August 12, 2009

Vandeweghe in Vegas: A Brief Q&A

This past week in Las Vegas, Nets players Sean Williams, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Terrence Williams participated in Denver assistant coach Tim Grgurich's annual developmental camp, a notoriously clandestine affair (media and agents aren't allowed to attend). It was the final event of three in Vegas witnessed by Nets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe, who was there for the better part of a month, first observing the 2009 NBA Summer League and then the USA Basketball National Team mini-camp.

We recently caught up with Vandeweghe, who came away impressed with his players' performance.

NJNets.com: This camp is pretty low-key, with no media or agents allowed so that the focus stays on basketball. What exactly goes on during the week?

Kiki Vandeweghe: It’s a camp mostly for young NBA players. You probably had close to half of this year’s draft class, a lot of second-, third- and fourth-year guys, plus a lot of NBA assistant coaches and a lot of young coaches that want to be coaches in the NBA. They're all learning their skills, so it really serves two purposes: it teaches young kids what they need to know to be successful. and it also teaches coaches how to be successful.

A lot of head coaches go. They give clinics, run through plays, teach the kids why you run certain plays and what you’re trying to get out of them. It’s very instructional, and Tim Grgurich is one of the all-time best at improving players and player development. He’s one of the first guys to really make that his specialty. This camp is all non-profit, nobody gets charged anything – it’s all out of Grgurich’s pocket to do this. it’s very well run, and we had three players there.

We had CDR, who was very good, he showed once again that he really can score the basketball, and worked very hard. He’s really trying to expand his game, work on his ballhandling and outside shooting. You can see the work he’s put in over the summer.

Sean Williams showed great improvement over the last two years he was there – I go every year so I’ve seen him. Sean was one of the most athletic players there, and he showed his responsibility by being on time, by really focusing and by learning a lot. You could see Sean’s development through the week and he demonstrated his extreme athleticism. He was very, very impressive.

Terrence Williams, our No. 1 pick, was there also. He left a little early because he banged his knee (nothing serious), but for the time he was there, they played him at point guard, and he was outstanding. He showed the ability to run a basketball team, he was great on defense, he had a couple of great sequences. One of the best players there was J.R. Smith from Denver, who’s an outstanding offensive player, and (Terrence) played him very, very well, which is difficult for a rookie. I thought Terrence showed a lot of what he could become in the NBA. He handled the ball very well, he passed very well, he took very effective shots and he got to the basket. He’s a player the guys are really going to like to play with.

NJNets.com: How does your approach to this change when you're watching a first-year player like Terrence versus a second- or third-year player like Chris or Sean?

Kiki Vandeweghe: Well, the first thing is you’ve got to remember, is that they’re all young players. They’re all in their teens or early 20s, so they’ve got a lot of improving to do and a lot of upside. You just want guys to build on what they can do. What you try to do is see how they pick up the things that are relevant for the NBA. The good part about the camp is you have real NBA coaches, some of the best developmental coaches in the league teaching these guys how to be successful. You try and watch how they pay attention, how they improve over the week and then whether they continue working on that stuff. This can really be a good launching pad for them, and I think our players took full advantage of the camp.

NJNets.com: A lot of people credited this camp with Rodney Stuckey building so much momentum toward the beginning of last season. Can you envision something similar happening with your guys?

Kiki Vandeweghe: I think every year there’s a couple players who really do well at that camp. you learn a lot at that camp. stuckey did very well and continued his momentum. he got an opportunity to play in Detroit and took advantage of it. the things that you are taught carry through into the season, and that’s important. it’s a great camp.