Mark Daigneault | Utah Jazz | Apr. 06, 2022
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00:00 All right, here is coach.
00:04 Go ahead with your questions.
00:06 Seemed like maybe in that second half,
00:08 they were able to kind of wear you down a little bit.
00:10 What were you noticing out there in the second?
00:13 I thought we were in a decent spot there.
00:15 I thought the guys really competed
00:18 and got ourselves in a decent position in the game.
00:22 The shot making at the end of the third quarter
00:24 heard us, continued into the fourth.
00:26 That's what opened the game up.
00:27 Went from 11 or 12 to 35 or 40 quickly.
00:32 And that's what they can do.
00:34 Really good shooting team.
00:35 But I thought up until that point,
00:36 there were a lot of good things.
00:37 And we just got to continue to dig in,
00:42 compete possession by possession in these last two games.
00:45 I think of Jeremiah's very first game of his NBA career
00:49 here in this building.
00:50 He wasn't kind of in your initial 10-man rotation
00:52 that night, comes into the second half,
00:55 scores 10 quickly in 13 minutes.
00:57 As you compare that version of him to now,
01:00 you seem to have some of the same type of effect
01:02 against their drop coverage and the ability
01:05 to stretch them a little bit.
01:06 Just your thoughts on kind of where he was then,
01:08 where he was now, and what he can give you.
01:11 I think the pathway for him to be an impactful NBA
01:14 player is pretty clear.
01:17 And so that's kind of who he was back then.
01:19 And now it's just a matter of kind of watering that a bit
01:23 and allowing him to become confident in that.
01:28 And that's what I'd say is the biggest difference now from then
01:30 is I think he's way more confident in his kind
01:33 of style of play.
01:35 And that for a player like him that
01:37 is kind of an ultra role player, the faster
01:40 he can get to that point, the better.
01:42 And then it's just a matter of just honing that and tweaking
01:46 the nuances of that.
01:47 And we're pretty confident in him
01:50 and what he can bring to a team.
01:52 And I thought, again, tonight he went in there
01:54 and played with a lot of confidence.
01:56 He shot it with a lot of confidence.
01:57 He was very decisive.
01:59 I really liked how he looked tonight in the minutes
02:01 that he played.
02:02 In past games, he's taken the three
02:06 or moved it on and made the next play.
02:07 Tonight he had a really nice low crossover pass,
02:10 wide side, got to a finger roll.
02:13 Is that a next step type play for him to be more dynamic?
02:17 Yeah, I think he's got to develop some sort of identity
02:20 as a finisher, even if he's at the four,
02:23 but certainly if he's at the five.
02:24 And he's undersized, obviously, especially
02:27 when he's at the five.
02:28 Guy like wide side.
02:29 So that's kind of what I'm talking about
02:31 with the nuances of his game.
02:33 He's got to figure out how to be a finisher that's
02:36 going up against size.
02:37 And you got to do with craft and angles
02:40 and being selective with it.
02:42 Not going for it when it's not there
02:43 and kind of extending the play and keeping it moving even
02:46 after you drive.
02:47 And so he's coming along.
02:49 These minutes are valuable for him.
02:52 It's a big summer for him.
02:53 And we're pretty confident he's going
02:55 to make a pretty good jump here.
02:57 Another guy that shot it with confidence,
02:58 Jalen with five threes tonight.
03:00 Just what did you think of the way that he was stepping
03:03 into those looks, having not made one in the previous two
03:06 seasons that he was in?
03:08 Yeah, I mean, he shot it with confidence tonight.
03:10 Obviously, they're a challenge because of their rim
03:13 protection.
03:14 And they had their five man on him.
03:16 And your options there are to try to make him a roller
03:21 or to space him to the perimeter and try
03:23 to stretch them out a little bit.
03:24 And we chose to do the latter.
03:25 And I thought he did a good job of not only shooting
03:28 the ones that he shot, but also keeping it moving
03:31 on the ones he didn't shoot.
03:33 And now all of a sudden, their five man's closing to him.
03:36 He moves the possession.
03:37 And their five man is now no longer in a rim protection
03:40 position.
03:41 So I thought he had a nice balance to that tonight.
03:44 He had good attack.
03:45 So he played a good game again.
