Coach Taylor Jenkins Press Conference | Grizzlies vs. Thunder

Coach Taylor Jenkins Press Conference | Grizzlies vs. Thunder

Hey coach offensively it looked like your guys flowed a little bit better uh what’s your takea away from the offensive from tonight yeah uh first off um just want to send out my condolences to Elliot Perry um someone in his family uh just recently passed away so um you

Know thoughts and prayers are with him um you know I’m not going to go into details and stuff but hopefully Grizz Nation rallies and and and sends out prayers to him and his family during this difficult time um but you know really proud of our guys tonight uh 34

Assists um you know had a lot of takeaways from that matchup on Sunday that you know missed opportunities and Screen roll situations I thought the ball was just really humming you know we did a good job transition early in the game and we just kind of fell off wish

We could have gotten more opportunities in transition with kick ahads and early attacks but I mean you look at our starting lineup everyone was four plus assists I mean um Luke with nine jiren I think with a career high seven assists obviously Dez coming back in the pop he

Play with 22 points seven assist uh seven assists ball was just moving great you know we had some pretty good spacing there not always going to be perfect but definitely a big step in the right direction guys been putting a whole lot of work in recently had a great day of

Practice uh glad he carried over today hey coach so you mentioned 34 assist but it came on 37 May Basket so can you just L to more anything specifically that y’all worked on to make sure that most of the shots y’all been making have come

From his SE sure I mean you’ve uh that’s how we’re going to be creating our advantages is uh you know with the ball movement and and next action mentality not you know I kept telling them the first action is probably not going to work tonight you know they’ve got good

Size length you know versatile Defenders where they switch a lot but if we got them on the second side and got into going catches and create a driving kick I mean there was one great possession in the fourth quarter you got to give the Thunder a lot of credit I mean they

Tried to prioritize taking away the paint we only got 36 points in the paint they were scrambling around but we just kept finding a way um to move that ball and set up our teammates um obviously we’ve got individual guys that are capable of you know beating guys

One-on-one but when you see double triple teams and you make the right play you know hopefully that instills confidence in your teammates and we definitely uh played you know much better offensively tonight as a unit what were your overall thoughts on Desmond Bane’s performance and not just

That but how his addition to the lineup kind of you know uh elevates you know the players around him like just where your overall thoughts on that oh he absolutely definitely elevates the group I thought he uh you know played you know Desmond Bane basketball out there I

Thought he had great pop early in the game and now it’s just kind of a matter of getting his game legs under him you know he’s one of the best movers without the ball Best movers with the ball in his hands and you can see those moments

Where he was trying to get that extra gear going uh but you know luckily you know teammates were playing really well you know with him out there on the floor and um you know it was just a great first game back uh what he end up playing you know just under 32 minutes

Um you know kind of pushed him you know because he was playing well the group was playing well we had an opportunity to go win a game uh but he’s been working really hard to be able to play those minuts coming off a really long layoff but he was playing his game loved

How he moved the ball uh got his shot off you know with quickness got downhill you know he had that pop and that physicality that he was playing with and did some good things you know defensively you know on ball defense you know things that he’ll continue to get

Better at as you know he gets his game conditioning back Thunder have had a lot of success this season people around the league have noted playing chadol Gren at Center in a lineup that’s good size and good Shooters and everyone who can face up but not like a traditional NBA G lineup

This is your 41st starting lineup of the season but it’s one that looks kind of like that with jarnet center and then you know bigger guys who could face up with Santi and Gigi flanking him I know you guys might want to add more of a true Center this summer but does this

Suggest the kind of look you may could deploy more in the future yeah I mean obviously give the Thunder cred they’ve had great chemistry all season long great health um obviously that starting unit has had a lot of success they play off each other extremely well they’ve figured out how to operate offensively

With a lot of different screeners and you know Chad being a RoR out there and you know the versatility to switch a lot you know um with you know Dort Shay you know has improved significantly defensively Jaylen Williams obviously playing unbelievable basketball as well

You know and for us as we’ve kind of you know gone through different seasons throughout this you know lone season seeing jiren at the five and trying to figure out obviously you know what works with him at the offensively and defensively you know having that versatility um you know on the wing

Position and the guard position something that we’re trying to evaluate right now you know obviously we’re not fully healthy um but just trying to see what it would look like um you know we’re not really peeking over at the Thunder and seeing what they’re doing we’re just seeing what our guys are

Showcasing that’s why it’s great to get Dez back right now hopefully we get Vince back soon seeing you know GG’s development guys that are like siiz that can do some things defensively and the versatility to have multiple guys point of attack um whether jiren’s a screener roller or Handler um you know you’ve

Seen other guys being screen ERS and rollers out there um you know and Dez’s growth as a playmaker it’s going to be fun to watch over the you know the next couple of weeks here to see what we got and obviously see how we build you know going into the

Summer you’ve challenged Gigi a lot on the defensive end you know so far this year uh but you started him out this game on you know an MVP candidate what went into that decision and I guess is that any kind of you know allusion to like his growth on the defensive end so

Far yeah I mean we we’ve uh been trying to challenge jjf said that multiple times a lot of different ways um you know I think he got the starting nod uh just five six days ago in OKC he did a phenomenal job obviously Shay’s a heck

Of a player um you know we deployed a couple different coverages he gets to his spots on the floor you know he’s tough to guard we double team him he’s willing passer to move the ball um but you know keeping him off the free throw

Line was a big thing and you know for a young rookie and gii to go out there and be disciplined in his on ball defense got rejected maybe once twice uh but Shay lives on that downhill drive and you know avoiding screens and going to the open face I thought Gigi did a

Phenomenal job uh but he’s just taking steps in the right direction with his game plan discipline learning player Tendencies and wanted to reward the kid for you know a great matchup you know just Sunday um you know a couple days later and he was pretty locked in tonight great thanks everybody yep

Taylor Jenkins meets with the media following a loss to the Thunder. #nba

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