Trail Blazers press conference: Introducing Portland's 2023 draft class
Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming today. Great day for the Trail Blazers. Here to introduce three of our newest players who we drafted on Thursday night. Wanted to welcome all the families of all the players. It’s it’s great to have you all here and thank you for coming and enjoying this day with us. To my left is Ryan Repair. Scoot Henderson, Chris Murray, The three newest Trail Blazers welcome. You know everyone on or most teams it seems on draft night, you know, walks out of the draft room and into their press conference and you know,
says they had a great night and they’re happy with what they did and they usually are happy with it, what they did and they did have a great night in their opinion. Excuse me, but for us. It was one of those unique draft nights where we had all three of these players ranked in the lottery, and we were fortunate enough to get three of them at very different parts of the draft. But all three players we value extremely highly, so it was a unique way the draft broke for us that just lined up really well
with how we had it teared out. So I’m going to. Slide over to Chauncey here and we’ll take some questions after that. Yeah, welcome obviously just to Ditto kind
crying and did an incredible job and then you come out of it with three guys that that I value. For sure. You know a lot of y’all know what I believe about the game of basketball. You know, I love guys that are very competitive, love guys that play with fire, you know that play on both sides of the of the basketball. And all three of these guys do that, you know, they’re all very dynamic. And so I’m looking forward, you know, to just pouring into them and teaching them the best that I can, you know,
and you know for us, you know, it’s all been about upgrading talent. You know, I’m big on basketball IQ. I’m really big on that. Hear me talk about that all the time. These guys all have that. So I’m really excited about what’s ahead and if what the future holds. And this is very bright. It’s very bright and Congrats to the families. I know this is a day that y’all been waiting for. Talk to the to the young man about that. So congratulations to you guys. Scoot. When did it, When was it the first time maybe
you really felt like the NBA was a real possibility for you or when did you kind of recognize that like this is this is really something I know I can do I think. When I was in high school around going into 11th grade, you know, we had the gym next week, 360. But that’s where I really started to lock in. And you know, I realized my dream was closer than I expected. You know, I got the opportunity to go to, you know, they ignite and I just maximize my opportunity. And I’m blessed to be here
in Portland. This is for Joe you talked the other night about. Chris falling to you guys, you just meant to mention that again. Can you sort of walk through what was going on in your room with your with everybody when you saw him starting to fall a few weeks prior to the draft, started getting a lot of calls about pick 23. Like I could tell the league was starting to really evaluate and start to figure out the depth that was here in this draft, so. There were frequent calls for really the two weeks prior about
our pick and teams wanting it and that stayed the same throughout the draft. So as we got into the teens, phones were exploding, teams were trying to get into the draft going after not just Chris but other guys as well and just a lot of activity, a bunch of different phone calls and discussions And I think you know mentally we had, we had Chris really high on our board and you know you see 5-6, you know say we’re at pick. 1817, where like Mandy can’t get that far and he just, you know, you’re just hoping
and rooting and at a certain point it just, you know, we consider ourselves fortunate that he got to us. But on the other side, Chris, how are you feeling when you saw your name fall and then ultimately how’d you feel when the Blazers drafted you? Yeah, kind of the whole thing. I’ve been doing this process, just being patient. So definitely draft night is a night where. It can be stressful for a lot of people and for me, just kind of being patient, I knew that I’d end up with an organization that would be a really
good fit for me, and the Blazers took that chance on me, and I’m excited for it too. Rayon, could you talk a little bit about kind of your basketball journey and and how you’ve reached this point in your career where where you’re down in the NBA? Yeah so I grew up in in France I played the four years at in Sep Academy you know Tony Parker event. Fournier played here. So I spent four years here and last last year I made the decision to to play in the New Zealand, the New Zealand Breakers in the
NBL. So it was a great opportunity to go up as a player and as a person play play far from my country. So it was an amazing journey and and now I’m happy to to be here. I think I’m a two way player. My first quality is defensively. I just love to be descriptive defensively. Play with the Max energy, you know brings the most energy I came to to my team and yeah, I just they prefer in transition and you know just bring energy. That’s me. This is for a scoot. First of all. Did you
