Paxson Interview, of course from bulls.com Options

[Cute Little Bull...]

Posted June 22, 2006

With NBA Draft 2006 less than one week away, Bulls general manager John Paxson met with the media one last time before making his selections. From discussing the draft’s top candidates, including LaMarcus Aldridge, Tyrus Thomas and Brandon Roy, to the trade talk surrounding Ben Gordon, Paxson covers it all in the first half of this two-part segment. Visit Bulls.com on Friday for more comments from Paxson on the June 28 draft.

What did you think of the players that came through? Did you see what you wanted to see?

“Pretty much. It’s always a little difficult because you can’t put them in real game situations, but you can see a lot of things about them that maybe you didn’t have the opportunity to see throughout the year. For us, the most important thing is to be able to sit down and talk to them and get to know them a little bit. I think that most of the workouts validated what we had thought about the players, and that’s a good thing. There weren’t any alarms or red flags that went up.”

Did Tyrus Thomas come in and complete his workout?

“He ended up not feeling well during the first one and kind of tweaked his groin a little bit, but it was more because he wasn’t feeling well that night before the workout before dinner. When we brought him back, we were hoping that his groin was better and we could put him through a full-fledged workout, but it was still a little bit sore. That was the one workout where we physically weren’t able to do everything we wanted to do, but that was the only one. We wanted to get LaMarcus [Aldridge] back in as well; he didn’t workout against anybody and those are always the toughest ones to judge anyway. All you do is watch a guy shoot by himself and run up and down the floor by himself; there’s not a whole lot you can simulate with a dummy pad or anything like that out there.”

Is that disappointing when a guy works out solo like that?

“It’s not the best case scenario. I think all of us would like to have every player go against someone or be part of a group—we’re allowed to have four guys on the floor at one time. Doing two-on-two drills are always better, but the agents are doing their job and they are trying to position their guy as best as they can, so you make due. There’s no sense in complaining or worrying about it too much because there’s nothing you can do about those situations.”

Thomas thought that he made enough perimeter shots during his workout to play out there at times. Do you agree with that assessment?

“Tyrus is a kid that right now does not have a defined position. He’s not a three and he’s not really a four right now. I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing, either. He’s so gifted athletically and he’s got an improving skill level, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing. He shot it OK. We stretched him out a little further and he’s not a three-point shooter, but he’s the most gifted athlete in this draft. There’s no doubt about that. He’s going to have to get stronger. He’s only going to be 20 in August, and sometimes the body doesn’t naturally mature for another year or two.”

His college coach has voiced concerns for him leaving a tight-knit community and adjusting to his new surroundings. Is that a concern for an organization?

“I think that whoever takes Tyrus is going to have to provide an environment where he can be comfortable. All the guys he played with at LSU, or at least the majority of them, were guys he had known since something like sixth grade. So they go way back. He didn’t go through the AAU system, so he never traveled to Vegas or Orlando and did what those kids do. He’s going to have to be in an environment that really supports him. Any organization that takes him is going to have to provide that for him. We knew that going in.”

You said that you have various charts and notes from scouting a player, but no red flags went up when looking at these players?

“There’s not a perfect player. Rarely comes along a guy like a couple years ago when LeBron was drafted. Just based upon his gifts, that’s about as can’t-miss as you can get. But there are no perfect players. Your job is to analyze them and break them down the best you can—and effectively as you can—but sometimes you can over-analyze it. You can try to find something that maybe you saw once in a game and try to label a guy as that.”

How many guys are you typically right about in a given year? Do you expect to come out of this process knowing that you were right about 90 percent or so of our assessments?

“That’s probably accurate. We do, and every team does this, our homework, call the college coaches beforehand, and go deeper than that if we can so we have a pretty good feel for the kid. Really, when you bring them in here, how you saw them play is pretty much what you thought. We’ve got all their games, we’ve got their clips, and there are no commercials. We can watch a game in about 45 minutes, so we see a lot of each player’s stuff. As much as anything, you want to make sure that what you saw is accurate. That’s all a part of this process.”

With Tyrus not having a position at this point, you said that that’s not a bad thing. Why is that not necessarily a bad thing?

