General Manager Calvin Booth Speaks With Media Post 2024 NBA Draft

General Manager Calvin Booth Speaks With Media Post 2024 NBA Draft

uh Calvin first for starters just what do you uh like about Holmes and and how long have you sort of had your eye on him um well we’ve been he’s been he’s been a pretty prominent Prospect for the last couple years but I think the jump he took in skill and making a three-point shot uh took him to a different level as a prospect and uh you know I think I just like guys that have to carry the load for their team and uh they won a lot he played he played uh many different defenses that tried to shut him down and uh you know he has a lot of experience Under Pressure situations um can play both sides of the ball I just talked to out to two people and told them probably I think his defense will be better at this level I think he had to carry a a heavy load for that team and had to worry about getting in foul troubles there’ll be times when you watch whether live or on tape where you’re like all right can you really guard um but I think I expect that to be better at this level when he has less responsibility and I think offensively just has so many outs as a player he can pass he can shoot he can catch in tight spaces and make plays and make the little touch touch shots that joker makes so think the guy just has a lot of game how do you kind of see his development playing out is he sort of a guy with some plug-and-play potential for you yeah I think I think so I mean you know kind of talked about a good amount over the last year but I I do feel like you have to try to find the edge and um I don’t think all rookies are made the same you know I think uh you have the 18 19 year old guys that may or may not have more upside and then you have some other guys that you know are accomplished they do a lot and for all intensive purposes may be more ready for high pressure NBA games and some guys on NBA rosters that that have been in the league for two or three years so um in that sense I think Don’s one of those guys right you know has a high IQ um you know knows knows how to play and in different styles and different scenarios so I think I think he has a very good chance of being a plug and play now yeah no I think I think it it was very important to to add more athleticism and um you know skill and IQ um I think that you know long term Don has a chance to be a starting NBA 4 I think the league is become a little bit more physical they’re allowing a little bit more contact on Closeouts and the more you start to see that you know we we we witness in the Minnesota series it’s a very physical game so um in that style of NBA I think he’s a four all day you know I played in the era where there was Rasheed Wallace and and Joe Smith and Cliff Robinson and all these different guys that were 6 10 611 uh probably there was a period a few years ago would have been harder for some of those guys to to play in this uh NBA where Closeouts were so hard to guard because you couldn’t touch the guy um but I think where the NBA is going right now I think he’s 100% a four kin he shot what is it 14.3% from fre three as a freshman and got up to like 39% as a junior last year so I guess how real do you think that Improvement is from three and how important will that be to his future yeah I mean you always like to try to find similar player players that shoot a similar way and as soon as I started watching Don shoot I felt like it was like Al Horford wide base very consistent release doesn’t that shoots kind of a set shot from deep and uh you know I’ve seen how make a million shots in NBA KY it’s been well doed by you and just in the picks that you’ve made over the course of these past few years you’ve wanted to go for guys that are older wanted to go for guys that can play right away just how ready do you think he’ll be from day one toon do you think he’ll be ready to step in there’s always a learning curve I think like uh for a guy like that that had a heavy offensive load and can do a lot of different things offensively it’ll be about what he’s doing on the glass what he’s doing as a rim protector what he’s doing um you know defensively in general that’ll that’ll get us uh earn them time on the court especially in our system with with all these good players so um it’s going to be an adjustment and when he gets the opportunity has to take advantage of it has to take care of his body and try to stay healthy there’s all those different factors that come into like breaking through but um I think he has the the mind the skill and the body to play right away Cal you guys have worked so hard to build the culture that you have here how do you think he’ll fit in from a culture standpoint and what’s his personality like off the floor yeah yeah I mean I think that was one of the most appealing things to me I think you know we value character a lot and uh this guy’s you know talking to coach Grant um one of the best he’s had in college at wherever he’s been at right um just works it’s humble loves to be in the gym um you know it’s going to keep his head down and and uh basically just try to get better every single day so uh it’s lot like a lot of our other young