J.B. Bickerstaff Media Availability | Pistons TV

J.B. Bickerstaff Media Availability | Pistons TV

good afternoon everybody appreciate you guys coming out for the uh introduction of JB Bricker staff to Detroit um I’ll say a few words I’m not long-winded but um this is this today is about JB but he has been here working um already so uh I put his I put him to work right away after we came to an agreement I think I don’t even know if you were contracted yet before we got him working and our first uh first thing we did was go to LA and and uh San Diego I should say and meet with Tobias on uh on July 1st so I got him to work right away and he’s been an incredible partner already so um but I’m going to say a couple things about our process and about you know what intrigued us about JB before handing the uh the microphone over to him um obviously as you guys know this has been an incredibly compressed time period for myself and the staff with uh preparation for draft free agency and then a coaching search as well so we started the coaching search about a week um from the draft um and we were doing all three processes at the same time um and so he was incredibly helpful in that what was it that give you about 12 hours to come in after I asked you and called you I think I called him what 11 I think I called him late one night and I said hey uh we want you to come in for an interview and he said well I’m leaving in 2 days I said well can you come in tomorrow and he uh actually I think got in a car right then and started driveing uh and we were able to meet with him the next day which is incredibly helpful spent a lot of time with him and I think some of the things that we were um looking for and our next head coach uh with our front office staff was uh somebody who had leadership qualities um great communication skills um wanted to collaborate with us in terms of building uh a culture and environment um where our players could reach their potential but also was a place of positivity uh especially coming off the difficult season last year for our players uh and I think our thoughts and our vision in terms of developing that aligned uh after we had a lot of conversations um not only with myself but with our entire staff um I think his ability to develop um and have a passion um for when I say develop I mean not only his staff but also our young players um and be passionate about being on the court every day um really connecting with them off the Court as well and having them understand the importance of not only them taking the day-to-day steps to get better but also being team first and having that mindset so I just think in the in the in the time period in the time frame of Us coming together through the process um you know we talked to a three or four coaches um that I think all were capable of being leaders here uh and being head coaches but uh for us at this time we felt JB was the right was the right coach and the Right leader uh and just from the things that I’ve talked about really separated himself uh for us at this time so I’m not going to say anything else but that’s kind of some background that led up um I made him jump through some hoops that were just kind of crazy um but we don’t we don’t really have to talk about that but um the one thing that the the final thing that really um emanated with us was just his passion is his desire to be here in Detroit and be the P the next Pistons head coach and the next leader here so um you know we’re we’re very happy and and fortunate to have JB vicker staff as our our next head coach here in Detroit so I’ll leave it up to you brother thank you appreciate you thank you uh thank you for that um you know again I’m similar to Tran um not a lot of words but uh you guys have questions I’m open to them but I’m excited to be here excited to be you know a part of this you know what this job comes down to for me as being a partner uh in an opportunity to build something special build something unique and I’m looking forward to it I believe in the people that we have running the show I believe in their courage uh I believe in the young talent that we have here and then you know the shrewd moves that we made this offseason to get some veteran players to come along and help young lead uh our young guys so I’m excited I’m looking forward to it and already having fun getting to work so I’ll take your questions from there J James that words from the athletic welcome um you’ve obviously had success as a coach in this league and this team as Tron said is coming off not just one rough season but a few what was it about this job that made you want to jump in right away when surely you could have waited a year and if there were openings you would have probably more than likely been involved in those discussions but what what about now and this team uh it was my conversations with Tran to begin with um you know the rest of the guys uh Magic was with them J.R was with them and you know George David like the conversations we had AR and then obviously finally with uh Tom like I had a great feeling um that this organization was headed in the right direction and it was being led by the right people um you know for me going through some of the things that I’ve gone through in the past like the people that you work with being of a shared Vision uh a willingness to commit to one another willingness to partner with one another uh I thought this group you know as a whole had a great vision and then you know Tom has given every resource uh to go out and execute that Vision so I