David Griffin on The Jump - Interview

[Pelicanidae]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgM8CT_u9dM - Someone who knows how to do youtube embedding, hit that for me

David Griffin appeared on The Jump for ESPN literally within the last few hours. I didn't watch it live, but I just saw this pop up making the rounds on twitter and I thought it was a goldmine.

Talking about Zion, he basically emphasises that Zion's unique body structure is part of why he's so happy to have Aaron Nelson on board: he's the kind of guy who can identify what really needs to be worked on and keep him in the best possible shape without losing strength or athleticism. Says Zion's going to be working with nutritionist and stuff, and that Zion ''wants to be great'', which will help his adjustment period.

Paul Pierce calls us ''one of the most exciting teams in the league to watch. [...] Must see TV.''

Asked whether we're going to be a playoff team, Griff says: ''We certainly want to compete for it. It was really important to us... first of all, Jrue Holiday is the face of the franchise and Jrue has upside left in his game as well. I think he really wanted an opportunity to show what he's capable of when he's running the show, and we wanted to build a team around his skill-set. Much the same way we did in Phoenix around Steve Nash. If we could put the right fit around Jrue, we feel like he's got an altogether different level. Nobody expected Steve Nash to be 2x MVP when we signed him in Phoenix either, and Jrue takes that challenge very seriously. So what we wanna be doing is playing in meaningful games in April and May, and we want to grow the young kids in an environment where winning matters.''

WOW. Huge endorsement for Jrue there, and a sign of what we've known for a little while now; this team may not make the playoffs, but they will be playing like every game is game 7 of the finals. They want the playoffs, even if it doesn't end up happening. This team won't be tanking.

Griff mentions that Favors didn't really get a chance in Utah to play as a ''straight 5'' because of Gobert, but he feels like Favors has a lot of offensive upside and that Gentry's system will help unlock some of that.

On Redick: mentions the floor spacing being vital, and adds that ''Veteran leadership, when that veteran still has some equity, is an invaluable thing''. Rachel Nichols points out that it's funny Griff should say that, because Vince Carter is right there and is still a free agent. She asks what Vince would bring to any team he could go to. Griff replies: ''Well, I can tell you what he'd bring to us [...] our big thing with Vince, and I think this is true of all veterans, and you've [Vince] experienced this now for several years in a row, when you go into a situation with other young players the most important thing for you as a leader is that you're playing significant minutes. And because [Vince] is capable of doing that, the fit for him is to find a team where he's able to do that. I hope we're that team, in terms of the once you're drawn to, but in terms of knowing we have the minutes, in terms of fairness I don't know that I can say that. It's a really interesting situation for us, because everything that you [Vince] represent is everything that we're trying to build our team around.''

Fantastic interview, lots of gems in there.

[Eman5805]

Basically says that Zion is in good shape, but to play the tempo we're going to require, he's gonna need to do serious cardio.

[Sleeper]

That’d be awesome if Vince Carter signed with us tomorrow lol. Although Griffin is right.. we don’t have the minutes for him but would love his leadership


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[UNO Gracias]

That’d be awesome if Vince Carter signed with us tomorrow lol. Although Griffin is right.. we don’t have the minutes for him but would love his leadership


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Much respect to Vinsanity, if we could get him here that would be a vet signing of epic proportions.

[As I See It]

Much respect to Vinsanity, if we could get him here that would be a vet signing of epic proportions.

Planting seeds...…………..

[Smow-]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgM8CT_u9dM - Someone who knows how to do youtube embedding, hit that for me

I feel personally attacked

[Pelicanidae]

I feel personally attacked

Attacked, or personally appreciated? Thanks for the embed

[DroopyDawg]

Griff on the Herd

[13 - 3]

We are going to be special soon!

[13 - 3]

Griff on the Herd

He put that troll in his place.

[Eman5805]

Griffin is comparing Jrue to pre MVP Steve Nash. Basically saying he expects a similar career jump for him. Man oh man, if he’s right...

