SVG Introductory Press Conference

[Pelicanidae]

New #Pelicans head coach Stan Van Gundy (@RealStanVG) will be introduced in a 2 pm press conference today!

We will stream it live on Twitter, https://t.co/4QdSbs2hH2 and our app! #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/LI7ENyojir

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) October 27, 2020

Stan Van's introductory press conference incoming. Normally for something like this I would transcribe answers live, but I'm otherwise indisposed at the moment so I'll come back after and add a transcription for those who prefer that, when I can.

Looking forward to hearing what gets said, even though it's obvious there won't be any deep secrets divulged.

[PeliKhan]

https://youtu.be/Gpg0MgE1POQ

[PeliKhan]

Starts around the 11min mark

[Pelicanidae]

Okay so here it is, for people who don't wanna listen to 45 minutes of video, or who want to but just can't right now, or whatever, a transcript of the Key Stuff. Some things have been slightly trimmed, for clarity and repetition and such, but the vast majority of what was said is represented here. Highlighted text is all my emphasis, there to help people just skimming find relevant sections for their interets.

Griffin started by praising Gentry and thanking him for being such a great representative for the team and for speaking well about the team.

Griff:We interviewed 9 total people, in one fashion or another. We set up a very clear criteria that we cared about for what we were seeking in the next head coach, and we took a great deal of time to do that. We've talked to many of you offline, from a media perspective, explaining why we were not in a hurry. As fate would have it, maybe the season's going to be on us sooner than we thought, but the reasons were multifold. We wanted to take enough time to analyse the team, get a feel for who we really were, and do it without the sting of what happened in the bubble resonating with us. We wanted to give ourselves and opportunity to know who we were and what we needed, and what we discovered was that Coach Van Gundy gave us the best possible optionality, with his 22 year coaching career, 12 years as a head coach, has proven he's going to win an awful lot of regular season games. Winning almost 66% of his games in Orlando, better than 60% in Miami, and for his career has a winning percentage above .500 in the playoffs, which is really really rare, so this is a coach that can win right now. But more importantly for us, it's a coach who is a teacher and a very sincere authentic human being who is going to build long lasting relationships with our team, and because we look at this team as just now scratching the surface of what we hope is a sustainable run, Coach Van Gundy was obviously the selection for us. In addition to the chance to win in the short term, we feel he gives us the best chance to build a sustainable winner in the long term.

SVG: Thank you very much, and thank you to Mrs Benson and Dennis Lauscha and to Trajan Langdon, David Griffin, Swin Cash, Bryson Graham, and the entire front office for giving me this great opportunity. I was really enjoying being a TV analyst, I wanted to coach again but only if we could find an absolutely great opportunity and New Orleans had it all. First of all, a governors and executive group that has proven that they know how to win at the professional level, as the football indicates, and on top of that, a group that is totally committed to the New Orleans community which is important to Kim and I, as we were looking for people to work for. And then David Griffin's proven ability to build championship level teams, but also we were very impressed with the front office team that he has put together in New Orleans and the family atmosphere that he is trying to build within the organisation and within our basketball team.

And then of course it's a very exciting roster. A mixture of some very talented young players and some productive, high character veterans, and then finally a great city that Kim and I are excited about and cannot wait to live in, and then probably when we knew for sure that we had made the right decision, was last night when the communications team told me instead of jacket and tie, I could wear a polo at the introductory press conference! So I knew right then I was on it. While Griff and Trajan and their staff are in preparation for the draft and free agency, we're also all already at work getting ready for the season, hiring staff, I'm trying to get to know our players. I've spoken to all of them, starting to meet with them in person, and spending time studying film. I can't wait to get back on the court and to try to build a tough, disciplined team that truly Won't Bow Down. Finally, to the people of New Orleans, my wife and I can't wait for the opportunity to represent the city and to immerse ourselves in the community. We're more than excited to be a part of the New Orleans Pelicans organisation and to get started trying to build a winner here.


Questions:

Was there one final thing that potentially sold you, or that you sold the team on, that made the decision what it is?

SVG: Well, Fletcher, thanks, that is hard because it really was all of those things. There were so many great things and there truly was not even one red flag anywhere that would make you hesitate. If I had to choose one thing, I would say that I met with Griff and Trajan, and then with the entire front office, and then with Griff again, so I think if there was one thing it was really my connection, and not just mine but mine and my wife's, connection with Griff where I really came to believe in him. And not only his vision for the team, and that's important, but the type of person he is and how he wants to operate.

