C's passed on draft day deal.

[Jim Metz <JBMetzEA@AOL.com>]

Title: C's passed on draft day deal.

    CeltsSteve posted this article(see below) by Howard Schultz the owner of the Seattle Sonics, to the AOL board. It would seem that the Celtics were offered something, to trade the 11th pick, for some team to grab Radmanovic, ahead of Seattle, who picked 12th.
    "Just minutes before our selection, however, our confidence in getting Radmanovic evaporated when we learned that a team scheduled to pick behind us was engaged in trade talks to move ahead of us. Their intention was to draft Radmanovic and all we could do was wait to see if a deal was reached. Their deal fell through and Radmanovic was ours. ..."
    Could it have been Houston offering the 13th and 18th picks? We probably could have taken Brown and whatever the boot was. I'd love to know the details of this offer.
    We also could have passed on Brown and taken Radmanovic. It seems Seattle, saw their pick at the Chicago pre-draft camp, against better competition than anyone saw Brown play against.  They were also able to work him out and even give him psychological tests. We had none of that luxury with Brown.
    I am also envious that Seattle got Watson, a good point guard in the second round. If our brain trust had not jumped on Josep Sesar last year and wasted two second round picks, we could have taken the point gaurd and had a free look.
    I know it's too early to judge Kedrick, but I'm a bit frustrated with having three wing players and also without being able to understand either Arn Tellem's motives for not letting Brown workout (what if the Celtics had stiffed him?) or the Celtics for suggesting it(how did they know who might have slipped down?). 
    The Celtics spin(see Mark Cofman's story in today's Herald) is that Brown is the "second comming." I hope so. If not, this could smell awfully bad, especially if Radmanovic is the real deal at 6'10" and can play anywhere along the front line. 
-JB-
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Sunday, July 08, 2001 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Armchair to hot seat, draft was a dream By Howard Schultz
Sonics & Storm principal owner

I guess it's just part of the fun of being an NBA fan, but I've spent my life as an armchair general manager. For years, anyone who ever sat next to me at a Sonics game got an earful over which players never should have been passed up on draft day and the trades each team should have made. Now, as an owner of the Sonics, I've realized I'm not only the lifelong second-guesser who, from this point forward, will constantly be second-guessed, but that I
have an enormous responsibility to the fans to help build this team through sound basketball decisions. 

Two weeks ago as I sat for the first time within the Sonics draft-day war room, I realized the luxury of hindsight was no longer available to me. The pressure and enormity of the day was building. I'd always wondered what it would be like in those fabled rooms where so many historic decisions have been made that have shaped the league. 

There I was, the kid from Brooklyn on the inside looking out. I was now a member of the decision-making panel that fans like me love to criticize and I wondered how I would handle the events of the day. It's one thing to fantasize about this moment, it's something entirely different to suddenly find yourself there. The goal of our draft day was to pick the players we knew would have an immediate impact on making the Sonics better. 

Before the draft, we had brought more than 20 of the top prospects to Seattle to conduct our own evaluations and determine who would be the impact players. One of the first players we saw was point guard Earl Watson out of UCLA. Earl had great athleticism and skill, and we liked the fact that he brought four solid years of major-college experience to a draft class packed with early entry candidates. I was skeptical of our chances to land Watson
because our second pick wasn't until the second round (40th overall). We knew we wanted to use our lottery selection to take Vladimir Radmanovic, and most draft experts had Watson going late in the first round. We believed the 6-foot-10 Radmanovic was a "must-have." 

The 20-year-old forward from Yugoslavia caught the attention of our international scouts a few years ago. Considered by our staff to be a combination of Dirk Nowitzki and Predrag Stojakovic, Radmanovic's stock skyrocketed after his stellar performance at the NBA's predraft camp in Chicago. When the dust settled, he was being projected as a top-10 pick. 

Coach Nate McMillan called me from Chicago and said, "Howard, we've found our guy." General Manager Rick Sund and Wally Walker, the team's president, enthusiastically concurred. The question then became: How do we land him with the 12th pick? Radmanovic was the only player we had brought back twice to evaluate in Seattle. He outplayed the other prospects in both sessions and wowed us with his versatility. He can play four positions, is an amazing
shooter, a great passer and is one of the toughest players I've ever seen. In all candor, when I heard all the buzz about Radmanovic, I was back in my armchair general-managing mode. I recalled the team's excitement a few years back when they drafted international player Vladimir Stepania. The Sonics were impressed by Stepania's physical abilities when they tested him in Seattle, but he had a hard time finding his game in this league and ultimately
was traded. Billy McKinney, the team's vice president, Walker and Sund felt it was important to start taking a more complete approach to the way we evaluate draft prospects. We hired an expert to conduct psychological testing on our potential draftees to gain a solid sense of each candidate's mental toughness, level of maturity and overall frame of mind. Radmanovic's psychological profile was impressive and showed his can-do approach to the game.
Watson's personality profile revealed many of the same signals, and he scored very high in terms of leadership and maturity. Our inclusion of the mental and emotional tests in our player evaluations has me thinking we're on the right track in the new Sonics era. More than ever before, we're getting a sense of each player as a whole and what type of personality they can bring to the team and the community. Now armed with our elaborate player research
and scores of mock drafts, the pursuit of Radmanovic and Watson was on. 

As things got under way, the flurry of phone calls began as teams explored their options. The war room felt as tense as Wall Street after a day of heavy trading. When the first picks began to resemble our mock draft, our excitement level intensified because we knew it allowed us to acquire Radmanovic without having to trade up. Just minutes before our selection, however, our confidence in getting Radmanovic evaporated when we learned that a team
scheduled to pick behind us was engaged in trade talks to move ahead of us. Their intention was to draft Radmanovic and all we could do was wait to see if a deal was reached. Their deal fell through and Radmanovic was ours. The atmosphere in the war room turned from tension and anxiety to overwhelming elation. It seemed to be coming together as planned. We knew that if we were lucky enough to get Radmanovic, it was going to be important to trade for
the Yugoslavian Olympic team's imposing center, Predrag Drobnjak. We had studied the success of the Sacramento Kings and the development of Stojakovic, one of the game's best pure shooters. The Kings feel that fellow Yugoslavian Vlade Divac helped ease Stojakovic's cultural transition, which has allowed him to thrive. 

My first experience in the Sonics war room was emotionally exhausting and I was elated to see the draft go our way. Our staff completed countless hours of preparation, including numerous trips around the globe to see players firsthand. In the end, these tireless efforts paid off. I believe that securing Radmanovic will be viewed as a key step in leading the Sonics back to the ranks of the NBA's elite. 

Howard Schultz, the new principal owner of the Sonics & Storm, is writing a monthly column about learning the business of the NBA. This is his fourth installment. 
                        Copyright © 2001 The Seattle Times Company 
    


CeltsSteve


                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                Unchain My Heart!