“We’re excited. Whenever they
tell us to play, we’ve got to be ready. There are no off nights in the NBA.
That’s the one thing. Even being here, when you see all the great talent that
we have in our league, if you take someone lightly, you’re making a big mistake
and we can’t just talk about it. We’ve got to put the work into it because
there’s a lot of work and commitment that goes into winning. To say that we’re
going to win because we feel we’re talented—doesn’t work that way. There’s a
lot of talent in this league. It’s the teams that are willing to make that
commitment and endure throughout during the course of the season, to work hard
all summer, to work hard in training camp, to work hard throughout the season,
to commit to playing for each other, those are the teams that build winning
habits and that’s what we have to do. We have to build winning habits
throughout the course of the year.”
***
On His memory From
the 2013-14 Season/Team:
“How they wouldn’t quit. When
I look at the team, we took a couple of big hits the last couple of years,
actually the last three years. They fought like crazy that year. These guys,
they fought like crazy to make sure we had a good season. When a team commits
to playing as a team, playing together and playing for one another, they give
you everything they have, there’s nothing more you can ask for. I think other
people would have just laid down and we didn’t do that.’’
***
“Five-man offense, five-man
defense, and everyone is connected. If one guy is not doing their job, it’s
going to make everyone look bad. We have to be tied together.”
***
“We’re not changing. We’re
trying to win games. We’re not changing our approach. Every game, analyze what
we’re doing well, what we’re doing not as well as we would like, make our
corrections, move on to the next one, know the opponent well, keep moving
forward. That’s all we can do.”
***
“Rah-rah is good, but it’s
more the effort plays that matter. I thought our guys showed a lot of
toughness. Our guys have the will to continue to fight.”
***
“I don’t see any negative
from practicing hard. I don’t see any negative from playing hard. You’re
building habits every time you step out there. I think you’ve got to develop a
physical toughness and a mental toughness along the way. Because down the road
when you do get there, there’s going to be a lot of fire that you’ve got to go
through. And you’ve got to be prepared to deal with it.”
***
“There’s not a lot of
difference between the elite teams. It’s will, determination. That’s not
something you develop once you get there. You’d better develop it all along the
way.”
***
On What a Team Can
Take From a Loss:
”Study, learn, correct and
grow.”
***
“To me, it’s preparation.
You’re guarding a great shooter and you’re going under on a screen — it doesn’t
make any sense to me. Or you’re just whacking at a guy after he’s already
buried you in the paint. To me, that makes no sense. That makes no sense. You
got to play this game with energy and toughness, and intelligence. And you got
to get yourself ready, and you’re on the road. You have to have a mentality.
This is business. This ain’t hanging out having a good time. If you’re serious
about winning you prepare yourself the right way.”
***
On Joakim Noah:
“There are not many players
like him. His all-around defense, every aspect, the rebounding effort, to
seeing things early (and) how they’re developing. It’s just great
effort. But the most important thing is his ability to make two, three or
four efforts on the same play. Oftentimes I don’t know how he gets to the ball.
It’s just great effort. I think when you see those types of things, that helps
unite and inspire your team.”
***
“I’m going with the guys who
I think give us the best chance to win, I don’t care who they are. So when we
hit that six-minute mark it’s based on what we’re doing and what we need, and
that’s the way it’s going to be.”
***
“We have good guys. Sometimes
when things aren’t going your way there’s a tendency when you’re trying to get
out of a hole to try to do more yourself. And that’s what you have to (fight).
You have to do more together. Not more yourself. So while the intentions are
good, sometimes they’re misguided. So if we try to go too much one on one we’re
not going to have success like that … we can’t be fragmented. We have to be
together. Through the good, the bad, and just keep fighting. We have to fight
the good fight every night. We can’t sideways and that’s a big part of this
league.”
