Draft Night Conference Transcripts - 6/23/2011

Nikola Vucevic | Doug Collins on Vucevic | Ed Stefanski on Vucevic | Ed Stefanski on Allen

Nikola Vucevic

Q: Ed Stefanski had mentioned that you really wanted to play for Doug Collins. What was it about Doug that you liked?
A: He’s a great coach, and he’s a great person. I could just tell from the two times we talked that he was a great person. I really like him. He told me what he liked about me and which ways he could help me. I felt it was a great fit for me.

Q: How much do you know about the team you’re about to join?
A: I know a lot about them. I follow the NBA games, and I watch a lot of it. I watch a lot Sixers games, I watched their series with the Miami Heat, and they have a great young team. With the years to come, I think we’ll have a pretty good team, and we’ll be in the playoffs, and it’s going to be fun.

Q: Nikola, the past couple summers, Jrue Holiday has gone back out to LA. Have you played any pick-up basketball with him?
A: No, I haven’t seen him or played against him when he was at UCLA. I don’t really play pick-up. I’m not really there in the summer. I’ve been back home, so I haven’t had a chance to see him.

Q: What are some things in your game that you feel you have to work on from your years playing at USC?
A: Well, I definitely need to work on everything, but one of the main things that I need to work on to improve is my NBA 3-point range, as that can help me at the next level. That’s something that would give me an advantage with my size to extend the floor. I think that I just need to work on my body and become stronger and quicker. During the summer, I will be able to adjust to the next level.

Q: Nikola, Doug is a pretty defensive-minded guy or his team this year obviously improved greatly defensively. Tell me where you think you are with your own game defensively.
A: I think that, defensively, I’m better than people give me credit for. I think I have good size, and I have good length, so I can use that but I think I read the game well, and I know how to play defense. Both of my coaches at USC were defensive-minded, and they taught me a lot about it.

Q: How would you rate your moves in the low post?
A: I think that’s the best part of my game even though a lot of people think I’m a shooter. I think my best skill is in the post. You do a lot of different things in there. I know that I can score with both hands, I can pass the ball pretty well. I’ve had to deal with a lot of double teams throughout the season. I think I’ve learned how to stay out of the post pretty well.

Q: What do you know about Philadelphia, the city?
A: I don’t know a lot about it as a city. I’ve only been there once, so I’m looking forward to getting to know the city and to move there, so I don’t really know a lot about it, but I have the whole summer to learn.

Q: Your dad played for such a long time overseas, what’s the most important thing he tried to pass along to you?
A: The first thing he always told me to become a good player, to get to the NBA, I had to work as hard as anybody else, I had to work hard every day and be confident, and never quit, and just keep believing. So he told me that’s one of the main things, and he told me that you have a good skill level on you, you obviously came from a basketball family, so you have all that, you just have to work at it, and that’s the main thing he told me to do.

Q: At what point did you believe this would be possible, that you, too, could play professionally?
A: I always believed that I could play professionally, but about the NBA, I think that I really started believing I could make it through my sophomore year at USC. I showed a lot of improvement and people started talking about it. Then I believe that I would be able to play there, and I think this year, my junior year, I made a lot of improvements, and I just felt comfortable enough to play at the next level.

Q: Nikola, were you pretty sure that this was going to be where you landed, or were there teams above the Sixers that you thought might take you before you got there?
A: I kind of had an idea that I could land up in Philadelphia. They liked me a lot, and I know that Doug Collins really liked me and wanted me there, so I kind of had an idea that it was a possibility where I was going to end up. I didn’t know for sure until they called my name but I kind of had an idea.

Q: Was there anything that really struck you from your conversation with Doug, did you take anything away from that that really stuck in your mind?
A: Yeah, all the great things he told me, and all the things he told me that he can help me become a better player, those are the things that really mean a lot. He’s such a great coach, and he’s been in the NBA for so long, and when you have a coach like that telling you all these things, it’s definitely a great feeling.

Q: Are you definitely a guy who considers the NBA to be his destination? I mean is that really what you want to do, period?
A: It’s totally NBA, I mean, a lot of people ask me, like, “Would you play in Europe first?” and I mean, I’m like no, I want to play in the NBA, that’s why I declared for, that’s what I want to be, that’s my dream, and I feel like I’m good enough to play there and I just have to put hard work in.

