Mark Daigneault | Minnesota Timberwolves | Mar. 09, 2022
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00:00 Coach, we'll start with questions from the room,
00:03 and then we'll take it to the Zoom.
00:04 Go ahead, questions from the room, please.
00:07 Coach, obviously they got hard to talk early on.
00:09 [Indistinct]
00:11 Yeah, I mean, I thought there was a lot we could control.
00:21 I thought we left our feet a lot
00:22 and put ourselves in disadvantages against a team
00:24 that, you know, plays well when you give them an advantage.
00:27 Beasley obviously saw a couple go in early,
00:30 and then it's hard to turn a guy like that off
00:33 when he's playing with that kind of confidence.
00:34 So, you know, credit them.
00:36 They played really well, but, you know,
00:37 certainly plenty that we could have controlled tonight.
00:39 They obviously got to the free throw line
00:41 a lot in the first half,
00:42 but that was almost barely shut off in the second.
00:44 What adjustments did you make in that second half
00:47 to slow that out of the count?
00:48 Yeah, I thought we were a little sharper,
00:50 especially in the third.
00:51 We kind of lost a little bit of a grip there at the end,
00:53 but third quarter, we were sharper defensively
00:56 all the way around.
00:57 Earlier to our stuff,
00:58 I thought we were a little more disciplined on the ball,
01:00 and so it was harder for them to generate advantages,
01:03 whereas in the first half, I thought, you know,
01:05 obviously it was easy for them to do that.
01:07 So we were a little better.
01:08 We made improvements out of halftime, but, you know,
01:10 got to do it way more consistently
01:12 to beat a team like this.
01:13 And then career night for Aaron.
01:16 He's always capable of off at the end,
01:18 but what stuck out to you in terms of his defense?
01:23 Yeah, I mean, like his other bigger scoring games
01:26 this season, you know, I'm impressed by the fact
01:28 that it just comes out of the flow
01:29 of what we're trying to do.
01:31 So when he has a night like this,
01:32 it's not like he's doing anything,
01:35 you know, outside of his game.
01:37 You know, he just plays a simple game.
01:39 Tonight he shot good open catch and shoot shots,
01:42 drove simple plays, you know, passed the ball pretty well
01:45 on some of the secondary playmaking opportunities.
01:48 And he's shot, you know, good shots for a good stretch now,
01:51 and it hasn't seen as many go in as he did early,
01:53 so it was good to see him make a couple tonight.
01:56 You talked about, you know,
01:57 some -- that you can control some of the defensive stuff
02:00 better, like we could see,
02:01 but, I mean, is it -- is it hard for you as an approach
02:05 to treat some of these things when you're practicing
02:07 so many guys and you don't find that it's like a --
02:12 I mean, all that stuff is, you know, excuses are excuses
02:17 because there's accuracy to them,
02:20 you know what I mean?
02:21 And, you know, we want to develop a mentality
02:23 of not having excuses and focusing on what we can control
02:27 and continuing to hold high standards
02:29 regardless of who puts the uniform on, you know,
02:32 and we've done that a number of times this year,
02:34 and we've done that shorthanded a number of times,
02:36 so we're capable of much better,
02:38 and that's going to be the standard we hold the team to.
02:40 And, you know, back-to-back injuries,
02:43 whatever, you know, the reasons are, that's all true,
02:46 but at the same time, there's no sense in dwelling on it.
02:50 You know, we're going to focus on the guys that are playing,
02:52 and we're going to focus on what we can control,
02:55 and we're capable of much more, and, you know,
02:57 if we hold that standard, I think, you know,
02:59 this particular group can show that we're capable of much more.
03:02 What you said about easily denied
03:05 is the same stuff you said about Bogdanovic.
03:07 He has a high post-lipidase, 11.3.
03:09 Is there something when one guy is that hot,
03:12 like, what are you looking to do to sort of get him
03:15 off the three-point line?
03:19 I mean, it's tough because a lot of times
03:21 the advantage is created somewhere else.
03:22 You know, in the case tonight, obviously,
03:24 they started a really good offensive lineup.
03:26 You know, they've got Towns out there.
03:27 They've got Edwards out there. They've got Russell out there.
03:30 So he's not the primary line on the scouting report
03:33 and yet is able to take advantage of advantages
03:37 created by those other guys,
03:38 and so I thought that was similar
03:40 the other night with Bogdanovic, but, you know, good teams,
03:43 these are all playoff teams,
03:45 and they require you to do everything well
03:47 in order to compete with them and beat them,
03:48 and so you've got to do a great job at the point of attack,
03:52 and then you've got to do a great job
03:53 with your second and third efforts,
03:55 and those obviously have to be a little bit better
03:57 in order for us to not allow these shooters
04:00 to have these types of nights.
04:01 Sheryl is two of the teams that I...
04:04 [Indistinct]
04:09 Just that, you know, I thought, you know,
04:11 he had similar cracks that he's had,
04:14 played with a similar pace than he has.
04:15 You know, he's been finishing at a really high level.
04:18 He's been, you know, shooting the mid-range,
04:20 the little, you know, short, floating shots
04:22 and pull-ups at a really high level.
04:24 Those didn't fall as much tonight.
04:26 You know, everybody has off nights.
04:28 He's had a hell of a run.
04:30 There may be a little bit of fatigue in there, too.
04:32 You know, we've played a long stretch of games
04:35 against good opponents, and he's obviously,
04:37 you know, shoulder a large load,
04:39 but, you know, he's a guy, like I mentioned, pregame.
04:42 He always looks in the mirror.
04:43 He always comes back better, grows from these experiences,
04:45 and I doubt this would be any different.
04:48 [Indistinct]
04:51 Yep.
04:53 [Indistinct]
04:55 Is that, like, you know, a good test
04:57 to see how he comes back from that
04:58 or to sort of go through some of the first two?
05:02 Yeah, I mean, he's obviously, you know,
05:04 if you're going to start in an NBA game,
05:06 you're going to have a tough matchup,
05:07 and, you know, that's a good taste for him.
05:09 We view all these guys kind of in a longer, bigger picture,
05:14 and so good opportunity for him to learn,
05:16 you know, from the experience of starting.
05:18 I'm not sure that's his role long-term,
05:20 but, like, it's a good little test for him,
05:22 and then, you know, I think he got up 10 threes,
05:25 and, you know, that's one thing.
05:27 When you've got a guy like him,
05:28 you want somebody that's capable of finding those shots,
05:30 and the fact that he found 10 of them
05:33 is a more sustainable skill, so to speak,
05:36 than, like, whether or not he makes two
05:38 or whether he makes three, four, or five.
05:39 You know, like, he's a good enough shooter.
05:41 If he's shooting 10 shots,
05:42 he's probably going to make four or five on most nights.
05:45 Tonight, he only made two of them,
05:47 but we like the fact that if you play him 27 minutes,
05:49 he can find 10 threes, and that's a skill in and of itself,
05:53 and he's, you know, like I said before,
05:55 doing a nice job of running, spacing,
05:57 and playing off of our movement.
06:01 Anyone else in the room?
06:03 Okay, nothing on the Zoom.
06:04 Great. Thank you.
06:06 Bring players next.