Willie Green talks Brandon Ingram’s playmaking, matchup with Cavs | Pelicans Practice 3/12/2024

Willie Green talks Brandon Ingram’s playmaking, matchup with Cavs | Pelicans Practice 3/12/2024

Cuz what do you like about just the the Improvement y’all made on the defensive end throughout the course of the season and where do you think y kind of grown the most well I think the biggest thing about our defense is that’s it’s kind of

The foundation of our team is we want to be a good defensive team we want to be able to get stops timely stops rebound the ball I think that directly impacts our ability to be good on offense um we’re seeing Improvement more Improvement as the season progresses

Coach jiren Collins is doing a terrific job with our defense and guys are just continuing to buy in this is probably a second season in a row where Brandon’s going to lead yall in assists um so what do you think about you know him as a

Playmaker do you think do you think he’s like underrated you think people realize you know what he can do as a playmaker I think I definitely think he’s underrated and his ability to playmake on the floor um he’s he’s so unselfish as a basketball player and highe F the way he

Sees the game we all know he can probably go out and score 25 30 points a night anytime he wants to but his ability to be to to sacrifice and make the extra pass just contributing to this this team’s success and when you have so many guys who can

Score I mean there’s just going to be nights where someone has to sacrifice do you do you talk to them about it is that something they’ve just grasped of like it might not be my night tonight but it be somebody else’s it it’s a continuous talk communication from my perspective

As a coach but also getting them to understand uh how important it is that you know no matter who night it is we have to continue to just trust each other trust that you know Trey had a big night against Atlanta and Y had a big

Night you know maybe a few games ago Zion may have a big night yonis and that we all buy into it that that’s that’s winning basketball how much has that kind of come from the top two guys in their willingness to sacrifice throughout the season it definitely starts with them um

They’re they’re unselfish by Nature they see someone open they’ll make the Easy Pass make the easy play and the rest of the guys followed him I think Trey has been the leading score three the last six games just what’s it like to see that kind of productivity from him

Especially after that shooting SL earlier it’s great to see Trey get on the floor and look like himself I think that’s the important part for our group is he’s such a big part of what we do his ability to space the floor for for Z for CJ for for bi

And now now hitting shots playing defense rebounding the ball getting out in transition it’s just fantastic for us right now have you done anything differently that that you’ve noticed since the last month or what’s kind of led to to this he and Coach Cory Brewer

I mean they just got him back to simple working on the simple things that they’ve done in the past and it’s good to see him hit the shots but really all the other things that he’s doing as well you know getting steals deflections rebounding working hard defensively coach guys are Contender

Now um you know we still got work to do you know I don’t want to get in front get get here and say we’re Contender we have work to do the possibility that we could be but it’s a lot of work in front of us and and that’s our mentality is

Just stay working game by game and if we do that we we feel like we’ll be in a good place but when you win all of those games on the road that’s not an accident right no it’s not an accident I mean but that don’t you think that’s kind of a a

Telltale sign when you can do that well for me The Telltale sign is where you finish how you finish the season and right now we have 18 games in front of us it’s going to still be a tight race coming down a stretch we want our Focus to

Maintain Cleveland and then the next game after and not get too ahead of ourselves but we we definitely are confident in what we can do um and we leave it at that you talked about the goal this year being wanting to be above that playing line that’s something yall

Have wanted to shoot for since the allstar break but now do you even allow yourself to think about shooting even higher than that seeing how close we are to maybe four with the flippers coming to time soon and stuff like that well you you always have a number set of

Goals you know you’ll have some goals that are super super high and you have some goals that are right in front of you in front of you that’s attainable um well always trying to be the best team that we can be and if we can win all 18 games well we

Win all 18 games but if not the bare minimum is that we want to try to be six and above and wherever that takes us we’ll be ready for that Cleveland coming into town uh you mentioned Cleveland coming into town what’s the biggest thing that you have to watch for with

