Media Availability: Wes Unseld Jr., Corey Kispert, and Daniel Gafford | 12/27/23

Media Availability: Wes Unseld Jr., Corey Kispert, and Daniel Gafford | 12/27/23

What do you think the difference was in this game um you know I think some of the same issues popped up you know obviously the the transition piece um handful of those are turnovers of course um the offensive rebounding you know been an area of the last couple games of course

It bothered us and you know no excuse obviously back toback is always hard and it’s a very physical aggressive team makes it a little a little bit more difficult how can you guys guard against sort of running out of gas or whatever you would call it on the second night of

Back Tob backs well I don’t know if it’s uh if it’s just that I think sometimes the you know you miss shots and we missed a ton of of pretty good looks um some of those turn into run outs and transition opportunities but I thought last night we showed a little bit you

Know more resilience to that um you can have nights like that where you come out a little flat but um I think if you look at back at the stretch of games prior to these last two you know I think it’s been um you know turning in a better

Direction you know with our our overall disposition uh the activity um and I think it’s it’s tough you know you integrating reintegrating rather you a handful of new guys trying to figure out how to rebalance and and get guys back into the fold um and it’s going to take

A you know a little bit of time to kind of re acclimate Wes I I don’t don’t mean to be obvious but they were really efficient in um capitalizing on turnovers and and second chance points is that the type of thing that’s just going to happen when their offense is

Operating pretty efficiently overall or I mean it’s the strength of that team so I mean we knew that you know ball security and value possession would would be key um and obviously you don’t want to turn the ball over but uh when you do you got to find a way to show a

More resilience to those turnovers um and often times they got behind us you know and those turned into layups and dunks um also wanted to ask you’re taking a little longer after games um this season I’m wondering if that’s something you guys are doing where you’re talking a guys or going over

Things or if there’s more kind of analytics involved postgame now um a little bit of everything and I’m just taking my time making you guys wait a little bit Wes what’s your sense on uh the morale in the locker room after a game like after this game um I would assume

Frustration disappointment you know those would be natural uh reactions um you know I don’t think it’s you know an issue of you know Buy in or it’s just more the in the- moment frustration when things don’t go well and you know you try to put effort into something and it doesn’t pan

Out coach for a team and for a coach like yourself who really harped on playing fast with pace and transition over the offseason playing against a team like Toronto that does the same thing playing really fast and them having outscored the Wizards um heavily in transition tonight is it a challenge

To overcome that when a team kind of plays your same style I don’t think so I mean we we saw we had a lot of success against Indiana and playing the same way and they’re they’re a team that’s probably in the top three as well in that category

Um the biggest key was I think the turnovers now you know it’s the type of transition opportunities you get uh if you’re not getting shots to the rim vers you know you’re getting quality looks um and A team’s taking the ball out of net and pushing and attacking U we’ve had

Success doing both but when you turn the ball over I think it you know just complicates things quite a bit what would you make of Denny’s defense not just tonight but over the last let’s say two weeks or so I think in general pretty good you know I think he’s done a

Pretty good job of not fouling um we’ve asked him along with some other guys to um you know guard different different matchups you know guarding those quick Shifty guards is a lot different than guarding you know like uh two wings like we saw last night so it’s a different

Feel um so finding that um you know that that Cadence of where you’re steady no matter who you’re guarding but understanding the strength of each individual player um that looks different sometimes from night to night you guys got out read bounded by 19 tonight have been outrebounded in

Most of the games the season is that do due to just a lack of size or lack of boxing out like what goes into that I mean some of it is you know um you know we’re under sized a little bit but and I think it’s just a mindset as well um you

Know we can’t afford to ball watch and I think at times we do um you know it’s doing your work early kind of reading the Flight of the ball there’s a number of things that go into it but um it’s been an issue and it’s something that we’re aware of something

That you know we harp on um and there’s no um schematics to boxing out you know there’s individual technique but there’s not a of course you can do box out drills and things like that you know and it’s something that we’re we work on at

