De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk & Coach Brown | Postgame Pressers 2.9.24

De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk & Coach Brown | Postgame Pressers 2.9.24

Hey guys after after what happened on Wednesday how good did it feel to just cleanse the pallet move forward and and have a really good win against a very good team I think it was great I think this is probably the best game that we’ve had

Um from start to finish I think we started the game the right way um I think we finished the game the right way so um obviously it doesn’t Erase Away what happened but um it’s definitely a step in the in the right direction uh Fox what could you say about Malik in

That first half especially kind of getting you guys going especially that dunk ah it’s big for us I mean I think he can start on this team he can start on a lot of teams in the league and the fact that he’s coming off the bench for

Us and doing what he’s doing um just adds another Dynamic to our team so um whenever we we come out we’re not able to score uh he definitely provides that and and with with that with playmaking and then you on the defensive end with some steals I know of late I think it’s

Three of your last five games with five more steals um what are you doing on that end and how are you answering the challenge that they gave you uh Keegan caught me still thirsty that’s what that’s he said he was like I watched The Possession and you reached like 10 times

I was like as long as you stay in position and don’t foul you’ll be you’ll be fine but like I saidan I just want to be disruptive just try to try to change the game as much as I can on on that end of the Court um you know if I’m not

Scoring find other ways to affect the game and I think uh I was able to do that at the point of attack Malik what’s what’s going on with you and uh Trey L you know bringing that energy right now in that second unit it’s been pretty consistent the last

Four or five games uh I think I feel like we’ve been doing that all year man we just picking up um picking up back where we left off um we had a few down games um but yeah we back now um and like you said we just picking everybody

Up when they down and if they not down we just try to lift the energy even more Malik um first off how how’s the ankle I’m all right all right all right and and a lot of us you know we’re not able to you know fly like the way you do

And I was just kind of wondering like what what is it like up there when you’re in the air I’ll be up there a lot man it feels [Laughter] good Malik um Daren talked about how you guys started the game so strong but it was really that final stretch over the

Last two seconds of the first quarter that seemed to change the momentum how important was TR L three your steel and three to kind of get you guys over the hump and and set on that run oh yeah man I think like you said it it set the tone

For us for the rest of the game and um I just try to bring the energy every time I step on the court and um we were just able to make a lot of things happen because we was together tonight and um we knew we could not let down cuz Denver

Will come back U they a great team championship team so we knew we had to step on their next and um we did a great job with that tonight dearn uh what you what do you think of Malik’s shoes you see those shoes is wearing for the game yeah

Kobe he under I look that I look at that you can’t comment under no I can comment but I I didn’t see you weren wear the on Kobe was around the new ones yeah oh I have no idea they were nice I I didn’t I didn’t see him he he want he

Wants to take the Nike shoes I still got why you won’t give them to me it just I don’t have the ones you want he got plenty I got fo why won’t you give Malik your Nikes was crazy honestly I haven’t even looked at which ones but I

Wore a lot of Kobe n whenever I was playing so he don’t want those okay um Sean sold you short that’s 21 steals in in five games um like you’re you’re you’re turning it up for for you know big time on that end of the floor how

How much like emphasis are you putting there are you you know you starting to Target like kind of an all defensive type season oh no but I I think those games I’m pretty sure we’ve won all those games so I think uh like I said just being able to affect affect

The game on that into the court um helps us I mean it gets us extra possessions uh when I’m able to get steals we’re able to get out in transition just be able to get easy baskets um and I think I I actually told Doug

Cuz I asked him if he had a season where he averaged two Steals and I think he said he did did it two or three times I’m like that’s that’s one goal for me that I want to be able to be one of those guys that average over two still

So um I mean it’s sort of a selfish stat and if you go for Steals and you don’t get them and kind of put yourself out of POS position uh so for me it’s picking and choosing when I’m able to do that and um like I said if I’m able to get

Him it it helps us Garner extra possessions yes the was a big win tonight but the way that deonis went up against jic just how amazing is it to watch him put up triple double double double every single night and the fact that he’s not in the All-Star game it’s

Just got to get under you guys’ skin I think I said it before man um he he a big reason why we winning and I said people sleep on sack so we just got to keep winning we keep winning uh more things to come very thing like I said

Said in the past it’s people become numb to what he’s doing like stuff’s not easy at all uh Malik just how how much was a game like tonight needed for you guys every game is needed man but um yeah definitely tonight um with how good