This roster is extremely young, how is coaching different with a bunch of younger guys?

SVG: I don't know that it's all that much different. I think that the one thing is, and I've already talked to our players, and I don't want them certainly, or us, to ever use that youth as an excuse. I think that sometimes you can start with 'oh well, we were young, and that's why we turned the ball over 3 teams in the last 2 minutes of a tied game'. Listen, they're all great players, and they came into this league young because of their talent. It's time to play and compete, so I don't wanna use that as an excuse. But as far as the coaching, what makes it different is that there's a lot of teaching to do and to bring these guys along... the NBA game is different to the college game in some ways and there has to be more teaching, there has to be a real emphasis placed on development, they are far from finished products at this point in their career. No matter how good they are. We have to keep that in mind every day.

You've mentioned accountability, the most important person that all of you have to hold accountable is Zion, what is the strategy or mission?

Griff: Thanks for the question. I would take exception to 'he's the most important person'. Part of what we're trying to build here is that nobody is more important than anybody else. This is a we thing. One of things we're most excited about with Zion is that he feels the same way: he doesn't want to be put on a pedestal in any way shape or form. Accountability starts with you being one of us, and I think Coach Van Gundy would agree with that.

SVG: I absolutely agree with that, and here's the other part of that. I think sometimes when we're talking about accountability, we start to think of the coach or the GM or the vice president, or whoever it is, coming down on people and that's not it. A lot of it is in talking to Zion, which I've done on the phone, I can't wait to sit down with him in person, but as Griff said it's with everybody on our team and getting a feel for what their goals are and where they wanna go in their careers, and what they wanna see this team do. Then, trying to help them get to that point and hold them accountable to those things that they know they need to do to get there. A lot of times that's what it's all about, that 'hey, you told me you wanna be the best player in the NBA, you told me that you wanna be part of a championship team, and you told me these are what it takes, well I'll hold you accountable to that everyday'. It's not about us coming down on Zion or anyone else, it's trying to help them.

It's been over 2 years since you last coached: did you expect to be away that long, and how has your perspective changed?

SVG: I didn't have expectations one way or another, but I do think the time away, it helps in that you sort of get out of that tunnel vision mode of your own team and you see what's going on with everybody and what works, what doesn't work, things you like, things you don't like. It allows you to zero in on that and grow a great deal to open up to different perspectives. I kept notes for 2 and a half years on games I watched, things I heard in clinics, from coaches that I talked to, and all of those things will allow me to be better this time around.

Give us a little run down of what you like about the team, the strengths of the roster, and what you anticipate changing?

SVG: Look, as I said before, the thing that's most excited is when Griff and Trajan and their team started putting together this roster last year, there's a great mix of exciting young talent with the potential to really grow into something great, but alongside of them you've got some very productive high character veterans. So, that to me, that mix is the most exciting thing. As we get more specific, it's a team that has proven they can play with great pace and with depth on the team. There's a lot of people who can shoot the ball. Then you've got two of the most unique young guys in the entire league, Brandon Ingram who's the most improved player in the league, is one of those really tall, long guys who plays like a guard, who can get anywhere on the floor. Then, I don't even know the comparison for Zion. He's unique, in the way he plays. But this is a guy who, coming off an injury, was able to come in and be extremely productive and efficient. There's just not people like that.

There's a lot to build around there, but as far as changes, it's not a change - and I love that Griff started this by giving credit to Alvin, because I've always had great respect for him as a coach and a person, so it's never a comparison - but a lot of it is where we are in the development of this team. It's clear, just by the numbers, that where this team has to get better, is the defensive end on the floor. We're going to have to make a real commitment on that end, and as a coaching staff that commitment is to do a great deal of teaching to where we really understand what we're doing on that end of the floor. From a player's point of view, they have to make the commitment that if we want to win at a high level in a very talented Western conference, we are going to have to be a good defensive team. They're going to have to put in the time and effort, and all of us have to make the commitment to get better on that end.

How much did you miss coaching?

