Bargnani says his position is power forward; still doesn't get defense

[Arsenalist]

Good and bad of season:

The worst part was that we lost too many games. We were not close to making the playoffs so that's pretty disappointing, that's not what we had in mind. The good thing is that we had a lot of young guys, and had the possibility to develop these young gus. Everybody got better individually, as players, but we didn't get much better as a team as a group on the court, that's the next step.

Have you lead the team now that Chris Bosh is gone?

This year I was the focal point of the team, I think I got much better offensively. Everybody could see that, I learned all the stuff. Without Chris, it was even more difficult to score the ball, last year the opposite team was more focused on playing defense on Chris so for me it was much easier. . This year it was more complicated, I got much better offensively. I still got to get better, especially on the boards. Definitely need to do a better job of being more focused, it definitely has to be a focal part of me.

Is it focus and intensity that you need to develop on the defensive end?

Defense is a whole different thing. I was talking about rebounding, defense too. Everybody has to get better. They have to get better as a team, defense is teamwork. We all got to get better on the defensive end, it's not just on individual effort. A lot of times you get players you can't guard one-on-one, nobody can guard one-on-one, so the best defensive teams do teamwork. Like Boston, these kind of teams.

What did Colangelo and Triano say? Did they say assure you that you're part of the team going forward?

Well, nobody knows what's going to happen going forward. You can't really say, nobody can assure you what it's going to be next year. Nobody knows what's going to happen, we talked about more what happened this year.

Plans for summer.

National team, I got European Championship that will count for the Olympic qualifications. I'll definitely play there. Other than that, I don't know.

How are you preparing for the lockout?

I will have to organize myself to workout in Rome, Italy. I cannot come back here and use the Raptors faciliites, I will have to find out what the best solution. Probably be in Rome, hire a coach or something, I'll have to organize myself.

Reggie asked the young guys to save money for the lockout, what do you think?

You have to ask each player, I saved mine, I'll be okay for the lockout.

Who's fault is the poor defense?

It's on both sides, I think it's 50-50. It's on the coach and it's on the players too, when you have a lot of young guys without experience, it's tough, it's tough to learn how to play defense, even tougher how to play team-defense. I think it's going to come with experience.

Do you want a guy that does the dirty work down low so you can still have your game, be a three-point shooter.

My natural position is a power forward. Other than that, I don't know how they want to build the team next year. Of course, my position is power forward, always been.

Interview video:

http://www.nba.com/raptors/video/201...RGNANI-1648499

He thinks the team needs to get more people who can play help defense because it's tough to guard one-on-one. The irony is too great.

Update, he also said:

I do things that are more complicated than rebounds and defence

Which they edited out of the official videos.