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NBA DRAFT 2016June 23, 2016Wade Baldwin IVBrooklyn, New York THE MODERATOR: Opening statement about feelings about being drafted by Memphis. WADE BALDWIN IV: It's awesome, back in the state of Tennessee where I chose to go to college, and I'm back, and Memphis is a great city. I've been there before and couldn't be happier. Q. Mike Conley, an established point guard with the team, may not be back which means you may have to shoulder a lot of responsibility early in your career. Is that something you can handle and you welcome or do you not look at it like that? WADE BALDWIN IV: I welcome anything that comes by. I think I need to establish myself first and get with the team and understand my role and do that role to the best of my ability. Q. Wade, Memphis is known as the Grindhouse. They play defense. You've got the bigs. You mentioned yesterday that you're a versatile player. Are you ready for that level of defense and to throw the ball into the big fellas? WADE BALDWIN IV: I think I'm ready, and like I said before, I just want to get a part of that program and see how it is before I make a bold statement like that. I'm flexible and versatile in whatever the team needs me to do, and whatever that is, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. Q. What do you think you're going to bring to a locker room filled with veterans? WADE BALDWIN IV: Just a loyal guy, an honest person and somebody that oozes with positivity. I'm playing with guys that are awesome, fantastic players: Marc Gasol being one of the best centers in the league. Zach Randolph, very good veteran. Mike Conley, terrific point guard. Tony Allen probably will go down as one of the best defenders of all time, even Kobe said it. I mean, it's awesome. Q. Your high school team, Karl-Anthony Towns, first pick in the NBA Draft, Rookie of the Year. Your other teammate James Ziemba just selected by the Philadelphia Phillies as a left-handed pitcher. You being selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. What was it about St. Joe's Metuchen that really prepared the three of you guys for professional careers? WADE BALDWIN IV: I think it allowed us to put egos aside. On that team we had such great talent, five Division I guys, and you have to sacrifice who you are and how you want to play. You have to sacrifice points for what's best for the team, and using that, I translated it into college, and now I'm here, and I continue to use that same mentality, that same approach. Whatever team I'm on, it's about sacrifice, and those are the teams that I think do very well. Q. How does it feel to be picked in state to be able to play so close to where you played in college? WADE BALDWIN IV: Oh, it's awesome, man. I mean, I picked Tennessee being a great state, good weather. I've been to Memphis before. It has rich history. I couldn't be happier with the place that I'm at. Q. What do you think you learned from playing under Kevin Stallings at Vanderbilt that can help you transition into playing for Memphis? WADE BALDWIN IV: I think I learned a lot of IQ things, being an honest person, being coached hard, coached direct. You need to know what you need to do before the game and go out and execute it, bring that mentality that Coach Stallings had can just be awesome for me moving forward. Q. What was the process of waiting in the green room and finally hearing your name like? Was it a lot of tension, a lot of nervousness? And when you did finally hear your name what was that like? WADE BALDWIN IV: Oh, absolutely. It was things that went up and down and places where I thought I was going to go and then I didn't go. My focus was just on where am I playing Summer League at. I can't wait to go back and play five-on-five against competition. That was really in my head. I just wanted to be picked. It didn't matter what team it was. I'm super, super, super ecstatic it was the Memphis Grizzlies. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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