I interviewed Matt Watson on Saturday. Here's the transcript:

First of all, congratulations on being selected to join the NBA FanHouse.

Thank you—I'm definitely excited about it.

How did it all come about?

Actually, Jamie Mottram contacted me out of the blue about it. I'd known about the FanHouse obviously when they launched the NFL and college football one, and it's funny because I actually had contacted Brian Cook, who has a popular Michigan blog, congratulating him when he became part of it. I asked him at the time if they had any plans to do an NBA blog, and he said, "I think they might do one later in the year, and I wouldn't be surprised if they contact you." I had forgotten about it after then, and a couple of months go by, and then one day, I have an email from Jamie Mottram in my inbox, and I was pretty happy to see that.

Do you have much interaction with the other NBA FanHouse bloggers?

Yeah, since we're trying to get off the ground running, there have been a lot of emails between everybody going back and forth. There are ten of us, so the emails pile up pretty quickly. There's friendly banter on top of the organizational and logistical emails you might expect. It's been pretty fun.

And do you have a regular beat?

There are six of us that are covering five teams, and three general bloggers, so to speak—who cover league-wide stories and fill in the blanks where need be. I have five teams that I'm covering—the Pistons, the Magic, the Jazz, the Grizzlies, and the Raptors. It's kind of an odd collection of teams, but we had a draft, and I ended up having to pick last, which is how I ended up with the Grizzlies.

I assume the Raptors were your second-to-last pick?

Yeah, they weren't my top choice. But they're a young and interesting team, and there were some other teams available when I chose them. I think there are a lot of storylines that are going to be interesting to follow this year. Certainly the Sam Mitchell watch is one.

Do you feel like the Pistons are on the right track now?

Yes, I am. I was definitely worried early on, but they've extended the winning streak to eight games, and I really like the way that things are coming together so far.

If you could forget the past six years, who would you most like to have coaching the Pistons right now: Rick Carlisle, Larry Brown, or Flip Saunders?

Forgetting the last six years would be tough. I honestly would have to say Flip Saunders. Carlisle had his quirks, which I think is why the team was never able to get past the Eastern Conference Finals with him. One thing that kind of bugged me with him, was that he pretty much wasted all of Tayshaun Prince's rookie year by not letting him play until basically the first round of the playoffs, when Orlando had Detroit on the ropes, and he had to play Prince because they needed somebody to step up to Tracy McGrady. And that was kind of Prince's coming-out party.

And then Larry Brown—I just don't think he really trusts his young players. We saw that with him kind of responsible for destroying Darko's confidence. The team as it's constructed right now, there are several young players that need to step up this year; otherwise, the long term future of this team is in jeopardy as a contender.

I would actually say that Saunders is the least proven out of everybody, but if Flip Saunders can continue to guide this team as well as he did in the regular season last year, hopefully keep a little more harmony as they head into the playoffs, and also give guys like Carlos Delfino and Jason Maxiell a lot more consistent playing time, and let them develop into regular rotation players, then I probably have to stick with Flip Saunders.

If you could do the 2003 draft over again, would you take Carmelo, Wade, or Bosh instead of Darko?

I would probably take Carmelo. It's Carmelo or Bosh, really. A much as Wade is everybody's poster boy right now, I think that the backcourt as we have it right now is still the best in the NBA with Chauncey and Rip. I don't think Wade could have possibly developed at the same rate as Chauncey developing into an MVP candidate and Rip becoming an All-Star for the first time in his career.

But Carmelo, my big concern with him coming out of the draft, was he just looked like he had too much baby fat on him, and I though that he had the frame, that you think he might carry a few pounds. He really this year impressed me with his conditioning. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wins the scoring title this year. Plus, aside from some of his antics during his rookie season, his clutch shooting, he's become known for that, more so than any of the other players.

My big problem with Bosh, and it's not really a big problem, is that if we had drafted him, which at the time was not even a thought that anyone would take him in the top three, if we had, then we would have been that much less inclined to acquire Rasheed Wallace, and he put us over the edge for the 2004 title.

How about some quick word associations? What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Chauncey?

Winner.

Big Ben?

Rock.

Scott Skiles?

