D’Antoni on Prospects Workouts
Posted: June 7, 2004
With the NBA Draft a mere 17 days away, Suns Head Coach Mike D'Antoni spent Sunday morning watching the pre-draft workouts of Josh Smith, Anderson Varejao and Sasha Vujacic. D'Antoni spoke with the media afterwards about what the three prospects were able to showcase, as well as the potential of point guard Sebastian Telfair, who missed the workout while nursing a groin strain.
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Question: What are your impressions of the guys that worked out?
Mike D’Antoni: (Josh Smith has) got a lot of upside, a lot of talent. He’s going to be a very good player. (Anderson) Varejao, I’ve seen him play at Barcelona three years ago. We played against him and I thought he was a good player and a good prospect, but in three years he’s really improved, most his shot. He put on an impressive demonstration on his shot. He’s a big guy at 6-11, he’s strong. He’s getting a lot better. That’s surprising, it’s great.
The other kid, (Sasha) Vujacic, I’ve seen for a while. When I was coaching at Benetton, he was at Udine, which is right up the road. He was in Chicago last year and had a great pre-draft camp workout, and impressed a lot of people. He has improved some; 6-5 ½, 6-6 point guard, he should be pretty good.
These are three nice prospects. Somebody’s going to be pretty happy to get (any) one of them.
Question: There has been some questions about Smith’s desire and effort. Did you see any of that in his workout?
D’Antoni: That’s what the say about high school kids, but when you’re so talented and it comes so easy, he’s never been pushed and that’s something that you need to be careful about saying, just because I haven’t ever seen a high school kid have a lot of effort. If you’re a straight A student, then you don’t need to study and I don’t see him studying. He’s an unbelievable player and he hasn’t been pushed. Looks like today he’s pushed a little bit and he’s responded well. Again, he’s going to be impressive.
Question: How tough is it to evaluate kids coming out of high school?
D’Antoni: You have to be lucky. You don’t know how high he can get. His potential, his upside, is enormous, but you really don’t know what they have in their heart of in their head and who’s talking to them on the outside. We were really fortunate with Amaré (Stoudemire), who was like a sponge and keeps working, and keeps getting better. You hope the same thing when you draft a high school kid. You also could miss out. That’s something that you can’t judge. You try to make the best judgment you can. We know that he has a lot of potential. I don’t know where we’re going yet on the draft, but he’ll be a great prospect.
Question: How valuable is it to get some one-on-one time with these prospects?
D’Antoni: A lot. You get a feel. You have lunch with them, the night before you have dinner. You get a feel for them. It’s not like all of a sudden you’re an expert on their personalities. You just try to get a feel and then you put the talent with it, and then try to make an educated guess.
Question: With the youth on the Suns already, are you hesitant to draft a young player that will need a lot of seasoning?
D’Antoni: We’re going to try to get the best player. If he’s young, he’s young. That’s just something that you can’t say, “Okay, let’s try to get a mediocre player because he’s older.” It would be nice if they were old and great, but old and great guys have contracts already. We’ll have to get a young, and hopefully, very good player.
Question: Why did Sebastian Telfair not work out for the team as planned?
D’Antoni: He has a pulled groin. He’s hurt. He wanted to go. He really felt bad about it. He wanted to go and he can’t go right now.
Question: Have you ever seen him play before?
D’Antoni: I saw him when he was in ninth grade, does that count? I was at a camp for a week with him and I was impressed as a ninth grader. To be honest, I haven’t seen him since then.
Question: What did you think of Smith’s defensive skills?
D’Antoni: On defense, he shouldn’t be able to play. There’s no reason for him, he’s never had to play it in high school. But he’s so athletic and such a talent, and shoots the ball so well, this guy’s going to be pretty good. We’ll just see his dedication, his heart, depending on how good he’s going to be, but he’s going to be good.
Question: Rumor has it Smith out-leaped the vertical leap machine. What happened?
D’Antoni: He did. It was amazing. They had to lift it up a little bit. His vertical is about 37, 38. I saw a tape of him with two hands above the square (on the backboard) with the ball dunking, so he gets up.
Question: What were your impressions of Smith’s personality and attitude?
D’Antoni: His demeanor is kind of laid back and people start talking about that. You can always pick out things he can’t do, but I know a lot of things he can do and he’s pretty impressive.
