Magic PBO Jeff Weltman on "The Bridge" with Mike Bianchi and Marc Daniels

[Knightro]

Bianchi: How are you this morning?
Weltman: We're all a little tired. If you heard about our pick before the draft then he's gotta be good! *laughs*

Bianchi: When you look at credentials, Anthony was an elite HS prospect, do you think he could be the steal of draft?
Weltman: We don't try and get into that area of it. Months and months, even years of tracking go into this. You watch prospects, you debate internally about prospects. You use your analytics staff. We were surprised that he was going to be available at our range. We thought "it can't be true, everyone is sandbagging". We're happy to have him. He has a lot of work to do, but he will work.

Bianchi: Was it worrisome watching his interview when he was talking about having surgery? Magic fans are paranoid about injuries.
Weltman: I understand where the concern comes from as we've had a lot of injuries. That being said, it was an emotional night. Not just for Cole, but for a lot of guys. It was a minor procedure, a knee scope. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't deemed to have been a significant surgery by our medical staff. He ended up missing 6 weeks. The emotion that came from him really stemmed from not having the year he wanted to have on top of having to have surgery. It was more of an indication of the chip he has on his shoulder. He wants to prove himself to a lot of people. We saw a lot of emotion, a lot of crying and laughing.

Daniels: The media questioned if Anthony made his teammates better. Is that an unfair criticism if you are the best player on a team that is struggling?
Weltman: Great question and it's a tricky answer. We watch a ton of video. We watch complete games as individuals and then watch games together as a group. Our analytics guys look at that next level stuff and can verify what we're seeing or not seeing. When the eye test and the analytics lineup, it feels good. It's something you can get behind as an organization, that we're seeing things that maybe other organizations are not. It's who you're playing with, your role, your responsibilities and how it was delegated by the coach. It weighs heavily on guys with high expectations. He does make people better, but he had to shoulder a heavy burden there.

Daniels: Everyone wants shooting, but what about Anthony's versatility?
Weltman: If you look at our roster, we wanted to add skill, IQ, shooting and versatility in the backcourt. He's a scorer, but he can get rid of the ball easily when plays unfold in transition. He's a strong body kid with good IQ, good anticipation, works defensively. One of the interesting things about Cole, one of the things we kept coming back to, is that he led all point guards in rebounding. He has a drive and toughness that helps you win games. To have that type of inner drive and relentlessness, that desire to be great, that's part of his DNA and something that drew us to him.

Bianchi: Talk about bloodlines, Cole's father was a successful NBA player, do bloodlines matter?
Weltman: It's funny, we talked to him about that. He was really young when Greg retried. He wasn't really raised in the NBA and doesn't see himself that way, but he grew up around NBA players. He has a great resource in his father and that has helped him with that understanding of what it takes to be good. There are some next level things that people don't understand unless they live through it like Cole has. It wasn't a huge factor for us, but another part of the evaluation. I worked for an owner who always used to ask us "WHO IS THIS GUY?" and you want to find that out. Those sort of things can be tiebreakers that determine success in this league.

Daniels: Did this draft play out the way you thought it would?
Weltman: We all had the first three picks pegged. From 4 to about 11, we couldn't say which players were going to go which teams exactly, but we still had a pretty good idea of which prospects were going to go in front of us. When we knew we were going to have a crack at Cole, that was exciting for us. Things became very unpredictable after about 17 or 18.

Bianchi: I'm going to ask something you won't answer. There were a couple of PGs taken immediately ahead of Cole, would you have taken them if they were on the board?
Weltman: I'd never comment on other guys as you said *laughs*. We wanted Cole and I'll leave it at that.

Bianchi: How do you envision Cole's role this season?
Weltman: This offseason is crazy and compressed. In a normal year, we would be getting Cole into a summer program this week, but tomorrow is free agency and then camp starts in a couple of weeks. Because of that timeline, that's more of a Coach Clifford question. That is his call. Cole will pay with a lot of different guys. He will create shots for himself and others, bringing a toughness and IQ to what we do. But it's Coach Clifford's decision to determine who will pay with who.

[Knightro]

For context to Weltman's remarks about bloodlines.

Greg Anthony's last year in the NBA was 2002 when Cole Anthony was just 2 years old. He almost assuredly remembers his father as more of a broadcaster/NBA media personality than as an NBA player.

Compare that to the Curry brothers and it's quite a bit different. Dell Curry also retired in 2002, but Steph was already 14 when Dell retired and Seth was 12. Those two grew up around the the game in a much different way than Cole Anthony did.

[basketballRob]

Thanks for the text of the interview. I hear Brandon Kravitz will interview Hammond at 3.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

[Skin]

Weltman keeps gloating about Cole's IQ, but it's making me question Weltman's IQ.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

Weltman keeps gloating about Cole's IQ, but it's making me question Weltman's IQ.

Everything he says is going to have that I’m smarter than you vibe.

[Nyce_1]

Weltman keeps gloating about Cole's IQ, but it's making me question Weltman's IQ.

Everything he says is going to have that I’m smarter than you vibe.

It's so damn annoying. Every year, it's the same unwarranted arrogance.

[MagicFan101]

Weltman keeps gloating about Cole's IQ, but it's making me question Weltman's IQ.

The cause of Cole’s fall in the draft was very much to do with poor decision making. Weltman to control that narrative now that Cole is a Magician and spin the story in the opposite direction.

Nothing these GMs say to the media is true right now. I don’t understand why anyone here takes a word they say seriously. That is what has me questioning IQs ...

[Bensational]

Bianchi: I'm going to ask something you won't answer. There were a couple of PGs taken immediately ahead of Cole, would you have taken them if they were on the board?
Weltman: I'd never comment on other guys as you said *laughs*. We wanted Cole and I'll leave it at that.

Lol. Reactionary. Vassell, Haliburton and Lewis all going in a run just before us and they didn't make a move on any of them.

I really hope the gap between their preferences wasn't very high and Cole was right up amongst them. If we settled for what fell to us, that's disappointing. I can see Cole winning Hammond over as a new Brandon Jennings kind of candidate.

[Skin]

Bianchi: I'm going to ask something you won't answer. There were a couple of PGs taken immediately ahead of Cole, would you have taken them if they were on the board?
Weltman: I'd never comment on other guys as you said *laughs*. We wanted Cole and I'll leave it at that.

Lol. Reactionary. Vassell, Haliburton and Lewis all going in a run just before us and they didn't make a move on any of them.

I really hope the gap between their preferences wasn't very high and Cole was right up amongst them. If we settled for what fell to us, that's disappointing. I can see Cole winning Hammond over as a new Brandon Jennings kind of candidate.

That's right. Hammond was behind getting Brandon Jennings. Starting to clarify things a little.

[pepe1991]

When your GM is guy who paired Jennings and Monta Ellise together... You really can't hope for bright future. Oh well. At laest i always have low expetations, only guys like Hezonja and Bamba menanged to let me down regardless how little i expected

[RookieStar]

C'mon guys.. it's the standard spiel. you think if Vassel, Hali etc was on board they would pick Cole? Let's leave it at that and see what we got.