Atlanta Hawks’ General Manager Onsi Saleh Pre-Draft Availability

Atlanta Hawks’ General Manager Onsi Saleh Pre-Draft Availability

one thing before like we get to questions just had a quick opening statement but like when you when you do ask questions please please say your name just want to make sure I identify with you guys so I know you guys if I see you on the belt line or something hanging out at a coffee shop it just be cool to put a a face to a name so um first and foremost just wanted to thank the wrestler family Tony um just empowering me to build out our front office um I thought we had two tremendous additions and Bryson Graham and Peter Denwy it’s 30 plus years experience for us um amazing human beings culture ads so just thanking Tony for letting me build out this front office and empowering me to do that um just feel like we’re in a really good place organizationally feel like we’re a great place with our front office moving forward um just really excited to build with the Hawks now absolutely and uh it’s draft season now too so uh lot been going on we’ve had 80 plus players come through our program here and uh probably spoken or connected with at least a hundred when you take into Chicago in the combine so we have we have some flexibility and some optionality but I really like our two picks at 13 and 22 i think we’re going to bring it be able to add two quality players to that mix so really excited about the draft feel really prepared about it um looking forward to it it’s gonna be fun lauren Williams Atlanta Journal Constitution um on curious you mentioned the two picks does that mean you guys are comfortable standing Pat at 13 and 22 and have no plans to move up in the draft at all yeah I I think the key for us is optionality i think the two picks gives us that um you know there’s there’s different things we could do um but I do feel really comfortable with 13 and 22 i think there’s going to be good players there bailey Burmaster sports director Edinburgh nice to meet you um you know for those who are getting to know you a little bit better what’s your philosophy with taking on this role and kind of taking over with this organization but also with that how do you apply to the draft and maybe what you value and what you’re looking for yeah absolutely it’s a great question um just stepping into this role it’s comfortable in the sense that I was very fortunate to be in two organizations like the Spurs and Warriors um you know I got I hit the lottery when it came to learning from from under RC Buford and Bob Myers Pop and Steve Kerr so I got really lucky there but they they really helped me along and be prepared for this role and honestly just ready to roll with it and when it comes to the draft um I always pick the best player though like that’s my philosophy i I don’t believe in picking for a position if there’s a guy that makes sense for us we’re going to take him um and always the best player that’s that’s the philosophy raphael Hayes with a three-point conversion what’s up Raphael so um knowing Trey is the cornerstone of this team do you plan on I guess um bringing him in and having him involved if if there are trades or free agent signings anything like that just to get his thoughts yeah like I mean Trees or me and him spoke the other day and he’s just locked in for this season coming up we’re both locked in and we have a lot of optionality this summer like between the the moves we made at the deadline a little bit more um optionality flexibility with the trade exceptions that we got um long wait to the tax um different things that we could do but also have authority to go into the tax between the two so just looking forward to locking in and then next season I think it’s going to be a fun one it’s Zach Klein with channel 2 uh seven different NBA champs the last seven years uh is there a common theme you’ve seen in building your program and how far do you think you guys are from contending for a championship that’s a great question i think we’re making strides i think it starts every day in practice every day when you walk in this facility but you know one thing we saw from these two teams at Oklahoma and Indiana like they were developmentally focused um the rules have changed when it comes to roster construction but you look at those two teams like they really developed they built a culture and the chemistry and cohesion between those groups I think stood out when you watch them play they they both play the right way so try to bring that mentality and that um that direction to our program hi Michael Cunningham AJC um is it still the plan that you will report to a president and basketball officer is that is that off the table honest I understand and appreciate the question but I I don’t have any information to answer that question as far as everything that’s been you know indicated to me I’ll be making all basketball decisions moving forward draft free agency all that at the end of the season you had a situation where where Trey said “Hey we had this young team they told me to be a leader but now I’m ready to win.” You had a situation where Landry said “Hey there’s got to be some patience.” Just wondering like where do you fit on that spectrum of you know patience and yeah we need to we need to win now yeah I feel like we’re in a great position honestly like when you look at our season last year we had some injuries still won 40 games despite those injuries and again the optionality that we’re adding to our group like our guys are developing still for sure we got uh potentially two more guys coming in but we also have optionality with different mechanisms to add to this team the mid level the trade exception things like that