NBA GM talks 2024 NBA Draft | UTAH JAZZ

NBA GM talks 2024 NBA Draft | UTAH JAZZ

how is everybody good how are how are you guys what do you mean the Jazz wise business-wise we’re good got the draft we’re always I tell I tell you guys the same thing every time like we’ve been doing this for a long time we’re ready we can make the pick today I think it’s going to be fascinating this year though on the on the on the draft I just think it’s just much more flat this year than other years so I don’t really pay attention to mock drafts anyway I I mean I’ll pay attention to like Market stuff or people talking about who they like but I really think it’s going to be hard to predict this year flat meaning what flat meaning like I think someone that could go at five could be there at 10 or 12 or 14 that you might be getting the same type of player this might be a little too specific but like you always talk about tiers yeah how many guys do think are in that tier at the number 10 spot probably like I mean it depends on who you talk to in our front office right uh for me it’s probably about eight guys some of which you project to go ahead some of them behind I mean last year two days before the draft um I predicted the order like the exact order and that doesn’t happen very often like just to do like I think this is what’s going to happen and it did this year I’m not gonna even try like I don’t know who’s going one I don’t know who’s going two I don’t know who’s going three um maybe I’ll we’ll know a little bit more couple days before you know as right day of but we’ll be sitting there and waiting but on the other thing we’re doing as we always do we’re looking at opportunities to move up move down move out um most likely scenario because is we pick our picks but because it always takes another team to a but we’re working on it how does fascinating manifest itself well you see a pick in front of you’re like oh wow okay and maybe a little surprised that maybe somebody Falls that you know you may you know you’re you’re assigning before the draft a 20% chance and all of a sudden the guy’s there can you walk us through what the evaluation system looks like when’s left in a player how much time do you have I mean because it starts when the kids are like 16 or 17 um they’ve allowed us to be in a lot more High School situations now so and then going to Europe and the FEA under 16s under 17s under 18s um you get these early tracking points of these kids you know they still have to grow they still have to learn they still you know but you’re seeing them at 15 or 16 and then we’re allowed now to attend some AA and summer events not just the big big stuff which is great for our staff and then they pick a college and then you see if they pick the right one or not and you try to do that and you you get you know most of the guys are one and DS now but you you get 35 games of data plus all the high school stuff and then you bring them in for a workout if you can get them in and our guys do a great job of getting guys in I think we’re I haven’t done the exact count but I think we’re probably close to 100 players that we got in um the that you know when they come in it’s it’s not the be all end all they could have an unbelievable work out or not a great one the altitude usually does its job for us here um but it’s it’s something and you get to um you get to see them in a new environment you get to to sit down and interview them even if you’ve touched them a little bit in in the combine um our coaching staff gets to see them and touch them so it’s it’s good for them so that if we draft this player they kind of know they’ve had their hands on them and like okay I know what these guys they all need to develop no one’s a perfect product um coming into this draft so that’s important and then the other part that I think is underrated is that when we get players in they get to see us too they get to see beautiful facility they get to see how proud We Are of our coaching staff um the people that we have in this building which I think are a huge asset for us and so they’re you know you know quote unquote experience with the Utah Jazz even if we don’t draft them but 3 or four years later or five they like oh wow I had a that was a blast I really enjoyed that and I said this in an internal interview just a few minutes ago what I love about the late pre-draft process the last two months is that I think we have a very large group of people here that are all committed to the same thing and that’s the Jazz winning a title but it’s really neat to see Health performance coaches front office all in the gym at one thing focusing on one thing and that’s the draft um our kitchen too that’s the favorite thing for the players when they come in is our food um so it’s really ne ne neat to see that on a day-to-day basis how does the draft moving to two days affect anything I told Steven Schwarz and Shane finsky they’re going to be the mark Tatum of the second round I’m not doing media I’m not making any phone calls um I wasn’t as in favor of it I was neutral on it when they asked to vote because we’re prepared to do it and so I’m curious about the the night between I’m sure that it’ll help some teams get more organized um you know right now we have the second pick in the second round so I would imagine that there’ll be you know first round ends sort of like football like these you know MK hyers top five available or whatever um there probably be a little more interaction rather than it you know those calls last year if you’re picking 32 are happening at 17 or 18 like while you’re still on the clock for for one you know on the first round so we’ll see how I’m making if we do make a selection Shane and Steven will be doing media so you can ask them how they think about it is there a Fit versus BPA component in this draft knowing