jbeecham
ASFN Addict
Some stuff we've heard before........some of it is new about Barbosa. Here it is: http://www.nba.com/suns/news/draft03_colangelo_030626.html
Suns President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo met with reporters at the Fox Sports Grill on Thursday night, shortly after announcing that the Suns had acquired Brazilian point guard Leandro Barbosa in a draft night deal with the Spurs. The move came on the heels of the Suns' own draft pick (No. 17 overall), in which they selected Serbian forward Zarko Cabarkapa. The following is a transcript of that media availability session.
Question: What were the terms of the deal?
Colangelo: We just made a deal with San Antonio to acquire the draft rights to point guard Leandreno Barbosa for a future first-round pick. Protection will begin next year. It will be up to and including 24 next year, so it would be anything 25 or higher and the following five years would be no greater than 20, so 21 or higher. Effectively there's that seven year limitation in terms of first round picks being traded among clubs. So the seven years in 2010 goes unconditionally to the Spurs if in fact they have not received it prior to then. We're obviously hopeful that we're going to finish up there in the 21-30 range in the next seven years. We feel terrific about this because in the same draft we've added the big skilled guy we've been talking about and now we added a backup point guard, which is something I know Coach Johnson was extremely nervous about going into next year. We were looking. We told everyone at 17 we were still looking at a number of guards and this kind of answered the bell. We liked him all along. There was a problem with a hip flexor injury. He was unable to work out for a lot of clubs in this process. We had him in yesterday for a light workout for us. We had him checked out medically. We felt comfortably moving forward. Quite frankly, if things worked out a certain way in this draft, we had him on our list at 17. we feel pretty good about the selection. He's a 6-3 long athletic guard. He's got a wingspan of about 6-9 ½ for a 6-3 frame. He can put the ball on the floor and push it up probably quicker than anyone in this draft.
Question: Are there any contractual obligations in Brazil?
Colangelo: No. he becomes a free agent with his contract shortly after June 30. June 30 of this year, his contract will expire with his club in Brazil. Right now he does hot have an official letter of clearance from FIBA because the contract still exists, but once that expires, there's actually no buyout that I'm aware of. We feel very comfortable that even just having it be a second pick in the first round, we still had some options that we are looking at with free agency to talk about the backup point guard, but we feel if we can get everything worked out, it should not be an issue. This is a great addition to our ballclub.
Question: Will he be able to come in and spell Marbury immediately?
Colangelo: He's pretty good. I think that he made a little bit of a rush in this draft because of his athleticism, because of his ability to push the ball up the court. A little bit of an awkward shot, but he shoots the heck out of the ball. He's really got a very good percentage in his league play. He shoots the ball extremely well. We feel that not only with his quickness and athleticism can he score the ball and find people, but we also feel defensively he fits right into the scheme's we've got. Over the last year, we've become a pretty good defensive team with the work the coaches have put in. we get two more young players, two more athletes, two guys that fit right in this whole development thing, so we feel we've added a couple of pieces to our core.
Question: Are there concerns about the language barrier?
Colangelo: If we were picking one through nine or 10 and we didn't have Stephon Marbury in the backcourt, I'd be real concerned about it. That would be the guy that would come in and run the club. We're talking about a project guard, someone just coming in as a backup point guard. I don't care if it was a free agent that we signed or someone we drafted in the second round or even someone that we felt was coming to back up Steph, there's few minutes available to begin with. We're talking about a situation where we don't think the language is that much of an issue. In fact, he's further along with his language skills right now at this point that Nene was at this point last year. Again, basket\ball seems to have it's own language. Once you get out there and play the game, and you're not being relied upon to be the man on this team, I think we've got plenty of area to work with. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, which is somewhat comparable. We'll get on that language program right away.
Question: Do you think you really scored big with these two first round picks?
Colangelo: We'll never know until we start playing basketball and we see what the impact of these two players is, but I can tell you that our staff is extremely thrilled with what has transpired today. We feel we've added to the core that we've already got working. Didn't have to give any piece of the core up. I will tell you that there's been some discussion with clubs about people that we like to think are part of our core. We really like the continuity that's been developing and also I just can't say enough about the staff and the way they brought everyone together last year. We've given them two new people to take and work with and mold. Two more balls of clay to work into the players and work into the system. We've got a young athletic team. When you have 6-11 athleticism and you have 6-3 athleticism with a 6-9 wingspan, you've got some pretty interesting things out there from a defensive standpoint alone, but we're talking about two guys who can score.
Question: What about his background and character made him a attractive?
Colangelo: He's a young player. Obviously inexperienced as far as playing professional basketball. He knows the other Brazilian players on the Brazilian national team. He's a pretty well rounded young man. We had a chance to sit and talk to him yesterday and everything about him was impressive. Again, I'll say that his language skills are a little further along than even Nene last year. That should not be an issue. A solid young man that comes from a big family. We talked about his family being athletes. Either his older brother or his father was a basketball player. Great ball handler too. He can put the ball on the floor and do things that I think you'll be pleasantly surprised eventually. He does have a hip flexor injury right now that will probably keep him out for a couple of weeks. We want to make sure that gets healthy before we put him into the rigors of the summer program. As soon as we get clearance medically for him to play, he'll be a highlight reel and a half in the summer league.
We're going to start playing the songs and everything. I can see it now. He's really a nice young man too. We feel he's a great kid, a great player. It's really given our staff a comfort level now to know that we've addressed two areas of need that we've really talked about.
Question: Would have still made the deal had you not seen him work out yesterday?
Colangelo: I'm going to tell you that we would not have had the confidence to move forward but as things were shaking out we felt like we really liked a few players, and I'll tell you that it was Cabarkapa, Cook and Ridnour. When Cabarkapa comes to Phoenix with the 17th pick, Ridnour was off the board. (Barbosa) was the next point guard that we liked. The question is, had we not seen him would we have taken him? I'm going to tell you probably not.
Question: Would you have him as your next point guard had you not seen him?
Colangelo: From a pure basketball standpoint, yes. But from a pure comfort level as far as knowledge of the contract, knowledge of the person, knowledge of the injury. We had him checked out very thoroughly yesterday and it checked out accordingly.
Question: What happened with his scheduled workouts earlier in the process that were cancelled?
Colangelo: His workout was cancelled earlier because of the same hip flexor injury and it just continued to create a problem. He would work out somewhere, re-injure it or aggravate it and again, it was a concern. There was some thought that maybe it was a phantom injury and someone was trying to hide him, but he had a legitimate concern.
Question: How does this deal affect your cap situation?
Colangelo: We think in today terms. Jerry, as we analyzed the possibility, knew full well that there would be another addition to the salary cap, which would effectively affect our tax position. But again, we think in today terms, try to improve our club, and we work from there.
Question: Are you done dealing for today?
Colangelo: I've got to watch the rest of the draft. I don't know. We might like something else.