The Cavs they’re hard those team they’re a good defensive team it’s not going to be a game that you know necessarily offensively will be easy right off the right out the gate it’s going to be a game that we’re going to work have to work at on both ends of

The floor they’re tough they execute um so it’ll be a good test on our home floor Mo has been out I believe the last couple of games but when Moy and Allen is both patrolling the paint um what what does that do for their defense yeah they’re they’re long athletic we know

Allen is is in the paint he’s contesting shots at the basket um they’re putting more shooting on the floor you can see they’re offensively they have an emphasis on shooting threes and shooting 40 plus a game uh like I said it it’ll be a good test for us are you confident

That you guys can close out games I know that was an issue early in the season but at this time of year you have to win those those one or two possession games What Makes You confident that you guys can do that I’m confident in the fact

That we work at it uh we watch film on it we’re honest about the things that we need to do to continue to improve and now it’s it’s about going on the floor and having that carryover from femin and practice what what do you think is is it

Just experience that wins those games or what it’s a combination of experience and concentrating on what are the right plays during those times and for us is it’s simple got to make your free throws can’t turn the ball over and you can’t give up offensive rebounds and when we

Take care of those three factors we’ll have a chance to win those games J just said you he believes guys have the the best bench in the league for a lot of teams it’s like we just got to survive the bench minutes right and for y I feel

Like those guys can come and really impact the game how much is that help having a group that can come in and really change the game for y’all consistently it’s a tremendous help and he’s right when those guys touch the floor the game changes for us it gets

Even better and it’s a credit to Jose Trey Nai Larry Dyson when he was like Hulk all of our guys JRE have contributed Matt Ryan to to us winning a game here a game there and it’s made our bench that much better NBA teams have all kinds of different marketing

Campaigns for some of the individual Awards but it seems like your players have had their own campaign for her for all defense I where do you think that comes from is it just hardly that I mean obviously people love her but just the fact that they know that he’s not a

Self-promoter that you kind of have to promote him well I think it comes from the example that he sets day in and day out um we felt like he should have been on the all defensive team last season he’s guarding the best players night in and night out you guys saw de

Jante Murray and his quotes about herb and many guys feel like that including us like we we we feel like herb is one of the best defenders in the league and we want to make people aware of what he’s doing to impact the game and sometimes it goes unnoticed coach you

Have there’s a lot of talk about how this team was grown the evolution of Zion the evolution of Brandon even SE but how does it feel knowing that you finally have all the pieces melting together and everybody’s healthy to be able to do that it’s a blessing to be

Honest with you it’s a blessing for our team to be healthy and to be clicking at this point in the season and this is kind of what we projected is that we would be rolling around this time and now it’s really up to us on how far we

Want to go and dialing into the details taking it game by game not getting too ahead of ourselves not putting too much pressure on ourselves but enjoying in this process you guys think you found the the right formula in regards to managing Zion and keeping him healthy throughout as well we’re continuing to

Work on it but yes we we feel like we’re in a good spot right now not going to guide the the SEC player of the year and the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and be a second round pick how how do you how do you wrap your your your mind

Around that I don’t know but I’m grateful he was and he came to us so uh whatever was supposed to happen happen herb is where he needs he he’s where he’s supposed to be right now we’re grateful to have him you think that oversight is kind of motivated him a

Little bit I think he was already motivated you know from the day from day one since he’s gotten here he’s been the same guy first one in the gym one of the last one that leaves one of the hardest workers and um his teammates love him

We’re grateful to have him he he’s he’s a he’s a true uh professional and um a great example for for young players that stay in college and just continue to work at it thanks coach thank you thank you coach

New Orleans Pelicans coach Willie Green’s post-practice interview on Tuesday, March 12, 2024 at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center.
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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
Matt Ryan #37 Forward
Dereon Seabron #0 Guard
Jonas Valanciunas #17 Center
Zion Williamson #1 Forward
Cody Zeller #44 Forward-Center

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