he needs to continue to improve his decision-making process and cut some of the mistakes. I have never been overly concerned with that. I think as many times as we put the ball in Dwyane’s hands and as much as we ask him to do, his turnovers are going to be a bit higher than the average player in his position, but we still expect him to improve in those areas.”

You spoke last season of the history of teams once they are put together and as far as winning championships, it sometimes takes a little time. Do you view this differently now and do you see this team as a new team?

SVG: “Well it is a new team, but I also think things probably set us apart from the norm. We did return three starters, but the guys that we do return were all major parts of it. Udonis, Dwyane and Shaq in particular and Zo and Mike (Michael Doleac) We’re guys who were part of our core a year ago. The second thing is we have experienced veteran guys who know how to play the game and so putting things together should come a lot quicker. Maybe not easier, it is never easy, I don’t want them to think it is going to be easy. That would be one of the real fallacies in the whole thing for any of us to think it is going to be easy. It is still going to require a great deal of hard work, making a commitment on the defensive end and all those things that it takes to set great talent apart from great teams. But it should come together pretty quickly and I certainly don’t think in our first year together should be an excuse based on the people that we have.”

Other than Shaq and Udonis, everybody seems to be able to play two or more positions. Will we see that kind of versatility on the floor?

SVG: “It is too early to tell what we are going to see in terms of lineups. You are right in saying that we do have a lot of versatile people and as a result we have a lot of versatility as a team and can play a lot of different lineups and can match up a lot of different teams probably just about no matter what anyone could do to us, we at least have an answer for. So we have a lot of options. Certainly over this first month we want to get a look at as many different ones as we can. And I think we have a lot of different things we can do.”

With all the new editions to the team, Shaquille O’Neal is kind of the pink elephant in the room.

SVG: “I expect Shaq will be the most dominant thing in the NBA. I said this so many times last year. He is dominating the game regardless of what his numbers are because he dominates the game in terms of his opponents approach. You just cant underestimate that, how much he makes you change your game, particularly your defensive game plan and what that opens up for other people. So I would expect that Shaq continue to be the most dominant player in the league. I think he is going to have a great year and that he is very committed right now very motivated from a personal standpoint to get this done. He made a sacrifice in terms of his contract and I think he wants to see that pay off.”

Shaq is under contract for five years and you obviously want value each of those five years. With all this talent, is there a way that you might ease the burden on him or approach it that way?

SVG: “No, you don’t approach it that way, I understand the thinking. We have more people to help him, particularly from an offensive standpoint. But some ways you put even more on him, now that he has been here a year in a leadership capacity. There will never be less on him. There may be fewer minutes at times, he may get more help offensively, but he is still the guy and a lot works around him and we need his leadership on the floor for us to be a great team.”

Last year you said that you wouldn’t run past Shaq, you will get him the ball. Has the philosophy changed with so many players who can run the ball?

SVG: “We will try to run more and I don’t think it has to be mutually exclusive. I think we have guys who can run and take advantage of Shaq’s rebounding. But do we want the game going up and down like Phoenix where he is stuck at half court the entire time he is in the game, no. But you are going to look for your opportunities to run and when you don’t have those, you are going to get the ball down the floor and get it into the post or get it to Dwyane and play off of those guys. This team is positioned to be able to play it either way. Finding that mix will be something we will work on and is not something that will be difficult to do and we should become a very efficient offensive team.”

Defensively, this team needs to start defensive players. With this roster, you have an overwhelming amount of guys who are offense oriented. Defensively, will you have HEAT defense first or will that change?

SVG: “No, we will never accept anything less defensively. Now, the scores, even last year went up because of the pace of the game. One of the reasons some of the scores stay down against some teams in the league, if it takes you 22 seconds to get a shot off on the offensive end of the floor, either because that is the way you want to play or you aren’t good enough to get a shot quicker, the score of the game stays down and you are high on the list in terms of scoring defense and you may or may not be able to defend at all. We scored pretty easily last year at times; we were pretty good in the areas we felt were more important. I don’t think you can win if you are not very good defensively, and I think we have a lot of guys that have a very good defensive disposition. Look at Gary (Payton), Shandon Anderson, James Posey, Udonis Haslem, Alonzo-those are all guys you would say were defense oriented. I think we will have a couple of those guys right on the floor, but I still think the key is to be good defensively. When you are talking about roles, a guy can’t decide that defense is not part of his role. That will not work. And I think everyone has the capability to at least be a solid defender and play team defense and to not screw up and to help his teammates. I think our guys are coming into this season realizing that they have a great opportunity here to do something special. For most of them, it is the best opportunity they have had in their career.”

Not having Damon (Jones), Eddie (Jones) and Rasual (Butler), what do you expect as far as shooting?

SVG: “All three guys that we have brought in with the one trade are guys that have shot a significant number of threes and are certainly three-point shooting threats in this league. What you are looking for offensively with guys like Shaq and Dwyane, you want to make as high a percentage as you can, but what you really need is space on the floor for those guys and what you need for that is the three. I think Antoine had a couple of good years in this league where he shot 37 percent from the three. James Posey had an excellent year a couple years ago, and then dealt with a lot of injuries this past year. Gary same as Jason, not a real high percentage, but has been among the all-time leaders in the league. Jason Kopono shot over 40 percent in three years, we got enough three-point shooting. We will certainly hope that our shot selection is good enough that those guys can be close to shooting career highs. We have had a lot of guys come through here these past two years who have shot career-highs or very close to it and I think it all comes down to having good shots and trusting your teammates and everything else. So I don’t think that will be a problem at all.”

