Fred Hoiberg Workout Report

2006 Wolves Draft Central

After the Timberwolves held their first two workouts, Wolves Front Office Executive Fred Hoiberg (right, talking to Dee Brown) talked to Timberwolves.com about the draft.

timberwolves.com: How have you been involved in the workouts so far?

Fred Hoiberg: My involvement with these workouts is to try to organize, get the guys in here against similar types of players. If we really like a guy, to try to get him in here against quicker guys, or bigger guys, or whatever we see the need might be for that person.

The first group was more of a shooting guard and small forward position workout, whereas the second workout was a pure point guard workout, where we think we had four of the best point guards in the draft on Tuesday. One of the big needs for this team is to get a point guard in here that is able to run a team and hopefully find someone that will be here long-term.

It’s been a good experience for me to talk to these agents, to get to know them a little bit, and to try to put their players in good situations where they can succeed.

timberwolves.com: With the Wolves having the #6 pick and 3 second round picks, how important are these workouts for adding talent?

Fred Hoiberg: We have a lot of flexibility with the picks that we have, not only with the sixth pick, but the two high second rounders, the 36th and 37th picks. With the 36th and 37th picks, we have the opportunity to be flexible in doing some things.

The good thing is we have a lot of flexibility and we’re looking at a lot of different things to do with our picks.

timberwolves.com: With the workouts not being 5 on 5, what are you looking for in the players?

Fred Hoiberg: The rules are that you can only have four guys on the court at on time, so we do a lot of 2 on 2. We like to see what kind of program they come from, if they are able to know the help defense concepts. We try to put them in situations that they would be in during an NBA type game. We put them in sets, single/double and pick and roll sets, things that you will see at the NBA level and see if they can succeed at it.

Then we try to put them against players that can exploit their weaknesses to see how they handle it. After the workout, you sit them down and go through an interview process with them to find out about their background, what kind of student they were.

There are a lot of things involved, not just on the court stuff, but getting to know these kids a little bit, and seeing what kind of people they are as well.

timberwolves.com: How are the team workouts different than the pre-draft camps?

Fred Hoiberg: The good thing about this is that you can put them in situations that you really want to see. At the pre-draft camps they do the things that the coaches on the court want them to do. Here we can put them in certain situations, if you want to add a drill, you can do it on your own. You also can put in more individual work. You can play them one on one, which they don’t do a lot in the pre-draft camps. You can put them in different types of situations that you really want to see them in.

Right now it’s the guys we’re looking at; possibly in the second round there are a couple guys we’re looking at. The serious guys we’re looking for the sixth pick will start coming after the Orlando camp, which will be in the beginning of June.