that you know it’s a little bit more vola than than previous I think I mean there’s always that debate no matter what the draft is but for us it’s going to be best player of I think just where we are as a team right now um I think part that’s underrated though is that you’ve got we’re in different parts of the draft too so we would have opportunities to maybe you know take some upside swings and then also take guys that might be able to fit and help some of those guys function who are you know might be more ready to contribute in in some small way earlier but maybe without the the ceiling yeah if you take that window you talk about 15 20 without being specific I feel like there were a bunch of guys that were not in great situations last year you mean from college or you mean last year’s draft last no last this year when they were playing they weren’t in great situations for various reasons yep so how do you evaluate that sample size when they’re not in a great situation and then how much does that make the maybe two or three years of Prior watching even more no huge I mean the more the more data points that we have have the better and that gives us a little more context I think it’s it’s lazy to say well he had a bad year and that was his first year in college now you’re not making excuses for him maybe maybe he is terrible okay maybe he was a highly rated High School guy that just isn’t good enough but you look for the context why was he successful in high school why did he struggle in college what kind of system does he have hard time picking up things is it just he was used in the wrong way or who he played with so you know I’ll give an example I mean he obviously played for a very good team and a very good coach but with Keon last year you know he basically played in a three guard lineup I mean in some ways he was the deao three and you know I see and I think we continue to see and he saw flashes still got a lot of work to do but he had the ball in his hands and he had you know being a one being off the ball but being a combo and a lot of people just thought he was just a pure two and I don’t I don’t think that’s the case but if you just watch his Baylor stuff you’d be like how the heck do you think he’s a he could play point because he didn’t have to do it there but in high school he did so something like that you mentioned when we talked uh right after season ended that this is kind of a natural trade period right yep we’re in kind of this week before the draft what have those conversations been like over the last I guess recently and yeah how was that yeah so part of the thing you know the season ends whenever you know if you’re done in the regular season or you’re done sometime in the playoffs usually takes a couple weeks for like exit interviews and internal stuff and then meet with ownership and I’m talking about more the rest of the league and um then they become kind of ready to talk about their teams like what are our goals what are what they thought of last year just very very general um and then as the kind of weeks go on that they you know Are there specific things they’re trying to get accomplished like where are they salary wi like where are they picking in the draft like um so those I’ve told you guys this before it’s not obviously not just the draft it’s trades free agency is only like four days after after the draft as well so you’re you know the league year flips over and you’ve got you’re talking about cap space or lack thereof for some teams a lot of teams so all those conversations are kind of all together and then you find out if there’s natural trading partners with stuff and when I say trading players it could be a draft pick deal it could be trading players it could be you know them wanting some more information on or that hey I don’t think we can bring this guy back or something like that so just a ton of notes and then you know Danny and I meet with our staff and Ryan and coach and see what those kind of opportunities look like and then the kind of eight person tier around the number 10 pick do you feel like you know everyone talks about this draft not being as strong as the previous ones do you feel like at number 10 it’s as strong as it is previously or do you think it’s still yeah I I mean I think again depending on who’s there but I think it could be every bit as deep as it was last year from I don’t know let’s call it 8 to 20 I don’t you know I mean those are very fuzzy numbers for me because I just don’t know who’s going to be there but yeah I think it’s probably pretty flat that way I mean it’s certainly flatter than it was at the top last year whether you want to do top three top five you know there seems to be a CO residual that you need to how do you evaluate 22 and 23 year old players yeah so there you’ve got guys that are still you know everyone looks more like BYU now right um in terms of the age stuff with college so you’re you’re talking about 23 year olds that have developed into very good players and you’re judging them when the same class as 18-year-olds so the 5year Gap um it’s much more Stark this year cuz a lot of the solid players in the first round they’re either 18 or 19 or they’re 22 or 23 so that’s an evaluation that we have to go through and do you want to project the 18-year-old and say hey is he going to be as good as this guy 5 years later five years is a long time um or hey there’s a 23-year-old that can come out and contribute but maybe the ceiling isn’t is high because he’s 23 um so what do you want what do you need see sorry I’ve looked over you twice be like I’m done I’m done Tony I’m done go ahead is there is there any way where like you know the three kids that you drafted last year have any bearing on you know what what you draft this year in terms of I mean I look at it as you always want to try to