Jacque Vaughn | Post-Game Press Conference | Utah Jazz | 1.29.2024

Jacque Vaughn | Post-Game Press Conference | Utah Jazz | 1.29.2024

J congrats on the win um what just impressed you the most about the way your team played here tonight oh there were a lot of things Megan I think uh overall the spirit of the group was um really impressive tonight uh the bench cheering for each other there was a uh

Energy uh that was out there and uh give those guys our guys an extreme amount of credit for uh for having that tonight Ben checks into the game and you felt his impact almost like 7 seconds into the game we saw you and Ben have a

Moment and point and smile what can you just say about how effective he was and to do it so quickly after missing so much time yeah extremely impressive and I don’t know some people took my comments as you know the ecosystem that we live in is is built around each other

Feeding off each other that’s not a negative thing it’s just uh we Empower each other and you see how other people played so well tonight because of the impact of Ben Simmons it’s that simple the looks that we got tonight the amount of Threes that we got tonight the fast

Break points that we got tonight the uncontested looks that we got tonight the pace that we play with this is a team that’s been rolling Utah’s been rolling 120 points in the last 11 games uh and so we did it on both ends of the floor and uh Ben deserves an extreme

Amount of credit uh the way he played tonight when uh when Ben was healthy I mean he was as good at creating open three-point looks for his teammates anybody in the league but when you consider the amount of time that he had been out and the various injuries that

He’s gone through did he exceed even your expectations tonight once he told me he was ready to go my expectation was to see the basketball player that uh impacted our first seven games of the year and so uh his ability uh once he

Said he was ready to go it uh I had no no calms that he was going to be able to push the pace for us and and get back to the high energy um High Octan octane Pace that he’s played with with this group and uh you know there was a lot of

Games that he didn’t play with CJ CJ got hurt the first game of the year and uh you see how he just impacts other people like he makes other dudes better and uh he likes doing that and when you get a guy that wants to do that on a nightly

Basis it’s infectious and so just the the the ball movement tonight uh he was the reason for that and the way was sprayed around 40 some assists tonight like you can’t ask for anything more especially with the time that he’s missed Jack on another level you guys I

Think hit 21 threes the most you guys have hit I think oh I think since November just Ben’s impact we getting three-point shots this kind of is what you guys wanted this offense to be so how good did it feel to kind of see that high shooting offense where the shots

Are falling just because of the quality looks yeah and then it it makes you defend better you know it’s just when you see the ball go in these our guys are human beings there’s a a psyche about it and uh makes you want to defend better and when you’re able to touch the

Basketball and Ben allows everyone to have um you know openness about The Possession like there’s a chance you might get the basketball in every single possession when he’s dribbling the basketball he’s just looking for the open guy and he has the ability to play with pace and if you have the correct

Spacing and are willing to shoot he’ll get you a shot Jac as a coach does it give you confidence especially after watching Ben’s performance tonight that this team will only continue to improve the closer gets the full health you know I I continue to tell our

Guys CJ to believe in the process of what we doing and uh you know some of the evidence was our defensive numbers in January and so our ability to continue to defend even when we Wen winning games uh I think there is another level to this team uh first of

All going through some of those losses at the end of the game I said they were going to be good for us we’re going to look back on this and remember that we went through these trying times together and got on the other side now as we get

Healthy and we start playing with uh uh different teammates and understand the rhythm of each guy uh I do think uh there’s a lot of good basketball ahead for this group we got to get healthy continue to play with each other continue to hone in how we want to uh

Play offensively and defensively uh but there’s a lot of good to come from this team for sure in the Janu in the early month win over ok here you played Nick Claxton in longer stints for the first time in a long time as he was subbing with sharp

And kind of since that game he’s looked like the Nick Claxton of at least last season dunking on people playing with a swag and an energy that you saw saw tonight have you seen anything specific that you know may have led to that change over the last month or is his win

Just back uh as a combination of things Lucas uh you know we have so much data that we’re able to to tap into and see where guys are at a different times of their career because Nick’s been with us for his entire career and to see how

Robust he is and see where he’s growing and seeing where uh he still needs some improvement the task was to try to get him to a conditioning level where he could play longer stance and so that was a uh concerted effort and so that uh you see we’ve been running him probably the

Most he’s had his whole career he played 38th the other night almost close to 40 tonight was a little less for him which was good but pushing the boundaries of continued to have him grow as a as a player the the high level dudes in these

Leades are able to do it over and over again at 30 plus a night uh so we’ll continue to have a balance of having short stint some games uh you saw tonight the the difference in when he was out there who he was on the floor with that was a big uh substitution

Pattern for tonight which seemed to work pretty well but extending him minutes was a part of a process for him Coach there was a moment Ben Simmons got the steel and a two-and slam and he looks up in the Barkley crowded seemed like he was almost taken in the moment how good

Did it feel just to see him realize that moment given all the frustrating injuries he’s been through Ben Ben doesn’t want to be hurt he didn’t want to be hurt uh he was playing good basketball at the beginning of the year for this team and we were in a lot of

Close games at the beginning of the year and so um he wants to play I’ll say that to the world or whoever he wants to play he wants to play here he has the ability to impact a team and uh uh for him to uh

Get a chance to do it tonight and with a win uh just impressive effort thank you J okay guys

Jacque Vaughn spoke to the media following the Nets vs. Jazz on January 29, 2024