[Pelicanidae]

Griffin is comparing Jrue to pre MVP Steve Nash. Basically saying he expects a similar career jump for him. Man oh man, if he’s right...

"Sometimes you just need to be given permission to just dominate people"

Okay activate the hype machine https://t.co/5i3S5lRnCB

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) July 9, 2019

This interview is hype hype hype hype about Griff on Jrue.

[Pelicanidae]

This is the best David Griffin interview yet, says he told Jrue “do you want to keep being the most underrated guard, or do you want to be MVP?”https://t.co/bpjr6Ccab3

— Ryan Hebert (@RyanHebert89) July 10, 2019

Okay, so this entire interview is pure fire.

Interviewer: ''A lot of people look at this team and say 'Zion', but you say 'Jrue Holiday', why is that?''
Griff: ''Cause he's a killer. He's not an 18, 19 year old kid who's learning how to play NBA basketball, he's a grown ****** man who knows how to win.''

Griff: ''The thing that stands out to you about Jaxson, in addition to just the track-star like athleticism, is that his hands are so good. You know, a lot of guys have great big meathook hands but they can't catch a cold, but this kid's got the best hands on a big I think I've ever seen. Including Amar'e Stoudemire. I mean, he's right in that conversation. And you saw prime Amar'e make grabs in traffic no-one else can make, well, this kid makes 'em one handed. One of the things that was really really cool was going through the draft process and watching tape, we watched Jaxson in football videos, and his work as a receiver, and he made some grabs that make Odell Beckham Jr look like a chump.''

[Pelicanidae]

Griff also appeared today on the Woj Pod. Link here: https://player.fm/series/the-woj-pod...sGFqoIeDigDnK1

Here's some key quotes, moments, and excerpts:

Griff said that taking a break from being in a front office was huge for him, letting him get re-energised and ''fall in love with the game again''. Said that he believes there should be a forced sabbatical for front office figures every 7 to 10 years, to get away from the game for a year or so and reset rather than getting stuck in the rut of going to bed every night and waking up every morning with nothing but figures and W/L records in mind.

Why take this job offer? What was different from NY or Philly?

''I looked at the people who were best at running their teams, and I really felt that they had found their place and found their owner, and I've always believed that it's about that. I don't believe that you can be a truly special executive in our business if you don't have a relationship with the ownership where we're all pulling in the same direction, all the time. Ownership is the single biggest competitive advantage that we have in the league, and if you can find your owner, the person you move in lockstep with, then you have a chance to be successful. I felt very strongly very early in the process with Mrs Benson and her ownership team that these are the people I really wanted to dive into this with, that believed in me, and I believed in their vision, and because of that I went from thinking originally that I wasn't really that interested to, very early in the process, first meeting with Mrs Benson, boy, I really wanna be here.''

Is market place less a part of the decision for you than it might have been for others?

''Yeah, and winning a championship in a smaller market in Cleveland, I know what can be achieved. Now, Dan Gilbert and his team were willing to spend any amount of money to achieve it, and no-one's ever put more into the luxury tax than Dan did. We were the first team in history, in Cleveland, to go from being a max-cap-space team to a tax-team in the same year. So, Dan gave us some serious competitive advantages, but because we achieved it in a market like that we saw what it meant to a market like that to win. And particularly in a football-first market like Cleveland where the Browns have always been king, you understand how much it means to turn that narrative and make a city like New Orleans a basketball city. The challenge of that was exciting to us, we're not - just in terms of the people that I am, my wife Meredith - the sex appeal of the big city isn't what it's about, it's about community, it's about the people you're with every day, and Mrs Benson and her team looked at it very much in the same way that we did, which is that we're caretakers of a sacred trust and all we're really doing is taking forward the hopes and dreams of our community. New Orleans was the perfect place to do that.''

Your stated mission was to try and get Davis to give NOLA another chance. Was there ever a time where you thought you could really sell that to him?

