Caleb Wilson & Dailyn Swain FULL Bulls Introductory Press Conference

[0:01] feel like i just feel like i just saw y'all well welcome back and today is a very very special day [0:10] for us as an organization we get to welcome caleb wilson and dalen swain [0:19] obviously you know this draft process was a great one it fell our way we got the guys that [0:27] we targeted and guys that we feel like are going to help push this organization in in the right [0:33] direction don't want to speak too much but more than anything i just want to just kind of share [0:42] my thoughts on the type of guys they are and the character that they have because i mean you guys [0:48] are going to ask them a ton of questions about the basketball piece and i'm not going to speak to that [0:52] i just think that they are of the utmost high character highly competitive people and i'm [1:01] gonna keep on preaching that sounds like i'm beating the same drum but that is extremely extremely [1:07] important to us and their work rate just just who they are their families i can't thank y'all enough [1:14] for you know raising you know these these two young men and it's just the start of something really [1:21] really special here and i'll just go ahead and you know open it up for questions and let you go [1:26] ahead and you know do what y'all have to do joel lorenzi with the athletic this is actually for bryson [1:41] i've listened to these guys talk a bunch uh over the past week especially after the draft and it seems [1:47] like they sort of have this emotional intelligence this may be unusual for guys their age how much do you [1:53] sort of measure that in the draft process and when do you first detect that with with either of these [1:58] two yeah when you talk to people surrounding them they all talk about how you know intelligent they [2:06] are how emotionally intelligent they are their coaches speak really really highly of them and so [2:12] that intel gathering process it starts you know really really early and you want to talk to as many [2:19] people as you can and when you start hearing that same theme you know that you probably got you know [2:24] the right the right guy so yeah i mean they're they're just such great kids and um they're going [2:31] to mean a whole lot to this organization because i think they're going to be examples not just within [2:36] this organization but also to the community of chicago uh julia poe with the chicago tribune welcome [2:43] both of you guys to chicago um obviously this is a whirlwind experience and then you kind of get into the [2:49] summer and that's where the real work begins what kind of advice have both of you guys gotten in [2:53] terms of how to make the most out of the time between now and summer league uh my only advice [3:00] i've got is to just take it day by day i mean like you said it's a whirlwind of time and it's kind [3:05] of hard to just sit back and breathe but you know we're here for basketball and we're here to be [3:10] winners and have a great culture and set the tone for this team moving forward so just focus on [3:15] basketball and keep that the main thing yeah i mean pretty much exactly what caleb said just trying to [3:20] enjoy the moment you only go through this process once um and live in it day by day but also keep [3:25] the main thing the main thing we're here to um get this program going the right way um start off in [3:30] summer league so it's an everyday thing it started yesterday me and caleb got in the gym so you know [3:35] we're trying to stay focused casey johnson with the chicago sports network caleb and uh dalen welcome to [3:42] chicago um there's a lot of new energy in this building the guy sitting next to you is pretty new [3:48] there's a new coach uh what is it kind of like to be on the ground floor of this [3:52] kind of whatever this becomes that's crazy honestly you know it's not like a fresh start [3:59] and i feel like we have the thing the things we need to be a great team honestly you know i know [4:04] i'll step in and be a leader by leading by example and making sure that i get this city to back where [4:09] it was i'm really excited for the opportunity and i feel like we have a great group of guys around us [4:15] to make it happen i mean i'm excited to get to work honestly you know it's time to go for sure i would say [4:21] the same thing just thankful um super excited for this opportunity i think we have a a great group [4:26] a lot of young guys who kind of share that same passion trying to get this thing going um especially [4:31] with bryson here uh we had long talk last night so i think we got a lot of things in common and [4:35] we're all just super excited for the opportunity yeah yeah exactly exactly wow [4:48] cody westerlin with the score for both the players just how do you kind of envision being used in the bulls [4:54] offense and what has tiago said about that so far in whatever early conversations you've had for me [5:01] i just envision being able to play i feel like i'm just a basketball player uh i'm going to do what [5:08] it takes to win so getting the rebound pushing it creating initiating transition making sure i'm a [5:13] good screener coming off ball screens just doing what it takes to be a good basketball player i mean [5:17] i try not to box myself in into a role and that's kind of how tiago envisions it as well just making [5:21] sure you have the opportunity to play basketball kind of freely but within a little bit of structure [5:26] yeah i mean going off that it's kind of hard to envision exactly what it looks like for