create space to evaluate and have guys play there hasn’t been any decisions on them of like literally like drafting over them I think what we’re in is you know with relative to our draft picks last year and this year we’re in an evaluation stage we’re in a development stage um and obviously this this is a huge summer and huge year for Keon just take a step Taylor to take a step Bryce to take a step and then obviously um if we have all of our picks and we we make those selections like it’s their rookie year and then them trying to get acclimated and try to learn about the game and um I don’t think you ever make a decision after one year on like whether a guy can play or not or or what his ceiling is I think you care about more the trends and the path and I’ve been very happy with the development of those three guys um but as I’ve told you guys before and you’ve seen development isn’t just guaranteed minutes on the on the court we don’t whether you have competition or not you don’t play free minutes here so they have work to do no matter who we draft or we don’t um so I don’t look at it as like oh I’ve got to go create competition or I’ve this isn’t football like what we’re trying to do is add as good many good players as possible do a great job of developing them and then we make it work and fit in terms of playing time and you know with reality of trying to win games when someone has not shot the ball particular well what is the for how long question how do you evaluate give me an example well there’s about six players in this draft who are sub 30% from three how do you look at those players and evaluate them to figure out whether they can shoot so that’s a it’s a projections like do you want to try to especially if you can get them in here um and have our coaching staff evaluate too is like okay why is it not going in um is there something you can do um people put in different things but like I kind of look at as like there’s three buckets like one don’t touch a thing it’s great goes in don’t don’t mess with it two there’s tweaks you know whether it’s ball position you know where where the ball is in your hand or are you shooting across your face or not or a dip or that you need to speed it up just tweaks and then third is like the full rebuild I guess the fourth one is it’s broken there’s nothing you can do to fix it but shooter sometimes they missing the same spot yeah yeah yeah so where they miss you know we we do shooting drills here too you know we do the Jazz 100 which is 1003s um half of them catch and shoot half of them on movement that’s the other part it’s like is he a good catch and shoot shooter or can he shoot with movement um which is obviously more valuable off the dribble all that stuff so yeah it’s it’s a it’s an evaluation piece and our coaches are involved too so you have to be able to shoot today’s game are there any reservations about potentially having you know six first and second year players on um sure sure I think uh if that’s the case and there’s a difference between 23 year olds and 18 year olds um but if that’s the case it’s you want to make sure that that you have enough veterans on the team that can help them grow and do it they can’t raise themselves or raise each other that’s all they have to talk to and know so I think that becomes very important and I think we have some good veterans on our team right now but that will obviously factor into some of the things we either do in free agency or trades or things like that but I like we’re not going to get into a leverage situation like oh I just can’t have six draft picks like so here’s one or give it a no take it it’s a shot at trying to get a good player but creating the environment is will be key for it you told us about Shane and I guess some the other changes to the front office um all the promotions welld deserved um shifting a few people into new roles but with Shane has it’s more of an acknowledgement of of what he’s doing here um you know the the structure we had had has been sort of flat uh under Danny and me but um and there may be some more changes in the future like it was just more like we wanted to the ones that we had made decisions on in the summer wanted to get them out so everybody gets recognized um really excited for Katie benzen um you know being able to I always almost look at like a a residency for medical doctor like you’re going to go do this for a year and then you’re going to go do this for a year and then we’re going to find out what you like so this is the natural part of her journey she’s really talented um and then obviously our coaching staff promotions I’m excited uh I give credit to will a ton for um large part promoting internally because we have got people that are ready and and good um makes my job a lot easier and his um so you know Shane’s part of our group along with Stephen and Bart and all those guys that do a great job in in their respective roles um who am I missing anybody else you want to know about uh I love all of them so please uh I don’t think so okay you watch the championship game that’s all you watch he’s a really good player yeah 25% offensive rebound rate deadly right hook has really I’ll say this about him I’m very impressed um he’s the two-time national player of the year right but the things he did this year he took all the feedback people wonder if he can change ends the um wonder if he can play long stretches and he got in better shape his passing got like he’s still the national player of the year and they went to the national title game but like I thought there was measured Improvement in terms of being more NBA ready as as opposed to his Junior you know his year before but it’s a credit to him I mean those guys in college that work their butts off and have great careers and he’ll be remembered not only CU he’s just he’s a rare guy