LIVE: Pelicans vs. Cavaliers Pregame w/ Willie Green 3/13/2024

LIVE: Pelicans vs. Cavaliers Pregame w/ Willie Green 3/13/2024

How you doing hey coach hey how you doing when you laid out your goals for the season where you wanted to become this point in the year how does that goal compare with the reality of where you are right now I mean we’re right there um exactly where we need to be and

Um we want to continue to progress from here if you had to describe herb Jones the way he defends multiple positions multiple different guys shutting down top scores night after night somebody who’d never seen him play what would you say Relentless competitor you know when he steps on the

Floor that’s that’s what he brings every night following up on Jen’s first question I know you’ve been talking about when to keep it one game at a time and not looking ahead is that difficult as a player this late in the season knowing you’re right in the middle of of the playoff

Race it’s it can be challenging with all all of the um circumstances sometimes off the floor you know just locking in and being focused but for the most part you can’t do anything about all the other things anyway so let’s focus on this game and make sure we’re prepared

To go out and execute your bench is second and point differential among all bench units in the NBA uh why do you think it’s just been so good all season it’s a credit to um the guys that just stay working they all of them they

They work at it every day we come in the gym they working to get better PD coaches um and then some camaraderie we’ve had these guys together now for pretty much going on my third season and uh I think because of those those reasons they get on the floor is

Chemistry they understand each other and uh it allows them to be at their best and you know that road trip it was a lot of like Zan orbi and in the bench and you guys you know getting leads or growing leads do you feel like those guys really understand how to how to

Complement you know your your best players well they do um they do a great job of complimenting our top guys and you know that’s what it takes it’s it’s a total team effort and without all of our substitutions that come in a game we wouldn’t be where we

Are today and throughout the season you guys uh just more and more have been playing the zone defense kind of leaning on it a little bit more uh what do you what do you think uh you guys have done kind of just improve you know playing

Zone and what does it take just to be successful as a team playing that specific coverage well it um it allows us to you know not it it doesn’t allow other teams to seek out matchups and and it kind of throws them off Rhythm and so we’ll we’ll throw some zone out there

From time to time to give teams a different look defensively along with other adjustments that we can do and we work on in practice and we’ll continue to give it a look and you think you guys have Personnel that that fits Zone scheme just with the length and the

Versatility you guys have on the wing yeah we do we we we believe we have the Personnel to fit Zone and it’s been working for us thus far we like the numbers that we’re getting back off of it so um in the defensive player of the year race and obviously herbs in this

Race but it’s not about him specifically just wondering the way the game’s kind of being played and especially officiated right now relative to everything you’ve seen in your career um how difficult is it if it is it more difficult to play defense now than it’s ever been and what are the attributes

That I guess would stand out in a candidate for defensive player of the year the way the game’s played right now so to to answer the first question yes I believe it’s more difficult for individual Defenders um the way the game is called and the way the game is played

Um I believe some attributes that you you guys have the guys I’ve seen the best defenders is they have amazing instincts um for on the ball and off the ball defense uh quickness hand speed foot speed and then they’re tough all of all of the top Defenders they’re tough

Either toughness in protecting the basket some of our bigs in this league or on the ball Defenders um Marcus Smart and Draymond and Herb you can put them in those categories along with others um they bring a level of mental and physical toughness to the game and

Willie do you feel looking back on it do you feel last year when the team went through that difficult stretch in January February when you guys lost Zion did that help prepare this team improve its mentality for you know not taking anything for granted so now that you

Guys are in fifth nobody’s looking is happy with that that’s an accomplishment or anything but they’re still pressing trying to finish the season strong do you feel like that may be in part to like I said that experience last season yes I I believe those experiences it all helps um contribute um

To the outcome of you being better and it’s it’s we but we have to have that perspective that we can go through those type of difficulties and adversity and feel like we can gain a lot of good and I feel like that’s what our guys do they look at situations they stay together

And uh last season was difficult when we we had some of those injuries but we just stayed together um continue to come in every day working at it and when you have those type of experiences it can help you in the long run and we’re we’re

Seeing some of that now the past few weeks in the NBA uh scoring is a little bit down just leag wide free throws are down have you noticed any shift in the ways games are being officiated anything like that yeah I I saw I saw that report

Come out uh I forget who who was by but I saw the report that it’s less free throws um less files being called and um I think what what all of us are looking for when it comes to that is consistency so if the game is being called a certain

Way you know it should stay that way quarter by quarter game by game it allows coaches players more specifically to to to make those adjustments you just maybe give a couple examples of why just in your mind maybe relative to when you played why it’s harder to defend now

Saying the way the G being you specific example what stands up to you what makes it hard well first of all we want more scoring we want more scoring I mean we don’t want the score to be 79 to you know 82 but um we also is it also has to be a

Little bit of balance with with that and you know I think the biggest reason is that you can’t touch guys as much you know you can’t put your hands on players because it’s a foul so so in order to guard I mean these elite elite athletes

In order to be able to somewhat stay in front of them you got to be able to touch them at some point uh without that being a foul and I think that’s what everybody’s trying to have balance with the referees we got the best referees in um in the league

And they’re trying to figure it out the league is trying to figure it out we’re trying to figure it out how to continue to make those adjustments I’m not going to touch that all right

Cleveland Cavaliers at New Orleans Pelicans pregame interview with head coach Willie Green ahead of their game on Wednesday, March 13 at 7 p.m. CT during the 2023-24 NBA season.
#NBA #Pelicans #neworleanspelicans

New Orleans Pelicans Roster
———————————————–
Jose Alvarado #15 Guard
Dyson Daniels #11 Guard
Jordan Hawkins #24 Guard
Brandon Ingram #14 Forward
Herbert Jones #5 Forward
E.J. Liddell #32 Forward
Naji Marshall #8 Forward
CJ McCollum #3 Guard
Trey Murphy III #25 Guard
Larry Nance Jr. #22 Forward
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl #50 Forward
Dereon Seabron #0 Guard
Jonas Valanciunas #17 Center
Zion Williamson #1 Forward
Cody Zeller #44 Forward-Center

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