was extremely excited about that uh and then obviously you study the team uh and I took a deep dive as quickly as I could obviously experienc a playing against them four times uh for so many years um but I knew the players well uh and I believed in their their ability I believed in their talent um you know there is a steps process that we have to take uh and we’re really aware of that and Tran and I are united uh in that aligned in that and it just doesn’t happen for anybody overnight right so we’ll do the job of not skipping steps and helping our players reach their potential poal um but when you look at this group you there’s some high Lev high ceing potential guys uh and it’s our responsibility to help them get there and then again you mentioned you know the tobias’s of the world the veteran guys that we’re bringing in here to help those guys along uh to show them you know true professionalism uh I think that gives an added boost to the group and we can get to where we want to go jari great Free Press good to see you and welcome when you look at K Cunningham and you g playing against him you know what type of player he is but just what’s your excitement to work with him and what do you expect from him just based on what you’ve seen so far I mean I think he’s a stud uh I don’t think there’s a lot that he can’t do on the basketball floor uh with his size his ability to see the floor his ability to create shots um you know I think there’s you know defensively with his length and size I think there’s so many different things uh that we can do with him uh so our focus is making him you know one of the best two-way players in this league and uh you know having conversations with him he’s hungry you know obviously last year was difficult for everybody uh you know himself included uh you know he has a fire he’s a competitor uh and he wants to be a part of what takes the Pistons to the next level so uh the excitement that he brought um you know that helps raise my energy level and I hope and you’ll see as the season goes by like we’ll just keep picking each other up you know what I mean like there won’t be tough times for anybody cuz somebody’s always going to be there to pick him up and I think I think you know he’s shown that leadership that want and that will and then throw his talent on top of it uh you know and you got a guy who’s capable of being really special key CL from pistons.com your Cleveland team’s established a defensive identity I think foremost and a lot of coaches come in saying we want to you know we want to be a top 10 defense for this team as young as they are all young teams usually struggle defensively but do you see the ingredients for for getting to a top 10 defense with with this group yeah those are things that if you don’t have a strong defensive Foundation uh your team is going to struggle to take the steps and to build in the direction that you want to go in um you know you can talk about offense all you want to but when you look at the elite teams in this league uh they have two-way players and guys who take pride in defending the basketball uh if you can defend the basketball you’ll give yourself a chance of end the games uh to win so our Focus will be to start uh defensively uh building a great Foundation um you know we have guys you know individuals assar is one of those guys Ron I believe is going to be another one of those guys who can be highlevel elite individual Defenders uh when you put guys like that in a great system uh where everybody’s protecting one another you got high level intelligence uh and I think we have that you know you look at guys again who are switchable with your Bigs like we had problems last year uh with Isaiah Stewart uh and Jaylen durren switching on our Smalls and making them play ISO basketball being able to keep them in front of them so uh you know being able to defensive rebound the basketball like those are all the small things that can help you be uh the defensive team that we want to be uh the will to do it is another thing um because that’s what you control and you know us trying to create the environment that we’re looking for you know there’s two things that we can control are we the most selfless team on the floor are we the most competitive team on the floor right all those things lay hand inand with being a good defensive team hey JB welcome to Detroit my name is was in live you’ve coached young teams in your previous stops now you’re the another one what can you take from those other teams that you can bring over here when you know trying to coach a young group that is trying to learn how to win yeah you got to make it fun um you know you’re going to go through you know long NBA season you’re together all the time um you know 2 o’clock in the morning you get up off a plane you see the same people you’re back in the gym at 8:00 in the morning you see the same people uh it can be cold it can be rainy it can be you know whatever um but you have to put this building in a place where people want to come and where people want to stay like first of all this is a fabulous facility uh but the energy that the people uh have that are in this building every single day that’s going to make the difference for this team uh to start with guys are obviously more engaged when they’re having a good time when they’re celebrating one another um you know guys are more likely to do more go the extra mile and that’s what we have to create here and again being around trun and his crew uh I mean they are positive people like they’re uplifting