Bullet points from Dwane Casey’s press conference:
- Met him in Houston
- Masai went down three times in a “stealth move”
- Bruno has wingspan of Javalee McGee
- Getting Ennis and Bruno was part of the plan, once they couldn’t get Ennis, shifted gears
- Tried to move up to get Tyler Ennis
- “Bruno was going to be our guy anyway”
- Bruno is an “athletic phenomenon” and raw
- “Defensively, he’s long, covers a lot of ground”
- They all went down to see him workout
- “Reminds me a lot of Rashard Lewis”
- “Shot the three very well”
- Has to get footwork and technical work, will work in staff
- Saw him about a week ago
- “Probably three or four teams that knew about him but we had the most intel about him”
- “He’s in the States now and is working on getting visa now”
- As far as cracknig the lineup, it’s a “wait and see”
- One of the most athletic guys in the draft, also in terms of quickness and speed
- Didn’t want to take a chance that he’d fall to 37 and took him anyway
- Sees him as a 3/4 but with a huge wingspan, sees this as a big plus on defense
- He will appear in summer league
- Casey didn’t know who he was but was totally impressed by him
- English isn’t great but it’s coming, speaks Portugese
- When Bruno was asked if he could guard Kevin Durant, said yes
- “Nobody will be disappointed” by him
- Has played in Brazil, not against US competition
- Played in the same team as Leandro Barbosa
- Doesn’t think anybody on the board at the time had as high a potential as Bruno, but acknowledges that they are probably more polished
- He’s a “quick learner” based on what Casey saw in the workouts and has a very “high baketball IQ”
- Has great feel defensively, sliding, moving feet, for a kid his size
- He’s a “clean slate” in terms of working with him and coaching him
- Bruno will be off to LA immediately to train, and then to Vegas for summer league
- “He’s going to be someone our fans will really take to”
- Phoenix had a beat on Bruno as well, but Raptors were well ahead.
- “Masai did a great job of keeping it hush, hush which is hard to do in today’s scouting system”
More on the draft from RR:
