Atlanta Hawks’ GM Landry Fields Pre-Draft Media Availability

Atlanta Hawks’ GM Landry Fields Pre-Draft Media Availability

so are we so am I so um I’m put this here uh one it’s good to see everyone the fathers out there happy belated Father’s Day uh this process has been um a really fun and energizing one and our group has done a terrific job not just recently but fing all the way back to when a lot of these players for the draft have been in high school not just as seniors but as Juniors so it’s really cool to see their evolution uh and how far they’ve come and just the positions that they put themselves in and for us to be here and uh get a chance to see them live and in person and getting to know them through interviews and through just Intel assignments has been really really interesting um but at the same time there is a great energy around this group for where we’re at currently and uh what we want to continuously do here in Atlanta so um couldn’t be more proud of the group um the support that we’ve had from top down uh to continue on in this process of of building out things so um we we’re about what a week away week and a half away so we we’ll continue on but we’ve definitely gotten closer and further down the line so we’ll be ready next week for the two days with that I’ll open it up so just touching on you talked about the interviews and getting to know these players I know discretion has kind of been a big thing for you guys this year but what has been kind of a Common Thread with some of the prospects that you guys have been able to bring in common threat has has really been about fit um it’s been I through this past year year and a half really nailing down some characteristics that are important to us um now it doesn’t necessitate that every single player is going to fit every single one I mean like that’s that’s a that’s a tall task for anybody um but using that as a guidan light and uh understanding like The Who and the ethos that we want to build around here um and it’s a continuous process like I’ll probably always be here saying like we’re building and doesn’t matter where we’re at from a wins and losses perspective um but that’s been the common threat is just looking at every individual and weighing against some of these ideals you could say and uh and how they fit for us going into the future what has jumped out about some of those guys as far as the ethos and who they are yeah um if actually just really like good guys like good people um in this draft and it doesn’t mean like it’s not always like that but it really has been neat to kind of see especially the guys that are projected to be at the top and guys that we’ve had in you know taking them to dinner and speaking with them whether it’s in Chicago here in the building uh on Zoom elsewhere I mean like we’ve had so many different mediums to do this and just just to get to know them more and more outside of just the Intel that you gather around them um it’s just some really good guys how many guys are we talking about quite a few you have a number nope um how lock how locked in is your board and what would it take for player B to jump player a at number one yeah it’s a good question I would say a week ago it was wider than it is now um the board is definitely shaping up um tearing itself out so uh in order to be number one just the guy that we see is a great fit for us not just for the next day but for the future as well how busy is your phone and when do you expect that to continue to ring is it in in your experience the day before because you guys haven’t had the number one you kind of know don’t know what you don’t know yeah it’s uh it’s definitely been ringing I got a little time off yesterday because it was Father’s day but uh for the most part um it continuously rings and you know we make outgoing calls as well just to see what the rest of the the landscape is looking like you’re talking about the characteristics what are some of those I know you’re not going to give us a blueprint but overall what are some of the things that you want to see stand out when you’re talking some yeah for sure um unselfishness is one that is pretty high for us and it doesn’t always mean like completely bypassing everything you do uh when we talk about humility just about the the ability to own the gold and the dirt um and just kind of living into that more and more Quinn’s talked a lot about competing and competing at a high level uh just your everyday grind um in every possession over the course of a game like those should matter to you like that’s competing uh being connected Unity is another big piece like so those two merging together uh find like perseverance or like a grittin it’s a long season there’s going to be ups and downs so who are you when press pressure starts to level up like that’s who we want to see um these players become and what they’re going to look like during that process but those would be some core ones I would say what’s what’s the collaboration process between you guys in the front office and Quinn and what he’s looking for to add to the court I highly collaborative um it’s I me personally I enjoy hearing different perspectives your Vantage points can to be different than mine so how do you see this uh can we take those and then put them together and make the best informed decision that’s possible possible and so that’s not just with our front office but that’s with our coaches as well what what about a fit as far as as D jante and Tre is concerned is that in in in the the mix at all are you thinking in those terms yeah you always doesn’t matter if it’s Trey deante Ogie V like anybody that’s on a roster like all comes within any fit analysis and whatnot so uh it’s not just two guys have any of the current players speaking on Trey and DJ have they set in on any of the workouts that gave you guys any feedback on what do they potentially see fitting with the roster if there’s anybody you know in the gym this is their home um during one of our workouts then yeah absolutely they’re more than welcome to stay and join and watch um but if they’re here they’re here you only have one pick in this draft how does that factor into decisions you must make on some of these phone calls as to what you do with number one and whether it makes sense to trade for more piics um I think there’s more to that than just having one I mean it’s just looking at where are we at from a roster standpoint how many roster spots do we project to have available uh all seeps into that the new cap environment is a big thing too you know it’s how you’re spending your money is definitely going to add or hinder you from a roster building