03:46 And then Xavier with 11 assists tonight,
03:49 just having that opportunity, extended minutes
03:52 to run the offense, be a facilitator.
03:53 What are you seeing from him in the minutes
03:56 that he's gotten so far?
03:57 Kind of the same thing we know about him from the blue.
03:59 I mean, really good quarterback, great floor game.
04:02 You could tell he's run teams before and for a long time.
04:05 He's very comfortable in that spot
04:07 and does a great job of getting his teammates involved.
04:09 I thought he did that again tonight.
04:11 What about all three of those guys
04:13 that you had just a couple of days?
04:15 Who do you think the other two played as well?
04:18 One more, I'm sorry.
04:19 The other two new guys that you just had for a couple of days.
04:22 Frazier or GK.
04:24 Yeah, I mean, I thought Frazier, it's his first game.
04:27 So there was probably some butterflies to that.
04:30 He's a guy, I like him defensively.
04:32 I thought he did some nice things.
04:33 He's guarding Bogdanovich, which is a really tough cover,
04:36 obviously.
04:38 We've always been pretty impressed with him
04:40 on that end of the floor because he's got a physical profile.
04:43 He's got sneaky good feet.
04:44 And I thought he did some good things on that end,
04:46 offensively, not his best night.
04:47 But we've seen him play better offensively
04:49 and we expect him to be a little more comfortable.
04:51 And then GK, I thought was decent tonight,
04:54 not as good as he was the other night.
04:56 But we've got two more here to run through the finish line.
05:00 Those guys, a couple of times, two or three times,
05:02 they tried to shoot over Gobert.
05:04 That's got to be a new experience.
05:05 Yeah, less than learning.
05:06 There's not any of those guys in the G League.
05:08 And Whiteside.
05:10 I think it's a good lesson for them,
05:13 but a good lesson for our team.
05:14 We've got a lot of guys that are sitting on the sidelines that
05:17 will play for us next year.
05:18 And you have to have intelligent attacks against this team
05:21 because that's what they do to you.
05:22 They limit your options.
05:24 And then if you're kind of hasty in there with their bigs,
05:28 then it can be a really long night on the offensive end.
05:31 And that's why they're such a good defense.
05:33 Back to Jeremiah, with just two games left,
05:35 would you hope to get more playing time from him
05:38 or is it kind of a day-by-day thing?
05:39 Day-to-day.
05:40 We'll see how he's feeling.
05:41 I mean, it gets to a point with these other guys.
05:43 We've kind of extended him a little further just
05:45 because he missed so much time.
05:46 Just trying to scrape a couple of developmental
05:48 opportunities.
05:49 But we'll see what these other teams are doing,
05:51 to be honest with you.
05:52 Like tonight, I thought was a really relevant team,
05:54 even though they rested some guys.
05:55 They're obviously a really high-level team.
05:57 So it's a good look for him.
05:59 We'll see what the next two games look like,
06:01 how he feels.
06:02 We'll take it day-by-day.
06:05 Thank you, coach.
06:06 Anybody else in the room?
06:07 We got one on the Zoom, coach.
06:09 Christos.
06:09 Christos Altas, go ahead.
06:11 Coach, hope you're doing well.
06:13 What did you see on Khalid Zaki's game tonight?
06:14 He played, again, big minutes.
06:16 What did you see from him?
06:18 GK.
06:19 GK.
06:20 What did you see from GK?
06:21 Yeah, I mean, I thought he was solid again tonight.
06:24 Not as good as he was the other night.
06:27 It was back-to-back.
06:28 He obviously played a lot of minutes the other night.
06:29 I tried to get those guys' minutes down tonight,
06:31 just with the back-to-back.
06:32 Now with an off day tomorrow, they'll be able to recharge.
06:36 But I mean, got good court sense, knows how to play,
06:39 and got decent size.
06:40 I thought defensively early in the game,
06:41 he fouled, he was a little bit aggressive,
06:44 and then course-directed pretty well.
06:45 I thought he had some good defensive plays
06:47 right after those first couple with Bogdanovich.
06:50 So two more games to dive in and prove himself.
06:56 Thank you, coach.
06:56 All right, thanks.
06:57 Players next, everybody.