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How will the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and the ability to send players down to the NBDL change this year's draft?
The percentage of second-rounders that make it to the NBA probably increases dramatically in the next seven years. They're low. Less than 50% make it; contracts don't have to be guaranteed. They go elsewhere - they go to the developmental league, they go to Europe, whatever, or they cut. Now you're in the situation where if you draft someone in the second round, if you can carry 14 guys and you can send two of them down to the minor leagues to develop, that changes things.

There are times where you pass on second-round players, because you say, 'He has a chance, but we won't draft him. Let's see if he goes to the CBA or goes to Europe, let's follow his career. Now you can draft a guy like that, send him down for a couple of years, see how they develop and then they're under contract and you have them back a year from now or two years from now. All of that, how it plays out, is unknown, but my first instinct is that may be beneficial to the draft picks, particularly in the second round. Teams have discarded second-round picks in the past. I don't think you're going to see that now.

What is the makeup of this draft?
A lot of underclassmen in this draft, but more juniors and sophomores as opposed to high-school kids and freshmen. I think you're not going to have the total domination of European players in the top five, six, seven, eight picks.

Have you had to approach the draft differently after drafting in the lottery three of the four years you've been in Seattle?
I think it's harder. You've got bigger numbers to deal with. Your groupings are smaller (in the lottery). When you're picking top five, it's about eight or nine guys. When you're picking eight to 10, it's a smaller grouping; 12 to 14, smaller grouping. When you're picking 25, you might have 30 different teams that would have a different player at 25. There's not a consensus, so it makes it a little more difficult.

Does it afford you the opportunity to gamble more?
If our team was totally set, it would. That's the problem we're dealing with. We've got a lot of free agents. It's highly unlikely that we can get all seven or eight free agents to come back. I'm hoping we can, but a lot of times I live in that dream world. You're going to lose a couple, but you don't know which ones. I've got my fingers crossed we can keep the core of our free agents - not all of them, but the core - and certainly we've got all our young players under contract.

So who do you go into this draft looking for or at?
We haven't even reached that point yet where we say, 'Is it a point guard, a backup point guard? Is it some depth at the shooting guard? Is it a big player? Is it a player that other people are letting go because he's got tremendous potential, but you're not going to reap the benefits immediately?' That's how we got (Robert) Swift. That may happen too. In fact, that's happened with a number of players the last couple of years, where people in the latter part of the draft are taking a player in the 20s and saying, 'Hey, this will help us down the road.' We have to look at all those. I can't make a decision today.

Is there the opposite possibility that an instant contributor may drop to you because other teams go for potential?
Absolutely. You take a guy with four years experience, that upside may not be up to here, but he's pretty solid, so yeah. But don't make that decision today. Group those guys. 'These are guys that fit into that scenario and these are guys who are total potential.' That's a constant for me wherever I've been: Don't make decisions except eliminate.

Before Tuesday, do you have to have at least a decent feel for which free agents are coming back?
I don't think you can. We don't know the rules. We're going to have to juggle those balls. I think we've got a reasonably good chance to get a lot of those guys back, but you don't know.

What positions stand out to you this year?
Point guard's really good. There's lots of point guards: Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Jarrett Jack. There's a lot of good point guards in this draft.