bring my my jacket? I’m the one that said I wanted that too. Yeah, I forgot it my back Next time, Next time. I want, I want to ask you about all of the hype around you. I mean people are using words like transcendent, generational, guaranteed, Allstar, like what does that do to you mentally? Does, does it feel you or does it make you say, well what’s going on or do you feel it’s a little bit too much sometimes? Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to it. Like, I mean it’s kind of hard not to see
it, you know, Obviously I got social media, but I just always rely on the gym, you know? And I wouldn’t have none of this if it wasn’t for me and my work ethic. You know, me coming in every single time, you know, me coming in days or I didn’t want to. So I would just fall back to to get back in the gym. So whenever it is, you know, words like that generational special, I mean I I know, I know who I am as a person and and that’s all that matters, right? First, can you
say your name for us so we know how to say it correctly first and last and then. Nick Batum is tweeted out a couple of things about you. Obviously there’s the connection there with with France. But what is your connection with with him personally and the because he was here for so long. Is he somebody that you can rely on to help your adjustment to Portland? Yeah no. Nick Batum is like a Big Brother for me. He called me yesterday and so I know him since 1010 years. I did the camp and I finished MVP
on this game so I spend the 10 day with him when he was in the in Charlotte. And yeah, when you called me yesterday, just say a lot of good things about the organization, the people here. So yeah. And I like his game. You know, I try to learn about him on the court and of the court. So yeah, it’s like a big ball for me. Oh, so in French we say hi and repair, but it’s out for the English person to say that. But you can say, you can say why and whooper, it’s out
for me to say English, But yeah, why And whooper, you can say that. Where you say it, I’m here, you say it’s right, Chris. How much is your relationship with your brother watching him in the NBA going through that experience already kind of been able to to feed off that, learn from that and have that little bit of experience to kind of pull from and have that relationship? Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a unique experience when your brother you’re really close to gets to go through this whole process and I kind of get to see
in the shadows last year just kind of what it all entails. So just little things I learned from him, just kind of especially like not on the basketball side. What is important too, just kind of how you take care of yourself on and off the court. Yeah, the the biggest thing I learned from him is just kind of just just kind of do the same thing every single day. Don’t change. Who you are, and he had a really good group around him last year too, to kind of help him as a rookie. Just kind of
get used to the environment used to the game. So definitely learn some things from him. And yeah, grateful for it too. Then for Scoot, one of the things that I’ve heard from from great players over time is that when you come into the league with this kind of label, you have to. It’s not just about you, it’s about. What’s your impact is kind of going forward you’re responsible for other guys. Have you have you thought about that process of kind of getting that mantle and and not just being responsible for your own growth but eventually
being kind of a franchise cornerstone? Definitely. You know, I’m blessed that I did the two years at Ignite as a pro, you know, having to tell man Pooh who’s 20 years old and me where to go on the course. So sometimes I’m, I’m gonna continue to get comfortable with that and. And I’m gonna embrace it, You know, that’s the thing I could do. And embrace that and embrace that. You know, I got a lot of responsibility, but you know, it comes with, you know, just the work ethic. I always go back to that and I
work on things like that. You know, just talking and little stuff like that in my game that that I think I can really go far a scoot over here. I had the chance to get to talk to you when you came through on your workout, so just let you know this is going to happen a lot. I’m going to have a lot of weird questions for you, so let’s just get it started. Today. The grill has become a whole thing. Can you explain to us like what the story behind it and why it’s awesome, but
why the grill? I always wanted the grill, so I when I had the opportunity, I’m like, OK, it’s the perfect night too. And then the colors on there is basically the the color of my siblings and my parents burst them. So it was 4, like three of my sons had like the same kind of birthday month with my mom and dad, my mom and sister, my brother and my brother, my brother and my dad. So it’s like 4, four colors. And then just the things, yeah, it’s really no story behind it, but I just always
wanted it. I think that’s a great story. And it’s interesting because when we talked and then I watched you on draft night, the consistency is talking about your family. Why are they so important to you and how they helped you. They got me to where I am today. They made me. They molded me into the man I am today. And you know, there’s no other way to repay them then, you know, just continue to say thank you and just trying to find different ways to to say that. And no, just hopefully they know how how