SVG: You always miss it. At first, it's like anything, you're in the grind and then you get away from it and for a few months it's nice to not have it on your mind but then the season starts again and you're watching and taking notes like I always do, and your mind starts working and you wanna get back to that. The longer it goes, the more you wanna get back to it, and for me, broadcasting the games in the bubble and being immersed in basketball for three months there, yeah you're itching to get back to it. You're seeing things on a daily basis that you like and don't like, and can think about implementing, so yeah I missed it a great deal and I'm excited to be back at it. But again, would have still only done it in a great situation. I wouldn't have just taken any job. There was only one job I even tried to get involved with, and that was this job, and it's because of all the things we talked about before. I'm really excited to coach this group.

You've held the dual role of POBO and coach. A few years removed from that, what's your perspective?

SVG: I will say this, one of the things I'm really excited abut is just getting back into a coaching role and letting Griff and Trajan and Swin and Bryson all worry about the other stuff. Griff mentioned the other day, me watching a draft candidate, and I started shaking like, you know I'm not sure that's what I wanna do. I'm really excited about being able to zero back in on our roster, developing the players that we have, and getting our team to play the best basketball that we possibly can. That's one of the really exciting things for me coming back for me after this layoff.

Can you talk about your relationship with JJ Redick, and when you talked about defense, have you decided on assistants?

SVG: Okay, my relationship with JJ is one that treasure. JJ and I were together 5 years in Orlando, I saw him work every single day, one of the most focused and committed people that I've seen in 25 years in this league, and just somebody who's very thoughtful about the game but about everything in life. He's somebody that I've stayed in touch with over these last 8 years, I have a great respect for him, and one of the things that he said to me, and the most important, is that we have great people on this team. These are all great people. There's not one bad guy Stan, you're gonna love coaching this team, and that was meaningful to me because I know when JJ talks about someone being a great person, I know what his standards are. They're very high.

As far as staff, that's something that Griff and I are working on together, and right now we don't have anything that we're ready to announce, but we're moving along on that front and y'know, I think we've got some outstanding candidates and some great ideas, and that should come together relatively soon. The way the NBA's going, we might be starting training camp next Monday [laughter] so we'll have to find a staff over the weekend I guess.

Throughout all of the notes you've taken, how do you think the league has changed and how much has your philosophy adjusted?

SVG: First of all, I need to ask you how many pairs of kicks we got back there, my man? Yeah, there we go.

Look, the game continues to evolve and change, but some of it starts to come back full circle. So we continue to see the 3 point shooting rising, the number of attempts, because of that the amount of switching defensively has gone up and changes the way you need to change offensively. We've seen more zone defense, and that changes you offensively, certainly positionless basketball is becoming more and more of a reality. But a lot of people want to refer to things as 'smallball', and I think what we're really seeing is the value of big skilled players. So it's perimeter ball, not 'small' ball. That allows you to do things at both ends of the floor.

But look, as the game changes you always have to adjust as a coach, every night you have to adjust based on who you're playing, so it's not like the game is dramatically different from 2018 when I last was coaching, but there's just things you've gotta do a little bit differently, some different actions that teams favour, that you probably need to spend more time working on than we did a couple of years ago.

What do you envision as Zion's role?

SVG: I mean, you have a vision for what he is, which is a multi-talented guy. He is an unbelievable playmaker for a guy of his size, he can take the ball off the glass and lead the break and make plays, he can pass off the dribble, he can finish over larger people inside, he's a multi-talented guy. I don't look at him in any way as a 4 or a 5, I'm not sure those labels really matter with him, I think with him as we study him and get more definitive and talk to Zion about what he likes, it's more what positions we want to put him in and who is best around him. It's not limiting him to a position. I think we'll get to a starting point, at the start of the season, and my guess is that as time goes on I'm going to find out that he can do even more than I think he can do and things will evolve from there.