“Because the game is not necessarily being played that way right now. Versatility is a very valuable trait to have as a player. Miami won the championship and deserved it in a more traditional fashion with a strong low post player and a great perimeter player. But the way the game is going, and the way that kids are being brought up and taught the game, you don’t have as much of a traditional post up, grind it out game. There is more movement and athleticism and slashing. Thomas is a versatile player, and really, at 19, it’s hard to define how his body is going to end up being and where he’s going to be able to play. I think that the one good thing about the way we’ve played is that Scott will throw any kind of line-up out there. We would like to get more versatile, but at the same time, I think LaMarcus Aldridge could be a versatile four and five. There is versatility at the top of the draft, it’s not just Tyrus.”

What are your thoughts on Aldridge? Watching Texas, he didn’t always seem to be the main guy in their offense, in part because they had a lot of other guys who shot the ball a lot. Do you think he can be a successful low post scorer in the NBA?

“First of all, he is going to be a successful player in the NBA. I don’t think his strength right now is the low post game because he doesn’t have the base yet to hold that position. But I think that LaMarcus worked very hard to get post position. [Texas] did not have your prototypical point guard, especially for the college game, which is a pass first point guard. Daniel Gibson is more of a scorer. The more I watch LaMarcus, the more I’m convinced that he did work hard for position and maybe he didn’t get as many touches as he could have in that system or in that offense. On the other hand, you can’t disqualify that there were games where he wasn’t as aggressive as he should have been. But again, we’re talking about a 20-year old kid who is learning the game. That’s always what we try to keep in perspective. Ultimately, they are going to be at our level. We’ve been lucky in the last few years with our draft picks. Kirk was a four-year senior and he knew what he was getting into when he stepped on the floor. Ben had played three years and you can throw Luol into the mix, too, but even then, it took them some time. I don’t think anyone has the illusion that it’s not going to take these guys some time to adapt and adjust to the NBA game. There’s going to be a learning process for all these kids; we just try to look at what the long-term is going to be and what the bumps in the road will be like before they get there.”

With Chicago fans expecting more now than just the first round of the playoffs, do you weigh the long-term versus short-term any differently now? Are you maybe a little more focused on the short-term?

“I would say so. First of all, I think that most of the kids in this draft are going to be able to contribute for teams right away. Whether they are going to be starters is another story. For us, I don’t necessarily want to get that much younger, but there are no guarantees in the free agent market that we’re going to be able to find something that we can get for a good price and all of those things. Being young in the East is not necessarily a bad thing. We’re in a great situation. We’re the only team in the lottery that made the playoffs last year. We have a lot of things we have to address; we have to address our size and our length. That’s a given. Can we address everything this summer? In a perfect world, yes, but that may not happen. But we’re going to keep banging away at it.”

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how if Brandon Roy comes in, obviously you’re going to trade Ben Gordon.

“I’ll put this to bed. Unless a blockbuster deal comes up, I’m not trading Ben Gordon. I think that he is extremely valuable. You never say never; I understand that in this business. No one has presented anything to me that I would remotely consider for Ben. I think that Ben is going to be a better player this year than he was last year. The kid works at his game, he’s got pride, and I expect that he’s going to come back ready to go. Whatever position we draft, in my mind does not affect Ben Gordon. He’s going to come in and do what he has to do to compete. So I don’t see that as an issue at all.”

So if Roy is your guy, would you be looking at a three guard rotation?

“If that were the case, we’d have to be. I’ve said all along, we would like a guard that is bigger and able to take some of the defensive pressure off Kirk. But can we assume that even a four-year senior like Brandon Roy can come in and guard the Vince Carters of the world right out of the block? Probably not. There’s an adjustment for those guys, too. There’s no immediate answer for anything, but we would like a guard to take some of the defensive pressure off Kirk in certain situations so he doesn’t have to guard the big twos all the time, plus someone to also handle the ball and playmake so that when he’s out on the floor with Ben, he can get us into offense and Ben, when he comes off screens, can do his scoring. Even though Roy is a four-year guy and could be really ready to step in and make a contribution, that may not happen on day one.”

Visit Bulls.com on Friday for more comments from Paxson on the June 28 draft.


I especially like what he has to say about Ben Gordon, he is staying put!!!! woo hoo!

[ZoomSlowik]

He talks about Tyrus Thomas way too much...

[WHarris1]

I'm getting increasingly scared that he is gonna take Thomas.

Please God prove me wrong.

[RememberThe90's]

“Tyrus is a kid that right now does not have a defined position. He’s not a three and he’s not really a four right now.

Yeah...this is a huge problem. Please don't draft this guy.

I'll take any of these three

Aldridge
Roy
Bargs.

[ZoomSlowik]

I really hope to God that all this Tyrus talk is a massive smoke screen. That kid is going to be such a bust.

