Coach Dunleavy’s Post Draft Lottery Comments
| Posted: May 27th, 2004 |
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Q: Now, does it seem like a blessing that you lost some games down the stretch and wound up in this position?
"You know, you’re always looking for the silver lining. We went through a tough time at the end of the year. We felt like we played well and it was disappointing to lose those games, but the silver lining was we moved up in the draft. For it to culminate with the No. 2 pick in the draft is a positive event for us. We already expected this to be a meaningful offseason for us, now we’re put in an even better position."
Q: Does this add options?
"Absolutely, and we’ll explore them all. We’ll work out every player. At five, there probably were some players who probably didn’t want to work out for us. Now, we’ll see everybody and get our hands on everybody. It will be a good opportunity."
Q: Is there a particular need you’ll look to address?
"When you pick this high in the draft, you just need to pick a very good player, an asset, a guy who’s going to be around for a long time, a guy that’s going to have a chance to make an impact over the next few years."
Q: Do you feel there’s a consensus No. 1 pick in the draft?
"I don’t think there is. I think it’s dependent on who has it. Now we know who has it. It can go on needs. There may be some guys back further in the draft that really fill a need, or some teams looking to trade up. At this point, I couldn’t tell you if we’d be willing to trade. All I can say is, with the No. 2 pick, we should come away with a good player."
Q: How does this impact your plans this summer?
"Its gives us the greatest flexibilty we could possibly have, except if we had the #1 pick. If we come away from working out players in this Draft, and we like two of 'em---we're in business. Then we'll see potentially what other teams think of certain players, and if we think we can get more value by making a deal with somebody, we'll certainly consider that. We have all of our options open right now."