Thoughts on the back court, the interior defense, Lonzo Ball in the halfcourt, and addressing interior problems

SVG: I think for one, I'll start with the second part, is when you're talking interior defense people tend to focus on the big guys themselves. I would say the first thing in interior defense is keeping the ball out of the interior. If the ball is getting into the heart of the defense on a regular basis, our defense is going to get broken down and we'll get into foul trouble and the poor big guys are gonna be constantly in compromising situations. So we can't leave it to those guys on the inside, but once the ball does break you down and inevitably it will against good teams, there's a lot of ways to play interior defense. There are shot blockers, like Jaxson Hayes will be, there are great position defenders who really understand verticality, there are guys who are really physical, there are guys who take chargers. We need all of that, and it's not just our big guys playing interior defense. Everyone has to be willing to put themselves between the ball and the basket and prevent it getting to the rim. Interior defense is huge but I think sometimes we tend to place the burden of that on just a couple of guys, whereas it's really a team thing. We're going to have to do a lot of work on that regard, and also I forgot your first question.

[Gets reminded] My initial thoughts on Lonzo are this, on offense, number one I don't think there is anyone better in the NBA at advancing the ball for your team quickly to allow for you to go on the attack before the defense is set. So many times in watching the Pelicans, both for broadcasting and now studying the team, there's so many times where he'll throw an outlet or an inbounds pass and advance it without ever taking a dribble. That's very unique, and I think really puts guys like Jrue Holiday, like JJ Redick, like Ingram, on the attack, like Zion, that puts them in positions where the defense isn't set and it's tough to get in to help. The biggest step that Lonzo took was his three point shooting, he improved greatly, and not only does that help him but the space it creates on the floor for your other creators, guys like Jrue and Ingram, is really good for your basketball team. Then, the third thing I would say, and this is something I can't say for sure, I'm just saying this from what I'm seeing on film, Lonzo seems like a very smart player to me, and smart players eventually figure it out. I went through that with JJ, he came in and it took him some time to build his career, but smart hardworking guys figure it out as time goes on and continue to improve. So as good as he is now, and he is good, I think that we can expect a good arc of improvement for him over the next few years.


Thoughts on next season, and what did you think about last season's team?

SVG: I love the pace that they played with, and in my mind watching, I thought they were an unselfish team. I didn't think there was anyone on the team that was a ball stopper, and that was trying to force the issue. I thought the ball moved pretty freely, and that gives you a chance to play really good offense on a consistent basis.

It's interesting, next season, since that's something Griff and Trajan and I talked about in interview. I'm not a big believer in setting those kinds of goals, and it's not that I'm afraid I'll set the goals too high, but I'm afraid I set them too low. Let's say you set the goal of being in playoffs or being over .500, and then with three weeks to go you're in the 6th seed with 10 games over .500. What, we can just shut it down now? I know it's cliche, I understand it is, but it's true also that our goal, and I think Griff and Trajan and Swin's goal as well, is literally to just get better every single day, to make improvement every day, and if we're doing that and we're committed to the work that has to go into doing those things, then the results will take care of themselves.

How do you think the relation between coaching and analytics has changed and what's your relation with it?

SVG: Analytics is very very helpful and I think one of the underappreciated offseason moves that Griff and his front office staff made was bringing Michael Hartman in to head up analytics here with the Pelicans, and he and I were actually texting on some things last night and I started by asking one question, and then there was another, and then another idea of something we could do, so y'know, I think he's in the process of moving and I hope I'm not making him not wanna come back because I'm throwing so much at him, but I can't wait to spend time with him and ask him questions because there's a lot of things that I'm curious about that I think I might wanna do differently in terms of coaching philosophy. But I wanna know what the analytics say about those things. I look forward to having a great relationship with Michael and trying to wear him out.

People talk about culture, and that's a cliche. Obviously building culture is a process, but what have you learned and how do you think these Pels can achieve something similar?

SVG: Griff and I, and the entire front office, sort of connected on culture, because culture, what it really is, is a body of shared values of how you want to work and how you want to do things. I think that we're very aligned on that. The two real beliefs I have on culture are that it has very little to do with what you say and everything to do with what you do on an everyday basis. I've said to people in the past, I started my NBA career working under Pat Riley in Miami and they talk about Heat Culture all the time, but when I was there and I was there for over ten years, I never remember Pat even using the word culture. And yet, every guy on our roster could have told you exactly what the culture was of the Miami Heat. So you build that day by day, interaction by interaction, step by step, and over time, people will see what our organisation is all about. What our leaders are all about. Down to the players, and the players who are here for a while will pass it on to other players, and that's how you build culture. There's no overnight. You can only accelerate it so much: it takes time, it takes you know, day after day stuff.