perspective so uh all factors into it for sure if I can follow up you spoke of having tears that doesn’t mean you have them all on one same Peg but you have do you have to have a clear idea in your mind that there’s an question number one already me what do you mean do you have to have it clear in your mind that there’s a clear number one and he’s just not just part of a tier where a lot of several players are on the same level oh yeah I mean yeah eventually you’ll you’ll narrow it down to your guy for sure because there’s not a a Victor in this draft there’s the narrative that it’s a down draft is that a lazy take that the talent from this draft is not comparable to years past because there’s not a known name so to speak out there um is it a lazy take I I don’t know I we’re in a great position to really do deep Dives I think we’re really excited by the draft and the more that we uncover like we go great I’m glad we have number one I keep joking around like I’m not giving it back so um I think we’re in a really good position here I I’m excited about it frankly it’s been a little over a month since the team announced aune solid coming on and joining the front office what does he bring to the table and why did you find it necessary to to add another voice in the room as assistant GM people that want good people and they fit a lot of the culture that we’re building here um is always going to be a great thing for us uh I knew ay back when I was working with San Antonio so to watch his progression from there to Golden State and a lot of the strategy and uh just his viewpoint on basketball was going to be great for our group to add so putting him in a position to lead more um just felt like the right move for him in his own development and he’s been great with us so far like he’s really been fantastic I know it might not be a fair comparison because the NFL has so many more picks and so many more players on their roster but you talk to teams and they look for a quarterback they’ll bring in eight quarterbacks and they’ll ask them questions like in the Red Zone specifically what’s your favorite play and I get that Intel so if they don’t me play him down the road whether it’s a year or two years down the road they might be in the red zone and this is the guy we like and remember is there something you can do when you bring guys in like those types of questions either it’s favorite moves favorite plays where you bottle that information and save it for down the road um I’ll have to you want to present that question a different way what do you mean exactly just you know when when you talk to these guys you I mean if you could have you know five guard you might not need you know you’re not definitely not looking to draft guard two three and four five but you’re looking for a nugget some information when they may become a free agent down the road uh those type thing like inside baseball stuff that you have the opportunity to shove it and use that content or not content but that those nuggets down the road got it totally understand um no it’s a good question and yeah like the more information that we have like the better um to kind of look back to with whatever information we have today and weigh it against any future decisions when we get there it’s just nice kind of see how things evolve for certain players over time for sure what’s the hardest part of this entire process like in your perspective obviously a lot of us have never been in your shoes going through this process what’s the hardest part what’s the hardest part about this process there’s always challenges um I think really it comes down to when you have X number of players you know when you look at them you’re like can make a case for him we can make a case for him case for him like where do you finally like nail it down um it’s a challenge in a sense that it’s just like oh here here’s the guy you know but it really it’s it’s it’s an opportunity especially for our group on how we are um continuously being uh collaborative in our process so it’s hard to say like there’s like the hardest thing where I like sit here and go like oh I’m really dreading that um is nothing like that um it just presents as challenges new data come comes in so how are you weighing that against things that you already you learned have you learned something about you guys as a unit of how you’re able to collaborate and communicate like is there something that’s come up where you’re like wow we’re really strong in this area or something along those lines uh we love basketball I would really say that and I don’t mean to say that like in a jokey manner like there like it’s hard to say well work ended at 5: and that’s it you like we have a bunch of communication whether it’s through watching playoff basketball or just things that come up with this random idea I think that’s what’s really neat about our group is just the love that we have have for the craft but Landry there’s as much of an opportunity as the number one pick is um I think just look at history that hasn’t always panned out you know for teams that have used it and I’m curious is there wisdom in trading back just so you can get more chances and hopefully getting you know one of these picks pans out yeah so we as a group we’ve looked at a ton of different scenarios like if you you keep the pick you try to get back into the draft you move back all the things that you’re talking about and with where we’re at right now now like we’ll pick one um but yeah I mean it would be I don’t think it would be wise for us not to like go over those scenarios but there’s been a ton that we’ve gone over and we’ll continuously go over those as well even ones that you know may present later on with you know different team talks that we’ve had you say you’re pretty committed to using that to not keeping it yes today like we’re planning on picking one follow draft of course bille uh summer league play will take place a few weeks down the line will there be any expectation with whoever you guys take with that pick they playing summer league ball and have you had any commitment so far from some of the younger players Kobe and such yeah so um yeah a few of our guys currently will play Summer League Mo Kobe uh we had Dy Willer on a two-way so he’ll play with us as well although he’s becoming a free agent but yeah the expectation is whoever we draft will play in summer league as far as who you’ve had in for workout sorry to go back to that but has anyone blown you away that you’re just kind of like that’s very close to being the guy that we want a few different guys yes how do you uh kind of on that along that line how do you