people uh that’s the spirit that they carry you know our staff that we’re putting together will be the same you know through the performance staff it’s you know those are typically the first people that the players see when they come in the building so you know Tran has gone out of his way to put together a performance staff that carries that same energy so when guys walk into the building you know they don’t go and find the guy who’s down or low energy and then they feel low energy you know they walk into people who are carrying a great spirit uh so I think that’s the starting point uh and then you got to teach uh and that’s one of the things as we again we’re putting a staff together uh we’re putting together a staff that’s great has great teachers uh that can teach from the ground up great fundamentals small things from footwork to passing angles to hand positioning uh things that may go unnoticed uh but those are the things that impact winning the most maybe Larry L from the Associated Press welcome to town how does this job feel different from the other opportunities you had uh in for fired coaches now you’re you know a team believes in you have a long-term deal how does it feel different well all the guys are hir me believed in me um but you know again I think this is um you know a similar start what we were dealing with in Cleveland where we were coming from um but you know it’s always all of us are human uh feels good to be wanted and sought after and the fact that tran reached out and gave me the call uh and let me know that he believed in me right away uh obviously had a huge part in me coming here and wanting to come here you know if it was you know you know three four weeks and there was a bunch of guys that came in and turned it down and then reached back out uh but I never felt that way you know I know they had to go through the process uh but he always made me feel confident that I could fit here uh and that he wanted to work and partner with me so you know that gave me even more juice um you know obviously being out and not expecting this opportunity to happen you know I was talking to my family about taking the year off and all the things that we were going to do um so you know I had to make some tough choices um but Tran gave me the opportunity and gave me belief that this was the right choice to make uh not only for my professional career but for my family as well JB you guys were one of the successful teams in playing two bigs uh in Cleveland and Detroit they tried it here to Trent kind of added floor spacers and and change the dynamic of the roster a little bit was in Cleveland was that just a product of the pieces you had or is that something that you want to transfer here to or is that part of the collaboration with some of the guys you guys brought in and figure out what pieces working yeah that’s our responsibility our responsibility is to put the best units on the floor that we can uh and we’re always trying to work to find you know fivan units that can fill 48 minutes um and you know whatever our roster is like we play to that and I think that’s one of the things that uh where we’ve been able to have some success is we can adjust we’re not stuck in one way so what we’ll do is we’ll do all the research from the games last year we’ll get our guys together on the floor we’ll get the numbers involved in all those things uh we’ll look and find the best lineups and then we’ll make guys go compete for opportunities uh and that’s what it comes down at the end of the day um you know if you want to build a competitive team you can’t just go and give handouts right people have to earn it uh so we’ll give guys the minutes that go out and earn it um vas p.com this question is for Tron um you may not have went into the process looking for experience coach but I guess speak to the importance of of experience experience in in when you’re looking at when you fill this job good good question Vince I I definitely think it was a factor um you know when we started the coaching process with our our internal group there was a lot of different characteristics that we looked at in in the new coach that we wanted to hire there’s probably about 15 things that we listed um and experience definitely is one of them you want somebody can come in here and hit the ground running um and who’s done this before uh especially with a young team uh um coming off of like I said a difficult season positivity was important and when we started digging in um to the different uh coaching um different coaches we were looking at um you know we we felt experience was important um that the the players needed to feel like the person coming in here knew what he was talking about and I’m I’m not saying that the other people didn’t um but it is important to have that experience of of leading a group understanding um the ability to communicate connect with the players and a lot of times um it’s hard to do that as a leader if you’ve never done it before um and I felt we felt really really confident with JB coming um that he’d be able to do that with our group Rod beard Detroit News JB you’re familiar with the the roster from last year but adding uh Tobias and Tim and Malik just Shooters and Veteran guys in those key Wing spots how important is that to try to turn things around and just for Rost construction too well you want to surround your guys that you’re developing with people who make them better uh and I think you know with the young guys that we have uh we’re trying our best to put them in positions of success