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| Nuggets Draftee Introductory Press Conference THREE OF THE NUGGETS' FOUR DRAFTEES INTRODUCED TO THE DENVER MEDIA ON JUNE 30 |
TRANSCRIPT
Kiki Vandeweghe: “First of all, I’d like to just introduce our ’05 Draft choices for the Denver Nuggets. We’re very excited to welcome these three young men. One of our draft choices is in Spain, so he can’t be here.
“I think this is an interesting draft for us because we’ve got young players and we’ve got players who are ready to contribute. I think that we’ve improved our team with these draft choices, which is what you continually try to do. Each year we try to take the best basketball players available, which we’ve done. Each year with the Draft, you try to move your team one step closer to a championship level.
“I think all of these players have a couple of things in common. The first thing is that they come to play. Some of these guys you’ve seen play more than others, but they all play extremely hard. Everyday they put their hardhat on and they play Denver Nugget type of basketball. The next thing is that they are all great teammates.
 Kiki Vandeweghe Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images |
“I don’t have a lot of comments; I’d like you to be able to ask questions. I like to just take one second to thank Marc Cornstein, who is here from New York, and Herb Rudoy, who flew in also from New York via Chicago. They are two agents that are here. I don’t know if they want to answer questions, but I wanted to acknowledge that they are here.
“So, I’d like to right now officially welcome these fine young men to the Denver Nuggets family and to the Denver community because they’re going to make us better…us as a whole. The important thing is our fans and our community; and each step we make from the Nuggets, we hope makes this place a better place for us all to live.
“And with that, I’d like to turn it over to you to ask the questions.”
Question: What have the last 24 hours been like since you were drafted?
Julius Hodge: “It’s definitely been a joyful time these past 24 hours. From hearing your name called, to shaking David Stern’s hand, seeing the reaction from my mom, and being picked to a great organization—it’s definitely a great feeling.”
Linas Kleiza: “It’s been an amazing couple of days. It’s been a lot of hard work, but everything paid off. But today we’re starting from nothing again. We’re just rookie, so we’ve got work our way up. It’s definitely been one the best times of my life.”
Ricky Sanchez: “My experience has been a great experience. To be this young and to reach this goal has been great. My family has enjoyed every second of it. It’s just … I don’t have any words to say how great it feels.”
Question: Ricky, when did you start thinking that you might be able to play in the NBA?
Ricky: “It was a couple of months ago. I didn’t really think about it until then. I was surprised because I started training and I had very big progress. I sat down with my family and my mentor and we said that I had a big chance here, so I just went for it.”
Question: Linas, what were your expectations going into the draft? Were you expecting to get picked in the first round or was it a surprise?
Linas: “I am just definitely happy to be picked in the first round and picked by this great organization. Going into the draft, I just wanted to be drafted. I just wanted to be given a chance and opportunity to play in this great league.”
Question: What did you think of your lack of fanfare towards you and what did you do in your workout here that you think convinced them to take you?
Linas: “First of all, I didn’t pay any attention to the Internet and all that stuff. We saw that there was a lot of surprises in this draft. A lot of the guys who were projected in the first round went undrafted. I just did my best in everything that I can control. I tried to get myself in the best shape and go into the workouts and do my best job.”
Question: Have you talked to Josh (Kroenke) yet at all?
Linas: “I talked to Josh yesterday. He was my teammate (at Missouri) my freshman year. He just congratulated me and we talked about all this stuff and Missouri.”
 Julius Hodge Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images |
Julius: “I’m just a guy that’s committed to hard work. I know that my work ethic is going to continue to be great. Whatever I have to do to, not only become a better player at this level, but to help the Nuggets win more games. It’s a great opportunity. I’m definitely looking forward to the challenge, the continuous Carolina State jokes from Coach Karl, and just being in the locker room with the guys having fun.”
Question: Julius, did you have to go out and buy a Carolina blue shirt, or a Nuggets blue shirt just for this?
Julius: “Yeah, I wanted some brownie points. I got a shirt that would make Coach Karl happy and have some style with it.”
Question: Julius, what did coming back for your senior season do to the development of your game?
Julius: “It definitely added more maturity. I became more of a vocal leader on the court, not saying that I hadn’t been my previous three years. It definitely helped me with my point guard skills. Coach Sendek at State did a great job of molding me into that position with the versatility to still play the two and the three. And we won last year. We really played well and peaked at the end of the year, similar to what the Nuggets did last year. So I think I went out on a good note. Now I’m just looking forward to the challenge.”