sort of integrate what happens in a individual or a one-onone workout versus what you see on film over a very large s yeah uh I like that question because a guy can come in here and not be great and I still would make sure our group is really looking at the whole picture and we have so many different assessment tools for us that it doesn’t come down to 45 minutes to an hour of a workout um but it’s helpful it’s always just nice to kind of feel their energy amongst the rest to the group and the front office and the coaches and whatever players are here um so it’s a nice piece of data but it doesn’t come down to just that a lot of these top guys are international prospects and everything like that France Australia whatever it is how do you what type of hurdle does that come in SC it’s not as easy as just going down L whatever uh it’s really not that much of a hurdle frankly it’s you know as long as you’re willing to get on a fight and go see some guys or turn on you know some some medium where you can watch them uh it certainly helps I think it’s great cuz the game has just morphed and evolved to a number of different parts of the world so uh dating back in time you build out for that right like you have an international scouting group and you consistently bring them into the process and really lean on what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing out there and then you you get on a flight and you go see some different players and how has it changed having to see a guy recruiting not recruiting a guy but you know scouting a guy who’s playing against in a professional League whether it be in Europe compared to the college team yeah it’s it’s definitely how are you uh evaluating the context right College High School overseas g-league you know they’re all different context so how can you look at that as a group and then weigh that with the type of player and projecting them out like if it means this in this context will it mean the same in this one questions like that uh it’s a good question though and going back to exit interviews trade said you know want to win wants to win here but he wants to win first uh throughout this offseason what have those conversations been like with him in that regard for his future really it’s just been about you know one his development for our future like what are the things that he’s going to improve upon things that he’s going to you know do the same things that are going to help us uh be at our best because just like his opinion is the same as mine like we want to win too and we want to do it in a way that’s not just like a flame like we want to have sustainability here so a lot of the fit and uh me hammering that is really important to that is drafting a player number one overall give you the ability to be a win now team um I don’t know about that I think that having number one is is a great position for us um doesn’t really change our landscape too much it’s something that’s connected to where we’re at but at the same time with so many things that change in the NBA at large you really want to like look at this pick as an opportunity to one find the fit and then find really high upside guys how do you blend the timeline of the players that you already have on the roster with the projected timelines of these guys that you might pick at number one and how do those projected timelines weigh on your decision yeah it’s quite an art form um I think especially with a new cap environment um when you bring that into the mix and you’re looking at your 2year threee four year outlook and of course things change all the time uh you’re really weighing a lot of that and it’s a constant discussion about where’s this guy at in his development what’s the age what from a contractual standpoint will he be up extension elow or a free agent you know you’re you’re constantly having those conversations um and then you bring in where this pick is at you know how does that factor into the mix so um I don’t think there’s anything that’s always going to be perfect but you definitely want to try to build out in a way that that helps you like continuously take wave after wave after W do you plan on bring any more people in or you kind of okay saying what’s that what’s the next week look like for you a couple more visits and then what’s I guess a weak in the life of this front office we are going to have more visits more phone calls more conversations we sit as a group um as we have done and really dive deep into every single player uh I think that’s what’s been really fun about this process is just how deep you can go with with certain guys um and that’s probably what our our week is going to look like until we get closer to the draft Where start to funnel it down to a point how how close how close do you how close would you say you guys are to a final decision and who’s going to make the final final decision uh we’re we’re closer uh there’s still some things um that we’re going to look at this week with guys that are coming in uh and weighing those data points but we’re much closer than we were say two weeks ago at the combine and ultimately like you’ll see me raise my hand and say we pick that guy so so you you’ll make the final decision yes okay not Tony it’ll be you it it’ll be me yes sir I guess to that end like how do you feel about the idea that you’ll be very J you’ll be judged very significantly based on how this pick turns out yeah I mean at the end of the day like it is what it is um it doesn’t really bother me frankly uh I I really enjoy our process that we’ve built out and the people that we’ve done it with so like at the end of the day you will all be the judge of whether that was the right pick or not for me it’s more looking at where are we at what was our process how are we assessing this current player and just rolling with it but like that is it is what it is I’m I’m just fortunate to be in this position are you sleeping pretty pretty well oh like a baby I’m less sleep but like you know Landry has your approach over the years to preparing for the draft changed at all and like do you look back to your first draft and how you prepared to now and just how different it is yes yeah um and I think it’s I think it runs parallel and consistent with the words that you’ll probably continuously throw up when I keep saying it about evolution in development looking at our process and when we get through it on this one we’ll go back and say okay how can we get better what does continu Improvement look like for this process or this player so I would hope that I would always answer that and yes it looks different now I don’t know how much the to a varying degree