so always looking to make our team better going off of that in making a team better where do you see the biggest emphasis for improvement on this team uh it’s a great question i think there’s there’s a lot of avenues there where we could get better um experience is always one but honestly like it kind of goes back to my draft philosophy like the best players that are available um will make our team better and that’s how I look at roster construction in general that fit within what we’re trying to build and the culture that we’re trying to build within that does is there anyone on this team that you view as maybe untouchable in terms of how to build this team moving forward keeping one particular player as a foundational piece three particular players as a foundational piece yeah i mean it’s crazy in this NBA it’s like a silly term untouchable with some of the stuff we saw transpire but again just looking to add to our group just looking to build something that’s um consistent that has continuity and stability for a long time instead of just being you know a one one hit wonder type of team so try to build this into a program and the two places I came from were example of that and might not be good for a long time shard hawks.com yeah um if you were to compare this off seasonason maybe to either last off seasonason or the next couple of offseasons that are upcoming is this one maybe of particular importance because you have a certain level of flexibility that you may not have had or may not have in the coming years uh potentially it depends on how we structure um contracts and things like that we could have flexibility next season too next summer as well so it it is an important summer for us for sure and the goal is to get better um through the draft and through summer acquisitions um we’re ressigning people that we really like on our team so yeah excited for it between now or when you officially became the general manager to whether their trade gets traded resigned re-uped or just stays with this team there will always be a topic of conversation until something definitive happens as it stands right now honestly how do you feel about him and the future of this franchise with Trey Young yeah we’re we’re locked in with Trey we talked last year next season we’re just locked in next season ready to move forward be the best team that we could possibly be moving forward and I think a lot of his leadership from last season went um probably unnoticed to the common eye like the way that he helped develop our young guys and make them better was significant so I mean just continuing on with that and hopefully um just making our team better what’s your relationship with Q uh the collaboration the discussion how do you guys form that partnership oh Q and I have a great partnership it’s um he is you know whenever I talk about roster stuff draft you know looking into what’s next for the roster and the team um I always take his input without without question um at the end of the day though it’s always going to be my decision on whatever we do with our roster see Caleb Johnson with 99 of the game um I’m curious when you have a big who is kind of looked at as undersized and you have a point guard who is looked at as undersized how important is it to bring in size to to your team with the draft picks and with free agency yeah it’s it’s a good question again like I think there are ways that you could build a team that you don’t need traditional types of things um in the sense of like we do have some long athletic guys out there uh which is really interesting for our our defense and our play style moving forward um yeah when we get to that point in our season and we we’ll address some things there but I feel really good about a lot of our group moving forward we are a very young group that is still developing and I think that’s important to realize here um but really excited for really excited for Reggie Chapman from 11 Live TV here in town um Land would also always talk about the ethos of the players that you bring in I think for you what is your vision of the type of players that you guys want part of your franchise and I guess of course building forward as well yeah I think I think first and foremost like just appreciating Land Land is a friend of mine and you know I wouldn’t be here without him so just appreciating his vision and what he brought to the table when it came to talking about Hawk’s DNA and things like that i I don’t really use terms like like that it’s more of the things that I look for like in San Antonio we always had this the three things we we cared about most character selfless pound the rock um here it’s it’s competitiveness toughness resilience and adaptability those are the things I look for with players brad Roland from Lon Hawks you mentioned drafting the best player as a philosophy are there you know onc court traits you’re looking for that might make a guy the best player or is that just a general what are you looking for as far as tra it’s a good question honestly like ways to impact winning I think are just always important like there’s skill sets that that we probably would love to have but at the same time if somebody’s really good at something that impacts winning on either end of the court that’s that’s ultimately what we’re looking for and that fits within the guys we currently have on our team you mentioned the 80 guys you’ve had in here or talked to when it comes down to it when you look at maybe sort of a year ago whatever it was to get to this moment at 13 how many people you give us maybe some numbers that you will have to evaluate discuss visit with to get through first 12 and it falls on your plate at 13 oh you mean like