Jeff Van Gundy Quotes

Obviously, drafts sometimes are good ones, or bad ones; I think you can get a good, quality player late in the lottery.

I remember players talking to Willie Brown in my presence. Receivers asking, 'Is this who you drafted? I can't believe this is who you drafted.' I was hearing it from my defensive backs: 'Man, you got a long way to go.'

The draft not being exceptionally deep, you basically take the best player available.

You go to the draft board and think, 'Here's a nose tackle. Who needs a nose tackle?' Well, eight teams in front of you need a nose tackle, and there's two nose tackles. It's something you have to figure out where you can get the players to play in your system.

The only predraft talk I listen to is the coaches and the GMs.

If you can have a really good coaching staff, and you can have a really good young quarterback and do a really good job in player personnel and string together multiple successful drafts, your window is not small in the NFL because of the quarterback.

I wouldn't want to go out six nights a week and watch somebody's reserves playing to check out a footballer to see if we're going to buy him.

I've always thought that having an attractive free agent is better than a guy who was picked in the seventh round.

It's hard to change a roster around. You've got to hit your draft picks right, you've gotta hit free agency right, and a team's got to fit together.

If it wasn't for Paul Brown, I probably wouldn't have a job because he basically evolved scouting.

Every team in the league is always looking to upgrade its talent.

When you're a general manager, you don't get to see every single player, so you have to rely on your scouts.

If you buy too many bad players, you don't last in this game.

Scouting and player development is the key to year-in and year-out success, not the occasional lucky hit. There are no definitive answers in this game, no shortcuts. When you think you've got it all figured out, you can get humbled very quickly.

It's a great opportunity to get picked top 10 in the draft. It's just a dream that I've always had.

When the draft comes and goes, there's a certain set of players you acquire and there's a whole bunch of others you had interest in acquiring. That doesn't die.

It feels really great to finally be able to have the moment of being drafted No. 1.

You have to build your core nucleus of your team through your draft. What that does is you basically introduce them to your culture and your environment. Then, as guys begin to perform and play to that level, then you say, 'You know what? You guys deserve an extension, so here it is.'

My job is to bring in players I think can help this team, regardless of where they're playing.

Whether it's drafting or player development, the ultimate is putting a team together.

Teams want the best players. If the best players come through your academy, you can play.

My goal is to outwork everybody in recruiting, sign the best players in the state, and turn these guys into the best team we can.

You pick guys in the first round - whenever you pick guys - you pick them for a reason.

He shouldn't have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard.

You put together the best team that you can with the players you've got, and replace those who aren't good enough.