Tommy John
10-10-2004, 10:51 PM
On if he plans to change anything heading into first preseason game:
“We’ll probably have a shoot-around. It will a little more strenuous I imagine, a little more up and down than we would because we play that night. I’m not worried about the game as much as being prepared when we start the season. But tomorrow, I have to put in some zone because we might see zone. We haven’t done that, so we’ll have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to do that. When you go into a game, you want to be prepared for some of the things you might see and we haven’t done any of that.”
On how training camp has been going after first week:
“You never know until you play somebody else. I don’t know where we are. A lot of my friends have been calling me. It seems like a lot of other teams are doing things faster than we are maybe. I’m not going to worry about that. I think we’ve addressed the things we need to do now. I’m conscious to not get anybody hurt and wearing people down. I asked Chauncey and a bunch of them today, it seems like it is going smooth, and I am wondering if they’re not working hard, and they said they’re not stopping. There’s not a lot of standing around and they’re doing something all of the time. They think the learning curve is better because they’re more familiar. I said we got a lot of young kids and new people and they said, ‘It just seems like we’re doing it at a quicker pace because people understand’.”
On Billups’ leadership thus far in camp:
“I just watch him and Rip and Tayshaun and the guys we have that are coming back, they all seem like they’re more involved, more vocal and more encouraging to the other kids and they’re working hard. They don’t take any time off. They don’t miss a practice, they don’t miss a drill and it starts with them.”
On Horace Jenkins:
“He’s really tentative right now, which is not good. It is a new situation and he’s asked to do a lot of things and maybe it’s been different, but he’ll be fine. I find it to hard to really tell a lot until you start playing against other people. The most conscientious guys are the ones that struggle and he’s really conscientious. He’s trying to do everything right and he’s just going to have to play. He’ll be fine.”
On playing the young kids on Wednesday:
“I can’t see playing Darko and Terrence (Shannon) if they’re not able to practice. I can’t imagine them recovering enough. Dupree and Delfino, Horace, Smush, Nigel, I would hope that they all get to play because one, you want to expose them as much as you can and two, hopefully somebody can see these guys and maybe we can find out. Maybe there’s a place for them with us.”
Pistons Guard Chauncey Billups (http://www.nba.com/playerfile/chauncey_billups/index.html)
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/images/chauncey_billups.jpg On his impressions of training camp so far:
“I think everything is good. I think everybody came back in shape and ready. From what we experience, it makes you greedy. When you experience something like that, that next time coming around it makes you that more hungry. You know that everybody is going to try to snatch that from under you now. We’re the champs but you come back to training camp and you’re really not the champs anymore. Everybody starts 0-0 now. I think everything is going good. I think everybody is in shape, we have a lot of the same plays from last year so it’s like a carry over and it’s going pretty good actually.”
On if he’s had to ‘light fires’ under guys in training camp:
“We haven’t had to. That’s the real positive part about it; that we haven’t had to do that. You’ve seen the guys yesterday. Everybody’s healthy and I think we’re going to be just as deep as we’ve always been here with our bench. Our starters remain the same so I’m looking forward to a great season.”
On if the team will prepare any differently for the preseason:
“We don’t do anything differently, we go just as hard. Honestly, we treat the preseason games kind of like the scrimmage last night. We had a pretty good practice yesterday morning and then played that and I’m sure we’ll probably be doing a lot of the same things in all of the preseason games except for, maybe, the last two. It’s more like a long day of practice.”
On what he sees in potential backups Horace Jenkins and Smush Parker:
“You have two guys that are really hungry; two guys that are really different. In Horace you have a guy who hasn’t played in the league but who is a real change-of-pace kind of guy, shifty and really, he’s a scorer. I was talking to him, you know I can counsel people now, just telling him that “you have to make plays and the ball will come back around to you.” With this team scoring doesn’t matter because you’re always going to get opportunities so I’m just trying to tell him to make plays right now. He hasn’t been in a situation like this. He’s always been that guy who just comes in and scores and do what he has to do. In Smush, you have a guy who’s been in the league. He’s been out of the league and I think that makes him a lot hungrier and he’s playing well too. He’s a guy who’s 6’4”, real long and he’s making plays for people too. They’re both playing really well right now.”
On the challenge of point guards learning to play in coach Larry Brown’s system:
“It’s tough. All those guys who played in the Olympics found that out this summer. Not anybody can play for Larry. You have to have thick skin, you have to make some sacrifices and be unselfish. After all that, you’re playing the point guard position and that’s the toughest position out there. That’s a tough position for both of those guys (Jenkins and Parker) to be in. We’ll see what happens but both of those guys are playing really hard right now. We have Lindsey (Hunter), he’s playing really well right now. He’s happy to be back and he’s hungry too so we’ll see how it all comes down.”
On the team being on the same page from the start of the season:
“The thing that I’m so excited about is that we do have most of the same guys and we don’t have to go through that learning curve. We’ll go through some phases where we’re not going to be playing so great. We’re not going to win every game so we’re going to have some up-and-down times but we don’t have to go through those long stretches. I think last year we started off 16-13 and I don’t see that happening with what we know now and how we know each other as a team now.”