The second thing that I believe about culture is that as much as Griff and Trajan and Swin and even above us, to Mrs Benson and to Dennis Lauscha, to myself and my staff, as much as any of us try to set the example on a culture, what our culture actually ends up becoming will be what our best players decide that it is going to be. And so those are the guys that have to take the responsibility for creating the kind of culture that we all want here with the Pelicans.

A lot of coaches talk about defense, and I know it's something you've preached your entire career, but frankly how do you get guys who are making millions of dollars to commit to that kind of effort?

SVG: Look, I think the money is largely irrelevant. That's part of the business that these guys go through, negotiating contracts. My experience is that when guys step on the court that doesn't matter. They want to play basketball, they want to compete, they wouldn't be where they are if they weren't competitors, and they wanna win. Guys want to win. You're not going to do that if you don't get the job done on the defensive end, and ultimately none of the players are going to get the respect that they want unless they are part of a consistent winner in the NBA. So this goes back to what we were talking about with accountability, it's not me standing there with a hammer and hitting them over the head, it's being clear on what their goals are individually and as a unit, and trying to help them understand what will get them there. And what gets them there is being part of a great team and a big part of that is what you do on the defensive end. When guys understand that, they put in the effort and the focus that it takes to be a good defensive team.

You've been very politically outspoken recently. How have players reacted to that, and do you plan to continue after the election

SVG: There's no question, first of all with the arena being used as an early voting site, I think that is tremendous by the Pelicans organisation, by Mrs Benson, to get that done because obviously in this pandemic we need places where we can vote and yet still socially distance and stay safe. So the arenas make a lot of sense, and I think NBA governors like Mrs Benson stepping forward has been very helpful. And I think that for all of us, look, one of the things that I really liked, when you go through an interview process, as much as Griff and Trajan are doing research on me, I'm doing research on them and the organisation, and one of the most impressive things to me was Mrs Benson being on the board of the NBA Foundation, 8 people with the money the owners are throwing in $30m a year, specifically to empower black communities economically. So clearly there's some commitment on her part to do things and that's somebody that you can be proud to work for.

We represent, at least in my situation, we're out there every day working with people who are predominantly black people and you hear stories over a long period of time and when you hear those stories and you know what the issues are and you have the chance to speak out and help people, you want to do that. And you want to do it, y'know Dennis Lauscha made the comment to me that you wanna do that and do it as constructively as possible so that you're bringing more people in rather than turning people away, and I thought that was a great comment and I've tried to keep that in mind in these last two weeks. I hadn't always done a great job of that before and I think that really is important.

Was there a lightbulb moment where you knew Stan was the guy?

Griff: I think Trajan was very committed very early on in the process, but I think the lightbulb moment for me was getting to spend time with Stan and his wife Kim and really understanding, and he talked about this in terms of culture being a body of shared values, I very much see wife Meredith and I in their relationship, and I think Stan has walked the walk in his life on and off the court. That really mattered to me, in my particular situation, having also taken a few years off and had the time to understand exactly where I had been going wrong, as a family they were committed to doing it right and doing it with us, and when I felt that moment where we were all together on the same page, that was that moment of clarity where everything meant something in a different way.

What are the major issues with trying to rush in to this next season now, if we do have December as the start date?

Trajan: I think we're all trying to wrap our minds around that right now. Logistically, it's a time management thing, you talk about it in high school, you only have so many hours in a day to do whatever, and right now we only have so much time to prepare for the draft, to put together a coaching staff, to prepare for free agency, there's a lot we have to do to get our practice facility ready from a hygiene standpoint, the league is going to ask us to do a lot of things in terms of preparing. Not only to get our picks and agents in, but get ready for camp. There's going to be a lot asked of us that we don't know yet, so we're just trying to control the things we can right now and not get ahead of ourselves, but that is a challenge right now with only so many days out.

Griff: I would echo that, and the idea of starting free agency at about the same time that camp starts is really daunting. To think about bringing people into training camp on the fly as you add to your roster, I can't conceive of what that looks like and from a coaching perspective, I can't imagine what it would do to a staff to not know on a day to day basis how many bodies you have and who those bodies would be, so it sets up to be a very daunting start for everyone.