''Yeah, I mean, from the very beginning I assumed that he would be open minded. My relationship to Rich Paul was very strong, having won a championship together. I felt like he could be open minded to the notion that we could build a winner around him, and I think he did get comfortable with the idea that that could happen. I think ultimately with Anthony it was just very clear that he was not all-in on us as a team and all-in on us as a community anymore, and I think he had just gotten to the point where so much had happened that it was just time for him to get a fresh start. And I think we felt the same way, quite frankly, towards the very end of our conversations we almost sorta took the decision out of his hands in some ways because we can be a seller for quite a while and recruit you, but eventually we become a buyer and we wanna see somebody who's about us and it was very clear with Anthony that his time had passed with us where he was going to feel that way.''

When you won the draft lottery and knew Zion was incoming, was there a part of you that didn't want to contaminate the beginning of his experience with this saga hanging over the whole thing?

''When you win the lottery and you have a player that is viewed as being generational in the way that Zion was, which is a really unfair comment by the way, he's an 18 year old kid who's gonna try and be the best basketball player he can be, but we draft a kid like that and you draft somebody that you can really believe in, you don't want to bring them into a culture and environment where people are half-way in. He needed to walk into an environment where everybody was pulling in the same direction, everybody wanted to be a part of being with Pelicans basketball, they wanted to be in New Orleans, they wanted to be winning in New Orleans, and when he comes into that environment it gives you a much better chance to put your arms around him and say 'this is what it means to win in the NBA'. So yes, that issue being settled was something of a concern but more than anything else the biggest concern was the things we've done in free agency, building around Jrue Holiday with JJ Redick and now Derrick Favors, getting the kind of quality veterans that can teach Zion and our other young draft picks in Jaxson Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker what it means to be a pro, and we're excited about all three of those kids.''

Griff talking about the environment and the struggle in Cleveland, and the difference for New Orleans.

''We won a championship and it wasn't terribly enjoyable to go through that process. Because there were so many things that were more important than the 'we' of our team. Culturally, we were individuals. We were trying to gel individuals rather than raising a family from the beginning. It's because when Lebron is on a series of one year deals, you have to view what you're doing as win ''that'' championship, you have to view it more as a sprint than the holistic approach that you can take when you start from the beginning. So in New Orleans we've been able to start from the beginning and sort of grow this in a mindful, sustainable way. When Lebron lands on Cleveland again, and the expectation is that you better win a championship, now, the game changed so radically that it isn't really possible to do a lot of the things that you would have liked to have done because you didn't learn how to win together. It was, 'okay, so none of these kids have ever won, but now we have to win a championship'. It just wasn't organic, it wasn't real, what it was, was a way to ply the trade of team-building and we feel like we did an exceptional job of finding fit, so that will help us moving forward but that experience is so unlike anything I'd ever like to have from a team building perspective because it was so inorganic, it was just zero to one hundred, and you BETTER win.''

Asked about players and how they dictate the pace of a rebuild.

''Yeah, for sure, and I think in our circumstance, Jrue Holiday is going to dictate it. You know, when we brought Steve Nash back to Phoenix on a $66m deal at the time, everybody said we were crazy. That he would never live up to that number. He ended up being two time MVP. Because the team was really built to maximise all of his gifts, and we put the right players around him systematically. We feel like Jrue Holiday can take a jump similar to that, if the right pieces are around him. Culturally, we're going to be very reflective of who Jrue is. Jrue is all about winning. He's a two way player that will sacrifice whatever it takes to be successful. As a human being he's about as good as I've ever been with in the league. I love his family, Lauren's a special, special person herself, you really feel like you're going to want to grow with these people over time and that our family and his family are blend into one. We hope that because of the presence of a Jrue Holiday, because of the presence of a JJ Redick, and a Derrick Favors, E'twaun Moore, really high calibre veteran human beings, the young kids that we're sprinkling in will learn how to do this the right way and like the Spurs when they had those three guys [Duncan, Parker, Ginobili] teaching the next generation what it means to play Spurs basketball, we hope that our veteran pros will help those young kids learn what it means to be professionals and we'll arrive at what it means to be a Pelican and that will be a successful situation.''