Kupchak Recaps Season, Talks Free Agency, Draft, Miles Bridges + More
Thoughts on the season
"It was a rough year and for various reasons. From the very beginning, we had to deal with roster and adversity issues. When it did improve, it didn't last long. Melo broke his ankle, right? So, it's hard to look at the season and have takeaways that focus on wins. We went into the season, I think our goal was to make the playoffs. Last year with 43 wins, I thought it was realistic that you would assume you're going to get better and that maybe we could win 43 or win more and contend for a playoff spot. That didn't happen, like I said for various reasons. Takeaways, the young players had a chance to play and give us some information going forward."
LaMelo Ball injury update
"Melo still has a walking boot. That's going to come off. My Understanding is that the bone is very close to being completely healed. So he should be in good shape going forward."
Attacking the offseason
"We've got considerable currency. Whether it's the draft picks - five picks. Almost all of them are in the top 45 in the draft. I think four of them are maybe in the top 40. And although we have a lot of financial flexibility, we don't typically go big-game hunting with our free agent money. We're going to use that to sign back players."
Impact of Miles Bridges' absence/interest in bringing him back
"Well when you lose your leading scorer and leading rebounder, I think it goes without saying that that's going to be a big impact. There's really not an update. It hasn't changed. Even when they complete their investigation, there are going to be steps that need to be taken whether it's from us or other teams. Because it looks like for certain that this is not going to go over 'til July 1st. There was some thought whether it was us or somebody else may sign him during the season. Well, that's not possible. This whole issue will roll over to July 1st."
Importance of surrounding LaMelo Ball with more talent
"I think the pieces around him right now are pretty good. And I think our younger players are going to get better. I really think that if we had our team intact this year, we would've won 43 games and maybe more. So the infrastructure's there. Can we improve it? Well, we've got assets to do it. We talked about the draft picks and we talked about the ability to be financially flexible. We've got some decisions we have to make on free agency. The booby prize in the whole thing is we're going to get a really good pick in the draft. Knock on wood. It's four right now. It could drop to eight, it could go to one."
Thoughts on the job Steve Clifford did
"To be honest, it's pretty easy to evaluate. I know what you're saying when you lose a lot of games. He did a great job. We had exit interviews yesterday with all the players. And you don't always listen to what a player says because sometimes a player says, 'Yeah, I like the coach,' but that's because he played him a lot of minutes. Or a player that doesn't play a lot of minutes says, 'Well, I don't like the coach," so you got to be careful how you process that information. But if you know Cliff, he can call you out and that's no matter who you are. Having said that, I think our players appreciate the fact that he treats everybody the same, that he is a straight-shooter. And I think that was the theme yesterday with everybody on the team. I think he did a great job."
Kelly Oubre's future in the NBA and in Charlotte
"Well, he's got a bright future in the league. I think he's 27. He is an unrestricted free agent, so unlike Miles and P.J., we don't have as much control. I thought that despite the fact that he had that surgery on his finger, he had maybe a career year. His future in this league is bright. For us, he was great. Great in the locker room. He was great on the court. But like I said, we don't have the control that we have with some other players. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out."
Best plan to take the next step as a franchise
"We're a small market team. It's always great to have cap room. But we can't go out and I guess we could pursue marquee free agents. But the reality is our winning percentage in that pursuit might not be as high as it might be for others. So I've always felt with our team, our success is going to be through the draft and maybe making a savvy trade if we can. And then maybe one day we can get to the point where maybe a marquee free agent would look at our team and we're winning a bunch of games and they might say, hey, that's a place where I want to go. But right now, I don't think that's realistic. So we got to do it through the draft primarily."
Goal for next year/his future with the team
"Yesterday in the exit meetings I made it clear to the players that next year playoffs are our goal. I feel great. I do want to see this through. I don't know if I'll be sitting here ten years from now. But I'd like to be sitting here a year from now, two years from now, three years from now watching this team that our staff has put together perform. I think it's realistic that next year be a playoff [year]. And yeah, I'd like to watch these young guys come around. I would."
If he would consider trading for the No. 1 pick if they don't win the lottery
"To go from four to one, that's like major. You've got to give away probably half your franchise to do something like that. Of course, we'll look into it but I think especially in this year's draft, I think that's very unlikely the team that gets number one would move it."
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