Denver is um it just shows where we can be at um if we really locked in um for the full game so we got to watch the film we did wrong um and just pick up on what we did the right the right the right and then finally I noticed you

Like to give Keegan Murray th thumbs down and you had that little moment after you hit that three in front of Denver bench I was just wondering if you what what the what’s behind that who me no sorry when you give Keegan thumbs down after the that’s not handshake that’s

The handshake for him just just for him though right yeah just for him yeah I got you cuz his fast breaks he he don’t be doing he do a lot of basic and his shoes are always black and white thanks for sorry about that uh mighty University of San Diego terreros were in

The house that’s where I played my college hoops they play Pacific tomorrow so uh they’re up here staying tonight and then they’ll go down to Stockton tomorrow to get that duve sorry about that UOP if it was anybody else I’d Sher for you cuz you

You you in the area but right now it’s all about the Terrero baby so uh it was great seeing them and Coach Lavin so uh man uh great performance by our guys tonight uh obviously dlas was huge with the with with the triple D 17 rebounds

10 assists 17 points uh Keegan was great um Kevin was good for us a lot of deflections um I thought our bench was fantastic you know lake has been uh really big for us off the bench uh scoring the basketball and and sharing the ball uh Dave Young was good Trey was

Huge for us he knocked down some big shots I thought Sasha came out and played really well the same with Alex so uh it was a complete team effort team effort on on on both ends of the floor and uh I just felt defensively uh our guys did a nice job

Of of flying around and um you know we we did a great job contesting shots and then finishing shots as well so really big win uh I thought Fox defensively this was probably one of his better defensive games uh and you know you’re you got a guy like Jamal Murray

Out there he’s tough for anybody but uh you know the way Fox was up into him and trying to make it difficult for him um was deserving of him getting a defensive player of the game uh he had five steals or six steals whatever it is

Five five or six Steals and had a lot of deflections so Hecker the night on the defense end of the floor from from uh uh from foxy big big night for him Mike we got to see Fox and monk out here together and sort of the joy of a

Win like this how do you bottle that and try to carry that over especially after a tough loss on Wednesday you know I told our guys I I it was real brief in there because I was I was going to see my universe San Diego terreros uh

But uh the one thing I told him I said I said man I I believe in you guys you guys have a chance to be great and you know it shouldn’t take a a loss like we had for us to lock in like we did tonight you know and so I said

It’s up to us to lock in focus on the small details and go out there and perform for 48 minutes from start to finish and if we do we’ll be happy where we are at the end of the year hey Mike oh sorry sorry um yesterday you had just mentioned that

You know there wasn’t really much of the game plan that needed to be changed because guys didn’t really do their jobs was this sort of better of a sample of what you wanted and what specifically on the defensive end did you like out of the tonight for

Sure uh this is what we’re capable of now and I’ve said this before we’re not going to play at the highest level every single time we step on the floor even if it’s against a quote unquote team that doesn’t have a good record but you could still try to play the right

Way and give the maximum effort while focusing on the little details doing the little dirty things and I thought tonight we did that for instance there’s a loose ball right in front of our bench Fox was the first one on the ground then come up with it by himself

But at least he got his hand on it jump ball situation we win the tip they hit a couple of early threes because we didn’t close out the right way then we started closing out the way that we’re supposed to and once we started hipping guys at that three-point

Line especially their hot shooters was a different ball game and those little details are the things that are some of the things that have hurt us in the past because we’re not necessarily doing what we should be doing and what we know how to do what we’re capable of doing and if

Our guys do that like I said the sky is a limit for this group because I even said it before before the before the game our offense is going to be fine we’re going to be able to score enough points to win most nights can we get enough stops to win which is

What this league is about especially come playoff time Mike this more more of a question about Keegan you talked about how great he was tonight and I was curious you know coming off the last game and maybe even some recent games on the offensive end maybe he doesn’t get take as many

Maybe as assertive on the offensive end taking shots and so forth I wonder do you sometimes have to pry that out of him do his teammates try to pry that out of him or do you kind of let him kind of do his thing and feel it out we try to

Let him feel it out cuz you know there’s a lot of people that have suggestions for keing as a young guy uh but he’s just like any player you know sometimes players go through some slumps and they may get in their own way at times and uh you know especially young

Guys you just keep reminding them how great he can be and how great he is especially where he is in his career right now so Keegan he going to be fine at the end of the day he just puts a lot of pressure on himself and he knows that