Times but um it’s just got to be more of a shifted mindset that this is a priority and with G leaving tonight’s game you envision any changes to the back end of that front cour you know anyone stepping up or coming in uh we’ll

See how um he shakes out a little bit of you know back tightness so spasms I’m sorry um so we’ll see I don’t I don’t foree it being anything substantial last time out where you you were red hot in the first half and didn’t get the ball

As much in the second half how hard is it to get back into the mental flow of things uh tonight one game one day yeah I mean that’s just the way the game goes sometimes it’s the way life goes um you you have a great half and the second

Half could be completely different and you know tonight it flip-flopped you know didn’t didn’t do much in the first half of tonight’s game and turned it on in the second so um doesn’t really matter uh it’s our job to stay locked in the whole game and matter what so um

First half second half you know whole game no game it’s my job to be as locked in as possible for as long as I can you got another pretty cool dunk tonight and I know that back door Cuts has been like maybe an underrated aspects of your game

But is it something that you’re trying to develop in your game just throwing it down when you get into the paint like that yeah yeah um trying to be much more of a like a visible athlete this year I’ve kind of always had it but I never showed it so Taking My Chances

To put that on display um this year and you know when you go to the rim with that kind of force people start challenging you less and less um and it dunk one of the most high percentage shots you can have so I’m going try to

Do as much as possible yeah people are saying you’re not sneaky athletic anymore you’re just athletic just athletic how did you like uh being miked up oh it was good you kind of forget about as the game goes along you kind of just sometimes remember like oh I got a

Mic in my in my pocket or my jersey but um hopefully they got some good audio um hopefully got some they got some stuff that that they could use and happy to help yeah you had a really good first half yesterday 15 points a couple of times this year you’ve had really strong

First halfs you haven’t done as well in the second half what can you do to improve you know when they zero in on you in the second half to kind of break through um I mean there’s there’s little things I can touch up here and there I

Mean obviously making shots is a big deal I don’t think I made a shot in the second half last night took a few attempts but um um you know it’s I’m I’m not a I’m not one of the first couple options on this team and um that’s been

Clear um since the very beginning since started playing games and so when I get hot and I start making you know making shots making an impact um it’s almost time for the other guys to step in and take advantage of that you know teams aren’t helping off of me as much and

That gives tus and Jordan and CZ chances to drive but um but also when I do heat up um start making a bunch of shots it’s on me to be as aggressive as possible as as as much as possible and um taking advantage of that because teams tend to

Um make really really big adjustments when I get going so um just got to be more aggressive be more intentional and Hunt more shots you mentioned not being one of the primary options on this team Wes said yesterday that you and Gaff are one of the best on the team at creating

Opportunities for yourself even when plays aren’t necessarily run for you how are you guys able to create those opportunities you know just off regular action and not being you know setting back screens and consistently trying to get you guys open yeah um it’s an art it’s an art to score without any plays

Being drawn for you and that’s kind of the role that I’ve had in this league for a couple years now and um I know it’s going to help me in the long run uh as my role grows here um as the years go on um but yeah you have to be really

Sneaky you have to screen hard you got to run run the floor in transition collect offensive rebounds little things like that help you um put together big nights when you’re you know not a focal point of the offense that we’re trying to run so um I’m really proud of how

I’ve evolved my game in that aspect um you know when things when when shots are um actions aren’t kind of handed to me it’s a it’s a good thing to have in your back pocket what do you think gave them the edge tonight uh level of physicality

Um all in all you know they came out with a level of aggress aggressiveness that I feel like caught us by surprise um you know point of emphasis tonight was just like the transition piece um offensive rebounding so like I said the physicality piece is something that we

Should have you know I would say be better at and you know I take pride in that because you know trying to come out and set the tone in those areas I felt like I lacked in that area tonight so and just the transition piece it was

Just like a level of communication I think we lacked in too C said they did a really good job of kind of hunting the matchups that they wanted um what’s the key to countering that um guard your yard you know if you feel that they’re

Trying to I would say put you in a match up that they want at the end of the day you just have to you know pretty much just step up to the plate you know it’s a lot of teams out here that’ll try to find certain

