Draft Quotes: Petrie, Westphal
June 26, 2009 by kingsconnect
After the 2009 NBA Draft, Kings President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie and Head Coach Paul Westphal had the following to say about the team’s Draft picks:
Petrie
On Kings #4 Draft Pick Tyreke Evans:
“We think he’s a great, great prospect and has a chance to develop into a real star. He was the best freshman in the country this year. He led his team to 27 straight wins as a point guard. He has great potential at the defensive end because of his length and his physical presence out there. I think another great thing about this is from the time we interviewed him onto the workouts, he always was very consistent in his desire to come to Sacramento and that was really his number one choice, as well. I think the fans are just going to love watching this kid play and develop and he’ll be a multi-position player, I think, as things go along, so we’re really excited about it.”
On what separated Evans from the rest of the guards in the 2009 NBA Draft:
“I just think his size, he’s 6’5”, 220 pounds, and he’s a real freight train in the open court. He’s certainly still developing some as an overall point guard and his shooting needs to get better, which is true with a lot of players when they first come into the League. But it’s, just again, an assessment of his overall talent level. He’s now just 19 years old, going on 20, and there’s a lot of growth left in his future, as well. We’re really, really excited about it.”
On how Evans will fit in with the Kings:
“I think he’s going to come in and play minutes. He’s going to play at the point and certainly Coach Westphal will have a lot more to say about this since he’ll be the guy making that decision. He was by far and away his (Westphal) first choice for the kind of team that he envisions and the kind of pieces that we all want to add. He’s a great rebounder for a guard as well, so I just think he’s going to contribute in a lot of areas.”
Petrie Quotes from Post-Draft Press Conference
“Today, as most of you know already, with the fourth pick in the Draft, we took Tyreke Evans. We think he has a chance to become just a great player in the League. He’s got great size, played point guard this year for Memphis. He was the best freshman in the country. He’s been a superlative player from high school on. I think he’s going to give us additional presence out there physically and at the defensive end. During our evaluations, he just continued to surface as somebody who has the potential to be just truly, truly an outstanding player, a multi-position player. We’re really excited about getting him.”
“We took Omri Casspi at the 23rd pick who played in Israel this past year. He averaged 12 points a game. He’s very long, very active and very aggressive and tough. He pretty much has a good all-around game. He really improved his three-point shooting this year over there. He can really run and get up and down the court.”
“We also made a transaction with Portland where we sent the 31st pick to Portland for Sergio Rodriguez, the 38th pick and some cash considerations. Sergio was a back up point guard primarily for the Blazers last year. He played about 15 minutes a game. He’ll give us some additional depth there.”
“Then with the 38th pick we took Jon Brockman who has led the Pac-10 in rebounding the last two years. He’s averaging about 11.5 points a game. He’s another incredibly hard worker and competitor, just like Tyreke and Omri. So I think competitively and in terms of some additional adding in some physical toughness and aggressiveness out on the court, all three of these players are going to bring that to the Kings.”
On Evans and the other players Petrie was considering:
“It continued through the workouts, bundle that in with previous scouting, his age, his performance in college this year and the fact that he has a chance to be a multi-position player and he was physically, clearly ready to play. He wanted to be here and he was just too good of a talent to pass on.”
On passing on Rubio:
“We wanted to take who we thought was the best player available. No one player is going to fill every need that we have in this Draft. Ricky Rubio is a fine player. Jonny Flynn is a fine player. There were a lot of fine players in there that will have good NBA careers. We just felt that Tyreke was the best player for us.”
On the importance of seeing Evans in a second workout:
“That was helpful. To see somebody compete in a really competitive setting against other really fine players, he was really good. To the extent that you can be good in an individual workout, he was very good in that as well.”
On Evans disclosing during an interview that he is a dominant player and the effect it had on the Kings decision:
“It’s part of it; it’s not the only part. That’s always part of it. He was dominant in some other workouts around the League that we weren’t at. Sure that’s part of the evaluation, but there’s a lot of other information there and we saw him play a ton. We interviewed these players and did a lot of work on them.”