SVG: When I read the other day that we might even go a month earlier than expected, I thought wow. Of course coming in to a new situation you'd like to have more time but I've worked for some great coaches coming up, and a guy I had great respect for was Nick Macarchuk at Canisius and Fordham, and he would say to our players all the time, and I've thought about this everyday since I've taken this job, and it comes down to this: ''we're going to be ready to compete, any time, anywhere, under any conditions''. In some ways this is a great way to get this across to our players. When do you have to be ready to start camp? Whenever they tell us. It carries over into the season: we have a back to back, second night, no excuse. Anytime, anywhere, under any conditions we're going to be ready to compete. That may be quicker than I'm comfortable with but that's the way it is and I am going to be ready.

[Pelicanidae]

[Pelicanidae]

Transcription done, have fun

[msusousaphone]

Some pretty interesting tidbits on his views of Zion and Lonzo. Comparing Ball so extensively to JJ shows how highly he currently values him. It will be interesting to see how he plays Zion. Does he like him as an interior big who holds the ball and either makes an aggressive move to the basket/dish it out to a perimeter player or does he see him as one of the interior players waiting to slash in or pop off a shot when the interior bigs dish it out? Probably some combination of the two. Just wondering the ratio. I take it from that he's still excited to solve that answer, too.

[wuggie]

Transcription done, have fun

You're the greatest man, thanks lol

[Creative]

''We're going to be ready to compete, any time, anywhere, under any conditions'' - this is a great quote and this should be our mindset for the next season.

Stan will be a good coach for us - He has experience and great knowledge.

Guys - do You know something about possible assistant candidates?

[Pelicanidae]

Some pretty interesting tidbits on his views of Zion and Lonzo. Comparing Ball so extensively to JJ shows how highly he currently values him. It will be interesting to see how he plays Zion. Does he like him as an interior big who holds the ball and either makes an aggressive move to the basket/dish it out to a perimeter player or does he see him as one of the interior players waiting to slash in or pop off a shot when the interior bigs dish it out? Probably some combination of the two. Just wondering the ratio. I take it from that he's still excited to solve that answer, too.

What really excited me is that the first thing SVG mentioned when asked about Zion was his playmaking. That's huge.

We all know Zion is an other worldly finisher at the rim, but if he wants to take that next step on offense he needs reps as a lead ball handler, making decisions and running some offense. Not necessarily 100% of the time, but it has to happen. SVG seems to recognise that he has that ability. Hopefully it gets used.

[DroopyDawg]

Okay so here it is, for people who don't wanna listen to 45 minutes of video...

SNIP.

If I could kiss you... I still wouldn't. I'd send my friend's ugly sister to do it. Just to show you my appreciation for transcribing that presser. The first few minutes of feedback killed me, so I'd rather read it here. Again thank you Sir.

[DroopyDawg]

SVG on Jordy and TBobo

[Pelicanidae]

SVG on Jordy and TBobo

What are you looking forward to in getting to New Orleans?

SVG: Well look, you guys have seen me and seen pictures of me, and I'm not the skinniest guy in the world so you know that what I'm looking forward to a lot is the restaurants, there's no question. When I got the job I was getting a lot of texts from people saying oh the restaurants. In fact, Gregg Popovich texted me and said 'I'm jealous of all the restaurant choices you're going to have in New Orleans.'

What was it about this job to let you get back into it?

SVG: For me, I was in a situation where I wanted to coach again but I didn't need to coach, and so I was in a very lucky position that I could be picky and would only be interested in jobs that I thought were great. I think, as I said yesterday, the fact that you have an executive group running the thing that has had the success that they've had with the Saints, and know what it takes to win at the professional level, was attractive. David Griffin's record of putting together rosters in the NBA speaks for itself. Then when I got a chance to meet with he and Trajan and Swin and the staff, he was obviously putting together a front office team that will do a good job. Then you mentioned it, the roster which is very attractive with a lot of young exciting players but also productive veterans. So I think there's a really good mix there. It would have had to have been a great job for my wife and I to be interested, and everything we could have wanted we found in New Orleans.

You talk about your wife a lot in terms of this decision, what does that relationship mean in terms of the job?

