Pacers President Donnie Walsh and general manager Kevin Pritchard had their pre-Draft availability at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse this morning. Walsh was asked about Larry Bird’s possible return, free agency, Danny Granger’s future, and who they may be targeting in the draft. Here are some of his answers to Indiana’s big question marks:
On Larry Bird’s status
“I don’t know what Larry wants to do. I’d love to see him come back, he knows he can come back, but I haven’t talked to him since the playoffs.”
On David West
“He’s priority #1. We think he’s one of the anchors of our team, and we want him back as much as you can want anyone back.”
Team's priorities this offseason
“I know there’s a lot [of talk] about the bench, and that’s a rash judgment in some cases. We can get more shooting, a defensive player or two, playmakers… I feel like the bench will get better as time goes on. There were mostly new guys here with a new system, and I thought the guys that played in the playoffs did what we expected them to do.”
On outside free agency pursuits (not including West, etc.)
“We’ll be looking. We work both with the cap, and the luxury tax, and an internal budget that we’d like to stay within. You have to make sure that you have flexibility in your roster, and that’s the way we look at it.”
Impressions of last year's rookie class
"One thing we don't do is make judgments on rookies in their first year, because you know right way they're not going to play a lot. We like the two rookies we chose last year, and we think they have a future. I'm not making any judgments on Miles Plumlee and Orlando Johnson on last year's analytics. We've had a history here of developing [players], particularly big men, after their first year. [They said] 'You have to get rid of Rik Smits!' after the first year. It you takes two or three years to mature in this league into an NBA player."
On Danny Granger
“We’re very optimistic that Danny will be back for training camp and should be 100%. Now, you say that about every player and something could happen, but that’s how we’re looking at it. If you watched him on the bench, I didn’t see any limps or anything like that. So, I’ve been encouraged by what I’ve seen so far. He looks good, he says he feels good… looks like he’ll be good.”
Hear the full press conference here: http://chirb.it/1aGNJ9.