On how NBA-ready Evans is:
“I think he’s ready to play minutes, yeah. I think he’s going to make a contribution. I know Paul is thrilled to have him. Again, he’s going to give us a chance to have a big guard out there that can handle, that can break people down, you can post him. Defensively, he has a chance to be an outstanding defender with his length and his size and his strength. His shooting needs to improve; I think that’s pretty common knowledge. The talented guys that come in here, their shooting usually does need to get better.”
On if Petrie considers Evans to be a point guard:
“He considers himself a point guard. They put him at point guard at Memphis this year and they won 27 games in a row. Does he have to get better at point guard? Absolutely. But he thinks of himself as a point guard.”
On if Casspi is ready to play immediately:
“I think as a competitor and with his size, he’s a big, long, very athletic player who is a very tough player. He has a pretty good skill set. I think he can play some minutes, yes. How many we’ll have to see. I don’t like getting into talking about minutes because I’m not the guy who’s going to decide that.”
On the situation involving Tyreke’s cousin:
“We did extensive background checks by outside people on quite a few players in this Draft because of where we were picking, independent people. It was interesting, in Chicago, one of the interview questions for all of the players was, ‘What’s the biggest adversity you’ve had to overcome in your life?’ Some people might duck that, but he was very upfront about it. He talked about the situation and explained it and all the things that went on around it. He was very upfront and candid about it.”
On excitement of adding Rodriguez to backcourt:
“It gives us more depth there and the fact that he did play 15 minutes a game on a very good team and played 80 games. He’s been in the League a bit, coming up on his fourth year, and he gives you some depth. Ideally, you’d like to have three point guards on your team and they can all play some.”
On being pleased with the options he had:
“I think going into it we talked about adding another small forward, and I think Casspi can play there. As time goes on, he’s going to be pretty versatile in terms of how he’s out there. With Brockman we added some rebounding. With Tyreke we added what a lot of media covering the event outside of here thought was the second best player in the Draft.”
On other NBA players that resemble Tyreke:
“That’s really tough. You do that and you’re putting some kind of monkey on a guy’s back. He’ll be Tyreke Evans, that’s who he’ll be.”
On how big of a factor the defensive element was in drafting Tyreke:
“We weren’t a good defensive team last year. He’s a big guard who is going to be able to guard and give us some physical presence out there. Paul can talk more about this, because he’s talked about it a lot. But the ability to have two big guards out there at the same time gives you some options defensively that you don’t have otherwise.”
How confident were you with the 4th pick that he was going to be there?
“You never know until you come to your final rankings with what you’d like to do, even though there are only two teams in front of you. You have to be prepared for things that can happen after that.”
On free agency:
“I think we need to add some additional, and Paul can talk about this too, size up front. We have 12 players technically on our roster right now who will probably be contract players. If we can add another one or two, but certainly one or two of them has to have some additional size in the front court.”
On Ike Diogu:
“Well, we’re not allowed to talk about free agents until July 1. We will talk about that then.”
~~~
Westphal
“It was a good day for the Kings today. It was a really good day. I’ve been in a lot of war rooms, and there’s always tension, quick decisions, phone calls and how do we handle this and how do we handle that. I just want to say that under Geoff (Petrie), Joe and Gavin (Maloof), this group was ready. When the split decisions came, we made the right decisions in a lot of different cases. It was really fun to be on the inside and have things go the way you planned. You come away with three players that fulfill the objectives of what we went in there today to do, which was to add toughness at several positions and to upgrade our team, and we did that. It was a very good day, and I’m just thrilled with what we’ve added to our team.”
On if the Draft went the way he expected:
“It always throws you a few curveballs, but the way it went, we got guys who can help in the areas that we wanted to address.”
On how happy he is with Tyreke Evans:
“He was the guy we wanted. The first 15 minutes of the Draft, that was the toughest because we were just scared to death that something was going to happen that would change the scenario that would allow him to come to us. We sweated every second. There was nothing we could do, and when Oklahoma (City) said (James) Harden, it was a good pick for them, but it got us the guy we wanted.”
