Inside the NBA Draft with Nuggets Director of Scouting Jim Clibanoff

Have you ever wondered what the Director of Scouting for the Denver Nuggets does? Have you ever wondered who the Nuggets Director of Scouting is? Well, it's Jim Clibanoff, who joined Tim Connelly's staff in Sept. of 2013, and partook in his first NBA draft, while working for a team, in 2014 when the Nuggets acquired Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris, and selected Nikola Jokic.

Here's a bit on Clibanoff from Aaron Lopez back in 2014:

Clibanoff joined the Nuggets after spending the 17 years of running a college scouting service. He made regular appearances as a draft analyst on NBA TV and offered his thoughts on players during other media interviews.

His work as a scout helped him build relationships with Connelly and Nuggets assistant general manager Arturas Karnisovas through the years. They reached out to him while building a front-office team last summer.

"I'm so happy this is the decision that I made," Clibanoff said. "Working with such a small group has given me an opportunity to learn so much about everything.

I could've done my service for the next 30 years and been self-employed and created my own schedule, but at the end of the day, what would I have had? I didn't have that additional challenge of coming to the team side and working with a group with defined goals - getting a team better and winning a championship."

Here is his conversation on The Sports Show with Les Shapiro and Eric Goodman, talking Nuggets draft and NBA Finals.

Clibanoff explains what happens on Draft Day with the Nuggets, how the team prepares for possible draft day trades, and how the team evaluates talent. He's also asked who he'd take with no. 1 pick.

Clibanoff discusses the payoff of finding the right guys. He is asked by Goodman about finding leadership qualities in these prospects, and has a very interesting answer. 

Clibanoff on the Warriors-Cavs NBA Finals (before Game 4.) Goodman also asks the impossible question of LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan, Clibs is impressed with LBJ:

Clibanoff talks about the pre-draft workouts and why the team has prospects shoot threes after their exhausting private workouts. He's asked about the importance of having a head coach around for the workouts, and he goes into a bit more detail on Justise Winslow and Mario Hezonja - Clibanoff is even asked to compare the players to current or former NBA players:

Hope you Stiffs enjoyed the videos, and again a big thanks to the folks at The Sports Show. Check out their ONDEMAND web show by clicking here, and you can watch them live starting at 1:00 p.m. daily.