NBA Draft Press Conference with Tony Barone

Director of Player Personnel and Assistant Coach, Tony Barone Sr., spoke with local media following the Grizzlies trade announcement during the 2003 Draft. Here's what he had to say:

On Dahntay Jones and Mickael Pietrus…
"On our draft list it was Dahntay Jones and Troy Bell. Mickael Pietrus was three. If you look at most other draft lists, you will see that Mickael (Pietrus) was one or two on everybody's draft list. The way that we had it, he was three. How far below the other three? Not much. Mickael Pietrus and Dahntay Jones run the court like jets. They can really run the court. The comparison between them ends when you talk about the physical nature of Dahntay (Jones) and the physical nature of Mickael (Pietrus). Dahntay is a physical guy and although Mickael (Pietrus) is a great defender, he is not a physical guy."


On moving up in the draft…
"We knew before the 13th pick when another player was picked, what we wanted to do. Have you seen anyone move up the draft? It is pretty hard. You have to make a pretty significant trade and it usually involves a significant amount of contracts. If you are trying to be fiscally responsible then you have to be very careful of that. If you look at what we are doing with the new arena, you will see that we want to be fiscally responsible. That doesn't mean that we don't want to win next season, we just want to be fiscally responsible."


On the draft picks…
"Troy (Bell) led the Big East in scoring. Dahntay Jones was a very good player in the ACC. These two guys can flat out guard you and run. I would not categorize anyone of these two players as role players. The last fifteen seconds in the game, if you put the ball in Troy (Bell's) hand then he is getting to the rim and he is going to shoot it when he gets there."



On draft picks who are well coached…
"If you happened to get a chance to come to the workouts, you could see the difference just in an hour workout with guys that are well coached. If you are expecting a rookie to come into this league and play the chances of that guy coming in and playing after a four year career of success to us, is better that chance than a young guy that pops up. Does that mean that LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony is not going to be a star? Of course not, but it makes it a lot easier when you get those other type of guys."


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