Sixers 2008 Draft Center

Sixers Sr. VP and GM Tony Dileo on Marreese Speights

Listen to Tony DiLeo's Press Conference

Opening Statement…
As you’ve heard we are proud to announce the 16th pick: We picked Marreese Speights from the University of Florida. We feel that he is a great fit for our team. First of all, we are a running team and he is one of the best running big men in the draft. Second of all, we need some post-up presence, a post up player. Even though he is not developed fully yet, he is can score with both hands around the basket, and he will be, we think, a big post-up player. Third, we need some outside shooting. Not only can he score inside, he can score outside and he can shoot the shot outside also. And fourth, we like versatile player. We think that eventually he will be able to play both positions, the power forward position and the center position, so that fits into our philosophy. And fifth, he’s a good person. He fits in with his character into our team. We did a lot of research on him. He fits our team like a glove. He is a good player, and a good fit for our team.

On if they got the player they wanted…
He was the highest ranked player when our pick came. He was the highest on the board.

On if the Sixers liked any players that were picked ahead of Speights…
(Chuckles) I think (Derrick) Rose and (Michael) Beasely. I think those two.

On the fact he played for a National Champion at Florida…
They won the National Championship and he practiced and played against (Al) Horford and (Joakim) Noah for a whole season and learned a lot form those two players. That also was a factor in our decision.

On if Speights will impact the 76ers next season…
We don’t feel like he (Speights) will be an impact next season. But that is the way we felt about Thaddeus (Young) last year. We think he (Speights) will be able to get on the court some, but we don’t think we will see a major role for him. But it depends on him (Speights). If he develops the way Thaddeus (Young) developed this year…I mean we couldn’t keep him off the court, so it depends a lot on how he develops.

On if Speights needs to develop a great deal offensively…
No, he is one of the better post-up players in the draft. He can score with his right hand; he can score with his left hand. He is a great post-up player, but he will get even better at that when he gets a little stronger, and more established and refined. He will be a good post-up player and that’s what we need. We need to develop a good post- player, and he is the guy we think will be that post-up player.

On if he resembles any current NBA player…
Off hand, I can’t think of anyone off hand.

On if Speights was brought back in for a second workout or interview…
No we just had the one workout with him, and we were satisfied with that workout. We were thinking of bringing him back for a second workout but we decided not to with the time restraints and everything.

On Speights making the jump to the NBA…
It is just such a major jump, from college to NBA, so he just has to learn the NBA game. He has to learn how physical it is. It is just a different type of game.

On Speights’ predraft workouts…
(He worked out) in Las Vegas with (trainer) Joe Abunassar, who is one of the best conditioning basketball people that works these players out. And we got great reports and feedback from him. He told us how hard he worked out there. A lot of the things people were saying about him (his conditioning) were exaggerated and Joe confirmed things about his work ethic, about his motor, about his conditioning (good things). And we talked to a lot of coaches who played against him in the conference (SEC) and we talked to his coaches. So we are very comfortable with him. But like any young rookie, he will need some structure he will need to learn some things about the NBA. It will take time. Depending on how fast he develops and learns will result in his playing time on the court.

On Speights impacting the 76ers this season...
We don’t see him as a major impact this year. We hope by next year he will have more of an impact and have more playing time. We were not going into this draft saying, whoever we draft or if it is Marresse Speights that will be the savior this year.

On the how long the Sixers feel it will take him to play a major role…
We are hoping by next year he will play some major minutes.

On Speights’ shooting range…
He is a "pick-and-pop" guy. After working in Vegas with Joe (Abunassar), he has been working on the NBA three-point range. Right now he is an 18-foot shooter. He will be able to develop more range as he plays and practices, but he has a very good touch for a big guy, a very good touch.

On what it will take for him to develop into a solid pro…
Well he needs just to learn the NBA because it is so quick. He is one of the number one rebounders in this draft. He had one rebound every three minutes (in college) which is one of the best in the draft this year. He can block shots, and the thing we like about him is that he runs. He not only runs offensively, he runs defensively. He will fit into the way we want to play because he fits a lot of different categories.

On what the Sixers were looking for in their pick…
The player had to fit in on the court, because we are an up-tempo team so he had to run. He had to fit in with his personality and chemistry because we have a good group and a good team chemistry and we would not want to disrupt that. So he fits in both areas but yes, we didn’t want to have a player that was a slow player that could not play in an up-tempo group. We look for players that will fit into our system.

On Speights as a person…
He's down to earth. He has a sense of humor, but is a little reserved before you get to know him. After you get to talk to him he opens up. We did psychological testing on him. The coaches interviewed and we interviewed him. We just thought he would be a good fit on the team and wouldn’t cause any disruption. He would just fit into our group.