Justin Zanik has been around plenty of NBA drafts over the years, but he feels a different sort of excitement heading into this year’s event.
“I think it’s going to be fascinating this year with the draft,” the Utah Jazz general manager told reporters at Zion’s Bank Basketball Campus in Salt Lake City Monday.
“I really think it’s going to be hard to predict. … Someone who could go at No. 5 could be there at 10, 12 or 14, you might be getting the same type of player.”
He added, “Last year, two days before the draft, I predicted the exact order.
That doesn’t happen very often.
This year, I’m not going to even try. I don’t know who’s going at No. 1, who’s going at No. 2, who’s going at No. 3.”
“We’re looking at opportunities to move up, move down, move out.
The most likely scenario is that we pick our picks, because it always takes another team to agree, but we’re working on it.”
“For us, it’s going to be best player available, just for where we are as a team right now.
We’re in different parts of the draft, so we would have opportunities to maybe take some upside swings and also take guys who are able to fit and help those (upside) guys function.”
“We’re in an evaluation stage. We’re in a development stage.
Obviously this is a huge summer and a huge year for Keyonte (George) to take a step, Taylor (Hendricks) to take a step and Brice (Sensabaugh) to take a step.
Then obviously if we have all of our picks and we make those selections, then this is their rookie year, and we try to get them acclimated and learning about the game.
I don’t think you ever make a decision after one year if a guy can play or not or what his ceiling is, you care more about their trends and path.