Doug Collins on Vucevic

"We are incredibly thrilled to draft Nikola Vucevic," Sixers Head Coach Doug Collins said. "I liked him from the moment I saw him at the Chicago pre-draft camp. He is a hard working, skilled big man with a desire to succeed who gives us more size in the front court, which is a need. He is a player that we are ecstatic to have on our roster and I look forward to coaching him."

Ed Stefanski on Vucevic

Opening Remarks
Welcome everyone. As you know, we have taken Vucevic from USC as the 16th pick in the Draft, a kid we ranked very highly on our board. There’s no question we need more bigs and size. Vucevic is a 6’11” and three quarters, technically, so he’s a 7-footer, got great wingspan, good shooter with range, a pick-and-pop type of guy. Very high basketball IQ, which I think is extremely important when you’re going to play for Doug Collins. Good passer. He has a pro type of game right now, and we’ve seen him from his freshman year, sophomore into his junior year. He is only 20-years-old. He is very young for his age. All the background checks, extremely hard worker. He wanted to come here. His agent told me today, the kid is in love with Doug Collins and wants to play for him, so he’s going to get his opportunity. But we are thrilled to have a player of Vucevic’s abilities, but it fits a need also, and that’s obviously important to us. Questions?

On Vucevic’s playing abilities...
A: I think because of his basketball IQ and his shooting ability and his passing of the basketball, he will fight for some time as a rotation player. I think he’s a stone cold center. I don’t think he’s going to be going outside to cover fours. I don’t think he’d be able to cover Thad Young far from the basket, so he’s got the legit size to be a center, the length to be a center, and that’s what he is. He’s a stretch type of center because he can shoot the ball, and around the basket, he works with both the right and left hand. He’s your typical European player because he’s so fundamentally sound. He’s been over a year, he’s from Montenegro, and he is a player that we have seen all year and he rose. He wasn’t on anyone’s mocks early in the season, kept going up and up and up, but he was a kid that we really liked. He was in the mix all along with us.

[Question unclear]
A: No, he was ranked ahead of these guys.

More on Vucevic’s ability to get playing time as a rookie...
A: This Draft, I think it is very difficult to project. With the 16th pick in the middle of the Draft, a guy would come in right away and play for the 76ers because I think we have some depth where that guy wouldn’t come right in and be a starter. We have a restricted free agent in Spencer [Hawes] so we’ve added to that spot, but as we all know with draft picks, with Doug [Collins] it doesn’t matter where you get drafted. He will play you if you deserve it. If you don’t deserve it, you won’t play. So it will be interesting to see, but I know you’ll see right away, we have a very skilled young man in Vucevic.

On predicting how the Draft would pan out up until the 16th pick...
A: This was a brutal Draft. I’ve never been through a Draft where I didn’t know who was going at what spots. And there were surprises all night long. In the draft room, we were shocked where different players went, and again, we were just seeing if Vucevic could fall to us. There were times where we were looking about moving up to secure him, but we were never able to make that deal, so you got lucky, you sit back, and it happens to work out for us. We thought a couple times, he may be off the board.

On whether the Houston Rockets might have chosen Vucevic before the Sixers...
A: We were concerned that Houston liked him because they need a big. Who knows with Yao Ming, so we were concerned with them. We were concerned at the start of the 12th pick in the Draft.

Q: What are some of the things he needs to work on?
A: He is going to need to work on his explosiveness, jumping off of two legs, I should say, two feet. He needs to have more explosiveness. Again, he’s only 20-years-old. If he can increase that, then all the reports we got about him being a hard worker. He’s not an above-the-rim type of player, and when I saw him a couple of times this year, I knew what kind of size he was, but it’s his length – was his length good enough to overcome that lack of playing above the rim. He’s got very good wingspan, so that’s the plus.

On Vucevic’s shooting abilities...
A: I would say, right now, he’s a better shooter from outside, but his post moves are good in the sense he uses both hands, left and right, and you can tell he’s that European style of player. You can tell he’s been working on his game.

