Mark Daigneault | Portland Trail Blazers | Arp. 05, 2022
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00:00obviously played a lot of minutes, grinded that one out on. I thought the
00:04best defense we played all night came in the last part of the game, which is
00:07really impressive and a testament to those guys on how hard they played and
00:11competed on. Then obviously got some shots fallen and got some momentum and
00:16ran through the finish line of the game.
00:19Jalen was thrust into a situation with the blue. You know, D. J. Wilson gets
00:24called up on a 10 day. Olivier gets called up on the 10 day. Suddenly he's
00:27the biggest guy on the roster has to play center your thoughts on the way
00:32that he approached that from what you understand in terms of taking what
00:35could have been adversity and turning it into an opportunity. And then you see
00:38him now he's averaging almost 15 rebounds a game since he's been with
00:42you. Um, I mean, I'm just he's pretty steady competitor. You know, like you
00:46put him out there, he's the same every night. You know, we had him last year
00:49too. And, um, he's just as consistent as they come professionally for a young
00:54guy. Um, and so he's just got a very steady energy, steady competitiveness.
00:58And when you do that, you know, you position yourself to play well and you
01:02position yourself to improve. Um, and he's certainly improved, you know, over
01:06the course of his time professionally. And he's also playing well as a result
01:09of that. So, um, happy for him. This great opportunity for him. It's the
01:13second time now that he's, you know, come out of these games with a really,
01:16really loud night. Um, and I thought he did a great job. Obviously tonight he
01:20was probably the guy that triggered that run.
01:24Paris Lawson. Okay. See thunder dot com. Wanted to ask you about Isaiah and
01:27his shot contesting tonight. Six blocks for him. Um, but a lot of those came
01:30on on jump shots as well. Just what did you think of his defensive effort in
01:33that regard? Um, I mean, we've talked about this with Basley. It's like it's
01:37hard to block jump shots. It's not something you see every night. I mean,
01:40many games can go by and you don't see a jump shot get blocked. Um, and in
01:44order to do that, you've got to have really good instincts, timing,
01:47quickness off the floor and then size and athleticism. And, you know, Isaiah
01:51has got all that. Um, obviously, so does bays. Um, and that's pretty
01:56impressive, you know, to your point that he was able to do that tonight. I
01:59thought he played a good game. He played a lot of perimeter because he saw
02:02played a lot of minutes there at the center and he did a good job. And then
02:06wanted to get your initial reaction from from your ghost and Xavier stepping
02:09into a lot of minutes tonight and giving you some some solid minutes on
02:12tonight. Yeah, I thought, I mean, those guys did a great job of just coming in
02:15and competing. You know, it's a tough situation, you know, getting signed
02:19today and playing, uh, tonight, starting playing the minutes that they
02:23played. Um, and I thought they really competed, um, as they have, you know,
02:27X is a guy that, you know, he's, he brings that that's part of his kind of
02:31ethos as a player. And, you know, he picked that right up in an NBA game
02:34tonight. I thought they both really good.
02:36Joe Masato, the Oklahoman. Mark, was there any concern playing for guys 40
02:41plus minutes tonight? Not. I mean, if there was, I'd be, um, informed of that,
02:46you know, with Donnie and stuff like that, this close to the end of the
02:49season. And these guys kind of like ready to rock. Um, not really, you know,
02:53if there was, I wouldn't have done it. Any update on your ghost? Uh, no, he's
02:57good to go. He should be fine, according to Donnie. And then look like, um, you
03:02and John C just had a, I don't know, a laugh with each other after the game.
03:06What was that conversation like? Just have to coach. I mean, those are all
03:09private, but for whatever reason, I didn't know him until this year. And, um,
03:14he comes and greets me at half court after every time. I usually kind of
03:17wave and see what the other guy wants to do. I don't really initiate. I'm not
03:20really like, uh, tenured enough to do that. Um, so good guy, you know, really
03:26good guy, obviously really good feel. Um, you know, he's doing the right
03:30things. I'm a fan of his.
03:34You just like the athletic was kind of getting those guys heavy minutes, like
03:38trying to get them like a larger sample of what these guys can do at the NBA
03:42level. I mean, we've got obviously a bunch of guys that were to the point
03:46where we don't want to like run them at the end of the season. So, um,
03:50somebody's got to play the minutes. And like I said before the game, we want
03:54to give these guys the opportunity to do that. Um, you know, they've earned
03:58it. And a lot of them are guys that don't have a large sample in the NBA,
04:01and it kind of leverages their motivation this late in the season. Um,
04:06and also allows us to, you know, take a look at them and also get some of our
04:10guys off the court in some of these games where you don't really know what
04:13you got out there, you know, so it's it's twofold there.
04:21Dean Blevins News nine coach back to the idea of draft lottery position. My
04:27question is players play. Those guys are out there looking to make a roster
04:32and make a living. Um, do you think that they feed off of the outside noise
04:37that you know that the losses are good for them? Um, I can't speak for them.
04:43I don't know what their motivations are, but they should play and they
04:48should compete and they should be motivated. And especially the guys that
04:52are not on stable footing in the NBA and the guys that most of the guys that
04:56played the game tonight for us on a lot of the guys for them are not on stable
05:00footing. And if you give somebody that's a competitor and that, like I said
05:03before the game, you know, this is their dream. If you give somebody like that
05:06an opportunity, their motivation and energy from that is gonna be high. And
05:11so that's not surprising to me at all. I don't I don't think it's more
05:14internal than external. I'd say that
05:25coach speaking about your was in this performance. What impress you most about
05:29the way he get acclimated in the team and attacking their aim from your
05:32perspective?
05:34Um, I mean, he's he's one of the guys he hasn't been in the program a lot or
05:39for a long time. So he's one of the guys I'm less familiar with. Um, some
05:43of these other guys that have come through, you know, are like kind of
05:46program guys. They've been with us for a good period of time from training
05:50camp summer league blue. Um, so I don't really know him a ton and I'm still
05:54learning him. The thing that was most impressive to me tonight is I didn't
05:57think he got off to a great start in the game and obviously played his best
06:00down the stretch. Um, and really, you know, got it going there offensively
06:04and defensively. I thought he did a really nice job on both ends of the
06:07floor. So, um, you know, when it's your first game and you want to show well
06:11and it's not going the way that you drew up early on, it takes a lot of,
06:14um, perseverance and mental fortitude to, um, kind of plow through that. And
06:19I thought he did that tonight.
06:22All right, thanks.