Bobby Webster | NBA Trade Deadline | February 08, 2024

Bobby Webster | NBA Trade Deadline | February 08, 2024

Um about when you decided that you going to be active going back to early December um did you kind of are you sort of where you thought you might be based on the moves in to it’s a good question I think I’d characterize you know this trade

Deadline um you know we did our heavy lifting about a month ago and so I I feel like this trade deadline we cleaned up a lot of things and we you know addressed some of the things we talked about after the OG and Pascal trades um

You know we’re able to turn one of the picks into a good young player in oai you know and kind of a steady and presidence and Kelly uh financially we were able to you know gain some more flexibility the Summer with the dentist trade um but yeah I think the heavy

Lifting was done this you know December January and this kind of like deadline continued on kind of that path that makes sense there was great speculation about Bruce’s future as much interest as we were like to believe why we are able to come yeah I think that’s it’s fair um

Had we gotten the offers we wanted for Bruce you know if kind of hit our threshold we would have done something at the same time I think Bruce is 27 he has a really interesting contract you know he provides a professionalism and toughness I think we’re all seeing on

The court so we value that um and there’s options with Bruce this summer I also think if you look around the league today there weren’t a ton of major moves and so I think that you know maybe some larger macro elements in the NBA are contributing to um you know teams going

Forward and making big deals um but no we’re we’re we’re happy with Bruce we’re you know we’re happy to continue on with him you mentioned getting the heavy lifting done early what I guess was was the thinking behind making those moves as early as you guys did as opposed to taking it up

Closer to the deadline for Pascal and OG and in the end was it beneficial I guess to have this time the last few weeks to gauge the market on some of the other guys after doing the heavy lifting early yeah so a couple parts there I think you

Know to be honest the the start of the Season didn’t kind of you know get off how we wanted to and so I think we were you know in some ways forced to address you know th those two situations I also think the value for those players you

Know a lot of the conversations we had around those two players were the teams wanted to acquire them as early as possible so they had a a longer you know runway for the rest of the season um so I think a couple of factors contributed to those deals happening early

Um I think it lessened the load right of you know imagine trying to do all those deals this week that wasn’t necessarily the intention of it but it did give us a stretch you know we’ve had some injuries and whatnot but at least we’ve had a

Little bit of time or more time than normal you know had we done those deals at the trade deadline we’d be looking at you know 25 to 30 games with that group whereas now we’re going to have you know hopefully 45 to 50 looking at that young

Group so uh doing it doing it early I think was advantageous for us was advantageous for the teams that have acquired them um and allows us to approach this deadline understanding who the core of this team is this is the third straight year you acquired appending creation corre if I’m wrong with you

Know somewhat of an intention of keeping them around for a bit uh obviously that comes with bird rights um it’s not something you see a ton around the league so why are why are you guys why do you guys like this well I think you know you could probably even date back

To the surge trade right I mean I think it allows you to you know bring that person inh house get a feel for them um understand how they fit with your culture how they fit basketball wise um and then make that decision in the summer from a bit more

Of an informed um point of view so I think that’s just generally the the thinking behind it um I think I guess specifically you’re asking with respect to Kelly yeah so I think Kelly listen we everyone in here has followed him for a long time we’ve been big fans of Kelly

Um I think the way we view him specifically is you he’s kind of like a steady hand and I think we’ve seen it with the bench units um especially with the big he’s going to provide a skill set a veteran presence a voice um that you know we think that that unit could

You know use some help with and so we’re excited to have Kelly the conversations have been great I think he really wants to be here um you know he’s excited for this opportunity I think from a contract perspective you know he is extension eligible right now so it’s a little

Different than some of the other players so you can have those conversations and you know have an understanding of what he’s looking for how do you think theba played a part how did you feel with playing a part it’s probably a bit too much CBA

Minutia but I think you had a a number of large factors kind of contributing to a restricted market so you had a lot of the contending teams um just didn’t have a ton of assets so the teams that you would normally would be buyers just were

Kind of capped out or you know didn’t have the draft picks um I think everyone is a little unsure about the pending financial um penalties is under the new system um and so I think that contributed to you know the sellers maybe being less inclined to take on money um that they otherwise

Would have been and then the the typical buyers just not kind of having the ammo to come out and and get guys you mentioned that now you guys have a pretty good idea of the core that you’re building around is Gary part of that group I mean he’s in that same ageback