SVG: First of all we're totally partners in everything that we do. There's nobody that knows me better than she does and she was a big help in this whole process. She's helped me in a lot of ways in coaching, I'll be honest, she doesn't care about the basketball part of it at all, if I weren't coaching I don't think she'd watch basketball games, that's just not her thing, but what she knows and cares about is people. And so, y'know, she's always been great in the family world, getting to know families, and helping me with player relationships. She'll come home and say, hey, so and so's son's sick, so then you have that idea of why the guy's distracted, and also y'know, it's something that I now can talk to someone about, 'hey what's going on with your son', and it takes my player relationships to a different level that I wouldn't be able to get to without her.

One of my favourite answers you gave in the press conference was about culture being a body of shared values: what are some of the shared values that you view as creating the culture you look for?

SVG: Team first is the start of it all, I think that throughout the process as I got to know Griff and his team, that's what it's all about. It's not about one person on top, it's not about Griff, or me, it's not even about Zion or Brandon Ingram or Jrue Holiday, it's truly about the group. I think that's first and foremost because that sets to the tone for everything and you feel a great responsibility for the people around you and you're trying to help them, that guides all the other actions that you will take. It's cliche to say hard work, it might be better to say focused work, but trying to get better every day and really having a growth mindset. WHETHER LAST NIGHT was a good game or a bad game, should not change our approach on the next day's practice. Not relaxing if we have a great game, or overreacting if we had a poor game. Those are a few of the things but I mean what I said, there's been so much talk about culture in sports and I think if you do your culture right you don't have to talk about it and over time your players will know what it is.

Comp for Zion?

SVG: I have no comp on Zion and I mean that in the best way possible. In a lot of areas we overuse the word unique, but in this guys case he's truly unique. He's got point guard type play-making skills, he's got as quick a first step as I've ever seen, he's got as quick a second jump as anybody I've seen, he's extremely unselfish. One of the things that I noticed watching film on him that I really liked is that he doesn't hold the ball. A lot of stars hold the ball and isolate, everything else comes to a stop and you watch that guy operate. With Zion, everything's quick. He makes his move quick, if nothing's there he gives up the ball quick, he's a guy that, as good and productive as he is, he's also easy to play with, and so I'm really looking forward to the challenge of figuring out the best ways to help him unlock all of the abilities that he has. As far as his ceiling, I would never place a ceiling on Zion Williamson, and I'd say the same thing for Brandon Ingram, these are two great young players that you can place a ceiling on. It's about trying to get better every single day and it will be exciting to watch the process of where these guys end up.

Are Zion and Ingram well suited to succeeding in today's NBA?

SVG: I think when people say small-ball, what they're really talking about perimeter basketball. Not a lot of post play, games spread out, playing fast, and that's where it's going. If you can do it with bigger people, we just saw it with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, they're two skilled players with great size. I was lucky enough to coach guys like Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis in Orlando, that's where the game is. There hasn't been a lot of guys like Brandon Ingram, there's starting to be a few more but they're still rare, those 6'10 guys who can play like guards. Then you get a guy like Zion with his strength and power who can make plays and handle the ball like guards, that's the future of the NBA and we're looking in New Orleans to have two of those guys. Then like I said, while those guys are growing, you have guys like Jrue Holiday and JJ Redick that can play huge roles and add an experience and maturity to help those guys develop.

What do you view as the relationship between analytics and coaching?

SVG: I think that what we're looking for is where you can be the most confident, is when your eye test matches the numbers. Then I think you go ahead with strong confidence. If they're in conflict, if I have a thought and the numbers don't add up, what it causes me to do is do more study. Go back to the film. And the same way I think the analytics people, what are we missing here? Are we sure we have this right? When you're talking in-game decisions it's a mix of what you've studied with the analytics and your own experience. I've been coaching since 1981, so you do have some feelings based on the analytics you've studied and the film work you've done but also just based on having been in those situations.


One thing I love with SVG is his view on analytics early on. Being open to them, wanting to see them, consider them, integrate them into the plans. Not using them to tell him what to do, but using them as a prompt to re-examine assumptions, and also understanding that analytics people are constantly improving their own work as well. That seems healthy to me.

[msusousaphone]

If I could kiss you... I still wouldn't. I'd send my friend's ugly sister to do it. Just to show you my appreciation for transcribing that presser. The first few minutes of feedback killed me, so I'd rather read it here. Again thank you Sir.

I really think we should pitch in and fly Dae over for a game.