June 28, 2007

Iowa shooting guard Adam Haluska’s toughness and competitiveness impressed Hornets coach Byron Scott during a June 25 workout.

New Orleans general manager Jeff Bower and head coach Byron Scott addressed the media after the Hornets selected Adam Haluska in the second round of the NBA Draft, with the No. 43 overall pick.

Highlights from the question-and-answer session:

Hornets.com: Adam worked out for you three days ago on Monday. What stood out from the workout that made you consider picking him?
Scott: He’s a great athlete. Along with being a great athlete, he shot the ball extremely well and is a big-time competitor. The one thing we know is he’ll make practice pretty fun, because he comes to compete every day.

Hornets.com: Were you sweating it out in the war room, just hoping no one would select him?
Scott: [grins] Jeff was doing the sweating. I was just kind of sitting there. [laughs] You know, anytime you go into a draft, you have a couple guys in mind, and you have them in the order that you’d like to get them. When the second round gets to about four or five picks before your spot, you start to look at the guys you want. Adam was a guy we thought very highly of, and we knew we’d be lucky to have him.

Hornets.com: How do you feel after making these two picks?
Scott: I feel like we did very well. After the workouts and all of the information that (Hornets scouts) Kip (Bass) and Kelly (Bass) and (Hornets assistant to the general manager) Brian (Hagen) brought to us, we got two very good, quality basketball players. Julian Wright was a guy we thought was a top-six guy. We feel really good about it.
Bower: We got two guys who are winners and from great programs that have high standards and expect a lot of their athletes. (Kansas and Iowa) both have a history of preparing their athletes for when they move on after school. It may be a little overlooked, but Adam being an Academic All-American shows how bright a young man he is. That’s the kind of thing that helps the learning curve and the transition go smoother. He’s a mature young man. His adjustments to the lifestyle of the NBA will be a little bit easier, perhaps.

Hornets.com: What position will Adam play?
Scott: He’s a 2 (shooting guard).

Hornets.com: Were you surprised Derrick Byars fell all the way to Portland at No. 42, the pick right before yours?
Bower: We had him rated higher than that. As it was winding down toward our pick, we thought we had a couple very good options – good players from good conferences to make our choice from.
Scott: With Derrick Byars dropping all the way down to the 42nd pick, that shows how deep this draft was.

Hornets.com: Byron, you called Julian Wright a poor man’s Magic Johnson. Who would you compare Adam Haluska to? Byron Scott?
Scott: A poor man’s Byron Scott? [laughing] No. To go back a little bit on Julian, he kind of reminds me of Josh Howard as well, the way he handles the ball and slashes. Adam, our coaching staff had a couple names that came to mind. Craig Ehlo was one. The other was Fred Hoiberg, but Adam is much more athletic than Fred. He has some talent. He’s played in a great conference. We expect to see him in summer league and put him to work.

Hornets.com: You talked about Haluska’s toughness. How does he show that toughness?