Or a similar ageback with those guys of course be a free agent where do you kind of see him in his future with this team yeah so I think on the surface Gary’s 25 years old and a 40% three-point shooter right so you’d start there um I think he

Probably would even admit he didn’t get off to as good of a start as he would have wanted to but he’s kind of settled in now and we’re seeing it so I think it’s a little TBD on Gary but I think we’re watching him grow with this group

We’re watching him um you know pick and choose his spots offensively um I think you’re seeing him be a bit more aggressive defensively which we’ve seen over the years um so I think it’s a it’s a it’s a great stretch for him and it’s a great stretch for us to to evaluate

Him into wave Spencer for whatever reason expect to up def yeah definitely I mean part of the the Spencer uh decision making was just age we want to play young guys we want to take looks at you know we’ve seen some Scotty up point guard we’ll you know hopefully see more

There but it also does free up two roster spots for us to bring in some guys take shots on um you know some free agents scour the g- league overseas so we’ll definitely use those two roster spots you mentioned one to go after one of the guys

Wasy and you had there are other older players on this team why didn’t you guys go all young for example I think we were trying to find the right mix you know we’ve and even in personal conversations with a lot of teams in our similar position you um the young guys need

Leadership right and I think we we lost a bit of that in veteran presence when we made our earlier deals and so you’re trying to find that right chemist MYRY of who can kind of guide these players you know it’s tough for us to lose Thad you know I think everybody’s seen how

Important he was and you know he had to be included in that deal so are we simultaneously bringing in young players to develop and grow but also creating an environment around them where they’re learning professional habits um they’re being held accountable they’re understanding how to play basketball at

The NBA level they’re learning how to win um so that’s the mix that we’re always trying to to to shoot for You’ brought in two Canadians in RJ and Kelly is their nationality bringing two Hometown guys play well is it just strictly basketball yeah I mean it

Starts with the basketball piece um I think you know we’re biased and we’ve watched them grow up more so maybe we’re more familiar with their game right if there’s ever always tell people if there’s ever a young Canadian kid up like it’s our job to know them in and

Out and make sure that you know we have a good feel on them um and so from both of those point of views we love them as players first um and it’s great that they are Canadian they want to be here and so I think that’d be the other piece

Which is which is having players that want to play here um you know goes a long way on on many levels was obviously highly taled yous yeah hardworking High character two-way player you know kind of fits the bill of of guys we’ve pursued over the years um you know four-year player at

Kanas so you got you got to watch his development I think he ended his run as maybe most outstanding player of the tournament year um you know has started at times in Utah so we feel like we’re getting a young player with a lot of upside hard worker High character you

Know so we’ll bet on those the team that dark got obviously when he was hired is quite different than he has now how do you feel re darko’s great and I think you know part of you know part of the interview process you go through all those

Scenarios right we know the team that you know we were going to put forth but we also knew the the potential um changes that could happen so that you know we’re very upfront we’re communicative he’s been part of a lot of different NBA franchises so I don’t

Think this feels entirely new to him um a lot of it’s just you know day-to-day or even hour hourly conversations about the direction of the team and so it’s been you know been something we’ve been discussing internally um with him for a while now um and especially after the

The two B the two major moves before he kind of saw this was the direction that everything was going mentioned a couple minutes ago about veterans teaching how to be how to be pros and building culture winning you Haven had a lot of win three and 13 how does how does this

Sort of that which right um I think oai um he will develop in a competitive environment I think he’ll develop with guys his age group so I think that is you know one of our our big focuses is getting guys in that sort of 22 28 kind of age group um

I think Kelly help solidify that as a presence Off the Bench we’ve seen that you know especially in the front Court Off the Bench that we’ve had some you know trouble rebounding or or whatever you may say um so yeah I think it’s it’s solidifies in the sense that it’s we’re

Going to keep competing um and you know there’ll be a structure in place that you know will allow us to be competitive in all the games sort of on that note Bobby the uh you know you don’t you a player in Scotty who’s on Allstar now and clearly

Is on the rise and so you know how much focus is on making sure he’s surrounded with players that he can go and compete with versus you know how did you get a player like Scotty right like you know top Chic so how do you kind of balance building a team that remains

Sort of competitive around her but still you know you know need yeah I think that’s just the process that we’re all probably you know going through now and so how long um how long do you give it um we made some moves now the summer you know this is a