uh but it just runs consistent with a lot of the words and things that we’re preaching here I know you guys weren’t expecting to pick out one so in this process of having a deep dial on so many different guys who weren’t expecting to and stuff like that what’s the biggest I don’t know surprise or something maybe you didn’t expect in having to be in this situation and doing all this de uh the the pick was definitely a surprise those were some odds that you know you obviously could beat because it wasn’t 0% uh but no didn’t didn’t necessarily expect it but um I think the biggest surprise outside of that nothing too surprising I’ve more so been uh encouraged by just kind of how we’ve gone about it and it kind of puts you in a position too to where you reflect on where you’re at and it’s nothing that’s necessarily changed if we had the first pick the 10th pick it would have been the same process we would have spent hours in that room over there and done deep dives into different players so um I think it’s really cool to honestly kind of see uh a helpful lens from that perspective on where we’re currently at as a group and how we’re operating so just to follow up on that because the odds were so low to get it do you didn’t were you telling your guys hey don’t waste your time on the picks that could go one through five because we’re probably not going to get there or do throughout the process like we got to treat every slot the same because you just don’t know no you just don’t know like yeah regardless if it’s 3% that you’ll have this pick or 95% all the data points beforehand and the work that does that goes beforehand like you have to do to account for this I don’t want to be sitting here one day and like we didn’t see that player like it’s that’s I would it makes me cringe think thinking about that so um no we’ll we’ll will treat every player until somebody says like that’s not it or we can’t do that um as if we’re going to be able to pick them cuz guys guys fall in draft too based off of projections from a fans perspective overall number one picks in this market are kind of rare off the top of my head I’m thinking Chipper Jones and Michael Vic in various Sports and you know here we are talking about them years later is that your hope that whoever you pick is an Atlanta institution and lifts the franchise for a decade or more oh absolutely yeah I’m going to make my job with you a lot easier with the draft Outlook and just how picks kind of Stack Up next year the year after year after that how do you avoid sort of the pressure of trying to get this pick right yeah uh it gets kind of tied to that question you avoid the pressure by doing your work if you do all the right work beforehand and you come to the point of decision you make the decision and you live with it and part of living with it is trying to enhance player X and two you know based off of everything that comes comes about using that as an opportunity to reflect on it and find out ways in which you can make even a small gain for the next time um so I think when you have that for me personally because it ties into that earlier question when you have that perspective and that paradig R through your mind it really alleviates it because it’s almost like a can’t lose type of deal although I I understand traditional results for sure um but if there’s an evolution whether we had and even if you had success too like you would do the same process how much do you consider the fact that you are out some picks in the future like the the ones with the jante trade Etc yeah like does that play into the thinking at all as far as making the pick trading the pick like future planning it it’s uh it’s the factor you have to factor that um you know when you’re not like able to project out well if you do this you have this level of pick I mean it’s all it’s all part of our strategy building process what are the off thee court intangibles that play in this pi and how do you kind of be players um without getting into our fullblown thing things that I’ve talked about like unselfishness um humility is a big one uh having a grit factor to you BBQ because i’ I’ve talked a lot a lot about that I know that’s that’s on court off court but there are components that um that really go into a growth mindset as well you know in in in the theme of development you kind of have to have that like you did well you didn’t do well why why not what is your action to do now based off of that so when you dig into the intel on these guys and you have a number of different re uh sources that that help you out with that you’re better able to determine what that looks like for a player and project out because you’re going to need that like you’re going to have to have somebody that is is able to push through and have a growth mindset when you bring somebody in for these workouts and they play the same position do you work you work them out the same way or do you work them out like hey there’s a something that might be off with that player we want to see that in person uh you we’ll we’ll tear our workouts more to the context of the buyer for sure yeah are you bringing most of these guys in or will you travel to for these pre-draft workouts are they all exclusively here or do you go travel you know to to wherever to do we’ll do both do both we’ll do both yep he give us a thumbnail on on Alex SAR kind of what you see in him he’s a good player projected pretty high from what I hear uh you know like has a lot of the tools that You’ want at the NBA level see in him like I think what you hear a lot is you know really strong defense you know the offensive where that right now is not quite there do you see in him the capability to to become you know an effective El offensive player I think with whether it’s s or any other guy you’re going to see some areas that they’re going to have to grow in um so I I like for guys that we bring in I’m going to think very highly of that they can reach their ceiling how unusual will it be uh if assuming you keep the pick to uh oh we if if we’re picking lower oh is our guy still going to be there you know now you don’t have to worry about that yeah you know it’s a different headache that that’s gone away if uh so you’re saying if we had a lower pick yeah yeah yeah I mean in in the past you might have to say I hope our guy is here when we pick at five or pick at 10 or pick at 20 yeah but now you don’t have to worry about that uh no you don’t if you’re in that situation where like do you want to move up to try to again like there there’s going to be different scenarios to go through but no like that’s the beauty of being in the number one slot thanks