Kevin McHale On Draft Workouts - 明尼蘇達灰狼 Minnesota Timberwolves

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/kevin_mchale_on_draft_070611.html

Wolves vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale addressed the
media on Monday after the Wolves' pre-draft workout with Providence power
forward Herbert Hill, Florida center Chris Richard and Creighton center
Anthony Tolliver. Here's a complete transcript of what McHale had to say.

Q: On Monday's workout:
A: We're looking at a lot of the bigs and I think in this draft there's a lot
of the 6-9, 6-10, 6-11 guys that are kind of around. I think they all bring
different things to the table. (Richard) has had a role on a two-time
national championship team and he seems to accept his role and do some stuff.
Herbert Hill is a guy who came out of Providence; really improving; getting
better all the time; and Anthony Tolliver is a guy who can shoot the ball
from the perimeter. So they all bring different things.

Q: On this year's draft class:
A: It's a solid draft. I think that what made it an interesting draft is
(Kevin) Durant and (Greg) Oden, two really unique players, but it's a solid
draft. I wouldn't say, other than the fact that you're getting a legitimate
big-time scorer in Durant and a legitimate big-time paint-defender-rebounder
in Oden, I wouldn't say it's much different from most other drafts.

Q: On adding size to the Wolves roster:
A: Yeah there'll be some big guys, but, again, when you add size you're
talking about the three, four and five. So a 6-8, 6-9 three-man is big too in
our league. I'm not sure in our league how it's going that everybody's not
kind of drifting in that direction a little bit more, because there just
aren't legitimate, solid, big NBA-quality players milling around out there.
It's just going through a weird phase and hopefully it changes. I'd love to
see it change back to the 6-9, 6-10, 6-11 guys that are skilled and can play
rugged but yet have the touch and a lot of other stuff. That just is not
around. If you're a shooter, you're completely a finesse guy. If you're a
banger, you're completely just kind of a blue-collar banger-type guy, and
where's the banger with skill? Those guys are a dying breed.

Q: On the things that teams want to accomplish with each workout:
A: Mostly seeing the guys. Have them maybe do some specific things. Like, I
wanted to see some of the guys shoot a little bit more; shooting drills; some
more range. Because (if) they don't step outside their roles (on their
college teams) you wonder if a guy's got range up to 18, 20 feet. And you get
a chance to spend a little time with them at lunch (and ask them) a couple
questions. You know how they play for their coach and for their system in
Florida or Providence or wherever they came from. You're trying to get a
chance to see (if) that (is) who they are? Or is that who the system dictated
who they are? You probably asked them do things that they are uncomfortable
doing or haven't done a lot of, but sometimes it surprises you. Sometimes you
see guys that come in here and you go like, "Man I had no idea that guy had a
handle from 25 feet and could shake and move and stuff." Because on his team
he just caught and shot or caught and passed, never dribbled the ball. So
it's really what the coach asked you to do and then we're trying to figure
out if there's more to it.

Q: On Glen Davis not showing up for today's workout:
A: He's had some workouts and he's been working out pretty good and he thinks
he falls somewhere between (pick No. 7) and (pick No. 41). So he figures
he'll save himself a trip and see what happens.

Q: On whether the Wolves would invite Davis back:
A: I don't think Glen will be coming back. I think Glen is really isolated,
really trying to work out for the teams that are between 15 and 25 in the
draft. He figures that's where he's going to go and probably if he's in great
shape that's probably closer to where he's going to go.

Q: On if he thinks Davis slighted the Wolves by skipping the workout:
A: No. You have one body and "x" amount of time. If I was in the draft and I
was projected to go 15 to 25, I'm not sure I'd be visiting teams that have
the seventh pick and the 41st pick either. Would you?

Q: On Wolves trade talks this off-season:
A: This is always an active time of year. I don't discuss that with you guys,
so there's a shocker ... Always a lot of talk. There's some things that will
be going, I'm sure, on over the next two weeks.