I told him I said if I see them shoulder slump and you drop your head you coming out the game I said I don’t care what you do the best players the greatest players that I’ve been around they got a short memory and I’ve seen some some

Guys throw the ball in the stands two or three times in a row and still go get 50 and not even remember the last mistake that they made and he’s got to get to that point where he really believes he’s on his way Mike fox has I think 21 steals in

The last five games um how would you characterize the the leap that you’re seeing from him defensively and and is it is it on par is it close to to what you’ve seen from Keegan this season so the first thing is he tonight his steals were really good because they didn’t

Hurt us you know what I’m saying I’m not a huge steel guy if you can get a steel without being out of position defensively I’m all for it because most guys when they go for steals they may go hypothetically for six steals during the course of the game well you’re probably

Only going to get two that means the other four that you missed you lunged and now you’re out of position and they have a on four so as long as he’s doing which he did a great job of tonight without putting his team in a predicament then I’m awesome with it

Because that’s what he’s capable of doing he’s got some of the quickest hands and his his arms are long but he got has some of the quickest hands that I’ve ever been around and that’s what I liked about tonight his attempts did not hurt us and as long as he keeps doing

That we’re gonna be good Keegan is more of a positioned Defender he’s not going to get steals he’s just going to put his body in front of you he’s going to be physical but he’s the one thing he’s got to continue to try to do is be physical

With his chest and not lead with his with his with his forearms because right now the officials are calling it not always a foul but because he’s a young guy he gonna get ding with a call or two here unless he gets to the point where he’s just physical and leading with his

Chest and then going vertical when it comes time to challenging a shot coach you talked about the Improvement on the Closeouts on the three but you also seemed to frustrate Nicola jokic a lot with the physicality and the paint was that part of the game

Plan as well yeah you know he’s man he’s he’s a obviously he’s a great player mult multiple time MVP um you know you have to be physical with him but you have to do your work early and you have to show your hands you really got to lead with your chest

Cuz as soon as he feels the slightest bump he’s you know ah head snap back and he really really uh is is really good at selling fouls and you got to give him different looks you can’t give him the same look all night because he’s obviously one of the greatest and so

Domas at the point of attack did a heck of a job trying to make him work and then you know we threw a lot of different types of double teams at him and just hope and prayed that he miss or when he kicked it out our rotations

Were good enough to not allow any clean looks and our guys uh did really good job of trying to execute the game plan Jordy was phenomenal coming up with the game plan and I I thought our guys did a good job executing it yeah Mike um Alex Lynn came in and

Played really really well uh he’s done that quite a few times this year when you go big and you’re not going big every game especially coming up is he going to get more of an opportunity or are you still leaning towards chavel no those guys know so there was a stretch

Where I was going every couple of games and if we were winning that guy would still continue to roll because they both have done well for us throughout the course of the year and then ay had a nice stretch for us and then he started getting dinged with offensive fouls and

Some other things and so I said okay I’m going go back to javel and then javel had a pretty good stretch I think we were six and two and the tough part about it is there were a couple of games trale didn’t play in because we went

Small and so I want to make sure that each guy continues to get opportunities when it’s warranted and so you know I said hey I’m GNA give javel an opportunity tonight because because Denver would probably be big and I just felt that it was time at at uh um at

Halftime it was time to make the move to Alex and so Alex will get opportunity now for for a little bit and we’ll see when it needs to be uh changed again from there yeah coach uh on your back right over here um a little more on Alex

And JaVale just what differing skill sets do you feel like they have and what are their varying strengths uh jael’s length is something that you can’t really teach you know he’s extremely long and he’s a really really uh good vertical threat in the pick and roll with Malik um he gets in

And out of screens uh very very well uh Alex on the other hand uh probably could play the DH game a little bit better uh and he sets uh a different screen he’s more of a screen Setter and a late roller uh than than than uh than javel

And so he’s going to clean up a lot of stuff on the offensive glass when the shot goes up or he might get a late dump pass because he’s diving late behind not necess a vertical threat uh and then defensively um you know javel is going

To challenge more shots Alex is going to go vertical and and use a a level of physicality when he goes vertical when it comes to challenging shots but they both bring something good to the table and you know I want to keep them both engaged because they both can help us at

Different times

De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk & Coach Brown speak to the media following a win over the Denver Nuggets in Golden 1 Center on February 9, 2024.

0:00 – 6:04 De’Aaron Fox & Malik Monk
6:04 – 18:20 Coach Brown

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