Coach Malone Full Post Practice Interview 🎙

Coach Malone Full Post Practice Interview 🎙

Well I’m going to come off subject of yesterday a little bit when you were a kid growing up did you have to have a certain shoe a brand a player that you always wore like I was always a the Magic Johnson cons what were you I was

Uh whatever is free I mean I’m one of six kids my father was a high school coach at pal Memorial so we didn’t have the luxury of getting what we wanted we got what was given to us and now whether that was uh um orange ponies from

Syracuse my father went there or a lot of uh Chuck Taylor and pro kets and uh a lot of hand-me DS pro cat but yeah I look good in them as his career I guess you know as he went up the ranks you around you know bigger teams with more

Gear did the gear get a little better though yeah no doubt I mean he at Syracuse I mean how many other kids were wearing orange ponies that said Syracuse on the back and then when Pearl Washington went there one of the greatest college players one of the

Greatest high school players I ever saw boys and girls uh the whole team was wearing orange ponies but Pearl had his own Pro catch contract so he had orange Pro CAD so those were collector’s items but yeah as the jobs got better the sneakers got better no doubt do you

Think sometimes the sneaker industry is out of control well we have a couple guys like Dan shimsky is a uh a sneaker head I guess what they call him and uh it is such a big business and and what people are paying I know like in the NBA I

Think PJ Tucker is legendary with his sneaker collection and I know over my years I’ve got some pretty cool shoes that I’ve been able to collect but um the thought of paying for sneakers to me is just something that I can’t comprehend uh I I’m still the free as me

Whatever is available I’m going to wear and uh wear it with pride well you do have a wife and two daughters so there other things that you have to Pony up for you never thought you would well you know I’m lucky because you know through

Uh my dealings with Mike I I I’m able to get we’re a Nike family right now and uh I could easily be an Adidas family I could easily be a whatever family but Nike’s taking great care of us and uh this weekend in Kansas City my daughter

Was Nike out so um really really fortunate in that regard how was having everybody back in the gym today tell you Katie it was uh obviously having Nia here today even vlod I mean vco likely will not play this year but he got in practice today and that was I was so

Happy for him but uh having the whole group back was uh was a lot of fun two great uh two days of great energy and hopefully that you know just transfers tomorrow night let off the day with shown the standings where we’re at who’s in front of us who’s right behind us

Talked about what we have in front of us with the 27 games 16 home 11 away and uh the importance of not easing into this 27 trying to hit the ground running and um all the guys were locked in so very very pleased with the the uh the energy

The effort and the focus yesterday and today what’s the extent of of what Flo can do physically right now and how eager is he to be involved even if he probably won end up playing well I think mentally for him to be on the court in practice has to be really beneficial for

Him uh you know not being able to play the game that you love for a lengthy period of time is hard vco is one of the more positive people I’ve ever been around he’s handled it really well he’s not running and jumping all over the

Place but he was able to do some of the defensive drills to some of the shooting drills and uh anything he’s able to do um is a bonus right now so great to have him out here he was able to go home over All-Star break which I think was also

Very therapeutic to be around his family and loved ones so um hopefully Vos continues to progress uh the way he has been Nico was at the Avalanche game last night I know you’re not on social media so maybe you haven’t seen any of the clips or the pictures but does it feel

Like to you that he’s kind of the face of Denver sports right now because the the welcome that he got was out of this world well I’m glad that I didn’t know he was there did he a win yeah all right he skated on the first line by the way I

Don’t want you know this that’s very scary thought imagine him on skates wow that’d be really uh imposing um but yeah I would say that you know coming off of a championship the first one I mean cuz for the ABS they’ve won what three yes

Um and not that you ever get bored with success but us winning our first r Nia being a two-time MVP and a Finals MVP and I think people relate to just how humble he is you know I mean that he he is a man of the people so people people

Relate to that he’s never separated himself he’s never changed so the money and fame is not gone to his head and uh it’s him his family and just being the same old person every day and how can you not love that on and off the court

Nia is just uh you know you know there’s a lot to love there how do you balance the need for that break with you being the coach frustrated at the three losses and maybe wanting to get that taste out of your mouth sooner well I mean just um being patient

Understanding you know looking at okay you lose three in a row why do you lose three in a row and I think not having our starting back court was a big part of that to be quite honest even though we had you know we were up 16 in that

Sacramento game up four late in that game and had chances to win um but then for me it’s digging into okay why lose three in a row aside from no Jamal and kcp last three games going into the break we were dead last in points of our

Turnovers 23 a night in those three games so we’re beating ourselves and we talked about that as well this morning before we practiced so yeah you want to get back at it but I I think the break was so needed for a team that played over 100 games last year into the middle

Of June and uh mentally physically emotionally getting away from it and coming back and understand what we have right in front of us and I have complete confidence in that group that we can go anywhere and beat anybody in the entire NBA we’ve proven

We can do that we just have to be a lot more consistent in these final 27 you guys had the the number one seed pretty much locked up like a month before the regular season ended last year it the race is much tighter this year how how

Big of a focus do you think it will be to get the one SE I go oh for me it’s it’s not like top one or two priority to be very honest and we talked about that with our team today the good thing is Minnesota is number one we play them

Three more times we’re three games out so we have Avenues to become the number one team it’s definitely attainable um but I don’t want to win that battle and lose the bigger War um when our starting unit plays uh I think our record is like uh 24 and six a 75% winning percentage

So that to me is most important is going into the playoffs having our starting five healthy and ready for the load that’s going to be placed upon them as you get to the playoffs the rotation shrinks and you play guys heavier minute so I think having homec Court in the

First round is very very important I think having a healthy team going into the postseason is very important and if we happen to be the one seed that that’s just a cherry on top but we’re not going to put all our cards in just to attain

That and risk being healthy uh for a very deep playoff front one more question what what’s then the message to the bench guys knowing that maybe there’s going to be some of that Reliance on them in this home stretch to help make sure that the starters are are

Not getting overworked going into yeah I mean go out there and play your job to the best of your ability you know be consistent and remember that it always starts first and foremost on the defensive end I think some guys are you know they’re thinking more about their

Offense the offense is going to come that’s the easy part of this game we have to be a team that can get stops and if you break down a quarter by quarter defensive rating it’s really ironic or not ironic but just confusing quarter 1 we’re third in defensive rating quarter

Five we’re like six quarter four were I think like eighth and then second quarter were 29th so that speaks to our bench our starting group just being a lot more consistent over the course of 48 minutes thanks everyone

Hear what Coach had to say today after practice.

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Coach Malone Full Post Practice Interview 🎙