Question: Do you see yourself as a two guard who can play a little one and three, or do you think you’re a little different?
Julius: “I see myself as a player. I’m going to go out there on the court and do whatever it takes to win. I know I can play the one, two and three positions because I’m versatile; but my best position is on the court. I’d much rather be on the court than off. So I’m going to do whatever it takes.”
Question: Can you talk a little about being in the stands watching everything go down. Did you feel slighted by not being invited to the Green Room?
Julius: “No I didn’t. I’m not a guy to really get into all that. As LK said, I wasn’t one to look at the Internet sites or the mock drafts. So, me being from New York, I was going to have my family there in the Garden anyway and knew that it was going to be a happy time, so I didn’t get too much into that.”
Question: When the pick came around, did you feel pretty confident that you were going to be the guy there?
Julius: “I felt really confident. I knew that when I came here, I had a great workout and I really worked hard. So, I definitely felt confident.”
Question: One thing that was talked about was the possibility of you being the third point guard. Can you talk about how confident you’d feel playing the point?
Julius: “I feel really comfortable running the point guard position. Whatever I have to do to help us continue this winning tradition, giving it 110 percent, I am going to be willing to do.”
Question: How much does the style of this team help your game, the fact that it runs up and down the floor?
Julius: “I see myself as a guy that can play in a halfcourt set, slow-up offense, or an up-tempo, run-and-gun. That’s just a part of my versatility as a player .... But forget about me, you’ve got these guys here too.”
Question: Ricky, can you tell us about your growth spurt over the last year and did you buy that suit off of the rack?
 Ricky Sanchez Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images |
Question: If you have to go to the NBDL or overseas, what do you think of that opportunity?
Ricky: “If I’ve got to do the NBDL or Europe, I’ll do it. Because I need to play and prove to people that I can play at this level. I’m a guy that has the skills, I just need to learn how to play. So if I have to do it, I’ll do it.”
Question: Do you have a preference of being in the NBDL or over in Europe?
Ricky: “I would say the NBDL because Europe is the other side of the world and….”
Linas: “Don’t talk bad about Europe….” (Laughs)
Quesiton: What does Mr. Vandeweghe say about where he’ll end up?
Kiki: “That’s something that we’re obviously going to discuss. I’m not sure what we’re going to try and do … whatever is the best for Ricky’s development, and that’s the first thing. I don’t think that decision has really been made. One of the advantages of the new rule in the NBA is that you get to keep young players close and you get to watch over them. We can come down and see them play often—we could see Ricky play often. So the NBDL obviously is a great rule and we’re going to look to take advantage of it; if not in Ricky’s case, certainly in a lot of different cases.”
Question: Seeing that he’s grown three or so inches in the last year, are you assuming he’ll end up at 7-foot, 7-foot-1 when it’s all said and done?
Kiki: “Well, we obviously all project forward and that’s part of what the Draft is, especially when you draft young players like Ricky. But you can’t assume anything. You have to judge Ricky for what he is and what you think he is going to be. And the young man that you all see in front of you, you can all tell already that he’s a special young guy and he’s willing to … like all these players that we drafted and like everybody that we have on our team … they’re willing to put the work in. We don’t bring anybody here that is not willing to work. That is one of the questions that we talk about in our interviews with our young players is that we really believe that we owe our fans everything that we have. You come to work every single day. You give Coach Karl everything you have in practice and in the games. That is something that is a common thread.”
Question: Looking at Ricky’s frame, is he your typical Denver Nuggets center?
Kiki: “I remember a guy that went to Kentucky, and I saw pictures of him in high school and he was awfully thin too…speaking of Dan Issel. Dan grew to be, as we all know, a pretty big guy. I remember myself in high school, I was half the size. I actually played against George Karl when I was in high school and he threw me around. I still remember that George…”
George Karl: “I still can!” (Laughs)
Kiki: “Well, you definitely have the weight advantage on me.”
George: “I never had anything else on you.”
Question: Linas, when you look at the roster and see all the forwards, how do you think you fit in?
 Linas Kleiza Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images |
Question: At what point during your time at Missouri did you think you were ready for the NBA?
Linas: “Missouri was great. We had some tough times this past year, but it was great. I got better as a player and I got better as a person—that’s why you go to college. After my sophomore year I just decided that I’m ready to move on and ready for the next level. I just wanted to pursue my dream.”
Question: What do all three of you expect to get out of summer league?
Linas: “Going in, I just have the mindset of working hard and competing.”