[WHarris1]

I really hope to God that all this Tyrus talk is a massive smoke screen. That kid is going to be such a bust.

Amen Zoom, A-freaking-MEN.

[RememberThe90's]

I really hope to God that all this Tyrus talk is a massive smoke screen. That kid is going to be such a bust.

More than likely it is.

I think Pax covets Aldrdige but fears Atlanta could trade up to 1 to take him.

If he sells Thomas...Atlanta will stand pat at 4 thinking he will fall to them.

[ZoomSlowik]

Amen Zoom, A-freaking-MEN.

It's just so frustrating. We have no need whatsoever for another combo forward that's smaller than both of the ones we already have (well, he's a little taller than Nocioni, but Noc has some weight on him). He's a pretty good athlete, but he has no basketball skills whatsoever. He's a 6'8" inch version of Tyson Chandler, which isn't all that useful. ARG!

[dasox24]

Here's my conspiracy theory: I think Pax talking a lot about Thomas is a ploy to get other teams to think we like him, and in reality we're gonna take Morrison and play him at SG.

In all seriousness, after seeing what Pax had to say about Morrison, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that's who we drafted. First, Pax sees a little of himself in Morrison and says he's more athletic than people think. Second, Pax said that he sees Morrison's future in the NBA as being more of a SG rather than a SF, which wouldn't give us a logjam at SF and give us a tall SG. Now, the only question is whether he can guard anyone in the NBA. If Pax thinks he can, we may have our player.

All that being said, I'd rather not draft Morrison. He'd be my 3rd or 4th option.

[ZoomSlowik]

Here's my conspiracy theory: I think Pax talking a lot about Thomas is a ploy to get other teams to think we like him, and in reality we're gonna take Morrison and play him at SG.

In all seriousness, after seeing what Pax had to say about Morrison, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that's who we drafted. First, Pax sees a little of himself in Morrison and says he's more athletic than people think. Second, Pax said that he's sees Morrison's future in the NBA as being more of a SG rather than a SF, which wouldn't give us a logjam at SF.

All that being said, I'd rather not draft Morrison. He'd be my 3rd or 4th option.

Arg! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?! That's even worse! Morrison couldn't guard NCAA SF's, how the hell is he going to guard NBA SG's?!

STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!!!

[SoxFan1]

Here's my conspiracy theory: I think Pax talking a lot about Thomas is a ploy to get other teams to think we like him, and in reality we're gonna take Morrison and play him at SG.

In all seriousness, after seeing what Pax had to say about Morrison, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that's who we drafted. First, Pax sees a little of himself in Morrison and says he's more athletic than people think. Second, Pax said that he sees Morrison's future in the NBA as being more of a SG rather than a SF, which wouldn't give us a logjam at SF and give us a tall SG. Now, the only question is whether he can guard anyone in the NBA. If Pax thinks he can, we may have our player.

All that being said, I'd rather not draft Morrison. He'd be my 3rd or 4th option.

That just might be the only thing worse than drafting Thomas.

[WHarris1]

It's just so frustrating. We have no need whatsoever for another combo forward that's smaller than both of the ones we already have (well, he's a little taller than Nocioni, but Noc has some weight on him). He's a pretty good athlete, but he has no basketball skills whatsoever. He's a 6'8" inch version of Tyson Chandler, which isn't all that useful. ARG!

Right it makes no sense. What good can a 6-8 Tyson Chandler serve? Tyrus can leap, he can dunk, and he can block shots. Whoop-de-fuckin-doo.

[dasox24]

In response to the smokescreen theory and Paxson talking up Thomas so ATL won't trade up to get Aldridge, all I have to say is this: If we, as the average fan, can figure out that Pax is talking up Thomas as a smokescreen so ATL doesn't trade up, then wouldn't the Hawks GM also see thru this and trade up anyway.

My feeling is that if the Hawks really want a certain player bad enough (i.e. Aldridge) and they feel that the Bulls may take that player, they'll trade up no matter what, as long as they have something Toronto wants.

[RememberThe90's]

Adam Morrison = Eric Piatowski


Relax everyone its gonna be Aldridge, Roy, or Bargs(wild card)


We need a big man can score and Alridge is the best option there.

Roy wouldn't suprise me because in light of recent evens we need a guy like
Roy that can match up with Dwayne Wade


Bargs is the wildcard..big guy..can score(mainly permiter orieneted) but can score inside when needed.

[WHarris1]

Bargs(wild card)

I doubt it, he hasn't even worked out.