What kind of defender is Gary Payton at this point in his career?

SVG: “Gary is a good defender with a potentially great defensive disposition. I think that Gary will not only bring good defense to the team, but he will provide his mentality and his disposition on a team that needs as much as it can get. That will give an offensively talented team another voice to understand that they are not going where they want to go if they don’t do what they have to do at the defensive end. So I expect good defense out of Gary and I also expect great defensive leadership out of him.”

Were you ever concerned about the rumors circulating during the summer?

SVG: “All that stuff is behind us. Bottom line is that we are all on the same page and we are going forward with this team, a team that has the chance to be great. That is where our focus is. It is not on what happened two months ago.”

Can you talk about replacing Damon and Eddie, guys who didn’t take a lot of shots, with guys who take a lot of shots, but might not have a high percentage, will that change your strategy at all?

SVG: “I don’t think it will change our strategy, because when those guys are open we need space on the floor. I think there are a lot of components to shooting percentage. Sit up here and say we don’t care whether guys are shooting in the high 30’s or low 40’s, because we do. We are talking about efficiency from an offensive stand point; you are talking about taking care of the ball and about getting to the free throw line and shooting a high percentage. So it is important. But you also have to be realistic. That is the situation that all those guys are in. So in Antoine’s case, when you are a go to type guy on your team and you got to get up 18, 20 shots a night, they are not going to be of the highest quality. You look around the league at a lot of the great scorers, their percentages aren’t real high. You can’t tell me that Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson aren’t good players. They are in a situation in which they have to score and have the ability to get shots and so they do that. Antoine has been in that situation. When you look at some of the shooters we are talking about, you can look at their three-point percentage, but you have to factor in how many of those are open looks, where the ball is coming out off the double team on Shaq or off Dwyane’s penetration. How many guys like that have these guys played with to get them that quality of shots. I think those guys are capable of shooting the ball well. We have certain things that we have wanted to work on, but they are all capable of being very good shooters. I certainly can’t judge them based on shots they have gotten in the past. We will evaluate them on what they do within our system and with our players.”

Where do you position Antoine Walker?

SVG: “I think Antoine can do a lot of things. I think two things that I personally have wanted to add to our team, we wanted to get a four who could shoot the ball and stretch the defense and we wanted to get more guys who could handle the ball and make plays and with Antoine you get both in one guy. I think he gives us a lot of the same things in terms of ball handling, as Lamar Odom, and that is invaluable. Especially against certain teams that pressure you up the floor. When your four-man can handle the ball like that, you become almost immune to being pressured. Also, when you shoot the ball like that, it makes it very tough for your other big guy to be down helping on Shaq, that creates a lot of options. Antoine gives us a lot of versatility. Its way too early to decide who’s going to get minutes and who is going to start, but hopefully he plays a huge role for us. Not only just another good player, we’ve obviously acquired another good player but he gives us a different dimension from what we had last year.”

Do you think the group that starts will be the group that finishes?

SVG: “I would say that almost anybody goes back to their main guys down the stretch. If other people have been getting the job done, I leave them in the game. There was once or twice we didn’t finish with Dwyane last year, it changed from game to game. That is the answer and I think it will all be situational and I think when you are judging guys coming from other teams, they are just not valid, because whatever that coach thought personnel that he had is different based on the personnel that we have. I think that all of our veteran guys are capable of playing huge role and capable of starting and finishing games. Just depends on the night and the situation.”

Do you think anything other that getting healthy for James Posey?

SVG: “I think the main thing for anybody is health, you can’t perform the way you want to and you are not going to be as consistent as you want to when you are in and out of the lineup and hurt the way he was last year. Also, just gaining confidence around our players and our system. I think that when he gets all of that, he should be that guy. He built up to that level his first four years in the league. He was on a steady rise in his career and was sort of set back last year. So hopefully he will get back to where he was and hopefully a step above.”

Do you have a plan of backup center between Zo and Doleac?

SVG: “We are the defensive front line of the league. You would have a hard time not ranking both those guys among the best in the league. We are very fortunate in that regard. It is hard to even find guys to be your third center. You are just hoping to find a guy big enough to tread out there as your third backup. We are very fortunate there and I think there will be plenty of situations for both of them to contribute.”

So much focus is on the veteran players, but where is the opportunity for the younger guys?

SVG: “We have very good young guys and I have said this for ten years, but our scouting staff has done an unbelievable job uncovering good young players. Their opportunity to play to beat out those veteran guys, which is not going to be easy because at every spot there are good veteran people ahead of them. I think there are a lot of steps in getting playing time in this league and step one is to gain the confidence of your coaches, if you have to play we are okay with that. Based on what I have seen, if you tell me I have to put those guys in to play 15, 16 minutes a game, I have no problem with that. The second thing is you have to be better than the guy ahead of you. It is always what this guy is not doing. He may be doing everything. Still, he has got to be better than the guy ahead of you. Why aren’t I playing more? Because the guy ahead of you is better.”

You have higher expectations than you did a year ago, does that make your job tougher or easier?

SVG: “Any time you have more good players your job gets easier. The expectation question is a little bit overdone. I have been around it my whole life with my dad and you know I have figured it out. Expectations for your team are high and if you don’t measure up to those you get fired. Expectations for your team are low and you get fired. I don’t think it makes your job any tougher. In coaching, they give you who you have as players and if you don’t win with them you are out the door. I’d rather have better players to work with.”