Jacque Vaughn on Ben Simmons, the Nets and more

Jacque Vaughn on Ben Simmons, the Nets and more

Jock just with today’s practice just what was a main point of emphasis for you uh for where you guys are right now just in the Time of the Season you know it’s interesting I I think we’ve kind of taken the approach of trying to use every single day to get better and so

Whether that is a 20 minute segment or a seven minute segment uh of using the opportunity to get on the floor and either walk through some things for muscle memory wise or uh try to clean up some things defensively to make sure that we continue to be on the same page

And be align that way and uh and then you prepare offensively for what you might see versus Philly we just spoke to Dory and he just told us that he is going to be out uh for tomorrow for today’s practice was Ben able to participate and do you have an update on

Him yeah Ben was a um partial participant uh because we tried to go up and down a little bit and so we held him out of that uh portion of practice so he was able to go through some sets and uh walk through some things defensively uh

So he was a partial participant you an update when it comes to availability day to day uh and I guess that’s one day away and so uh we’ll see uh how is response was uh later this evening he’ll get treatment and then uh treatment also

In the morning so um I hope to see him playing that’s the uh inclination for this group and the uh hopeful expectation is he’s playing what did you think about the defense in his minutes at the you know kind of quote unquote five yeah I guess you can call it the

Five you know all those minutes he was on the floor where the Royce was out there with him and Royce usually guarded the five that’s just kind of how we try to um you know combine and and use it as a strength of ours uh it’s going to be

Interesting he gives us the versatility you saw the other night just in a situation with nage where without doe Ben or Dennis another big body to uh clean up some of the scrap from from switching it’s hard to do and uh Ben allows us to do that so he can guard

Maxi but he also can go par Reed and be able to protect the rim for us so that’s the importance speaking of Maxi obviously his 51 point game yesterday makes presents another challenge for you guys um how how challenging with so many guards you can score how challenging is

It with maxi the way he’s playing um this season especially after how he played yesterday yeah there’s uh I think what makes it extremely challenging Evan is the freedom in which he’s allowed to play with that freedom of getting a rebound and and just going to length of

The floor and uh playing faster without Joel and so it’s just more opportunities he’s going to have with the basketball in his hands and that’s a lethal combination uh because you have to react to him and if he’s making threes that takes the you know the responsibility to

A another level so uh the ball will be in his hands which makes it pretty tough then with Nick obviously playing so many minutes you talked about trying to space his menes or careful with his minutes if if Ben can’t go tomorrow and you guys are as a size size disadvantage again

How do you learn from Wednesday’s game to try to prepare for this Philly team even if they don’t have him be but just how do you guys overcome that disadvantage this time yeah you know you know to Lucas’s question the other day we’ve been pretty scientific in uh

Trying to get Nick to a position that once the playoff comes around he’s been exposed to playing High minutes now we can’t you know live in that world but in order to to run a marathon you got to get to you know like 18 or 19 miles kind

Of thing you get you just can’t keep running three and six and think you’re going to run americ so it’s kind of that realm a little bit so we’ll pick our opportunities when we’re going to ramp up his minutes uh a lot of that is some

Of the feedback we get from him and how he’s feeling the other night I think he played 30 uh and so there going to be some nights we need to push him to 38 and there going to be some nights that hopefully we can get away with planning

26 uh we’ll still use Roy uh and hopefully Ben can cover up some of those minutes if uh uh if he plays and with Nick playing those extra minutes I guess what are you seeing from him just adjusting to that cuz obviously he’s you’re ramping him up but how is he

Adjusting with when you do play him a little bit longer in some of these games it’s a um it’s a skill set I think you have to learn in order to still put your foot on the gas pedal and not coast and not think that uh you have to take

Possessions off because the process is to be able to play those possessions as if you were going to play a four or five minute stin uh so that’s the the rationale behind it I think he’s learning how to get his second win when to uh get a little

Extra rest in the timeouts in the free throw line but uh still have a impact in covering up the rim for us so it’s it’s definitely a skill that you got to learn when you play more minutes obviously Ben added so much to the transition offense

In his game what did you see kind of in the half court setting did it feel as smooth as you wanted it to be or I think the the biggest thing that helped that Lucas was the uh the Lins behind it uh he was really out there with four

Shooters all of his minutes and so uh that helped us have spacing and have a a pretty good flow that uh even when we got chunky at times we were able to get in and out of those situations because there were four Smalls around them and whether they were able to play secondary

Action with some Pace I think that covered up some of the lack of practice time that we’ve had we got this chance to see DQ for a few minutes out here how is he doing we saw the the cast and just how what are his spirits like and the crutches and uh

So this is you this is a part of uh you know everyone has their own NBA story and um it’s not always you know linear uh what your career is going to look like and so this is opportunity where he’s got a challenge in front of him and

Uh he should look forward to conquering this challenge so I look forward to to seeing him you know get through this and and being a part of his development and growing in the summer so uh but this is a a stage of his career he’ll remember

It he’ll be better from it and he’ll recover from it what’s the feeling about in general en the there’s been a lot of discussion with Joel’s injury the 65 game minimum for awards and uh all NBA teams yeah you know I I really do have

An opinion about a lot of stuff that I just don’t share because I’m not on that committee they want to put me on the committee but that was collectively bargained so it doesn’t matter what I say Lucas it doesn’t doesn’t matter wouldn’t say it doesn’t matter doesn’t matter doesn’t matter doesn’t matter at

All put me on the committee then I’ll give you some feedback not not up to me all right

Jacque Vaughn on Ben Simmons, the Nets and more . Subscribe for daily sports videos!

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