like we looking at 200 people that you know is it 100 guys that over the last year you’ve kind of narrowed gez yeah it’s What’s the database look like gosh I want to say probably easily over 100 guys because you don’t you don’t know what situation will play out right like you could get a second round pick buying one or you could make a trade and picks move around and things like that so we had to have a really wide net um we had a lot of scouts go all over the world i was in Europe for a couple weeks checking out guys and middle of America looking at some dudes and yeah it’s uh it’s a process you end up in small tiny gyms and different across the world but that’s that’s the fun part of this one really is another good way for this team to get better versus free agency how do you hope to maybe make Atlanta a place that free agents want to come to yeah I think I think a cool thing about like when you look at like OKC I I think when you build a culture and have a program in place that’s really important to players like the city for sure i think we have a like a clear competitive advantage with our city of Atlanta but you have to have a foundation and stability within the organization to get that um players care about that stuff and I think people just think it’s like big market or whatnot but there’s there’s guys that end up going to OKC because it made sense for them um and now they’re NBA champions so that’s where we’re getting to like building controlling what we control internally develop how we want to develop get the guys to be the best version of themselves and add to that jackson Cell Sports Illustrated um when you’ve looked at the draft so far do you feel like there’s any positions that stand out as far as depth or like where the draft is strongest honestly it’s it’s a great question i just I just again best player available like the highest talent highest ceiling is what we’re looking for kelly Price with Fox 5 you talked a little bit about Trey what have your conversations been like with him like maybe feedback he’s given you moving forward that you’re going to maybe take into consideration yeah it’s it’s it’s only been positive we’ve only been just talking about whatever we talk about the finals things like that um no we’ve had a great relationship this whole time but it’s never been to the extent of like roster construction or anything like that is there any feedback he’s given you just things that he’d like to see you mentioned the culture building that kind of aspect is that stuff you’ve talked about with him yeah we talk about the culture the young guys developing these guys so just to that extent really more than anything is again building a program more than anything have there been any like decisions on players on the roster now that will play in summer league or you know developmental guys like that yeah it’s it’s a great question we’re still still working through it especially with the draft still now that the finals are over and you’re allowed to talk to guys that are free agent you mentioned resigning free agents extensions you’re how does that impact your process and I know it’s all none of it’s in a silo the draft’s kind of connected to free agency trades and stuff but now that you’re allowed to do that how does that kind of lay out this weekend yeah yeah it’s it’s going to be a busy week for a lot of purposes um draft like I’m laser focused on that honestly and you know free agency after that we’ll get to that but obviously planning and thinking about that stuff and how it relates to making the best version of our team you’ve talked about culture but is there anything else you brought from San Antonio and Golden State that you’ve learned that you can apply here uh that’s a great question um it was it was really awesome working in both those environments man like there two different leadership styles between RC and Bob and Stephen Pop uh just like like one thing that is always important is just making sure that everybody’s aligned and everybody’s on the same page the building is together and we’re just working cross functionally across departments i think like that was a superpower of those organizations um when you’re a welloiled machine like it just everything just works after that and you talk about building a program you can’t really have one or a culture if everybody’s not aligned on the vision from honestly like from me as a GM to an intern like we have to be able to have the same alignment where you walk in the building you know what what’s going on what your role is um that was big in both places just structure infrastructure stability and culture honestly sigier of the Atlanta station are there players you already have kind of pegged like we think he’s going to be available team in 22 that if if they’re real this is what we want yeah we we I mean we have a group of guys at both positions that uh that would be great we feel we feel good about honestly both just playing out the scenarios i think we’re going to get good players at both positions hang on yeah one more um I’m curious kind of what is your story as far as like when did you know you wanted this kind of job and obviously you went to law school and then others but yeah what was your how did you get how did you start and how did you and I know where were you then but yeah what was your Yeah yeah yeah growing up in in the middle of Canada nowhere in Canada um I like hockey was religion but me and my brothers were just bigger than everybody else and we kept watching NBA on NBC and uh just had a passion for it growing up and uh once I realized I wasn’t good enough I was like “How the hell do I get in the NBA?” And uh I’d done some research and a lot of people