Q: On whether the Wolves are open to trading:
A: Of course you are.

Q: On trading picks?
A: It depends for what. The only guy who's not tradable is the best player in
the league and everybody else is tradable. So right now I'd say the Spurs
aren't taking offers for Tim Duncan.

Q: On Kevin Garnett trade rumors:
A: Not from our side.

Q: On how much the NBA workout process has changed the last 20 years:
A: A lot. I'm not sure we don't confuse ourselves and when you bring guys in
here you look at to see what they can or can't do. I would never -- if a guy
comes in and has a bad workout and you really like him -- put any more
emphasis on that. You've got to put way more emphasis on the 50 college games
(you saw). That could have been a bad day, who knows? They're human beings
and that's why I do get a chuckle out of all the people that have all these
different formulas and everything else. These are human beings, not machines.
And as long as you have that, the draft is going to be an imperfect science.
You can't, right now, predict what's going to happen if this guy runs through
a rough month, or two months, or three months because the NBA is a tough
league; how he's going to handle it mentally between the years. There's so
many different questions and, again, that's why Tom Brady can go in the sixth
round in the (NFL Draft), that's why Karl Malone will go 15th in the (NBA
Draft). It's just a very inexact science. You try to do a lot of different
things, but it's changed a great, great deal and, again, I'm not sure for the
better. I think back then, hell, they called your college coach, called some
guys around, watched you play all the time and never talked to you
personally. They said, "Maybe I'll like the guy or don't like the guy." And
mistakes were made back then and (now) we go down and look under the guy's
toenails, we make mistakes now. So, I don't know.

Q: On whether he's made changes in draft preparation:
A: No. Again, like I told everybody, you get into a room on draft night and
there's going to be seven or eight guys in there; all the input; a lot of
different stuff is really good. You have more guys giving input. I doubt it's
going to be (a) 7-0 (vote). I can tell you right now, if we had the first
pick in the draft it wouldn't be 7-0 in that room. It'd be 5-2. There'd be
two people who'd like one better than the other and at a certain point you
can't pass on the draft, you have to pick somebody. Somebody has to say, "OK
it's 4-3," whatever. Somebody's got to make a decision. That's the bottom
line, is at the end of the day someone's got to actually (pick). You don't
pass very often, unless you're the Vikings and then you pass a couple rounds.
I don't even know what happens in our business. I think if you pass, you lose
it; I'm not even sure. No one's ever done it. But at some point you've got to
make a decision and if you have seven, eight guys in there you're just not
going to have, normally, a consensus, and I don't think you should. I think
everybody should have their own opinion, but at some point, someone's got to
say, "Hey, this is the guy we're taking."

Q: On whether he has opinions on draft prospects, yet:
A: We had opinions January. When you watch them play 15 games in college by
January you do have an idea if you like the guy or not.

Q: On how much his opinions can be changed in the next couple of weeks:
A: Nothing much changes, but I think you have your general overall rankings
and you might move a guy, watch some film, do some other stuff, do another
film study, do some different things. What happens now is a bunch of the guys
that are even, just calling their coaches, calling people, getting background
checks. That might put one guy ahead of (another) one. If a coach says, "Hey,
he's an unbelievable joy to be around; easy to coach," and the other coach
says, "Hey, he's a struggle to coach." And if you evaluate them as real even
guys, of course the guy that's easier to coach moves up. So that's the little
things like that. A guy's not going to go from 15 to seven, and our rankings
five through 10 have been pretty much consistent the last two months. Now
it's just kind of a matter of, shuffle them around; see what you're doing. Do
trades lead you another direction? Do you do some trades and all of a sudden,
you wanted to go big, or do some trades and you want to go small. So there's
a lot of areas, but our general rankings haven't changed a great deal.
There's nobody who we ranked 23rd in May (who) all of a sudden (is seventh)
now.


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