much of the impact they had in my life. You know, there’s been plenty of people in my life, but they have always been my foundation, you know, and you can’t do nothing without a foundation takes a village. Questions for Scoot welcome to Portland Way in the back man. Odd. Can you explain what that is, what that means. Odd means overly determined to dominate. Made it up when I was in the car. But I was just trying to find a slogan that that represented me and something I could put on everything and basically, basically you knew
just. Being able to dominate the day. You know being able just basically words that describe me as who I am as a person and and I’m overly determined to to be the best version of myself. Only determined to help people around me and and impact everybody’s live. And and that that’s that’s what it is. You know it’s it’s a way of life. It’s not just you know things on the basketball court but also you know being a great human being being a great, you know business partner whatever the case may be. But just being overly
determined to dominate the day. See your family rocking the 00. Was there any back story to that number? Did you pick it or was it just handed to you? Honestly, I picked it. You know, I seen the roster and obviously zero was taken. But you know, 00 is kind of came full circle. We designed my Puma shoes a year ago and I put 00 on it and then, you know, literally two days ago I told the 00. So I guess everything in full circle, you know, God does everything for a reason, Scoot. You obviously have
the connection with Poo here in Portland. Also, Mookie was with you on draft night. He’s just going to be a few hours down the road. Just how nice is it to be moving somewhere where you have a connection with somebody like Poo already set and then also having a friend like Mookie. It’s extremely, you know, it’s kind of crazy, you know, I came in to to to be a pro at 17, pretty young and Poo just always, you know, believed in me and, you know, helped me throughout, you know, just throughout hard days, through hard
games or whatever the case was. It’s very special to have, you know, a guy like poo, someone that’s gonna keep it real with you. And you know, I kind of felt that first time I came to Portland. You know, first my first workout. I just felt love, you know? And the fact that I’m here now, it’s a blessing. And I appreciate the organization for believing in me and I’m for sure repaying. Sure. Hey, Chauncey, this is a younger team than you first had when you got here two years ago and and at least as of
today, right? Getting getting younger. And Joe said on Thursday that you know he has zero interest in trading Dame in the in the goal is to bring Damien back next year But with the guys you have now and and the young core that this team has kind of brought together. How realistic is blending those two cores essentially and and winning next year in your mind. Yeah you know obviously we we got work to do Bill you know I’m so I’m just so happy that how Thursday turned out. And I think they’re already, you know, we’ve
upgraded some talent, you know, on our team. And the way that I see these guys is obviously their age. They’re pretty young. They don’t play that way. You know, their IQ is different than the normal guy their age. It’s a reason why they’re here. We handpicked all of them for those reasons, you know, so. Those young moments and those young things, they’ll be minimized with these guys. You know, school just said it. I mean, he’s been leading men for two years. It’s pretty incredible. You know Chris, you know, you can tell he has a maturity.
You know about him. He won’t be playing like a rookie. You know, when he’s out there, he’s going to be able to contribute right on, play pro in a very, very physical, tough league, you know, in Australia, so. I don’t feel that these dudes are young. I think that they can all contribute, you know, right away with our team and obviously, you know, we have, you know, a big few weeks ahead of us and building, you know, the rest of our team out. But I feel very confident that these guys will be able to contribute
right away. Code similarly along those lines, last year’s shading was spectacular. A lot of highlights, but you would talk often about him making a lot of rookie mistakes, Cuz he hadn’t played since high school, right? Scoots played in the G League. So is there an obvious gap in what you expect to see from him in terms of feel and understanding and that you don’t expect the same types of mistakes? Well, there is. I mean, Shayden was really the last when we got Shay. The last actual game he played was in high school. You know, he
played a high school. Then he transferred, I mean, not transfer, but went to Kentucky, never played a game. And then he didn’t play in summer league, you know, he got hurt. So he missed some very valuable time to learn the game and learn how we play. He ended up catching up. You know, at some point during the season, I thought we did a good job of kind of speeding them up. But that’s not going to be the situation with these guys. They’re coming from playing some very important minutes and very important basketball, so. Again, we
did a good job of targeting the right type of players that we knew that that that learning curve wouldn’t be as big, so we’re in good shape, man. Chris, you seemed to make a a really big jump last season. Could you talk about kind of that growth that from your your sophomore to your junior season and maybe how your game didn’t change but maybe you were just maybe able to to show more of your game on both sides of the ball? Yeah, I think last summer was big for me. Just the opportunities I got and