You know probably a multi-year process and so I think from from the point of view of building around Scotty you want young players in his age group that I think culturally socially you know energy-wise I think you want to put skill sets around him and I think we’ll

Be interested to see a Kelly skill set I don’t know if he’s had a player like Kelly to play with um and then you want guys who just like you know want to be here want to run I think oi’s energy will will invigorate Scotty um so you’re

Trying to hit on all those points sort of age culture social skill set and you know that’s what we’ll continue to do and I guess with the the pi that’s San Antonio is there any emphasis on you know pretty close to maybe keeping it this year or I guess the word you know

How much how important is for you is for you to get a top six pick this year or next year I think we’re going to prioritize seeing this group play if it ends up that we’re in the top six sure if we’re out of the top six but I don’t

Think that especially the way that the new NBA rules are to try and game that doesn’t make a ton of sense right at the end of the day it’s going to be the lottery balls um uh so I don’t think there’s a ton of of let’s do this or

That but I think the big priority for us is playing that young group together getting Grady in there with that group um seeing how they fit together because that will give us a lot more information about how to build a team what moves to this summer as opposed to what’s going

To happen over the next you know 20 25 games um you don’t see a ton of teams in that sort of position giving up a first round pick you guys obviously had a couple but why did you feel comfortable giving up an asset like that a future asset in the trade

Today I think we said you know we had three maybe even four first round picks if you include the Detroit pick and so to a lot of the sort of other things we’ve talking about it’s hard to bring in that many kids into an environment

Grow them you know in the right way um I think you’re seeing it with Grady which is there’s a ton of resources staff um programs in place but you know there’s a lot that you need to do to raise them and so I think you know the thought of

Three or four of them felt like hey if we can cash in one now for someone like oai who’s still young but early in his career um then you kind of like you know solidify one of those and so I I don’t think we view it as using a pick um that

We otherwise would have wanted in the draft we kind of used it to get the type of player we would want to have gotten in the draft that to say off for other in this draft reason you don’t want to have too many I think the the value with the

Picks you know so if we had the Indie pick we potentially have our own but that’s going to San Antonio the 31 yeah so there’s different tiers right and so you could you know come up with all the scenarios to use two picks on this player to use one pick on this player

Use all three picks on on somebody and so um yeah I guess that’s the game we’re we’re playing and so we decided ultimately that the one pick for um oai and Kelly made sense where Chris he out a while around how do you Pro next I think Chris is the longest

Standing Raptor now so you know we have good relationship with Chris we have good communication I think he’s obviously going through a tough time but he’s been professional he’s been um good energy you know we talked to him often so uh you know I think we traded eight

Players so far and so you know sounds like some people would rather trade 15 but you know we got a lot of work done and so there’s there’s there’s more moves to be done but with Chris um you know I’m sure he’ll bounce back like he

Always does he didn’t get to this place in the NBA if he wasn’t resilient um and it seems like every time he’s out he’s back in but you know we’re not uh we’re not too concerned with Chris with the denst trade you guys created someity organiz brings in top TI for

Agents very often um how do you see what do you see as the value of that flexibility that money it’s not necessarily to obviously to use cap space I think you can I think the Bruce contract is another one where you can kind of open up a ton if you want um so

More of just the optionality of going into this summer with reduced committed um and so you you can you just have more options available to you so I don’t think there was anything specifically in mind like Hey we’re doing this we’re doing that um as opposed to let’s you

Know see what our books look like with the you know 13 million or so off the off the books so I said last summer SE how you didn’t really enjoy watching the team play a year ago um what’s it been like to watch the team play this year obviously beenn just

From attitude or that shifted at all yeah I think where we are are now yeah it’s young exciting I think we’re all watching new players so there’s probably just you know different parts of your brain going off as you watch quickly come off a pick and roll or you watch RJ

You know slash through the lane or you watch you know Scotty interact with them and so um you know watching Jordan noara come and have those games so I think it’s more fun there’s a different energy around the team um so I think we’re enjoying you know this part of the

Process with a younger team as they grow and develop thanks for watching the Toronto rappers YouTube channel check out our latest video And subscribe for more denied lead pass here’s mcel in a [Applause] crow

General Manager Bobby Webster speaks to the media following the NBA Trade deadline.
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