Matchups at the end of the day that’ll try to get us you know on our heels and put us in a position to where we have to scramble but that’s just pretty much any team in the league every team in the league does that to each team and down

The stretch we just have to find ways to adjust to it Gaff over the last like 10 or so games maybe um you’ve seen an uptick in a lot of your numbers offensively defensively um what do you think has led to some of your consistency in production um just how

Hard I work you know I come in every day and I try to just make myself better in the areas that I lack in on a day-to-day basis I try to really just hold myself accountable and to put myself in position to where I can succeed and with

That being said I just come in and it’s just like a regular 9 to5 that’s how I treat it you know I come in and I put my head down and I go to work for sure what are some of the if you can point to any

Specifics what are some of the areas that you’ve seen yourself improve on most whether it’s from you know your time your first game here as a wizard T now um in all honesty for sure just you know my physicality I felt like that I took a major leap in that area you know

So more so just any other game besides tonight I felt like that I’ve actually taken a step up to actually just show just like what I’m capable of out there on the floor you know I do have my lapses time to time of course you know

But at the end of the day like I’m going to make up for for my mistakes and I’m going to make up you know just pretty much anything that we’re lacking at the end of the day you know I try to be the energy guy I want to be the anchor of

The defense and I just want to be in the position to where it can help us win games I saw you taking some threes in pregame you had a mid-range today um is that something you’ve been exploring you know adding that that jumper into your game to kind of stretch the floor yeah

Most defin you know whenever the time comes and the ball is in my hand and those situations I want to be ready for it so really just being consistent and working on those things is helping me get comfortable in those situations uh and then you you have your clothing

Brand you recently dropped he talked me a about the the Christmas drop that you guys had with the landlord brand oh yeah um this is the second drop that we’ve had the first drop was great and just pretty much just piggybacking off of the first drop we just want to keep it going

You know getting the merch out and just doing as much as we can to just get a bunch of landlord stuff to everybody everybody’s a landlord in their own way you know thank you g would you say this last handful of games is the most consistent stretch of your career

Yeah most def I mean just mentally physically emotionally everything I just kind of I felt like that I’m actually just a little bit more locked in with everything and I just kind of push myself I hold myself accountable and I tell the coaches and I tell my teammates

I’m just like push me as much as y’all can because once y’all push me that’ll put me in the mindset of pushing myself because you know I have guys behind me that are helping me out and I want to be able to do the same thing for them so I

Return to favor so that’s just one of the main things with it rebounding has been a major point of emphasis for a lot of this season um when you sit and the team doesn’t grab as many rebounds are you on the bench thinking like I need to

Get back into this game to grab some boards yeah of course but at the end of the day I try to be a good teammate you know everybody gets frustrated when it comes to just like the offensive rebounds but at the end of the day we just can’t stray away from each other

You know I can always come out and be like I need to be back in the game I need to do this I need to do that but I can also motivate people too so when it comes to that you know instead of just getting in my own head like dang I

Should be back in the game I should be out there you know I try to motivate guys that’s the main thing because frustrations do happen and it’s a lot of times where most guys are out of position most guys you know don’t put theirself in position do go for

Rebounds so when it comes to them coming to the sidelines whether it’s a timeout coming out of the game just talking to them you know got to get on the glass got to do this got to do that we got to Make a Better Effort in this area that

Those are some of the things that I’m trying to grow in to be able to kind of like push guys how they push me being a quote unquote undersized Center being 610 um does that put a chip on your shoulder just to be out there be more gritty die

For loose Balls stuff like that yeah most def I’m from Arkansas you know Nitty Gritty I was I I was raised in the trenches and you know that’s just my mindset now you know just being having just like that mentality going out and accepting the challenge that’s in front

Of you you know you really can’t just back down from anything because at the end of the day you’re on the floor you get thrown in the fire you’re not going to cool off no time soon

Coach Unseld, Corey Kispert, and Daniel Gafford spoke to the media following Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors at Capital One Arena.

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