were attorneys and luckily this worked out because I’d be a terrible attorney probably so um there was a passion for it from early age even like when people play NBA 2K and when I was younger you always go to like the offseason mode and like build a team up that way so uh there’s always been an intrigue um with team building in general but I found that like law school was really important for me because when you look at the CBA for example like it’s a book of laws and um translating that book of laws essentially to your advantage um was important and then bringing that into layman’s terms to the uh to the decision makers and trying to find loopholes and things like that was always like an interesting thing for me as well as the salary cap and all that but scouting as well every level was always really exciting to me so it’s been a passion of mine for my entire life you don’t get to your point without the passion the love the desire to be you know in this sport but when you look back at it with the Spurs was there one pivotal moment where uh coffee lunch that you connected with them and had that first opportunity and what was that to kind of prove your worth that’s a great great question honestly like just again kudos to RC and he’s he’s one of my best friends in the world and one of my mentors like just allowing me the interesting thing about San Antonio was like he allowed me to be in every big discussion every big meeting when I first started it and just having me kind of play around in different areas and learn and explore and ask questions about how this all works and there really wasn’t one moment but it was just him allowing me to kind of touch everything within the basketball operations department what was your role with them the very very first very first was like I was doing like salary cap um CBA analysis like team councils type stuff and then uh uh scouting as well did you cross paths with uh Sam Pre i didn’t i didn’t but uh congratulations to Sam that was so welld deserved i think a lot of fans can relate to the 2K and and kind of loving the basketball side of it like how you kind of came up but what’s something else you want Hawks fans to kind of know about you to personalize you that’s a great question i’m pretty boring i like Sounds like not I like I mean you’ll probably see me on the belt line a lot i mean this city is coming from the Bay to um Atlanta i I just fell in love with this city right away um I walk on the belt line pretty much every night just strolling and and get my steps in but uh love coffee love basketball i’m really not that interesting it’s pretty bad it’s pretty bad but uh now I’m I’m a grinder kind of started from you know an intern level and and worked my way up to where I’m at today and um just going to work my ass off for this organization for the city honestly um and love to try and get involved more with the city before did you kind of know anything about Atlanta before you moved here and really like got immersed in it not at all honestly not much at all i had no idea what the belt line was until I got here i didn’t really know much about the city i like visited playing here um not too much but it was it was humid uh which is when I went to law school obviously New Orleans so that was that was a lot tougher there um didn’t really know a lot about the city but really love the city like this is some place I I hope to spend the rest of my career you cross paths with Alex on the Braves it seems random that twothirds of the GMs in this town are from Canada yeah it’s wild i I heard that i haven’t met Alex yet and uh I definitely got to get in touch with you hey Brown Clutch Point you spoke a little bit about uh Peter and Bryson earlier I guess did you have a relationship with them prior to them joining the team and how you seen them impacting uh know everything you all were doing with the draft and things like that yeah I mean I knew Peter and Bryson known Peter probably for a little bit longer than Bryson um but both like we just cross paths um you know in all the events and we always hang out and talk every now and then but you know I just felt like they were like the two most qualified individuals to add to our team and this was more about like functionality of positions that we needed and like extra leadership it’s like I talked about to your question earlier it’s hard to manage a a building basketball operations group and have everybody feel connected but those guys as leaders really help in that world auntie Jamila Johnson atclans.com just wondering um how hands-on were you in your role before your promotion with the Hawks um Oh you’re talking about the assistant yeah um it was I was very hands-on with our group but it was a very collaborative effort across our group um all the roster stuff and scouting pretty pretty significant role but uh it was very collaborative across our group what’s Wednesday going to look like for you what time you think you’ll get here any like draft day like that if I could figure out how to sleep that would be great but no I’ll be here i’ll be here really early i’ll probably be up pretty late but it’s you know this is this is our chance to make the team better um not only for this next season but for years to come so It’s a big moment for our group when you got the call to take this position what did what did Tony tell you the moment yeah he just he just empowered me at the moment to do what I thought was best for the organization for the franchise move forward and I just ran with it honestly again I appreciate him allowing me to bring in the guys that I thought would help level us up and add to it already made in the front office um feel really good about our group coco thank