guys that we brought in here so um I think it’ll be very fit I guess big question in my mind is how confident are you that Michael Malone will give him a chance to get meaningful minutes to learn as a rookie well I think the onus will be on on Don and summer league to play well and to show the coaches that he can play and um I think if he can play he’ll he’ll get a chance to play so um I think uh more and more we’re starting to understand the realities of the the CBA and um it’s going to be hard to to to like you know make a lot of moves when you have one of the most expensive starting lineups one of the best starting lineups um you know so I think you have to get value out of these out of these guys and um you know hopefully he’ll get a shot to play I I read a quote from Don that one of the players he looked up to was nicoa yic and I wonder how big a factor was the fact that he can function in the the pick and pop pick and roll kind of an offense and and really stretch a defense from the outside yeah I think it’s it was it it was an important factor I think him being a polished basketball player was a big part of the appeal um you know I think it’ be great next to Aaron Gordon I think you can play him at to five with Michael Porter Jr I think he could probably play him with Nia I think he can play with just about every single good player we have on our roster so uh the ability to play with different guys on our team that we value and or the port a lot is uh going to give them a chance to be on the port right away Calvin you mentioned the starting lineup and having all those guys together having a very expensive starting lb we’ve talked about the limitations that the CBA has really presented just what has has that changed your perspective or or kind of shaped your perspective on on making sure to retain kcp versus different Pathways that are obviously limited even if you lose them yeah I think we have to look at everything thing and uh the nature of free agency is he’s unrestricted so we can try to bring him back and if he doesn’t want to come back or choose Ops to go somewhere else like you know that’s that’s his prerogative so we’ll have to work with that but um I think we’re prepared to to like Plug and Play so to speak um I think when you look at some of the teams that been good in the past they they have to find a way to replace you know fourth fifth starters six men Off the Bench and still keep rolling you know it would be nice if he’s back they have a lot of continuity together but I think uh you know and all the all the stuff I’ve looked at with lineup stuff and everything Christian Brown’s one of the best net rating guys in the league like um as is kcp so I think uh if he’s a step into the starting lineup like probably projected I think um you know we’ll be okay if uh kcp doesn’t return um Calvin you tra did up a couple picks and a couple second round picks to to get Don Holmes uh just what was the thinking there and and making sure I assume you were going to just get your guy yeah I mean there was rumors of a promis for a long time and you know I’ve contended that we liked Don um wasn’t necessarily A promise but you know once he got into the 20s and there was a chance to get him like we we want to go get our guy essentially right um you know there was a lot of lot a lot of potential landmines between 22 and our pick um you know so I think you know especially having a division rival in front of us that that probably you know values the guy too so um yeah I think we it was just important for us to get ahead and get our guy um just was curious uh if you guys have kind of looked at uh at Justin holiday and DeAndre Jordan both as free agents and and sort of if there if you guys are looking at potentially resigning them or or uh going separate ways in free agency yeah both of those guys are big time contributors and I think uh DeAndre in particular has been here the last two years he has a championship with us I think uh he’s kind of Taken on the role of uh uh yonis hasm type guy so um I think uh we we would like to bring DeAndre back and you know also Justin he was so good for us in the playoffs and such a good guy in the locker room we we’ like to take a look at that too but um you know it just has to we have 15 roster spots and you know can’t put 16 guys on so we’re going to have to make some tough decisions and and see how it plays out U just one more over here the two days for the draft obviously you guys trade 56 so don’t necessarily have a pick tomorrow do you expect any major things to happen tomorrow for the team or is are are you basically done um well we got to monitor the draft and see who slips through um you know probably have a I think roughly like four second rounders left to to move and one that’s like very very healthily protected I don’t really count as one so four and a half second rounder so I don’t think it’ be wise to to try to play around and get back in the drave and do something so I don’t anticipate us doing anything tomorrow thank

Hear what General Manager Calvin Booth had to say concluding the 2024 NBA Draft.

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GM Calvin Booth Speaks With Media Post 2024 NBA Draft