2013 MLS Draft: Paul Bravo Speaks About The Draft With Burgundy Wave

After the draft, I caught up with Rapids technical director Paul Bravo and asked him a few quick questions on how the draft had gone. He was, unsurprisingly, pleased with how the proceedings had gone:

BW: There were a couple of forwards available at sixth overall, Zavaleta and Johnson among them, what set DeShorn Brown apart from those other guys?

BW: There was speculation going into this draft that the Rapids would be going for a center back. It didn't quite work out that way, is there a plan to get a center back as a regular signing?

You can play Nathan Sturgis there, Calderon, you've got Drew and Marv there, all three of them can play wide as well so we've got flexibility. So again, yes the thinking possibly of a center back, but what that shows is what our philosophy is. We want to be attack-minded. Oscar was an attacking player, I was an attacking player, we like attacking players, we like attacking players, players who can possibly be game changers. That's what DeShorn brings.

BW: Like a lot of second-rounders, Kory Kindle is an unknown to a lot of the fans out there. What type of a player is he?

PB: Well, 5'11'', well built, very athletic. He was a two sport athlete at high school with basketball and soccer. He's outstanding in the air, very quick to step, and likes to attack. He's a converted attacking player who's now playing back. So those are the kinds of things that excited us about Kory and we've tracked Kory for a couple of years now. Bakersfield plays in the same league as Denver so we've seen a lot of Kory and our scouts did a great job of identifying him.

BW: Another big speculation before the draft, there were supposedly some trades in the works. I know we saw some twitter rumors throughout the day that said 'Oh, the Rapids are trading the pick right now!' and clearly, that didn't happen. Were there any trades in the works even though nothing came through?

PB: I mean, we talked about moving up. We talked about flipping the eleven into maybe a three or four, but at the end of the day the price was too high, and the allocation we've been able to collect is very important to us. So, we didn't want to just give that away because we knew there were eleven players out there that we really, really liked, that would fill needs but were also quality players. So it made no sense to us to make that trade.

BW: At the end of the day, do you feel you got everything you had hoped for going in?

PB: Yes. Absolutely, we did. You know, we would have liked to maybe bring in another center back, but at the end of the day you get cover in all three lines. You get cover in the middle of the park, you get cover in the back, you get cover up front. We couldn't be happier with how that draft went for us.