Draft Workouts 2005 - Ryan Gomes
With the 2005 NBA Draft rapidly approaching and the Celtics holding the 18th, 50th and 53rd picks overall, Celtics.com will be bringing exclusive behind the scenes info from some of the draft workouts held at The Sports Authority Training Center in Waltham.
Ryan Gomes is a forward out of Providence who averaged 21.6 points and 8.2 boards per game as a senior in 2004-05. The 6-7 forward initially declared for the 2004 NBA Draft, but decided to return to school. The main knocks on Gomes last season were that he was too short to play in the paint in the NBA, so Gomes went back to school and added a perimeter game to his repertoire. After trimming down and working on both his jumper and his ball handling, Gomes is now projected to be a mid-to-late first round pick.
Celtics.com: How did the workout go this time?
Ryan Gomes: I thought it went a lot better than last year because last year I was 50-50 on what I was going to do and I was kind of nervous, but this year I graduated and I know I need to leave it all out there and that is what I’m doing.
Celtics.com: I almost didn’t recognize you when you came in today - it looks like you’re a lot more agile and lost some weight?
Gomes: I have been training at both IMG and at school with coaches, and I am trying to change my body because I know the NBA is a lot different than college. In the NBA, I’m going to have to guard guys who are a lot quicker than me and are out on the perimeter instead of the taller guys in college that I guarded with their back to me. I have been doing a lot of agility training and weight lifting in order to be in the best shape possible for the draft.
Celtics.com: Was this feedback from last year, to work on your perimeter game?
Gomes: Yes, because they knew I was going to be less of a center in the NBA, so Coach Welsh (the head coach at Providence) allowed me this year to put the ball on the floor more and face a lot of people in different types of match-ups in order to show that I can do a lot of different things. Now, doing the drills we did last year I think I am much better and fluent with my motions, so the feedback has been very helpful.
Celtics.com: Were you looking forward to the Celtics run again this year?
Gomes: Every team does something different, and guys know now that working out with the Celtics means you’re going to run. It is a great way to test your mental ability because at the end you have to re-focus real quick. In a game there might be a situation where a timeout is not called for a while and you have to run up and down a lot, so I think it is good way to measure mental toughness as well as how good of shape you are in.
Celtics.com: I heard you talking earlier; it sounds like you have been a workout warrior this year?
Gomes: Yeah this is my 13th workout, a lot of these guys say it is a lot but there are no guarantees, some players will go in a certain range, but for me I have a lot of teams I want to show different things to. Hopefully these teams get to look at me and then when I am on the board on draft day they pick me. Working out for 13 teams is definitely better for my position in the draft.
