Draft puts Kerr to work fast
Scouts provide Suns' Kerr wealth of info for draft decisions
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 26, 2007 12:00 AM
At whichever number the Suns are selecting Thursday in the NBA draft, there will come a time when new General Manager Steve Kerr swallows hard and makes the call.
For that five minutes of consternation, there was an entire year of work that had the Suns' four-man scouting staff crisscrossing the globe by plane and car, watching videos with bloodshot eyes and going over every prospect's idiosyncrasies and tendencies with technology, psychology and ideology.
"We're trying to put a puzzle together here and trying to figure out what the right pieces are," Suns Director of Player Personnel Vinny Del Negro said. "It's a non-stop process."
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Todd Quinter, in his first year as the Suns' director of scouting, spent 14 years as Phoenix's advance scout with a pang in his stomach over the next Suns game. Now, that feeling comes in one lump this week.
"The pressure and intensity of what we're doing has really picked up," Quinter said.
It helps that they are well prepared.
Quinter and Suns Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin developed a system that sent them, Del Negro and college scout John Shumate to more than 100 games apiece since the fall. The Suns' video staff recorded another 2,000 games.
Sometimes, they wind up knowing some things about a player that his college coach does not because of Synergy Sports Technology software. Synergy is a scout's ultimate toy, allowing them to look up several clips of players in every situation on offense or defense - transition, spot-up, isolation, post-up, pick-and-roll, etc.
"I can't even express how valuable it is," Quinter said.
Big road trip
Easily, the biggest factor in whom the Suns draft comes from scouting trips, which included international games and camps in Europe to Asia. Phoenix also had an advantage in Quinter, who was the USA Basketball advance scout for the 2007 World Championship.
On each player visit, one of the four Suns scouts would not go to see just a game. The scouts tried to see a practice to study work habits and see how a player reacts to coaching. They would interview anyone, from the coach to the fan sitting behind them. They can't talk to non-seniors or relatives.
"Between all of us, we figure out what the true character of a guy is," Quinter said, referring to how they crosscheck ideas about players.
The scouts show up three hours before a game to see how a prospect warms up, because it is a telling sign if a player will warm up early alone. In games, they look to see mannerisms, leadership and how engaged a player is when out of the game.
"You can't tell quickness, size, intensity and true skills just from video," Shumate said. "Defensively, you can see how he handles the physical part."
There is time to target the players in November. By January, the scouts are bouncing from town to town, catching three or four games on a weekend with drives in between. Somewhere, they fit in NBA games to remember what prospects have to match athletically and physically.
Shumate is on the road for six to eight days and then home for four before the pattern recycles. At one point this year, he was bent on outdriving a tornado to get from a game in Fayetteville, Ark., to one in Little Rock, Ark. If he is not at a game, he is watching video.
"If I'm the only guy who likes someone or doesn't like someone, I go back to the tapes," Shumate said. "They tease me about my tapes. There was a bunch missing this season. I was too embarrassed to tell them I had about 100 at home."
Icing on the cake
The recent workouts are the final piece to the analysis, but Phoenix tries to not let the two-on-two play, physical tests, a psychological test, meals and a video interview override years of research.
"You try to dissect and do homework to find out if he's a good fit with your chemistry," Del Negro said. "You try to get a feel for the guy's personality and demeanor. It can be very interesting, because some guys are quiet but aggressive on the court, or maybe he's outgoing but shows a different side on the court."
The Suns' scouting staff is smaller than most teams' but they form a tight group, perhaps keeping too many voices from chiming in. They might not agree, but they have the same stomach knot this week.
"The one thing about being a competitor, the adrenaline flows," Shumate said. "You get keyed up. It's like going to battle. You never lose that."
