there's a lot that goes into preparing for an NBA Draft that really starts well
before the month of June when the draft you know the draft this year's June 21st
but the entire season has been spent you know we have a very highly organized
staff and process in place to make sure that all of our scouts continually you
know watching prospects around the country and around the globe for that
matter we're constantly having finally we put scouting reports a big function
of getting ready for the draft is really learning the backgrounds or intel on
players and so we house a lot of information that we gather throughout
the year so by the time the June rolls around we really start to narrow
down the pool if you will as it relates to the positions that we're going to be
drafting so that's a very important part of the process now a lot of the
prospects will be coming in to work out for us it would allow us to further get
to know the player a lot better not just on the court but off the court we'll get
a chance to go to dinners and and then spend time and learn more about the
person which is very valuable to us because one of the things that's going
to be important to - as we build this team it's the character of the player
and the makeup of the player and you will learn a lot of that as these
individuals come in to work out for us leading up to the draft on the 21st
you have to look at each prospect and evaluate him based on the particular
circumstance that he's in now is it a good thing when you can see a young man
who's playing at a high level of his team is you know competing for his
conference championship or he's competing you know deep into the
NCAA tournament you can and you and you rightfully should weigh some
of that and as it relates to how impactful this prospect is toward the
winning I think the more players that you can have on your roster who are used
to winning they tend to understand the sacrifices necessary that it takes to be
a winning team you know being unselfish being a defensive minded a player
understanding that the game and the team is bigger than his individual goals so
so yeah that's important from that perspective but we also don't want to
penalize let's say a prospect who's very talented who may be playing at a smaller
school or be playing at a even a bigger school whose surrounding talent is not
as good and and just write him off because he's not you know competing for
the national championship or competing for the conference championship because
there's other factors that are involved so again it really gets down to really
understanding analyzing the environment that the prospect is
playing in and then weighting it accordingly
with the one and dones you're getting nineteen year old kids often that have
shown a skill a talent and athleticism that you are projecting out three four
five years down the line that this guy could become a certain level of player
in the NBA and you know with the you know part of
our process part of our toolbox is analytics so you know age sometimes the
younger age can weight stronger in an evaluation of a player
now with all that being said I think it's a little bit unfair to the number
of the guys who have been in college three four years to just write them off
and don't think that they can become very good NBA players because we've seen
that they can and and I think the what you see a lot of times in the draft what
happens is guys that get drafted maybe later in the first round or even early
in the second round over the last number of years have been the college guys who
played three four years but they've come in and played and contributed for teams
because they're more experienced not only as basketball players but they have
matured more as young people they've been through more adverse situations
during their college days so they're more prepared both mentally and
physically to come in and contribute right away so again I'm a person that
likes to look and study each individual case and not put any part you know just
assume because a player is 19 and he's automatically gonna be better than the
guy who's coming into the draft who's 22.
we know that our team could use additional athleticism in strong play at the wing position but we're also at a
stage in building this team that we want to get the best who we feel is the best
talent available so what you hope for and every draft that those two intersect
so the position that you need the best talent is there that is is at that
position that's who's available to you and so we're gonna go into it obviously
with an open mind you know and and we do think in this draft there will be their
wing players who will be in contention for for that pick but there's also guys
that are developing whether it be guards or big people that could end up showing
up at the ninth pick as well that you have to consider so the important part
of our process will be in in terms of how we tier and rank these players so
that we have a clear view on how we see see them from a talent perspective
regardless of position and then we just got to follow our process stick to our
guns and draft who we think is a very best player for us at that time
the point guard is the best talent on the board is he clearly better than the
next guy at the if it's close then you may side toward the position but if it's
clearly it's a clear delineation that he's the best player on the board and
you think that he may be even better than what you have in the house then
okay then you you would look at that position so but you know we're not at
that point where we made that determination yet we're looking forward
to getting you know as we're scheduling these workouts we're looking forward to
getting wings guards and big people in here to examine for that pick is number nine
analytics I think is a very important part to our overall scouting process and
part of my philosophy I'd like to refer to it as it's a tool in the toolbox
there are a number of things that go into evaluating and ultimately selecting
a player and the use of analytics is one of those important tools I think it
helps round your process out it helps check your gut reaction and what your
eye see from time to time because sometimes you you may believe you're
seeing one thing and then you go to the analytics and you check on a player's
performance and a lot of times they will match one another but they're also there
will be times that they don't match and so what I think it forces you to do is
go back and reevaluate and study again either from a plus or
negative side to you know what you think about a particular player so I think
it's a very important part of what we do is very much ingrained in our process if
you will here with the Knicks and it's something that again for me personally
that I continue to grow in this area and and I think we have the guys that work
in our department here that really oversee our analytics they do a
tremendous job and in preparing us and in and developing Draft models and
things of that nature and and in not just the draft just you know what this
helped them prepare for trades and free agency in all parts of what we do it's
an important component
when you talk about social media and technology of today that's how the majority of the young people that you're
evaluating that's how they express themselves and that's how they
communicate that is part of your Intel collection background and again that is
very important to us so yes we're very aware of what guys are doing with the
various Twitter and Instagram handles and because it gives you an insight to
who the person is or who he wants to project himself as and I think it's very
important you learn a lot when you study that and it's information that's
available and I think it's a smart tool and I think most teams in the NBA are
pretty aware of it and follow it to varying degrees
the war room of draft night you know that's a combination of a year's worth of work or multiple years
worth of work in some instances with depending on the players that your whole
entire front office staff has been a part of in terms of the actual night you
know I my personality I'm a pretty even-keeled guy and I think it's
important to stay that way and you know I don't so I don't get out of character
per se and but what I rely on is the preparation of our scouts and the rest
of in the rest of our front office they led us to that night I think if you
you've prepared enough you're comfortable with what can or cannot
happen in the draft whether this the opportunity to move up move back I mean
you've been vetting those type of things leading up to that night so you have an
idea if you know for instance you're in a position if even if you want to to be
able to move back or up or if you're gonna be you know standing pat and then
you you watch the ball but you developed your draft board you can stay discipline
to your draft board based on how you have the talent ranked so again the
majority of the work it's done before that night and so you
know our room will be you know be very working like very calm you know there'll
be a few guys on the phone here and there but I'm really confident we'll be
be highly prepared and look forward to that night there'll be my first draft
night as a general manager so that there'll be probably a little something
extra-special running inside of me because of that