you [5:30] especially at at the next level in the nba um and like he said i think i kind of hang my hat on being [5:35] able to be versatile and do a lot of things so whatever's asked of me from from coach especially [5:40] starting off in summer league um whether it's like being more on the ball being a wing playing [5:45] a transition whatever is needed i think i just envision being on the court and having a boy's jersey on [5:53] just for both the players uh will gotlieb chto um building off of casey's question you guys have [5:58] both talked about like being culture setters and bringing kind of a new energy here um i'm just [6:03] kind of curious what it means to you to be able to be on the ground floor of that as opposed to [6:08] ending up with a team that's already got sort of a defined culture defined group um just being the [6:13] ones that can that can set the culture um coming into the draft what does that mean to you guys well [6:19] for me it means a lot honestly you know you only get one opportunity to make a first impression you [6:23] only get one opportunity to do what i'm doing have an nba career so you know i take every moment that i [6:28] have seriously i want to take every practice seriously and knowing that you know it's only a [6:32] limited amount of time so i mean i know i'm going to be a leader who leads by example and making sure [6:37] i try to become come first and all the conditioning tests and drills and do everything i can to be a [6:42] leader that people respect yeah from wpec radio congratulations what has the last couple days been [6:53] like the travel coming here coming to chicago having your family here and knowing that this is now real [7:02] i mean it's a surreal feeling for sure going through the whole entire draft process not really [7:06] having um a for sure feeling of where you'd go um but being able to play here especially in a city [7:11] like chicago you know one of the greatest sports towns in the world um it's a blessing to have my [7:15] family to the left of me watching me doing this it still doesn't feel real sometimes so it's i'm super [7:20] grateful sam smith with bulls.com uh for caleb uh what kind of rookie season uh do you expect to have [7:31] and uh or anticipate having i mean i expect to have a rookie of the year honestly i mean i'm [7:37] i'm going to work hard i'm going to do what it takes i feel like the team is really good for me and [7:41] how i envision to play and i know i'm a hard worker so whatever i need to fix it work on throughout the [7:48] season and before the season i'm going to work on it so i can be a great player um we haven't seen a [7:55] whole lot of you and you didn't play in the tournament and missed a lot of the season and i don't watch a [8:00] lot of high school basketball because i haven't seen you there but um i read something about uh [8:06] your mcdonald's game where they said well you know you kind of didn't get get the attention that some [8:11] of the others gotten and then kind of reading about this draft that it said well you know the three guys [8:17] on top the bonsa peterson boozer you know they're sort of uh more formed and then the next guy you know [8:25] he's got work to do do you sort of see a similarity of that that people may be underestimating what you [8:31] can do and what you could bring i mean yeah for sure i mean i played all of them though so i mean [8:37] you know what happened when i played them so i mean it don't really matter i don't really care about [8:41] the media i'm a competitor and i get to play my summer league too so whatever whatever need to be done [8:47] to prove that i'm on the same level or but i'm better we'll do it was that the motivation when you [8:53] played kansas earlier in the season duke later uh honestly i didn't have any motivation based on [8:59] the personal other side it's about me i mean i'm just proving myself right gavin dorsey round [9:06] table sports uh for caleb you previously said you want to be the greatest of all time bryson had said [9:11] kind of maybe needing to temper some of those expectations but how do you balance the confidence [9:16] and expectations you have for yourself with the understanding that development in the nba isn't [9:21] always linear and this is you know maybe a whole different game than you played in college i mean [9:26] i know it's a different game and i know development is linear but uh i mean i got everything i need to [9:31] be great honestly i'm extremely athletic i have a game that translates to the nba well uh everything i [9:37] need to work on is stuff that i can actually work on it's not something that god has to give me because [9:41] he's giving me everything i need josh friedman with wgm tv congrats to both you guys caleb we've heard [9:53] so much about your work ethic can you share any stories about where that started who instilled [9:57] that in you when you were younger honestly it started once i realized that i needed to do some [10:04] of my life uh i wasn't really hard work when i was younger um i probably didn't start like really taking [10:10] basketball like specifically serious until i was around 14 years old but once i really started to [10:15] stick with it i really started to work hard and um i mean i just love the game and it's i have a lot [10:20] of fun with it but like i want to be legendary i want to be remembered after i finished playing [10:24] and that's kind of what pushes me every day to be a great player i mean my parents for sure both of [10:31] them uh my dad more on the academic i mean my athletic side and my mom