Clippers Draw 14th Overall Pick in 2007 NBA Draft

Baylor

Olshey

Sacks

Vice President of Basketball Operations Elgin Baylor, Director of Player Personnel Neil Olshey and Director of Scouting Gary Sacks sat down with Clippers.com to discuss their plans for the 14th overall pick, the changes in the draft evaluation process and more. Following are their composite answers.

What type of player are you looking for in this draft class?
Ideally we would like to draft a player that fills a need for us based on our current roster, but there are times when taking the best player available is more advantageous to the long-term success of the franchise.

What position will you look to fill with the draft compared to free agency?
We have spots to fill on the perimeter based on injuries and some of our players that will be Free Agents in the near future. We will address those needs first in the draft, then look to support that pick with a productive free agent signing in July.

Will the 14th pick be able to contribute immediately?
You would like to think that the player you take can contribute as a rookie, and some do. However, there is an adjustment period in addition to the competition the rookies face from current players on the roster. That said, we are planning on the player we take at No. 14 that will compete for playing time and push the veterans ahead of him.

How do the changes to the rules affect the pre-draft evaluation process? How do you continue to scout and evaluate players now that you can’t see them play live prior to the pre-draft camp?
While we can no longer attend or conduct live workouts prior to the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp in June, we do have time to watch film, do backround research, fine-tune mock drafts, evaluate other teams' needs and book workouts for our target players.

The new rules don't allow you to outwork your opponents during live workouts and evaluations, but the rules do even the post-season playing field and forces us to be more diligent during the college season.

Prior to the 2006 NBA Draft, the NBA enforced a new rule stating that all players, regardless of nationality, must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. How will that affect this year’s pool of talent?
This will be the draft where the dominoes catch up. Many of the top players in this draft are college freshmen that would have otherwise entered right out of high school. The result has made this draft deeper than it has been in recent years.

How many players do you expect to see during individual workouts? What do these workouts entail?
So far we have booked 20 players that we saw as high priority. After the pre-draft camp in Orlando, we will add players to our schedule. This decision will be based on whether or not we feel we need to spend individual time with the players and evaluate them at our facility.

During the private workouts, will you be able to get a good look at the players you are interested in drafting?
We started booking workouts the first minute we were allowed to. So far we have scheduled every one of the players we are targeting with both of our picks.

How deep is this year’s draft? Which positions are the strongest and which are the weakest?
This draft is a little top-heavy, but it does have good depth. Team needs always come into play, but generally speaking small forward and power forward are considered the strongest positions this year.

In 2006, the Clippers selected Guillermo Diaz with the 52nd overall pick. He spent the season playing overseas. What role do you see him playing for the Clippers during the 2007-08 season? What are his chances of making the team?
Last year we drafted Guillermo with the provision that he would spend the year playing overseas and working on his game while we opened up a roster spot for him. He excelled with both of the international teams he played for over the year. We will evaluate him again during Summer League. When we drafted him, we had him much higher on our board than No. 52 and feel he will be a great NBA player. If he can score the ball and defend the way he did this season overseas, you should see him in a Clippers uniform next season.