like you don’t see guys like him but um give him a lot of credit for what he’s accomplished in college one okay am I doing your scouting work for you or what are you going put out mock draft Ron when you’ve seen one game of Zach okay I’m not putting that one into our model okay by the way yeah I saw luuka at 14 huh I saw Luca at 14 at 14 yeah is there can you give us a name I can’t I can’t talk about those guys I can’t I can’t give you any no there’s kids I’ve seen at 16 they’re 18 now I can’t talk about them not until they declare you can get me fined Ron you give me fine this might be I would I would suggest that you uh watch you I would suggest watching all of our local teams this next year for sure supp loal very good we wear purple you know blue and red turns purple it’s good mighte this I’ll tell you if I can answer it or not so feels like on this draft everyone’s got like a butt statement or this butt they have that and maybe that’s just a draft but it’s there’s a unique distance half the butt statements seem to be physical limitations and half the butt statements seem to be some sort of skill limitation from a scouting standpoint which of those is more concerning to you I mean both of them are concerning I I think more would I’d rather chat about is it’s it’s an annoying thing for me it’s a natural thing for scouting staffs and people people in general frankly is you watch something or watch a player and you have an opinion and it’s all about what he cannot do and I can sit there and pick apart 450 NBA players too if you want me to but they are literally the best players in the world playing on championship teams and like so I think it’s really important for coaches and front office um you need to figure out what they can do not only what what you think can do in the ceiling but like what can they do and then how do you mitigate or help and develop the weaknesses okay if he’s physically you know a problem physically like can we get it better or can we not is it you know mechanics or seeing the game or reading it you know how’s his brain can he do it or not so focusing on what’s possible um but realistic and hey this guy can go do this right now but I just think it’s way too especially with social media I I guess only criticism fits into 140 characters because that’s what you see most the time like this guy can’t do this or that and I I don’t think that’s fair I mean could you imagine like I do media like we pass on 10 like uh nobody can do anything so we’re not going to even pick somebody like no like chances are the 10th pick is going to be an NBA player at least at least for a little while and hopefully for a long time so our job is to find out how how can we make that happen it’s very easy to just eliminate guys but you have to pick somebody so when I you know I guys I think I said two or three months ago when I said I don’t think there’s ever such a thing as a bad draft like there’s always good players they just you have to project more in this one so we’ll try to do our best job that we can um okay two questions one on how does your guys’ process EV all differ from now you have Danny and his experience versus prev yeah yeah um the process itself I mean we get to the same places we might just meet a little differently or you know but terms of scouting games watching games you know Danny Danny’s watching games all day every day um so maybe in just terms of the groups that meet or different projects that’s kind of evolved over time but the processes are you know largely at the end very very very similar like doing all your work you can to identify good players so maybe there’s a different stylistically but not really subst substantively there isn’t much difference and then I guess in in terms of evaluation do you think it’s different like they’re both really good so like I think maybe there might be just different qualities or other stuff but I wouldn’t even like describe that cuz they’re both you know we’re all looking for like good basketball players in the NBA um and then also part of that is when you get to different parts of State you know team building so when you’re in a developmental stage you’re taking a lot of best players available if you’re one piece away and maybe that’s in the draft that maybe you look at something else or you’re saying hey we need you know you’re focusing on what we need to do a lot of things better with rt um you get to the point where hey we need some shooting or we need specific things and maybe that part might change you’re probably also picking lower in the draft so uh and then I guess question to uh cap space you guys will have c space this year uh again in conversations you’ve had recently do anticipate using that finding somebody you’re trading like kind of how do you see the market plan now we’re open to all of it I mean there’s there’s going to be opportunities to use it in multiple ways um I think I told you guys initially like free agency isn’t the game Cher anymore it used to be just with all the extensions um there’s some solid players out there but it’s not anybody that’s probably going to like move the needle in a significant way they’re more complimentary um which is fine it it is what it is and so then you’re looking for other opportunities to add impact players um that’s why we have our picks that’s why we’ve stayed flexible so that whenever those opportunities come up we can do it are they there this year maybe maybe not takes another team to agree but all of that’s on the table for us um obviously part of it may be for retaining our players too which you know I’d be really excited about thanks guys good to see you all

Utah Jazz general manager Justin Zanik sat down with the media to talk about the upcoming NBA draft in which the Utah Jazz has three picks.

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