on the academic side [10:39] elias shuster on the side right here uh just curious for both you guys you know you pride yourself on your [10:44] versatility growing up you know who were some of those players you know maybe not one specific but [10:49] multiple guys you watch that you think helped shape your game i think for me um i was just a fan of [10:56] the nba i wouldn't say at a young age i was like modeling my game after anybody i didn't know how tall [11:00] i'd be or you know how i end up being but i think you know i had a late growth spurt so i was like a [11:06] point guard growing up and then once i caught the height i kind of worked on my downhill game you [11:09] know finishing at the rim so it kind of just worked out for me a little bit of luck i would say but i [11:14] also worked on my game from a very young age so i think that's kind of how it rounded out that way [11:19] for me uh i like to watch a lot of yokich when i was young uh that was probably like early high [11:25] school middle school for me uh i wasn't really which is funny i wasn't really that much athletic when i was [11:31] younger uh so i used to watch him a lot because i feel like he could pass the ball really well and [11:36] that's something that i thought i could do well too and then i like you honest a lot too because [11:39] his ability to transition and just make plays hey guys jamal collier from espn uh congrats to [11:46] both of y'all again uh bryce i wanted to ask you though this is your um you know these are first two [11:51] players traffic that you sort of brought in uh here just how do you feel in this moment kind of having [11:57] them in the building sort of being introduced them is there relief excitement just kind of what what are the [12:02] feelings you've had like finally getting through the draft process and getting two guys you said you [12:06] targeted yeah it's exciting it really is um it's surreal like first i mean just to be sitting here [12:17] in front of y'all you know as the evp for the bulls is a dream and then for the draft to land in the way [12:26] that it did um we just i just couldn't be more yeah happy excited um they both are the type of [12:35] you know i say kids but young men that we want in this building that this community uh can be and will [12:43] be you know proud of and you know their versatility as basketball players their skill sets [12:49] um as basketball players um you know i i know like winning and being a great player is important to [12:57] both of them and just as as great as they want to be as players i want to be a great executive you know [13:06] and so um those those things align you know and um yeah i just i could go on and on but um i was just [13:15] really really excited back to back questions for bryson okay we haven't had a chance to talk to [13:22] you since the the second round i remember the day of the draft lottery when you moved up from nine to [13:27] four it was pretty clear obviously four was better than nine but it was pretty clear you were confident [13:32] you were gonna get somebody liked regardless of where you're picking so when you passed on 38 [13:38] even before you went on the radio yesterday and explained your philosophy yeah i kind of read like [13:43] he didn't like anybody there or the board was dried up kind of take us through what happened [13:47] the second night of the draft and i also noticed i don't usually ask two questions in the same question [13:54] but i also noticed um cam jones isn't fully guaranteed until june 30th is he a long-term answer [14:00] or a long-term roster spot yeah starting with cam um yeah we're obviously we're evaluating just the rest [14:06] of this where this roster is at um obviously we're at 12 roster spots um and we have a ton of [14:13] flexibility going forward and so we just want to make sure we maintain you know that flexibility [14:19] you know going into the summer and keep our powder dry and uh you know continue to have optionality [14:26] you know and then speaking to the pick 38 and 56 yeah it's like as you're building out you know your [14:34] your your board and um i know i kind of spoke on this yesterday but you do get to a point where [14:40] you know what the targets that you have at that moment in the draft are not necessarily you know [14:46] guys that you feel comfortable in in drafting and if you could get acquire future assets you know you'll [14:52] you'll do that and so that's just kind of where we drew the line and um and then we just proceeded you [14:59] know um to you know kind of work uh accordingly so yeah that's that's really what that what that was [15:06] you know and we're just you know fortunate that it fell in the way that it did it's kind of say the [15:14] obvious but just to hear you say if there was a player there you liked at 38 yeah you would have [15:18] grabbed him yeah yeah absolutely absolutely and and look um it doesn't mean that look we we signed [15:24] uh some some really good players after the draft right you know and um you know as a part of that [15:31] process you kind of understand that you know there's sometimes there would be guys that you can select [15:35] there there might be guys that you feel like they're going to go fall undrafted and you still [15:40] get what you would have anticipated you know at that pick so um you know what we did after the draft [15:47] um we're really excited about it as well to lorenzi with the athletic this is for caleb i know we talked [15:54] here about uh just new decision makers a new coach like obviously everything there's a novelty to the [16:00] situation but before the draft like you had the d rose pin like you were superstitious about wanting to be [16:07] here like you kind of willed this you you wanted this to happen despite everything being so new and [16:12] there not being a culture here what was it about the infrastructure here or whatever you saw in [16:17] pre-draft that made you want to be here well first i mean meeting with bryson before and me with coach [16:26] splitter before i was able to see kind of their vision and what they expected out of me and what they [16:30] expect of the team and i really aligned with it but um being a good team is it has a big part to do [16:38] with me like if i want to make something happen it's me it's not it's not the front office or [16:45] anything like that like it's me on the court making this stuff happen so my whole thing is just find a [16:50] group of guys that believe in me and they're going to let me play and i feel like that's all i really [16:53] need and that's what they told me they need it for sure so that's that's how i felt it i mean it's [16:58] a great city and a great market and i feel like the nba is better when chicago is good and just a quick [17:04] follow-up obviously this is supposed to be a rebuilding situation at this time there's no [17:09] telling how long that might last like what what what traits do you feel like help you prepare for [17:15] this have you have you sort of wrapped your mind around what this could look like over the next few [17:18] years uh honestly i'm just trying to be as good as i can be uh whatever happens is going to happen [17:27] i'm going to develop and i'm going to keep getting better and whatever happens will happen but i mean of [17:32] course i want to be a great team so i'm trying to get that to happen as quick as it can [17:35] uh will gotlieb chjo again um dalen for you uh kind of was i don't want to say obvious but it was [17:45] likely that the board was going to fall at the top four the way that it did but i'm curious about your [17:50] pre-draft communication and workouts with the bulls and with bryson how much did you communicate with [17:55] them bryson has said you were a target of his like how much did you kind of expect or think that [18:00] this could be an option or a possibility for you um i think the communication was pretty traditional [18:06] like the same with every single team i came here i got a chance to work out um i got a chance to meet [18:10] him and kind of talk to him a little bit do a few interviews um but it wasn't anything you know [18:16] extra than any other team you know some you go in for a visit you don't work out but i think here [18:21] was just the traditional you know come work out meet the people see new faces um get a chance to [18:26] showcase my talents um and i think i had a really good workout one of my best ones so [18:31] i'm just seeing the facility seeing the people kind of that new energy like you talked about [18:34] everything's you know coming into place i just you know i like the vibe here i definitely [18:39] love the opportunity to play here i didn't think like leaving out the workout oh i'm gonna get [18:43] drafted by the bulls of course but um i mean it was great i had a great day so i'm happy it happened [18:49] this way and yeah that's pretty much how how it happened uh for caleb there's two i um i think everybody [19:01] appreciates confidence um personal assertiveness um do you worry a little bit about you know you've made some [19:08] dramatic statements about wanting to be like you know the best ever in the city where michael jordan [19:13] played i mean kind of a bold thing to say no i don't i don't worry about it at all um me saying [19:20] i want to do something and me putting actions behind it and becoming a great player all things that i feel [19:25] like i'm capable of uh striving for something is something that we all do i mean striving to be the [19:31] greatest ever is it is a bold thing to say but that's what i'm striving for i'm not striving to be [19:35] an average or mediocre player and if i was to tell you that or anyone that that wouldn't be good [19:40] either i mean i'm striving to be the best player that has ever played the game and i've been doing [19:44] that for a long time so i'm just going to keep doing that and if i reach that goal i do if i don't [19:48] then at least i know i tried wonderful dalen obviously you know what happens during the draft [19:55] all the supposed experts it's you know once everybody starts playing doesn't matter but the notion [20:02] was you know on tv on draft night well you know he's like overdrafted or he was wasn't expected [20:08] were you surprised where you were picked did you expect to you know be selected kind of on the [20:13] verge of the lottery and you know because a lot of people hadn't heard that much about you coming into [20:18] the last month's thing yeah i mean like you said i think people just go off of whatever the narrative [20:25] narrative is when they just look up a mock draft but if you really pay attention to all the media outlets [20:31] a lot of the range was different for me i think i was one of the wide range guys i wouldn't say i was [20:35] surprised to go where i went um if i hadn't came here i think i would have been selected really soon [20:41] after um and that might have surprised people so i mean i think it just added a chip on my shoulder [20:46] when people say like you said overdrafted or whatever the case may be it's just you know [20:51] i added motivation piece and just to prove myself right like caleb says