just being able to grow every single year. That’s kind of something that the University of Iowa, especially Coach McCaffrey, like, really emphasizes is just getting better every single year. And I feel like I did that freshman year going into my sophomore year and then sophomore year to my junior year. For me, it was definitely just kind of hone in my skill set and just kind of getting the opportunity to show it a lot more. So I definitely thought I did this past year. And so it was kind of show everything in my game. And I
knew that Coach trusted me and that that’s really all I needed was that he’d let me play through my mistakes. And mentally that helped me a lot, just knowing that he trusted me like that and honestly just got the opportunity to kind of just show what I could do. And that’s kind of what made me take the jump these last few years for Joe. Just a simple matter of do you expect all three guys to play at Summer League? Yes. And for each of you guys, for people not familiar with your game, just can you
just kind of explain through the line just a simple summation of how you expect to impact the team in your rookie years. Personally, I will try to earn my minute by my energy and my defense at the beginning. You know do whatever the coach want me to do to to help the team. So that’s will be what my mortality and I will keep working on all aspect of my game for sure. I think I could put pressure on the defense in all all kind of ways coming as as a voice, you know try to try
to lead by example and gain that trust from my from my teammates. Then on the defendant side of the bar, just just grow just growing that in that aspect and become one of the premier defenders in the lead. So yeah, I think for me it’s just my versatility offensively and defensively feel like I can guard multiple positions and play multiple positions, but I think my best wide queue. I just think I’m a low mistake kind of guy and definitely going to grow with these guys these next few months and just get better. Chris, there’s a
lot of talk about the the youth on this team. You’re going to be 23 on opening night, so it’s an interesting spot for you that you’re older than some of the players that have been on the team for a couple of years, yet you’re a rookie with the the guys sitting next to you, so. In that regard, what do you see a role for you in terms of leadership and learning and kind of blending those things together? I mean, yeah, I definitely can help just with my, I mean experience. I’m definitely older and was able
to kind of see King up there last year. So I have some experience that way. But I think for me, it’s just I’ve always been kind of leader by example, someone who I used my voice a little bit more last year and I think that kind of helped me a lot, just prepare me for the NBA coming up. I think definitely just have that older presence in the locker room. You could say will help me out and they just help help me lead some of the guys I’m like scoot Ray on. I think just kind
of get to know these guys a lot more and get familiar with each other. I think we’ll have all access us three down the road just kind of become that tight knit group. Ryan, I know that there’s a narrative out there that your agent was actually asking teams to not draft you before the Blazers. I picked you because they wanted you to to come here. What was it like having that all go down and and waiting to see if you actually were going to be able to to be a blazer and get here? Oh, it
was a little bit stressful at the beginning, but on the second point when my agent told me, yeah, Portland wants you, I said yeah, OK, let’s go. I want to be a blazer. And so I was happy. Joe, not to belabor this point, but just because it was left hanging on Thursday. Have you heard from Damian since he’s been in Europe and have you gotten any feedback on on the draft or his hopes for the direction over the next couple weeks? Last time we spoke directly was while he was in Europe Tuesday and you know
been in talked to his agent multiple times every day. You know we’ve been staying in close contact. Dame, he’s getting back in town I think fairly soon so. We’ll get together, Scoot kind of seen you on draft night and seen you when you were here in your Portland. It’s very obvious that you have a real joy for the game and an enthusiasm for it. And I’m wondering if you could talk about kind of where you think that might come from or or what that feels like. Because I mean, like, again, like it seems like there’s
a real, real excitement about being Scoot Henderson. Honestly, I don’t know where it comes from, just from playing the game and loving the game. But it feels like, you know when a when a kid gets some candy and he wasn’t, his mom was like no all day and he finally get a piece of candy. That’s kind of what that that feeling is. It’s kind of hard to describe, but it’s like you said, it’s a real joy when I’m when I’m on the court, it’s a blessing to be there. So you know, why not have fun?
You’re tight in there. Photos scooped on your garage. All right, you guys. All good. Right there. All right. Thank you all. Appreciate your welcoming. Thanks everyone.
