Pat Spencer will hopefully stay in a short-spurt role
[vids/interviews/transcripts/commentary]
Here were my closing statements on the latest “honest recap” of the Lakers-Warriors game:
16:27 I had some nitpicky things on Pat (Spencer). He would hit a left banker, so credit him to make a bucket before the night was over, but a swing pass to Seth (Curry) deflected out of bounds by Bronny (James). Looking at (Charles) Bassey inside, doesn’t pass it to him. Bassey has his man sealed. Those aren’t plays that resulted in points for the Lakers, but I’d like to see basketball played the right way and when there’s guys who are supposed to score out there, you gotta get those guys the ball.
16:56 Pat doesn’t really know how to do that. He does look unselfish a lot of times. He does look around, but it’s almost like looking around to make the right play than finding the right guy. He’s a good system player and you do need to run the right play when Steph (Curry) is out there. Of course, anytime Steph comes back, everybody’s gonna play better, (De’Anthony) Melton included, but when you’re just a point guard and an inability to actually execute playing the position, no matter who you have out there, you gotta go off script sometimes and just get the ball to somebody who’s probably gonna score for you in that moment in time and he can’t process that.
17:33 Maybe he’s been trained to a point where you lose some of that because the whole Steph ecosystem isn’t bulletproof. When Steph is not in the ecosystem, it is so vulnerable and so not talented, so not athletic, and of course we’re completely decimated with injuries. But when you’re trying to find the pieces around Steph, you go out and you get a Pat, you go out and you get a (Brandin Podziemski), a Gui (Santos). Those guys are good complements, but if we’re playing pickup, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t want Pat Spencer as my point guard. I don’t see any of the traditional point guard instincts. Yeah, throwing him under the bus a little bit.
18:12 I do appreciate his grit, his being available, once again playing 38 minutes, 40 the other night. I do appreciate that.
I prefer size, so I would actually waive Spencer on the last day of the season this Sunday and replace him with Nate Williams, who incidentally had a bad game and the picture above of Steve Kerr sinking in his chair is after one of Williams’ turnovers, roll into the Play-in and potentially more with an athletic wing and, of course, Bassey, who per SpoTrac has signed a rest-of-season contract. One of those three will not be eligible for the playoffs.
Below are the transcripts and videos from the loss to the Lakers, including Kerr, Bassey and Podziemski. Imo Podz is once again too over-confident in his assessment of both the Trail Blazers and Clippers not having as much experience than the Warriors. Let’s hope the basketball gods don’t feel like teaching him anything this time around:
00:00 Steve, what’s the word on LJ?
00:02 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME LAL-GSW: Sprained ankle. Sprained it pretty badly, but his foot is in a nice path right now and we’ll know more tomorrow.
00:11 Charles Bassey, he had another double-double. What do you make of the opportunities he’s creating for himself right now?
00:15 He’s played really well for us. We told him we had plenty of minutes for him when we signed him and that’s why he came. He wanted to play and he’s doing a great job, very active on the glass and nice scoring touch in the paint. He’s been very impressive.
00:34 It’s obviously been a pretty adverse couple months for y’all. Just with —
00:40 I’m sorry?
00:40 It’s obviously been a very adverse couple months with injuries, everything, losses. Sounds like you’ll get a large chunk of the rotation back tomorrow. Obviously, we know what’s ahead next week. Does this feel like a little bit of, here we go?
00:54 It does, yeah. Yeah, we obviously — we’ve been through the ringer here over the last six, eight weeks, but we’re in a position where we have a chance to get into the playoffs. We’ve got some guys who are getting healthy have a chance to hopefully put together a game tomorrow where we have what our roster would look like for the Play-in games, so tomorrow and Sunday, maybe we get a couple games to develop a little rhythm and get a swing at it. So we got some hope.
01:33 To follow on that, what do you want to see, I guess, on both sides of the ball, the next 48 hour — or the next two games?
01:38 I guess just intensity, connection defensively, talking, communicating and really being loud and being aggressive and Draymond will handle that. He’ll take care of that. And then on offense, we’ve gotta be a little cleaner. We had 19 turnovers tonight. Obviously, we put a lot of guys in some tough spots, but getting some guys back, we should be able to do a better job of taking care of the ball and executing.
02:10 Before the game, you guys honored Bert Ortiz with the Brate Award. What has he and his son meant to this organization?
02:17 Bert, Sr. and Bert, Jr., they’re amazing. The organization is basically as good as the parts, the people who are in it. And we’re really proud of the people we have at every level. And Bert has been here, really, since I got here 12 years ago with a makeshift kitchen in the Oakland facility. And he just has a smile on his face every single day, brings a lot of light to our players and he’s a really wonderful soul, so I was happy to see him receive that award. Well-deserved. He’s meant a lot to us.
03:04 Hey Steve, the other day you mentioned how Al has really kind of come out of his shell and felt more comfortable being a leader in that locker room. In a locker room with so many veterans already and a lot of leadership presence, like, what does that take? What kind of form does that take? What does that look like?
03:20 Just, you can tell when a guy’s got some wisdom, you know? Number one, the players respect the fact that he’s been in the league for 20 years, so they know he’s seen everything, but it’s the way he carries himself on and off the court, family man, very strong conviction the way he lives his life. He’s somebody all the players look up to and then he’s one of those guys who only speaks occasionally and just has a sense for saying the right thing at the right time.