uh and success a lot of times offensively in particular starts with that space so when you have a guy like Cade who has the wiggle that he has can get to the paint and create when you have the bigs that you have and Jaylen and Isaiah you know that can put pressure on the paint and those types of things you know it’s Paramount that you have the proper spacing around them um so that they can you know see some success gain confidence and that’s how they will continue to get better uh but it’s also important to have guys who have been through it and understand it like you look at you know how far Tim hardaway’s gone how far Tobias has gone the playoff games that they’ve played you know they have a clear understanding of who they are and those guys knowing who they are again helps your other guys who are trying to develop and find their you know ultimate ultim imate position in this league so it’s extremely important that you surround them with people that can help them get better not just from a basketball standpoint like all the research that we’ve done and that Trent and his crew have done on these guys professionalism uh from a day-to- day you know how do they eat how do they you know get in the weight room their recovery like all these small things that veteran players who’ve had a ton of success and played a lot of games like Tobias plays a lot of games right so how do we get that and help that translate to our young guys um because it is true you know they they respect uh their peers and veteran players like they have a ton of respect for those guys and they’re doing the work behind the scenes that we’re not always a part of Kim Kim Brown W um being the son of a legendary coach uh is there a Bricker staff family philosophy on NBA basketball what was passed down to you that you deal with today is this is a core philosophy of the biggest that have going forward tell the truth um I mean as simple as that is when you’re having conversations with players when you’re having conversations with agents front office you know just being honest um and treating people with the same amount of respect that you want to be treated with you know that’s the way that we approach it I watched my dad you know have countless encounters where I was with him obviously when he was a little bit older as a coach and I saw players that he coached before Timeless you know time and time again come up to him and say things like you know wow I didn’t understand what you were doing at that point but now that I’m older I realize it and I thank you for that uh so if as a coach I can have that impact on people uh that’s what I’m looking to do um because you know to me this isn’t just about you know pieces on a chest table right these are about forming great relationships and lasting relationships and people you grow with win with like those are relationships that you have you know 15 20 years down the line uh and to me that’s what this is all about welcome welcome to Detroit Brandon Dent wber Sports I just wanted to ask what are some of the most important aspects of building a team Identity or culture especially with a young one like this I mean that the fun part about it is you know you get to start here and mold at how you kind of see fit uh and and one of the things that we do as a coaching staff uh when we come into these new situations is we try to find ways to connect our team with its fan base um you know we know the history of you know the Detroit Pistons and the bad boys and rough and rugged style that they like to play uh and when they were at their best you know with the Rasheed Wallace and chony bips crew you know I mean how great they were defensively uh how physical they were you know how they challenged people how they competed uh and to me it seemed uh from the outside looking in that their fan base embraced that style of play uh obviously you know the rules are a little bit different now um but you know I believe that the Detroit fans will love guys who compete their tales off they’ll love guys who are willing to sacrifice their body uh for the greater good of the team they’ll love guys who play selfless basketball uh and it’s not just about me me me so uh as we do our work and research you know we study a way to connect the team to the fan base uh and I think that’s where we start and I think we have the pieces here to do that you know we have some rough and rugged guys guys that don’t mind mixing it up um guys that don’t mind scrapping and can play with a grit uh but then again understand how playing selfless basketball impacts winning uh and I think that’s where we’ll start um but what you’ll see is you know come February come March like you’ll be able to turn on the TV and you’ll be like Ah that’s Detroit Pistons basketball um that’s what we aim for JB obviously different players but just from coaching Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland is there anything you learned from that or can take from that as you look at Kate and Jaden Ivy here and how they can fit together yeah I mean anytime you get the opportunity to be fortunate enough to work with Elite basketball players uh you have to take learn from them um you know Finding different ways to use them together finding different ways to rotate them so that they get the opportunity to play to their strengths you know that was one of the things where you know we always tried to keep one of those guys on the floor um you know we allow them to play obviously to close games together to start games together but you build your rotation that