On the decision making process:
“I had my say and it was part of the decision making process. The final decision is always Geoff, with a possibility of the Maloofs deciding different, that’s the hierarchy. But the good thing is we were on the same page with these decisions. A lot of times, when things happen fast, that isn’t always the case. Everybody has their say and you weigh the pros and cons, and Geoff is really good at cutting through it and getting to the important part of what the decision is going to be and then acting. It was really nice.”
On whether having a player who can beat their man off the dribble and create was an appealing factor in drafting Tyreke:
“That was one of them. The thing that is the most appealing about him is he’s the most well-rounded guard in the Draft, in my opinion. All these players that went in the first round, the point guards, they have a lot of strengths, a lot of good things. Everybody has a few things you wish they would do better. But when you just grade the players from the defensive end of the ball, the ability to guard the post, the ability to post up themselves, the ability to penetrate, get their teammates involved, just the whole package, when you grade what you need for someone to be a complete player and bring toughness to your team, it was really a very clear cut choice.”
On if he expects Evans to play point guard:
“I expect him to play point guard. Basketball is always on the merit system. I’ll believe whatever my eyes tell me when everybody has a chance to compete for a spot. But, we expect big things from him.”
On Evans’ size:
“That was a big part. I can see him getting a rebound and coming up on the run, and he’s a big guy. In some ways there may be some guys who take a charge on him, but it’s like Charles Barkley used to say, ‘They’ll take one charge on me, they won’t take two.’ I think that people are going to be aware of his progress as he dribbles up the floor. He’s a big train.”
On Evans’ leadership abilities:
“I think that he is a good leader now. I think as he learns the League, and gets more and more comfortable, he’ll be a very good leader. He’s just had success everywhere he’s been as a basketball player. One of the things I like about him is he understands the importance of the defensive end. He doesn’t think he’s too good to play defense. He wants to be considered an outstanding basketball player in all phases. I think he will improve his outside shooting. If you could drive to the basket like he can, you wouldn’t settle for a lot of threes either. He’s got a gift of taking the ball to the hoop. I think he’ll be a very good post up player too, which will give us another option when teams play smaller point guards. He’s shown he can guard them pretty well. We’ll test them at the other end and put him at the post. I think he’s got some real skills there. “
On Sergio Rodriguez fitting in with the Kings:
“We’ll find out. He played an important backup role at Portland. As we get used to him, and he gets used to our system, we’ll find out how that could grow. He’s a proven pro, he’s a useful player and at the very worst, will supply us depth at that position.”
On what Omri Casspi brings to the Kings:
“He’s very athletic. He’s long, he’s a 6’9” small forward who’s very mobile and a good ball handler, and more than anything, he is tough. We were looking at some other tough guys at that three spot to pick with that choice and our scouts who really studied him and watched him play, I asked them, ‘Was he tough?’ and they said, ‘Yeah, he’s tough.’ And you can just see it. He’s somebody who can guard, and I think as he learns the League, he will be able to guard and matchup very well with the athletic threes in this League. He’s a good runner, he’s a good rebounder and I think he’s a player who has a lot of versatility. He’s long and athletic, too.”
On obtaining players who play competitively:
“That was what we were after in this Draft. We wanted competitive people. We wanted to improve three positions. We wanted to get some help inside. Even though there weren’t very many big people in the Draft, Jon Brockman is, if not the best, he’s one of the top three rebounders in the Draft. So, we addressed that and nobody’s ever kicked sand in his face and said he’s not tough. Omri Casspi is somebody who’s got a reputation as being somebody who really, really competes. I think Tyreke’s reputation and size to back it up is above reproach in those areas. Competitiveness is one of the most important skills in having success in the NBA. We want people, when they play the Kings, to walk away saying ‘Those guys, win or lose, those guys are tough. They go down fighting. If they go down, you have to put them away. They’re not going to die.’ We added three guys with heart today.”
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