03:54 Hi Steve, so with the Play-in approaching and the teams like Clippers and Blazers in the mix, so how to prepare for the different potential matchups?
04:05 Yeah, we’re trying to do some things during these games to mimic some of the coverages and some of the things we’ll see, implementing a few things here and there and we know both teams well, so we’ll be ready, but it’s really more about us and trying to find some rhythm here the next couple of games. Thank you.
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04:33 Hey Charles, another double,-double tonight. What’s been working well for you tonight, in this stint?
04:39 CHARLES BASSEY: What’s been working what?
04:40 What’s been working well for you? I mean, I’m just going out there just to play hard, man, you know? Regardless of — we know we are down bodies today, so just wanting to get a win. But, man, just going out there playing hard, maximize every opportunity I got, so that’s what I’m doing, man. Just maximize my opportunity out there and just trying to help my team win, but we know we got a loss today, so I mean, we got another opportunity tomorrow. So that’s just what I’m doing, man, just playing hard out there.
05:10 You were on the injury report this morning with an ankle issue. You played through it. How was it, though?
05:17 I mean, I’m good. I played through ankle stuff before, but I mean, they didn’t want me — they didn’t wanted me to play, but I’m like, I mean, I gotta get the minutes, man, you know? But yeah, I told them I can go, tested it this morning, came in for treatment, tested it again this afternoon and I was good to go. I told him I’m good to play because, even though they didn’t want me to play, but I was like, I was ready to play, so just leave it out there. That’s it? Appreciate you guys, man. Thank you. That’s quick.
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05:55 You’re on pace to play, I think, pretty much every game this year. What sort of that achievement mean to you, if you are able to do that?
06:01 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: It means a lot. I think I had Loon (Kevon Looney) do it my first year, Buddy (Hield) do it last year, so just to see the habits that they had and then just really finding a flow for me after my injuries last year, it just helped me just try to be available every game for the team.
06:19 Is there anything in your routine that you’ve been able to do to actually help that?
06:22 I think just being consistent, finding what works. If there’s two days between the game, if there’s one day, if it’s a back-to-back, just finding those solutions because it’s a little bit different for each, but really just finding it and sticking with it and trusting the process.
06:37 Hey Brandin, it sounds like hopefully you guys are getting some of these, some bodies back tomorrow and maybe for the last couple of games. What are you hoping to accomplish these last two games, as you guys head into the Play-in, in terms of — ?
06:50 Yeah, just put pieces together, put lineups together that work. I know the coaching staff’s mind is really just on Portland or Clippers, just because it’s who we’re gonna play, and so for these next two, it’s just really about building our principles and having everybody available and seeing what it looks like and going the Wednesday swing.
07:08 How difficult do you imagine that it’s gonna be to kind of try to create a new rotation with some guys who haven’t played together, basically at all?
07:18 It shouldn’t be too hard. I think we’ve got a lot of winners on our team, a lot of guys has won championships before and so to find that, especially in a one-game situation, I like our chances with that.
07:29 You take any extra pride just the way the season has gone for you in your availability and was it the injury situation the team has gone through?
07:36 I mean, the famous adage is the best ability’s availability, just always being there and who’s ever out there will always know that I’ll be out there with them. And yeah, I take it personal in a way, but I just enjoy hoops and love being out there playing, so I just try to be, if I can play, I play.
07:57 How do you think you’ve handled all of it?
07:59 I think it’s been cool for me having different roles throughout the year, being put in different situations, getting different opportunities and just seeing where I stack up in that regard. And I think a lot of learned lessons from it as well. And I think it’s gonna better me in my future.
08:17 Brandin, with all the bodies dropping and turnover in the roster and everything over the course of this season, in games like tonight, where do you find optimism going forward?
08:28 What you mean?
08:28 What are the things that tell you that — what are the reasons why you can be optimistic about what’s ahead?
08:34 I mean, we got Steph. I mean, that solves a lot of it, but I also think, like I mentioned earlier, we got a lot of winners. KP’s won a championship, Al’s won a championship, Steph and Dray. Then we got vets that have won championships, Gary, and so I like our chances when it comes to the one-game situation, especially a lot of guys from Portland haven’t been in the situation. Same with the Clippers. And so I think we have an advantage in that way, but it’d be — it’s gonna be interesting to see how we put it together.
09:04 You’ve been in a couple Play-in situations already. Just what do you take personally from those experiences, so far in your career?
09:08 Yeah, it’s just like a Game 7. You just lay it out all out there and just compete as much as you can and you try to do that without putting pressure on yourself and just go out there and it’s like another game, but you make sure you don’t have anything left in the tank, for sure.
09:23 Steve said you guys are already kind of implementing small stuff as it relates to Portland and the Clippers. I guess as a player, how much will you — are you already maybe like watching clips of Portland or — ?
09:35 Yeah. Big game tomorrow, too. Yeah, they play each other, so really good to see. I think it’ll be helpful for us. Just, I think — I don’t know if it depends on who wins, but if Portland wins, I assume Clippers are gonna play everybody against us on Sunday because they’re gonna need to win. And so we’ll be able to see it, we’ll be able to feel it against the Clippers on Sunday and then just go from there. Cool.
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