Question: Do you look at this as sort of an audition for playing time down the road?
Linas: “That’s what I thought about workouts. I’m ready for it. In this business, every time you step on the court, you’re competing for something. And I’m willing to do that.”
Kiki: “I think at this point, that would be a good segway into letting Coach Karl talk about what he’s looking for out of summer league. He’s coaching the first couple of practices, well that’s the rumor anyway…”
George: “For me, summer league is great. It’s fun for coaches, you don’t have win/lose over your head, and we don’t have you guys hanging out after every practice or every game. We’re just going to go down to Vegas and spend 10, 11, 12 days. It is also a good experience for me and my coaching staff to go through a training camp mentality, which I think is … these guys are probably 80 percent evaluation, but I’m going to take it for 20 percent of the time by coaching for probably the first four, maybe five practices to show my staff how I like to run training camp. Because training camp coming up in October is a very important piece to add to this team, as much as adding talent and skills.
“From a standpoint of players, I’m elated. All four players that we drafted ... I think Kiki did a great job of drafting guys that play the right way. As you can tell, they really don’t know what position they are, which is fine with me because I like basketball players more then I like position players. I think LK can play the wing or he can play up front; I think Julius can play the one, two or three; and to be honest with you, Ricky is a guy that can probably play on the wing or up front too. And for a guy his size, he’s going to have to get used to playing different positions. To get an opportunity to break into the playing time on my team, and the team we had last year, it would probably be an asset to them to be able to play different positions because you don’t know where the holes are going to be … they open up with an injury, they open up with a situation or circumstance.
“But we have a pretty good team. I’m excited and I think we’re all excited about bringing back the nucleus of that basketball team, and adding some young horses. My feeling with rookies is … the history with me is that I don’t get along with rookies. I’m changing my ways. I used to not like drafting little point guards, I had a little point guard. I hated Duke people on my staff, I had a Dukie on the staff this year. I’m changing my ways. But I think it’s advantageous to work with young guys—they lift you up. Vegas is going to be fun. I’m excited about Vegas and I haven’t been excited about a summer league for about 10 years. When you coach in the league, they kind of wear you out a little bit more, but I haven’t been in a summer league for three years and I haven’t had a training camp for three years. So get ready on July 5th. I’ll be ready; I don’t know if you guys will be ready, but I’ll be ready.”
Kiki: “I’d like to just jump in one second, because the draft is quite a process of … a lot of people look at me because I sit up here, but we’ve got a lot of people that do a lot of work. We’ve got a lot of scouts around the world that really work their tails of for that moment. We’ve got two people hear that I’d like to acknowledge because they are a huge part of the players that are here now and the players that are in the Draft. The Draft is kind of their day. One of them sitting right here is Jeff Weltman who’s an Assistant General Manager and does a lot of the work. And David Fredman, also an Assistant General Manager, somewhere in the back. I’d just like to acknowledge all the work that they do because there is no way we could do the Draft without these guys. They have just a huge part, and I’d like to commend them. I think they did a tremendous job, as they have in the past.”
Question: Can all three guys talk about what you’re going to be doing between now and summer league?
 Vandeweghe, Kleiza, Hodge Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images |
Linas: “I’m probably going to do the same thing. My parents live in New York, so I’ll just go back there, maybe go down to my old high school and get a couple workouts in before heading down to Vegas.”
Ricky: “I’m going back to Puerto Rico for a couple of days. Get my workouts in and just spend a couple of days back home and relax. In Caguas, which is like 20 minutes from San Juan.”
Question: Ricky do you know Carlos Arroyo (of the Detroit Pistons)?
Ricky: “Yeah, I talked to him. He told me that he was happy for me. I am going to see him when I go back home. Carlos is one of those guys that loves to work with young players and likes to talk about what to do. He’s a great guy … I talked to him on the night of the Draft.”
Question: Ricky, being tall and skinny, how do you plan to put on weight and get stronger?
Karl: “He’s going to go to lunch with me a lot.” (Laughs)
Ricky: “I know I have to put on a lot of weight because in this league it is very physical. I don’t know, if I have to change every part of my diet, I will do it because I need to get stronger to play in this league.”
Karl: “You’ve got to talk to Julius about the weight program too. Do they have a weight room at State?” (Laughs)
Julius: “We don’t pay our players ….” (Laughs) “Just joking, just joking.”
Mediator: “Anymore questions? No? All right thank you.”
Kiki: “Thank you everybody.”
