Mark Daigneault | Pelicans Post-Game | Nov 10, 2021
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00:00 We're going to start with questions in the room,
00:02 then we will go to the Zoom.
00:04 Coach, they threw a really big punch there
00:06 in the fourth quarter.
00:07 What did you think of your group and the way
00:08 you guys were able to hold on there and cut out?
00:12 I mean, it was obviously a little ugly,
00:14 but we stuck with it.
00:17 Got some stops, got some big rebounds there down the stretch.
00:21 We got to learn our lessons of 48 minutes
00:23 when you're holding the lead leg.
00:25 You got to stay aggressive, but also with intelligence.
00:30 So there's lessons in the game.
00:32 I give the second unit there a lot of credit, though.
00:34 That's what opened up the game.
00:35 It gave us a cushion that gave us a margin for error
00:39 down the stretch.
00:40 So those guys, after having a rough first half,
00:43 responded well and really opened the game up for us.
00:45 And that was a real positive.
00:49 Blue has been attacking the bucket all season long.
00:53 How does that offer such an efficient night tonight?
00:58 Happy for him.
00:59 Not surprised, though.
01:01 He's a very young player.
01:02 He's got a body of work now.
01:04 And we've seen him have ups and downs.
01:06 And he's a resilient guy.
01:08 He just keeps competing.
01:10 So we knew he'd break through at some point.
01:13 But yeah, happy for him because he struggled a little bit
01:15 shooting the ball from the field to start the season.
01:19 And I thought he got on track tonight.
01:21 He was huge.
01:22 He made those three big free throws late.
01:24 So he was huge, huge for us tonight.
01:26 I feel like the same thing you talked about last game,
01:29 but Mike is a big off the bat.
01:32 He's been talking there to finish the stuff.
01:35 What would you suggest?
01:37 Similar.
01:38 He's always ready, which is a luxury with the way
01:41 we're using him right now.
01:43 We're really trying to weaponize those bigs for advantages
01:49 that we can find in the game.
01:51 And we wouldn't be able to do that
01:54 if there wasn't just a professional readiness
01:56 by all of them.
01:57 And every time we've called on them,
02:00 they've been ready to play, all four of them, really.
02:04 But yeah, he was big again tonight.
02:06 He gave us really good minutes.
02:07 That second unit that I mentioned,
02:09 he wasn't in that in the first half.
02:11 He was in there in the second half
02:12 to really kind of stabilize it.
02:13 Made some shots, but also, as you said,
02:15 handled balance shoots pretty well,
02:17 which is a physical task.
02:19 So he continues to be ready to call his number.
02:23 I want to ask about the defensive performance.
02:24 Hold them under 98 points, under 40% rebounds.
02:27 What did you see throughout the game on that defensive play?
02:31 Pretty good.
02:32 Pretty sharp, I thought.
02:34 I thought we mixed coverages in the game,
02:36 and we adjusted to that well.
02:39 I thought the physicality on the glass
02:43 left something to be desired in that second unit
02:45 in the first half.
02:46 But other than that, I thought we
02:49 were ready to go from the jump.
02:51 Closed the first half really well.
02:55 I thought we defended most of the night.
02:56 I thought some of our issues in the second half,
02:58 especially, were offensive.
03:00 Trey got to play 14 minutes a night.
03:01 What did you think of that?
03:04 Ready to play.
03:04 I thought he was pretty good.
03:05 In the first half, that whole unit really wasn't--
03:08 they were just on their heels.
03:09 And I thought that was--
03:11 New Orleans was taking it to us there.
03:12 And I really challenged those guys at halftime.
03:15 And when we subbed back in our starting unit,
03:17 gave us a really good third quarter.
03:19 And then I really challenged those guys
03:20 to start the fourth and at halftime
03:22 to get themselves going and not tiptoe into the game.
03:26 And to their credit, him, Poku, Giddy was in that unit tonight,
03:29 Mike, and K. Rich.
03:31 They responded really, really well
03:33 and opened the game up, like I said, in the fourth quarter.
03:37 What way did you get a handle on the game
03:39 in the first half?
03:42 Yeah, I mean, I thought--
03:45 I didn't think him or Shea really
03:47 had their fastball tonight.
03:50 And they still are-- they're good players when they don't.
03:53 I mean, I think that's the--
03:56 and I say this as a compliment to Josh,
03:58 but I think tonight was closer to his floor than his ceiling.
04:01 I didn't think he played great for what he's capable of.
04:04 And yet, he was very impactful.
04:06 He was on the glass.
04:07 He made great passes, obviously.
04:10 He helps you down the stretch, control the game.
04:13 And Shea as well.
04:14 I didn't think Shea had a really good night relative
04:16 to what he's capable of.
04:19 And yet, he still finds ways to impact the games.
04:22 And that's what good players do.
04:24 They have good, bad days.
04:27 I think you had a little weird there in that second quarter.
04:30 They were called for five seconds [INAUDIBLE]
04:33 stretch.
04:35 How did that affect the game?
04:39 Oh, it's five points, which is insignificant.
04:43 But just the state of the game, I mean,
04:45 it was all against them, obviously.
04:47 But it seemed to be--
04:51 Yeah, I mean, I thought our guys showed great competitive
04:54 maturity in that stretch.
