Willie Green talks loss to Suns, playing small | New Orleans Pelicans
Uh you know Brandon and and Jose able to do anything today uh not much just a little bit of a warm up but they didn’t do much in practice not no no contact and just from reviewing the film from last night what kind of stood out to you
Some of the things you guys need to work on our first quarter start uh was four at best and um The Casual we were too casual our sense of urgency has to go up and our guys understand that our margin for error is a little smaller ER you
Don’t have Brandon you don’t have Jose so our ability to come out with the mentality have physicality to to hit first has to be there from the start last night it wasn’t you guys got to go in like Booker do you ever get to a point where it’s like herb don’t worry
About anybody else just like denying the ball or anything like that for sure we got to we got we have to um I mean it’s the second second game with 50 points so he’s one of those guys you got to go get him early take the ball out of his hands
Don’t let him touch it if he does touch it send two people at him so that’s an area that we we have to be better and Willie how much of a challenge has it been to replace bi’s playmaking these last six games for instance it doesn’t seem like you’re playing with the right
Kind of pace and the quality of shots it seems a lot harder for sure it’s it’s tough to replace bi and uh what he brings to this team uh and then at the same time we’re playing against some of the toughest teams in the league that are really that that have really solid
They’re really solid defensive team so they make you take tougher shots they make you have to move the ball side to side normally the first action isn’t there uh so it’s a combination of those two it’s missing Brandon missing Jose but then playing against the tougher
Teams we just have to rely on each other even more what would you like to see them basically do differently like so it doesn’t all fall on Zion I know CJ was trying to do some playmaking yesterday but where would you like for that to come from
Well it starts on the defensive end our ability to get stops rebound the ball allows other guys to get into the offense even faster uh and then from there just continue to trust and that’s hard to do when you face an adversity is to trust uh the our natural instinct is
Okay I got to do it myself but collectively across the board trust each other trust the work that you put in here on the floor for the most part we’re doing it but we like I said before we have to put together more of a 48 minute game and right now it’s three
Quarters it’s it’s 2 and A2 it’s three and A2 we got to get closer to four quarters and uh talk about it last night but in those situations where teams are leaving their Center under just as simple as hey make the Easy Pass to those guys and allow the Domino to fall
As you said last night I guess what do you want Z to see when teams are kind of throwing that at yeah it’s a combination when they leave you then you got to get involved in the action a little bit either become a good screen off the ball
Screener or catch and it’s a quick quick decision play there like it’s hard for Bigs because it’s mostly their bigs mostly their fives are leaving and they’re tracking Z so it’s hard if you hit them now to go second side to somebody for them to get back and
Contest those shots so it’s a matter of us continuing to work on it you guys ever want to just like take a 15 footer like you you to you know like kind of do some more things but like he’ll just take them sometimes yeah he’s got to get
Comfortable doing it but Z is more than capable for sure is this the just the natural progession of what you guys want to see for years being able to have more of these lineups where he’s at five we’ve kind of seen it kind of growing to
Get not five one one one you got five guys out there he’s not the five he’s at the one um it is I think we I think we’re growing we’re growing in that area we’re growing with our lineups the more we look at it numbers have been really
Good for us late in the game I think four minutes left we went small and cut it to seven and it just it gives us space um more playmaking on the floor and once again we love what Larry and JB brings with our group as well but this gives us
Another option we talked about how much you guys but how much do you think not hav’t hold since that ball handler off the bench has kind of put more on some other guys as well for sure we miss we miss Brandon we miss Jose not having him
At this point in the season is tough um and we need those guys back however our guys understand and they know how I feel about them we got we have more than enough to go after these teams compete and give our give ourselves an opportunity to win but we
Have to recognize that the margin for error is smaller we got to put together a 48 minute game and our game plan discipline has to be at a high level from start to finish when it is we have opportunities to win when it’s not those are going to be tougher games for us
New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green’s post-practice interview on Tuesday, April 2 during the 2023-24 NBA season.
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———————————————–
Jose Alvarado #15 Guard
Dyson Daniels #11 Guard
Jordan Hawkins #24 Guard
Brandon Ingram #14 Forward
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E.J. Liddell #32 Forward
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CJ McCollum #3 Guard
Trey Murphy III #25 Guard
Larry Nance Jr. #22 Forward
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl #50 Forward
Matt Ryan #37 Forward
Dereon Seabron #0 Guard
Jonas Valanciunas #17 Center
Zion Williamson #1 Forward
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