Dictator.

Dumars?

Smooth.

Flip?

Twitch. That's kind of cruel, but if you've seen any games, he has a lot of ticks.

Let's compare a few of the original Bad Boys from the late 80's and early 90's. Who was your favorite out of John Salley and Dennis Rodman?

At the time, probably Salley. We never actually won a title with Rodman in the starting lineup. He came into his own as the rebounding leader after the Bad Boys peaked. Growing up, when they were winning titles, honestly, I kind of liked Salley. It's hard to believe now, but he was the personality back then. Rodman was still very introverted. Salley was known as the team comedian, and he was a very fun guy to like.

How about Buddha vs. Rick Mahorn?

Oh, that's tough. I would say Mahorn. Mahorn I really identified with the team, and he was the one who was in at the end of the games; he was the muscle. Buddha he was kind of a fan favorite, but he would pretty much play the first quarter, but then you wouldn't see him for the rest of the game.

Dumars or The Microwave?

I've got to go with Dumars. I have very fond memories of The Microwave, but I've got to go with Dumars.

These guys didn't play together, but what about Mark Aguirre vs. Adrian Dantley?

I've got to go with Aguirre. He was there when we won it, so I've got to stick with him.

Honestly, I do. Isiah interviewed him back in the day (I think it was before he hired Larry Brown). This is kind of a conspiracy theory here, but someone—I think it was one of my readers—mentioned offhand their speculation that Laimbeer begged off the TV coverage this year (in addition to coaching the WNBA, during the NBA season, he would work TV next to George Blaha). They suggested that Laimbeer is backing off from that because he doesn't want to be commenting on a guy that he's probably going to end up replacing at some point, being Flip Saunders. They compared it to Ron Rothstein, who after getting fired from the Miami Heat, was a TV commentator for the Pistons, and ended up as the first coach after Chuck Daly. I wouldn't be surprised—if not in Detroit, somewhere. But, given his reputation still left over from his playing career, I won't be surprised if the only place he's really welcome is Detroit.

How's married life treating you?

It's going all right, smoothly, I'd say. We've been together for about five years. There hasn't been too much that I've learned about my wife Julie since we got married, so it's not like I didn't know what to expect, but yeah—it's been very nice.

The secrets start coming out in year two.

Yeah—I don't want to say anything I'm going to regret.

So, with the FanHouse gig and The Roto Times, are you writing for three different sites now?

That's right. If you want, it can actually be four, because I actually write for two different sites under the Roto Times label: The Roto Times and The Hot Sheet, which is their subscription site.

How do you fit in all that work?

There's a little bit of a rhythm that goes to it. The work that I do for Roto Times is basically twice a week: previewing the football games and then recapping them at the start of the week. That takes up most of my time on Tuesdays and Fridays. In the middle, I do what I can, depending if there's a game that day or anything going on with the Pistons. And now, I just started the FanHouse, so I expect it'll be something I spend an hour or couple hours a day working on. It takes a lot of discipline, because I do work from home. So it does take discipline to keep working. I also have various other freelance gigs here or there, and I also do web design on the side, so I have a couple other projects that keep me busy. All in all, I have a couple different things going for me.

Motor City Blogs is one side project ... how did you get into that?

Yeah, basically I wanted something to teach me PHP, the programming language. I had the idea for a while, and looked around at various pieces of software, and I figured it would be a fun thing to do. That's how geeky people waste their time.

I understand Scoop Jackson's quote-unquote apology. I can understand where he's coming from in terms of maybe an editor took it out, and maybe he meant to give attribution to it. I think it's larger than that, I think it's larger than whether there was a link there. He basically took the idea and spent 4,000 words acting as if it was his. Whether or not he mentioned briefly in the middle that it was from another site I think is irrelevant. If he just wanted to personify the ball—fine, he's not crossing any boundaries. Once he takes the name Orange Roundie, he's blatantly ripping off somebody else's work. I will admit if this was another author who did it, I think the uproar would have been a little bit less intense. But Scoop Jackson I don't think has many fans. I honestly haven't really met anyone who really likes his work. Maybe he has an interesting column here or there, but I think everyone is kind of sick or bored with his work.