On whether the Sixers tried to get a higher Draft pick...
A: We talked to so many teams. If you had a truth meter on the phone, that would be the best thing, with who’s telling the truth. We talked to so many teams about so many things, moving here moving there. And we were very serious about moving up, we just couldn’t get it done. The price was too expensive, and it fell our way. As Kate [Fagan, Philadelphia Inquirer] said, when 12 started, we were concerned, 12 right through the end. Larry Bird told us that he traded the kid and he was not taking him at 15, so we were in good shape.

Were there any thoughts about moving into the top four or five?
A: Not really. Again, in this Draft, I think you see a lot of players that you don’t know if they’re going to be that impact or star player. There’s a lot of good rotation players, rotation type of players, but we didn’t see in this Draft that there were a lot of players that are going to be possible stars or starters.

On Vucevic’s youth in comparison to that of Sixers guard Jrue Holiday...
A: It’s funny. Because Jrue is of the age where a lot of guys are coming out of the Draft, everyone talks about Jrue. He’s like a folk hero with these kids. So we ask the questions, “Do you have any brothers or sisters? What’s your weaknesses? What’s your strengths? Do you know Jrue Holiday?” “Oh, do we know Jrue Holiday?” Everybody’s eyes light up, and people want to play with Jrue because this kid’s going to be special. Vucevic said he would love to play with Jrue, and they all know Jrue because they’re all the same age, and they all played against him AAU-wise and things like that. They were freshman the same year, yeah. So I hope he’s as good as Jrue was for us at 17, I hope Vucevic is as good for us at 16. We’d be very happy.

On Vucevic’s ability to shoot from the outside like Sixers forward Elton Brand...
A: We need bigs, no question about it. We need a center. This kid’s a center. His rebounding numbers, Dennis [Deitch, Delco Times], are good through his college career. Every year, he’s improved. He played for O’Neil, Coach O’Neil out there at USC, who’s – I don’t know if you guys know – he demands, he’s an in-your-face type of coach. He had no problem with that. Doug demands so much, as we all know, and we feel that he will be a good fit. With Elton Brand, we don’t have any issue with him playing with an Elton, and you have a Thaddeus Young type of player. He would match up very nice with Thaddeus.

On the potential for trades...
A: We talk about every player. We’ve been very busy on the phones to try to improve the basketball team. I won’t get into individual players, but we talked to everybody, but there’s nothing that I can report to you now.

On whether the fan base will be excited with this move...
A: I think the fan base, I don’t think – I know the fan base is excited after last year, because they see the improvement, they see the young kids we have here. Jrue Holiday’s going to be better, Jodie Meeks is going to be better, Thad is going to be better. This kid, we are excited about. We think we have one of the best coaches who’s proven in the league. He’s excited about the team going forward. But no, John [Smallwood, Philadelphia Daily News], we need to do more, and that’s where we will work real hard to get more pieces to this team.

Ed Stefanski on Lavoy Allen

Opening Remarks
Well, as everyone knows, our 50th pick, we took Lavoy Allen from Temple, a local player, Big 5 great, one of Temple’s greats, and we’re happy to get him. We’ve added another big body. He’s got NBA size and body, no doubt about it. He is a rebounder, and he can defend. We think his shot will get better, that 15-foot jumper. He’s a guy that the coach wanted. When we were going down the line, he said, “Hey, I’d like to get Lavoy Allen here, because I know he’ll defend and rebound.” That’s why we’re bringing him in. So he has an opportunity here with a team that needs bigs. Just spoke to him on the phone, he’s excited, he’ll be here tomorrow. Obviously, it’s not that far for him and we’re happy to have him.

On his energy level in-game
Well, you know, no question that is the knock on Lavoy. But if Lavoy can rebound and defend, and that’s what you get, we’ll be very happy with that. We know he can defend the low block, and we know he can rebound. He was arguably the best player in the Atlantic 10 at four years he played there. You know a lot of people wanted more out of him. I think he does things so smooth at times that people think he’s not putting out as much. So, we’ll see, and again, we took him because of his defense on the low block, and we know he can rebound the ball in the NBA. He has two NBA qualities that we like.

More on his energy
We think his motor is good enough to rebound and defend in the NBA. I can’t blame their coach, he’s too good of a friend of mine.

On whether the Sixers received requests for the 50th pick
No, we held our own. People wanted to buy our 50th pick but we wanted to hold on. There were a few guys on the board that we would like to have gotten, and Lavoy was in that mix.