UNC'S Danny Green Talks Thunder Workout
The Thunder just wrapped up its second pre-draft workout session of the off-season this morning at the team’s practice facility, bringing in a group of six players that included North Carolina’s Danny Green, Wisconsin’s Marcus Landry, Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks, Memphis’ Antonio Anderson, Missouri’s Leo Lyons and DePaul’s Dar Tucker.
The entire workout was closed to the media, but the team made Green, the 6-foot-5 swingman, available for interviews. He talked about the workout process, his strengths, the Tar Heels’ national championship and playing ball with President Obama.
Q: How did the workout go?
A: It went all right. I think I started off a little slow. We had the testing in the beginning. I don’t think a lot of guys were warm or ready for the vertical jump and defensive slides. But everything went OK. We got some shooting up. I did pretty well in the shooting. Once we got into doing some drills I tweaked my ankle a little bit but after that I was good to go. We started doing some fastbreak and 2-on-2 stuff and getting competitive with screen and rolls and doing a lot of the things they do in this league.
Q: Do all the teams do the same thing or does it vary?
A: It varies. Today was more of a lighter workout. Even though it didn’t seem like a light workout, some guys were a little tired. But other teams might do some more conditioning, other teams might do more 2-on-2, 1-on-1 stuff or screening. Some teams do some shooting. It varies team to team. But today I think was more of a shooting and seeing whether you can play defense, penetrate and kick and work in a system.
Q: Where do you see your strengths?
A: I don’t have many strengths. I can shoot outside shots a little bit and play defense. They want to see if you can play defense. Today, we have a lot of scorers in the league. A lot of guys can get to the basket and score. But there are not too many defenders out there.
Q: When the team interviews you what kind of questions do they ask you?
A: Just questions to see what kind of person you are. It’s not really an interview. It’s more of a dialogue. You’re just having a conversation with them. They’re trying to find out where your head is, what kind of person you are, if you’re a good guy. There are some personal questions. Do you have a girlfriend, things like that. Other than that it’s just what’s your strengths, what’s your weaknesses, what can you bring to the program?
Q: How did going through this process last year but returning for senior year help you?
A: Last year I went into it not knowing what to expect. I think now that I’ve gone through it I know what to expect from teams and what they’re expecting of me. Having a year experience helps a lot.
Q: What do you like about the Thunder?
A: They have a lot of young guys. They get up and down. They’re pretty athletic. That’s kind of like my style of play. I like to get up and down, run and gun a little bit, get to the basket, make some plays happen. And a lot of these guys are my age so I think it’ll be a lot of fun.
Q: What were your impressions of the guys you went up against today?
A: They’re really good. Dar Tucker is pretty strong. He uses both hands. I think I saw him shoot with both hands, which kind of shocked me a little bit. Antonio Anderson is real good. He’s a leaper. He can jump. A lot of those guys can play, they can shoot and score. Lyons is a long guy and he can stroke it a little bit. They all have talents and they’ve shown some of the things that they can do. Some of those guys I didn’t see them play during the year but to watch them play today I know that they’re really good and talented guys.
Q: Have you come down yet from the winning the national championship?
A: I don’t think I’ve been up, really, to be honest. I didn’t have much time after the season to really celebrate or to really let it sink in. Right after the season we started barnstorming. That’s where you travel around the city and play in different All-Star games here and there in different towns throughout the state and a lot of people get to watch you play. After that we had a couple of days off and I had to get back to working out because graduation was around the corner and then workouts.
Q: What was it like going to the White House?
A: It was good. It was a lot of fun. You get to walk around. Got to meet Obama for the second time. We had a lot of fun. We took the day to walk around the house for a couple of hours so it was nice.
Q: When was your first meeting with President Obama?
A: Last year, before he became president he came down and played pick up with us in the summertime. He played a little bit, got some shots up. He did all right.
Q: You didn’t try to dog him did you?
A: Nah. I sat out. I was hurt last year. I was doing this process so I just sat on the sidelines and watched him play. One of our walk-ons definitely tried to dog him a little bit. It was kind of funny.
-DM-
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I think the Thunder are hoping for a litter better then Danny Green
Here is a great breakdown of the whole lottery:
http://therookiecontract.com/