you always have one of those Dynamic players uh on the floor again I want to take firsthand notes uh and get the two of those guys together before I make any decision or any declarations to you guys about how we’ll use them and what we’ll do with them um but again you know believing in their talent and their skill set uh there’s going to be plenty of ways that we can use them uh so that they’ll be difficult for opponents to match with J with the Detroit News just curious obviously year one starts now with building relationships and getting the environment you want but what does success look like for you in just your first season uh Improvement um you know a lot of people talk about development uh and we throw that word around um but a lot of times and you know one of the things us as coaches did for so long it was development only impacted individuals um you know where we aim to go is where the development impacts winning and how do we make our young guys and all of our guys because the guys you know they never stop getting better uh but how do we make them better winners you know obviously we’ll work on ball handling shooting all those things but like how does what you do impact winning uh and you’ll see the plays time and time again where guys are growing you know to make the winning play uh and that’s what we’re our focus is on um but you know again it’s it this is going to be a fun situation and like I said by the end of this you know you’ll look at the team and you know Night by night and I’m sure there’s going to be some ups and downs uh but you’ll see a style of play and you’ll be able to recognize Pistons basketball J Dan Miller from Fox and Detroit you’ve added some veterans that can obviously help you win some games how do you kind of thread that needle between utilizing those guys but also needing to play young players who need to develop need to learn on the court uh I mean you’re going every single night to compete and you’re holding yourself to a standard uh and you play the guys that live to that standard every day you know guys are going to make mistakes you know we live with that but are they the right kind of mistakes uh are they the mistake of you know trying to make the extra pass uh are they the mistake of you know defensively trying to over rotate you know those types of things you live with um you know we talked about it before you know if playing competitive and they’re playing selfless guys have the freedom to be the best versions of themselves and play to their strengths if they’re not you know then you know they have to go take a seat you’ve got veterans that can come in and fill that spot so the conversations we’ve had with those veteran players uh they’re going to be well aware of what their opportunities and what their roles are and expectations of them are um but we’ll treat everybody fairly uh and if you’re trying to hold yourself to a standard you don’t get to pick and choose when you live to that standard it’s something you have to do every day J box do you have a timeline for this I mean is it an accelerated process because you said turn on the TV in February you’ll see Detroit Pistons basketball so what’s the timeline look like what’s the uh the acceleration look like uh there’s no timeline you know I maybe Tran can speak to this a little bit better um because every situation is different um you know our aim again is just to continue to get better as the season goes on uh but stylistically you’ll be able to see clearly what we’re trying trying to do uh and I think you know I’m sure of that because our guys you know are the quality of people and the High character that they’ll buy into what we’re trying to do uh wins and losses are something you know that that come uh on their own timeline so we’re not going to sit here and promise you this amount of wins uh but we can promise you that our guys are going to compete their tails off and play selfless basketball uh and do the dirty things that it takes to win basketball games uh and that’ll be the Pistons brand JB just stay with that just staying with that the franchise has been a lot of changes over the past couple years the bad base has seen all those changes and they’re probably wondering what from you can you tell them is going to be different this time by you lead this group again you know we can speak on History we can speak on experience uh coming from a situation where uh you know we went through this exact same process um you know individuals players got better teams got got better the teams got better uh veteran players came in and had great years for us um you know we developed the identity uh of obviously being you know an elite defensive team um you know two years ago you know we were better offensively we were top five top seven excuse me offensive team um you know so I think the proof is there um that we have the experience and it’s not just me uh we’re going to bring in a great staff of people uh that knows how to work with you know young players uh help them get better they know great strategy um they’ll put them in position to be successful uh they’ll build relationships with guys to understand the buttons that need to be pushed uh to help those guys be the best versions of themselves and you know it’s something that you know a lot of times on the outside you guys might not be able to see uh but this building is going to be a special place uh and if this building is a special place you’ll see the performance on the floor of guys going out uh and wanting to represent not only themselves uh