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in Monty we trust
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in Monty we trust
Love how he talks about attending Saints practices. Nice to see how he interacts with the other pro sports team in town. Not sure that occurs as much in the bigger markets.
can anyone offer a recap?
On Gordon's game winner: We had to ask EJ to do a little more than we expected. We forgot about JJ's suspension and had wanted to transition Eric to the two spot as soon as possible(when he says this I'm assuming he means transition to learning what we ask of our 2's, since EJ has always been a 2.) , so we tried to hold off on using him at the 1 as long as possible. He's only been here less than two weeks so it was tough to have him do that, luckily EJ came through for us.
On the shortened preseason and our team: Our team is a work in progress, we have a ton of meetings planned to speed up the team's learning curve. We are a no excuses, no explanation team. The compressed preseason (and its affect on learning the system) is NOT an excuse to NOT play hard and defend. We have new guys on the team and our staff, so we have a lot of transition. But we are blessed to be here and do what we do for a living and that should make the transition easier.
Where do you see Gordon's potential: Its early and I don't want to put pressure on him. I'm also still evaluating him, but he has a chance to be one of the most complete players in the league. He guards his position and a number of other postions very well. Once he gets comfortable with our system he will be even better. I have to figure out ways to allow him some freedom. His ceiling is pretty high
How important is it for Gordon to buy in? He's a young guy, coming to a team in limbo? Well first off, we don't believe we are in limbo. Thats a perception we wish people would stop pushing. We feel like we are headed in the right direction and getting Gordon helps. We feel like he believes he has a great opportunity to carry this franchise. Eric Gordon is professional who has played on the world stage and he can handle the situation. He won't make excuses.
How do you manage a 66 game schedule We spend a lot of time as a staff discussing how to develop the team when we can't practice. I love watching the Saints practice and I've learned alot from watching how they plan when they can't beat each other up in practice. Sean Payton has been very gracious in that regard.
On Eric Gordon's shot:
"Yeah we did we felt like Eric was capable of playing the point guard position but we didn't want to go to that in the first half and we held onto until the second half... Eric came through for us last night."
On short amount of time to learn things from each other"
"Well it's a work in progress, we're still trying to do that [learn from each other] we're having a tonne of meetings right now just to shorten that learning curve. At the same time were a no excuse team, but it does take time."
"I think Eric has a chance to be one of the best players in the NBA." He also said that he's very impressed with his defense, which coming from a guy who criticizes players and their defensive abilities the most, must mean a lot. He said his "ceiling is high."
"we don't believe we're in limbo." -- "Eric feels like he has an opportunity to carry this franchise."
thanks peoples!
Thank you Coach! We are not in limbo and we dont plan on losing, wish people would stop saying we are in that position.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monty Williams
monty thinks very highly of EJ
Monty is the man