04:56 It was between them and the refs.
04:58 And so our guys didn't get distracted by it.
05:01 Our guys didn't get swept into it.
05:05 They called the techs.
05:06 We went to the free throw line, marched up there, made them.
05:09 And didn't really take our eye off the ball in there.
05:11 And I think that's a sign of a mature team
05:13 and a competitive team, really.
05:14 It's not-- competing is not just about banging your head
05:17 against the wall.
05:18 It's about understanding what the moment requires.
05:21 And I thought our team did a really good job of that
05:23 in that stretch.
05:25 Anyone else in the room?
05:26 [INAUDIBLE]
05:35 Yeah, I thought the way that we closed the third,
05:38 for sure, and then with the way we started the fourth,
05:42 I thought, like I said, that second unit went in there,
05:44 really played well.
05:45 And the starting unit, I know Doric, Paisley, and Shea
05:47 played the whole third quarter because they
05:49 were going really good there down the stretch.
05:51 I thought we just had great rhythm.
05:52 We were getting stops.
05:53 We were getting out and running.
05:54 We were passing the ball to each other,
05:56 generating really good looks.
05:57 Even when we weren't scoring, we were getting great shots.
06:01 So yeah, I mean, that 10 to 12 minute period
06:04 from the middle of the third to the stretch of the fourth
06:08 opened the game up and gave us, like I said,
06:10 a huge margin for error.
06:12 To be not as sharp as we're probably
06:13 capable of down the stretch, but that certainly
06:16 opened the game up one game for us.
06:19 All right.
06:19 Then we're going to go to the Zoom.
06:21 Gary Ramsey, you have a question?
06:23 Yeah, Coach.
06:25 Went too long ago, we were not expecting
06:27 Doric to do some of the things he's doing offensively.
06:30 Now it seems like he's a guy that can absolutely
06:33 carry you guys like he did tonight offensively for sports.
06:37 What are your expectations of him in game plans nowadays?
06:41 Do you expect him to carry a heavy bit of that offense
06:44 and just it's almost a disappointing night
06:46 when he doesn't?
06:47 I would say that he's obviously an elite defensive player,
06:56 which means that not only now, but as we project forward,
07:00 he's going to be right in the thick of the fight.
07:03 And when you've got a guy like that,
07:06 you want them to be a confident threat offensively.
07:10 If they're just a defensive specialist
07:12 and they're not confident offensively
07:14 and they're not aggressive and they're not
07:16 a threat to the opponent, then it puts you in dilemmas.
07:20 You have to choose between offense and defense.
07:23 So developmentally, one thing that we want to really do
07:27 is tap into his confidence and aggressiveness.
07:29 He scored a lot in college.
07:31 He scored a lot in the G League before he
07:33 started playing with us.
07:34 And he's capable of scoring.
07:36 And we don't want to take the edge off of that.
07:40 We want him to learn how to do it efficiently
07:42 and do it inside of the team, just like everybody else.
07:44 But if we can have him on the court guarding the best
07:49 players and on the offensive end, he's a threat
07:51 and the other team has to worry about him, that only opens up
07:54 the offense and makes him the legitimate two-way player.
07:56 I didn't think we learned anything new about that tonight.
07:59 I just think he got off to a rough start this season.
08:02 But he showed flashes of that last year.
08:04 He showed flashes of that his first year.
08:06 And we have a lot of confidence in him offensively.
08:10 All right.
08:10 Thank you, Coach.
08:11 We'll bring players next.
08:13 Oh, go ahead, Joe.
08:14 Last question.
08:16 [INAUDIBLE]
08:17 --playing tonight and struggling offensively.
08:19 Is it trying to give him a reset or [INAUDIBLE]??
08:25 I mean, you can't play everybody.
08:26 And we've got a lot of guys that we want to take looks at.
08:31 Trey went to the blue.
08:33 And we liked what that looked like, especially defensively.
08:36 He went there with a sense of purpose competitively.
08:39 And we wanted to plug him back in.
08:42 Trey will end up back with the blue at some point, I'm sure.
08:45 Tao will end up with the blue at some point.
08:49 Like I said before, there's a new normal because of last year
08:53 with the blue.
08:54 A lot of young players, minutes are paramount.
08:57 We need to get guys opportunities to play.
08:59 And if it's not here, it needs to be there.
09:02 But we don't want to lock ourselves into really anything
09:05 right now because there's so much exploration
09:07 that we can take advantage of with the team.
09:09 And so we obviously planned on that going in.
09:12 And things will continue to shift around
09:16 so that we can look at guys in a lot of different situations.
09:19 And the other thing it does is, as much
09:22 as it seems fluid for those guys,
09:24 it forces the stable rotation players.
09:26 It forces Shea and Dort and Baisley and Giddy.
09:30 It forces those guys to be able to adapt to who they're
09:33 playing with as well and puts them in stressful situations
09:36 in that way.
09:37 So we think there's a lot of benefits to it.
09:40 And you're going to see us continue to move it around.
09:42 And like I said, it's usually never an indictment
09:44 on the guy that's not playing.
09:46 It's usually either an opportunity or a reward
09:48 for the guy that is.
09:50 All right, thank you, Coach.
09:51 Players next.
09:52 Players next.
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