Path to the Draft: Episode 2 🛠️ | UTAH JAZZ

Path to the Draft: Episode 2 🛠️ | UTAH JAZZ

[Music] it’s an awesome opportunity to welcome Austin Ames as our president of basketball operations the state and specifically the fans That passion is so infectious and it pushes a team It pushes a franchise I’m so proud of this community and how they rally around our players and support them It ends up being our players fall in love with being here the situation of the team We have a ton of optionality a lot of future picks a lot of things we can do Uh it’s going to take a lot of work but I can’t wait to get started I met Austin when I first got to the Celtics His office was right next to mine and so we spent a ton of time throughout the year crashing into each other and just talking basketball He’s very knowledgeable on players He watches a ton He has a really good process of how he thinks about players and then how they would fit into a team I think that’s not talked about enough there’s players as assets as like singular things but then when it comes to the team building piece and fitting everybody together I think he has a really good vision for it The early part of him being here has been great We talk every day We’re getting on the same page about the draft the players that are in our range and I’m picking his brain on what he’s thinking about like how he’s looking at them and he’s picking mine on how I envision the team playing You know we we have to be in sync on those things as we make decisions for who to bring into our group He’s the new president of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz It’s Austin H Give him a big hand The last 10 days I’ve been here we’ve done a lot of different projects had a lot of meetings Um really diligent staff really focused on this draft They’ve been dialed in Obviously with a young team like this they have known this is these are really important picks for us Um and so they’ve they’ve been really locked in and have a lot of great info and insights and have been just an awesome help So the prospects typically fly in the night before So sometimes depending on where they’re coming from if they’re coming from another workout but most of the time they get in early evening the night before Then in the morning they come in it’s early they get here 8 8:30 food they have testing in the weight room and we put them through all kinds of just different personal testing and then it’s on the court from for an hour and a half and then it’s an interview and then they fly out and they’re on to the next city So it’s kind of like speed dating in a way but it uh you can gather a lot of information in a short amount of time 69 A lot of what we do kind of is has some synergy between the training room between what we’re looking at in the weight room and then some of the sport science areas where energy expenditure and what they’re putting across their body And a lot of the work that we do together is kind of we have a good idea about some of the injuries or certain movement patterns these guys may have before they come to us You know a lot of it’s going to be quick measurements and things like that that we’re collecting And then the whole important part is is the court workout right That’s they’re basketball athletes That’s what we’re preparing them for So we’ll have a systematic approach where we have Denzel Stoval usually leading the warm-up and he’s great on court He works with a lot of our athletes on just movement development and and how we can translate and and merge weight room movements onto court movements Yeah we’re young and hungry I think we have a group of people not just the players but we have an organization of people that are striving hunting and trying to improve every day Okay Black Hey got to go trap for a foul Get up Stay up Stay up Stay up Stay up Stay up Stay up Stay up Try to get a trap Get a foul Try to get a trap Trap Trap Trap [Music] We’ll have you guys switch one through four So we’ll have one foul to give We can use that later towards the end of the game He’s going to be the foul The workout’s important It’s part of the process but it is just one part of the whole process I think the biggest place where it’s important is that the coaches and some of the staff that maybe don’t go out and see these guys multiple times throughout the year they can see those players up close see how they move see how they interact on the court see how they handle coaching up close So those things are very important I think the biggest thing is that we value competitiveness and toughness And so I think that the team we’re trying to put on the floor people that we’re trying to bring into our group are going to represent that because we’ve studied and will be super prepared for this draft We have to study the entire thing cuz there’s no guarantee that we’re going to stay where we are We have to be prepared to stay where we are but we have to also be prepared for like that we’ve done enough work and done interviews and health performance you know medical testing and seen them all year that we can pounce on it you know they’ll kind of send draft workout list for who’s in in that draft workout and then we’ll kind of look at that list And I mean sometimes there’s some moving pieces but for the most part that’s the set list We’ll look up like who the player is their height and their weight and then kind of based on that guess their size and pick the right the right size for them Whether that’s like larger or XL whether we draft these guys or we bring them in for summer league we kind of have their size as close to what size that they are The staff gets players better here and we really believe that we can maximize a player’s potential with the infrastructure that we have in place you know if we’re bringing them into the building what kind of support will they need How will they be on a day-to-day basis dealing with the pressures and everything that goes into being an NBA player But I think the biggest thing is for us to learn how can we support them and then also for them to learn about us and how they would potentially fit with our system I’m Lisa Everheart I’m the director of performance nutrition here and alongside Josh Ray our executive chef I help ensure that our players are taken care of from a food and nutrition standpoint We also have another head dietician that helps to take care of our guys as well We boots on the ground every day Hi my name is Joshua Ray I’m the executive chef here at the Jazz And for the draft workouts I make sure to coordinate with our nutrition team in Lisa And we’re trying to provide the most hospitalitable comfortable space for them to do what they need to do and then keep them nutritionally optimized and fed throughout the process All this raw footage about an hour and a half workout what does that look like once you get back into your room to start cutting the film A lot of times we’ll have one computer laptop corresponding to one video camera And so a lot of times we’ll use four or five cameras in the gym and just have them all spread out on all of our laptops When we do finally convene after the workout we’ll try to combine all of our data together all of our cameras put it into one nice clean video for our coaches to then use and and distribute however they need to Our goal is when we draft a players it’s both coaches said this to individual prospects over the last couple years Our goal would be for a guy to play at least 10 years Maybe not all 10 will be with the Jazz but if you’re good enough and and consistent enough to play 10 years and that’s part of our job too to get you ready to play 10 years then their families the the journey that they’ve been on in their primary profession it ends up being a great story

Hear from members of the front office and meet Austin Ainge ahead of the 2025 NBA draft next week.

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