not only their teammates but their organization and City to a high level um and then Tran’s got to keep getting us Talent JB Sean Detroit press what do you see and think of Jaden Ivy when you study him when you coached against him uh I I think there’s just a natural speed and athleticism that’s hard to deal with uh in this league you know the way the rules are set up you know the way teams are spacing the floor the tempo that people want to play at um you know he’s going to be extremely difficult cult to guard and I think one of the things you know that he has the ability to do is just put a ton of foul pressure on people uh and you know we know in this league like guys don’t want to pick up foul so that’s going to allow him you know to get to the paint more uh be able to create either layups for themselves kick out threes uh but you know to play Modern NBA basketball I think his Tempo and his speed gives you an advantage to do that uh one of the things that I’m looking forward to uh is seeing him catch the ball on the move right so if we want to play with more Tempo being able to throw the ball to him at half court when he’s got his hips Square uh to the offensive end of the floor and now he’s playing with that speed and playing with that Tempo and then what that forces everybody else behind him to do uh and again the pressure that it puts on the defense so I’m looking forward to working with him um you know want to get uh time to sit with him more one-on-one obviously this has happened quickly uh and kind of figure out what his goals are too and I think for me that helps me put things in perspective and put it in place where now we put a plan together where I understand exactly who he is and what he’s aiming to do and then together we put a plan together to help him get there okay um this is a slight diversion but ass assar was obviously not on the summer league roster just how’s he doing and do you anticipate that he’ll be good to go by training camp yeah thanks for the question um he was actually out on the court uh working out today uh he just recently got cleared for all BAS activities so um in the spirit of what we’ll do with all injuries with players coming back is we’re not going to rush them back to you know competitive basketball so we’ll start gearing him and having him ramp up um right now and and he’ll do that throughout the time in Vegas with our vets um but he won’t participate we just didn’t want to throw him back in competitive basketball but we are uh we’re confident that he’ll be ready to go come uh come training camp in the fall I want to follow up with something JD said earlier getting veterans who know how to train and deep professionals you guys added a lot of veterans who don’t miss games um I don’t know is that intentional was that happen stance was that something when you evaluated this organization something that stuck out to you about how often guys miss games and have for for several years or again was it happen stance I don’t think it was happen stance I think it’s always something that we um look at you want guys that are on the floor love to play but are also um they can play you know they they play games they don’t miss a lot of that has some of it’s luck right but some of it is also the durability of them um the time they put in as professionals on the front end on the back end in terms of recovery um but it’s not happen since we brought those guys in that it’s the importance to raise our younger guys so they can see those things day in and day out through a season that the the importance of um playing in and out and playing with maybe it’s you know some guys won’t play 90% some guys want to play at 100% um and to play 75 plus games uh you’re not going to be at 100% sometimes most of the time you’re not going to be at um but we’re bringing in guys that that want to compete and fight through those uh small Nicks and bruises and you know whatever occurs but um again there’s some luck that goes into it but there’s a lot of uh work that goes into being end durable as well Tran it’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks for you and just assembling your front office um free agency getting a coach in place now how do you feel about where you are in in the transformation and what you want to do you know JB and I talked about it today um and I we were just was talking about our schedule in Vegas um kind of what we’re going to do there with our staffs and intermixing that and having dinners and whatever that looks like and I just I actually told him I said uh I’m going to have a dinner with our front office staff because what we’ve accomplished here in the six seven weeks that we’ve been together for me really um I’m incredibly proud of um it’s it was kind of my vision coming in here and kind of what I talk to our staff about is there going to be a lot that has to be accomplished over the next four weeks and um they had to believe and trust me and my vision and our staff’s vision and really come together and buy in um to the things that we were trying to do and you know sometimes intermixing leftover staff and then new staff coming together can be challenging and it’s pretty much been seamless with the group of people that have been here so um I’m super excited about the group that we have and Incredibly blessed that they’ve come together for the past four or five weeks and to answer your question very very happy about what we’ve been able to accomplish uh in the time that I’ve been here thanks

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