Paxson Preparing for First Draft
Paxson said on Monday that despite the injury to Williams, "it does not all of a sudden become a priority to us where we have to go out and draft another guard.”
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With NBA Draft 2003 just days away, Bulls EVP-Basketball Operations John Paxson met the media on Monday for one last time before his first night of calling the shots in the war room. The Bulls have one first round pick (7th) and three second round selections (36th, 45th and 53rd) in this year’s draft. The draft will be televised live by ESPN from the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City starting at 6:00 PM (CST).
On the draft without a healthy Jay Williams:
“[Jay’s injury] puts some guys on our board that probably weren’t there a week ago, in terms of which direction we might go. But there are also ways to address the guard position through free agency and some other things. So it does not all of a sudden become a priority to us where we have to go out and draft another guard.”
On France’s 6-6 guard Mickael Pietrus:
“I’ve seen a ton of him on tape. That’s what I’ve been able to do and this past weekend, B.J. Armstrong and Pete Myers, who played for a short period of time in Europe, went over for a short period of time and were able to see him play and practice. I’ll tell you this, like I said back in April when I was hired, I’m going to rely heavily on the people that have been scouting all year long. I obviously was not a part of that process since I didn’t have this job until April 14, so I told them and I told you on that day that I would rely on their judgment and their decisions and how they evaluate talent in order to make this decision. I’m going to be in a position on Thursday to gather all the information on these draft prospects and I already have a very good idea on how our scouts feel about in regards to the players in this draft. I’ll be the one making the call on Thursday night, and we have a very good read on that person from France, no doubt about it.”
On the impact of foreign players in the NBA:
“I think they are making a big impact because they are drilled with the fundamentals of the game at an earlier age. What you see with a lot of these European guys is size and skill level—guys who can handle the ball and shoot the ball from a distance. They are all intriguing because of that size and the skill that they bring to the table.”
On the strength of this year’s draft prospects:
“After the top three, anything can happen. There is a lot of potential in this draft and I think it’s very accurate to say that we won’t know how this draft pans out until after another few years. We’re in a business where everyone wants quick results so everyone looks towards that. We’re still a real young basketball team and the one thing that changes for us—there might have been some options for us to go a few different ways with that [number seven] pick, but now it’s very likely that we’ll have it. We have to determine what course we want to take and I still feel that we are going to take the guy that we feel is going to be the best player long-term.”
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“What Jay’s injury did was it took away some flexibility that we had. We were talking about having two guards and you listen to everything. It wasn’t a priority that we were going to go out and try to trade one of our guards. As you can imagine, there are a lot of teams around the league that don’t have a point guard that were calling us and asking us what we could possibly do. There was nothing imminent or close in that regard at all, but we did have some discussions along those lines. But now teams know that we don’t have that type of asset so those are the kind of things that fall off the board.”
On incoming phone calls since Williams’ accident:
“This weekend the phones didn’t ring much at all. And I was here, waiting to hear from some people. I would expect, and this is because I’m in this for the first time, that the phone will ring more closer to the draft itself, where I think people are going to look and see if they can steal something from us. I’m not going to do anything in a panic mode because we still have a real good young basketball team and that is the way I look at it. One of our young players is out right now but, with that said, there are other ways to address the needs we have.”
On seeking additional experience for the roster:
“Ideally, we would like to have more veteran leadership. But the only way that can come through the draft is if you trade the pick and that’s not as much a priority right now.”
On the next few days:
“The process now is to get together with the staff, to organize where our thoughts are, and you have to play out a lot of scenarios. If you have the pick and certain guys go before you, what will you do? Those are the things we are going to lay out in the next couple days to decide what direction we want to go.”
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“I’m not worried about our four and five spots right now. Tyson and Eddy are two guys who we plan on building our foundation around. Eddy played great at the end of the year. I think that for all of our young guys, the key coming into this season is for them to play great at the beginning of the year. It’s going to be important—and I know it is a ways off—for them to step up in November when things really matter and we have that tough road trip that we know we are going to have over Thanksgiving that is usually six or seven games. The last four or five years, that’s where we’ve gotten in trouble. When you get ten games under .500 it is tough catching up. But we’re lucky to have those two great assets in Curry and Chandler; they give us a great place to start.”
On free agency this summer:
“We have some ideas on guys we are going to target. As it gets closer to that time and we start bringing them in here, you’ll see that. We obviously have certain needs and we’ve looked at a lot of names.”
On Chicago as a free agent’s destination:
“I hope it is an attractive place to go. I think there is the combination of our young talent, obviously and there’s a lot of upside to what we are trying to do. Sure, we took a hit last week. It’s all about trying to forge a relationship with some of these players and I think that we’ll do a good job with that, I really do.”
More from Paxson on Williams:
“We’re a basketball team and it’s a business. All I’ve thought about the last three days is the fact that there is a young guy that is part of our basketball family that is laying in the hospital, uncertain about his future. I’m sure Jay is sitting there playing the ‘what if’ game. He was scheduled to go on a trip [to Kuwait] and had he gone on that trip… there are a lot of things going through his mind, but you just feel for him and you feel for his family. He’s an only child and his mom and dad have been as strong as they can possibly be, but it’s an incredibly tough time. A lot of you could put yourself in their shoes as a lot of us have kids. Do it. It’s your worst fear as a parent to get that phone call that something has happened to your child. So we think in terms of that, too. It’s not how it affects us as a group; we’re worried more with how he’s dealing with it and how he’s handling it. That’s all I’ve thought about.”
On the outlook for Williams’ this season:
“I would have to assume [that Jay will miss the entire 2003-04 season]. But that’s still a question for the doctors and for the family to answer. We do have to work under that assumption.”
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