Unfortunately for me I had ACL surgery on Thursday. This meant that I missed the Draft Party and the FedEx Forum and the press conference the following day. I emailed Chris Wallace in regards to the draft and am posting his comments here.
We are happy with the draft. Thabeet is the defensive presence the team has always lacked. He and Gasol will compete for the starting center spot. No one is handed anything, this is a competition. Haddadi will be given a shot as well. He is currently working out with us and is scheduled to return agaon in late August which should be a real benefit. Remember, he came in last year within three days of training camp.
We feel the additions of Young and Carroll will bolster our weak bench from a year ago. Young will play both the off guard and small forward positions while Carroll is a small forward and versatile enough to flop over to power forward when we size down, as they say in the NBA, and go small.
We are upbeat on Arthur's future and look forward to seeing him in summer league.
Blair was ranked below Young and Carroll with us, however, if Young had been select prior to 36 we would have picked Blair as he was the highest ranked player still available at the point. So we were very close to getting him.
We will be aggressive seeking out trading opportunites but it is too early to forecast what awaits us on that front.
Go Grizzlies!
Chris Wallace
I want to thank Chris Wallace for taking time to give me these comments regarding the draft.
David
please get allen iverson take the scruting from the local and national media and deal with it these same media persons with in return will follow and want interviews
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