BACKSTAGE WITH BERNIE: DRAFT NIGHT
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(On why he picked Raymond Felton) I had a terrific conversation today with [North Carolina Coach] Roy Williams about those players. That was very convincing. They both bring to the table a need for us. I don’t know the last time you had three great point guards go back-to-back like that. In our opinion, there was never the disparity between the three point guards. In talking to Raymond Felton this morning, he basically felt the same way. The thing that Roy talked about was his improvement. The fact that a lot of the problems that were created because he wanted the basketball pushed from the top of circle to the top of the circle as fast as he could. He kind of took some of the responsibility for that. He talked about the improvement for the young man, that he would get up to call a play, but Raymond would have already called that play. That’s kind of what Brevin [Knight] is about. If you’ve got to call every play, 82 games, that’s a problem.
(On the surprise of some analysts at picking Felton fifth) I don’t offer any credibility to them. What we wanted was a point guard. We felt good about Felton. We’ve been pretty consistent that we’ve been comfortable with Felton.
(On the type of guard Felton is) I think up-tempo. One of the things that we talked about with Roy was that because of his strength, he had the balance that when contact occurred, he could get his shot off because of his strength. His ability in the open court to put pressure on defense. I think what he has to develop when he gets into this league is to read. All of these guys that have been drafted, when you step up to this level, it’s a different game.
(On Felton controlling his speed) We talked to Raymond about that this morning, about his speed, and then Roy explained why. He was the one who wanted Raymond to push it as fast as he could from top of the circle to top of the circle.
(On what’s next for Felton) We’ve already got our list prepared. We’ve got summer league. We’ve also already made our calls to Raymond Felton about coming in here to go to work. That telephone call was made this morning. In fact that telephone call was made when I came down here this morning. Raymond Felton had called me and we talked about it. He told me he was trying to sell me. I didn’t really want to make the commitment. But I did ask him if we took him, would he be willing to go to work? He said he didn’t have any problems with that.
(On why he picked Sean May) Sean May, we found out because it wasn’t featured at Carolina, that he could step out on the floor and he could shoot the ball. We understand his basketball IQ. He’s got terrific hands. One of the needs that we had this year was that we lacked rebounding, so he brings that to the table. I don’t think you can overlook the culture of an Emeka [Okafor] who won a national championship, Raymond, Sean winning national championships, that they know what it takes to win. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but I don’t think work is an adversary for either of these young men.
(On his shooting) Sean’s range is out to 17 or 18 feet consistently. If a four can go out, and the four has to come out and match up with him, especially a guy who can pass the basketball and make the open shot. Now all things are equal if that four has to go out there on the floor with him, because you’ve got to come out and contest him. That gives him the ability to make plays because it creates space for our inside people.
(On his NBA position) Regardless of the position, he can rebound. That’s important, a guy that can get you possessions.
(On his role on a team with other big men) I think that all has to shake out. If you look at it, Melvin Ely played with Emeka. Sean May brings one more dimension than Melvin in that situation in terms of the rebounding. Both can pass. One of the things that we talked about earlier in the year was that we had an abundance of bigs. That same thing is there this year.
(On what Roy Williams said about Felton and May) That they could play 10 or 12 years in the league. If you look at the players in terms of my draft record, most of my guys are in the league 12, 13 years, and some of them are still playing. Longevity I think is important.
(On Felton and May being teammates) I think there’s some cohesiveness there between the two guys in terms of understanding the strengths of each other. I think that’s important. But we’re not jumping up and down because the guys are here. We understand that there’s a process that they’ve got to go through. I don’t think anybody’s going to step in the NBA and get it done.
(On why he especially wanted a point guard) I just think up the middle, those are the important basketball positions. Brevin did a terrific job last year, and I do think that the mentoring situation with a young guard, it’s a perfect opportunity for a small guy to understand how to survive in this league. I think that’s a perfect marriage.
(On comparing these players to his previous draft picks)In Seattle we had Avery Johnson. Avery evolved into a great, great basketball player. What he did was he was a winner. Intelligence with skill is a serious weapon. Both of these young men have a very high IQ on the basketball court.
(On the draft class)With our due diligence, we couldn’t come up with any negatives. I made a statement earlier that I think this year in the National Basketball Association, there are a group of young men that we brought in here, and they are special human beings. They were honest. They were very quality people. I think the NBA is very fortunate. I don’t know whether it will be two, three or four years when guys start to separate themselves in this draft in terms of quality.
(On the Portland-Utah trade) We allowed them to make the deal this morning because we pulled out of it. We feel that we had held up everything long enough, so we called this morning and said we’re not doing five and 13, we thought we could get two good players.
(On Charlie Villanueva being picked seventh) He was a pretty good basketball player. There were a lot of things in this draft that I’m surprised at. We’re talking about Granger. We’re talking about the young kid, Bynum. We’re talking about the kid that everybody raved about, Green.
(On offers to trade down) Wrestling with five and 13, we’ve had at least eight calls today about flip-flopping with 13. On our board, we were comfortable that one of the players we desired would be there, even right after the 11th pick when the phone started ringing.
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