Tony Barone, Jr. is the Grizzlies’ Director of Scouting, and is responsible for scheduling the draft candidates’ workouts. He talks about the process, and much more, in this interview.
What was your night like last night after the draft order was finalized?
“As soon as the picks went down I started calling everybody immediately. I called a group of targeted players. I had a call into about 11 guys within the first 10 minutes. Fortunately enough that landed us two guys for workouts right away and their agents were willing to get them in as soon as possible. Realistically at that pick we’re looking at five or six players, that’s what it’s going to come down to.”
Had you already been working on getting in players who are projected to be available at the team’s 28th pick?
“I’ve been calling for the 28th pick for a while now and a lot of agents are trying to do their best for their clients by saying, ‘Hey, he’s higher than your pick’. Which is fine, but when it all plays out there’ll be a few guys around our pick that don’t think they’ll be there and that’s typically when people quote-unquote fall because people see themselves as being higher in the draft.”
Will you be able to bring in all the players you want to see?
“The games are played where people want to say, ‘My guy won’t come in against this guy’ or ‘My guy will only come in against this guy’, because they want to improve their stock. But when it comes down to it, we essentially have the third pick because the first two picks are off the books with Beasley and Rose. So we have the benefit of the doubt if you will, because now we can say, ‘We’re one of the three choices for your guy, so why don’t you just get him in for a workout.’ So when it’s all said and done we’ll get them in, it’s just early in the process right now.”
In recent years players have refused to work out against other players, preferring individual workouts instead. Is that happening this year?
“We’ve had a few guys that are high-end that have said they’re only going to work out by themselves, which part of me says I don’t blame them because I feel the workouts do end up hurting guys. If you’re a rebounder, to go into a workout you’re not going to see a guy who’s at his best when he’s in traffic against nine other players and grabbing 20 rebounds in a game. But grabbing those same rebounds with the footwork and wherewithal and know-how of where the ball’s coming off the rim in a workout of four guys is pretty uneventful.”
How do you weigh a player’s workout versus the scouting you’ve been doing all season?
“This year we’ve wanted to define that in a pie chart so that we can show upper management our thoughts on it. Personally I think 75% is what we’ve seen all year. That includes background checks, practices, film work, everything. I think 10% of it should be the workout itself. I think the remainder should be statistical analysis. Everybody’s big into Billy Beane’s (style of management), breaking down guys based on how they perform with efficiency. I’m of the theory that you go watch them, you see how good he is and know him by the end of the year and that’s what you take away. I love incorporating everything else with it, but once you start to rely specifically on a formula I think you get dangerous with that. Because if you took a formula, how would you rank or weigh Shane Battier’s intangibles of being a leader, being a community person? Those types of players that come in the draft, you can’t weigh those situations and those characteristics of somebody.”
As far as the statistical analysis, what do you look at?
“We have a rating that Steve Daniel back from the Vancouver days came up with. It’s a statistical analysis of how efficient a player is. It shows how efficient somebody is when they’re on the court essentially, it’s an actual mathematical formula. It’s interesting. For me it’s almost like a movie review. If Ebert and Roeper say something’s good, they’re probably right. But if they were to say something’s bad, I would rather see for myself. So if you have a kid who’s averaging 28 points in the NCAA, he’s obviously going to help his efficiency in a statistical analysis. People would say that’ll balance out if he doesn’t have as many rebounds, but if he’s from a small conference and averages 28 points and eight rebounds, he’s off the charts and in your top five every time. That’s why I don’t think that should factor in as much, but I think it’s very interesting and it’s another angle to look at. We use a 10-category system that one of our scouts came up with a few years ago of, on a scale of one to five, with five being the best, and for instance one category would be body type for that position. So if a guy is 6-8, 6-9 and a point guard like Magic Johnson, he would get a five. If he’s a center, and 6-7, he’d probably get a one. We try to get the intangibles in there too, leadership, toughness, those types of traits, and it plays out interestingly in certain ways but in the end I think you really have to factor in the guts of what you’ve seen all year, your gut feeling of how you’ve seen a kid all year.”
With the workouts, is there a danger that you can start to nitpick on little things that may not be significant?
“One of the dangers of the workout is you can overscout. Troy Murphy was a good example at Notre Dame. He was Player of the Year two or three years in a row in the Big East, and you’ve seen him so much, then you bring him in for a workout and you start to overanalyze his faults because you’ve seen so many things he does well that you do start to nitpick, and it’s natural. It’s human nature. The workouts have to be something where you see his energy, his effort, and we always say if a kid comes in and makes only five shots, so be it. You should still walk away saying, ‘I like this about him’.”
And isn’t the chance to sit down with a player and get to know him as important as what happens on the court in the workouts?
“The best part about it is the coaching staff gets to see the kid, and for us, we don’t rely so much on psych tests as we do going to dinner. Joakim Noah was a great example. He was very candid, a very open kid. He told us, ‘If you have any questions about me, I’ll answer them.’ He stopped dinner and told us that, told us, ‘Don’t beat around the bush, tell me what you want to know and I’ll answer it.’ Al Horford was the same way, very impressive, almost an old soul type of kid. But you don’t know that when you’re seeing them on t.v. You don’t know if somebody’s a prankster, or who’s going to be snickering in the huddle when you’re trying to get back in the game with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. So those are the invaluable moments when you can sit down with a kid and figure out his personality. The workout is really to get to know the kid.”
At this month’s Orlando pre-draft camp, most of the top players don’t participate in games, but will it be a good chance to see players who might be available at 28?
“Our 28th pick most likely will be in Orlando. Over the past couple of years it hasn’t necessarily been that way, but I’ve heard that a lot of the kids are now figuring out that they need to go play there because before they thought it would help their stock if they didn’t play there because it was making it seem they’d go higher, but all it was did was keep them out of the limelight. Our 28th pick will be in Orlando in my opinion.”
So what do your days look like between now and the start of the Orlando camp?
“Between now and Orlando I’m on the phone 24/7 listening to the agents’ stories on how their guy is looking great and how they’re playing great. For the most part they’re always pretty good, but you have to play the game, and their game is to get their client the best situation. As long as I can get them in for a workout and the coaching staff can see them, because that’s kind of the key for the workouts, I’ll be fine. That’s what I’m working on now. And after Orlando hopefully it’ll be a pretty full slate of guys coming in for workouts.”
Find more information throughout the draft period on Draft Central.