“We’ll probably have a shoot-around. It will a little more strenuous I imagine, a little more up and down than we would because we play that night. I’m not worried about the game as much as being prepared when we start the season. But tomorrow, I have to put in some zone because we might see zone. We haven’t done that, so we’ll have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to do that. When you go into a game, you want to be prepared for some of the things you might see and we haven’t done any of that.”
On how training camp has been going after first week:
“You never know until you play somebody else. I don’t know where we are. A lot of my friends have been calling me. It seems like a lot of other teams are doing things faster than we are maybe. I’m not going to worry about that. I think we’ve addressed the things we need to do now. I’m conscious to not get anybody hurt and wearing people down. I asked Chauncey and a bunch of them today, it seems like it is going smooth, and I am wondering if they’re not working hard, and they said they’re not stopping. There’s not a lot of standing around and they’re doing something all of the time. They think the learning curve is better because they’re more familiar. I said we got a lot of young kids and new people and they said, ‘It just seems like we’re doing it at a quicker pace because people understand’.”
On Billups’ leadership thus far in camp:
“I just watch him and Rip and Tayshaun and the guys we have that are coming back, they all seem like they’re more involved, more vocal and more encouraging to the other kids and they’re working hard. They don’t take any time off. They don’t miss a practice, they don’t miss a drill and it starts with them.”
On Horace Jenkins:
“He’s really tentative right now, which is not good. It is a new situation and he’s asked to do a lot of things and maybe it’s been different, but he’ll be fine. I find it to hard to really tell a lot until you start playing against other people. The most conscientious guys are the ones that struggle and he’s really conscientious. He’s trying to do everything right and he’s just going to have to play. He’ll be fine.”
On playing the young kids on Wednesday:
“I can’t see playing Darko and Terrence (Shannon) if they’re not able to practice. I can’t imagine them recovering enough. Dupree and Delfino, Horace, Smush, Nigel, I would hope that they all get to play because one, you want to expose them as much as you can and two, hopefully somebody can see these guys and maybe we can find out. Maybe there’s a place for them with us.”
Pistons Guard Chauncey Billups (http://www.nba.com/playerfile/chauncey_billups/index.html)
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/images/chauncey_billups.jpg On his impressions of training camp so far:
“I think everything is good. I think everybody came back in shape and ready. From what we experience, it makes you greedy. When you experience something like that, that next time coming around it makes you that more hungry. You know that everybody is going to try to snatch that from under you now. We’re the champs but you come back to training camp and you’re really not the champs anymore. Everybody starts 0-0 now. I think everything is going good. I think everybody is in shape, we have a lot of the same plays from last year so it’s like a carry over and it’s going pretty good actually.”
On if he’s had to ‘light fires’ under guys in training camp:
“We haven’t had to. That’s the real positive part about it; that we haven’t had to do that. You’ve seen the guys yesterday. Everybody’s healthy and I think we’re going to be just as deep as we’ve always been here with our bench. Our starters remain the same so I’m looking forward to a great season.”
On if the team will prepare any differently for the preseason:
“We don’t do anything differently, we go just as hard. Honestly, we treat the preseason games kind of like the scrimmage last night. We had a pretty good practice yesterday morning and then played that and I’m sure we’ll probably be doing a lot of the same things in all of the preseason games except for, maybe, the last two. It’s more like a long day of practice.”
On what he sees in potential backups Horace Jenkins and Smush Parker:
“You have two guys that are really hungry; two guys that are really different. In Horace you have a guy who hasn’t played in the league but who is a real change-of-pace kind of guy, shifty and really, he’s a scorer. I was talking to him, you know I can counsel people now, just telling him that “you have to make plays and the ball will come back around to you.” With this team scoring doesn’t matter because you’re always going to get opportunities so I’m just trying to tell him to make plays right now. He hasn’t been in a situation like this. He’s always been that guy who just comes in and scores and do what he has to do. In Smush, you have a guy who’s been in the league. He’s been out of the league and I think that makes him a lot hungrier and he’s playing well too. He’s a guy who’s 6’4”, real long and he’s making plays for people too. They’re both playing really well right now.”
On the challenge of point guards learning to play in coach Larry Brown’s system:
“It’s tough. All those guys who played in the Olympics found that out this summer. Not anybody can play for Larry. You have to have thick skin, you have to make some sacrifices and be unselfish. After all that, you’re playing the point guard position and that’s the toughest position out there. That’s a tough position for both of those guys (Jenkins and Parker) to be in. We’ll see what happens but both of those guys are playing really hard right now. We have Lindsey (Hunter), he’s playing really well right now. He’s happy to be back and he’s hungry too so we’ll see how it all comes down.”
On the team being on the same page from the start of the season:
“The thing that I’m so excited about is that we do have most of the same guys and we don’t have to go through that learning curve. We’ll go through some phases where we’re not going to be playing so great. We’re not going to win every game so we’re going to have some up-and-down times but we don’t have to go through those long stretches. I think last year we started off 16-13 and I don’t see that happening with what we know now and how we know each other as a team now.”