Houston Rockets Postgame: Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet Talk Game 7 Loss

Houston Rockets Postgame: Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet Talk Game 7 Loss

Uh for Alfie, what did you kind of learn about yourself through this series being asked to do a lot defensively and also battling with Draymond Green on the other end? Man, learn a lot, you know, first time playoff uh for me and one of the best players being in the league long time. Just learn a lot, man. learn the uh aggressiveness, defense, play both way, you know, just try to win, you know, try to help my teammates, but you know, just got to learn and move on. Fred, I know you guys are crushed right now, but big picture, how proud are you of the young guys and the way that they handled the pressure in their first playoff series? Yeah, I’m I’m extremely proud of these guys. you notice, you know, look at all these guys like my baby brothers. Um, except for they’re not babies anymore. You know, they grew up a lot this year and uh made huge strides. Um, incredible regular season and um just a tough way to to end the season. It’s always tough. Um, but it’s only one team that can win a championship. So, it’s a heartbreaking uh loss. You know, game seven can go either way. um wasn’t our best performance, but we’re not going to sum up the whole experience based on one night. Um I’m proud of everybody made huge strides down the list. The entire roster was um keys. One of my favorite seasons that I’ve been a part of and um I think that everybody should be excited, you know, about the future and what’s to come. Fred, you have a club option on your contract for next season. Do you want and expect to be back? And can you speak about your partnership with Emeoka? It seems more than a normal player coach relationship. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I know I’m a little new here, but I’m never going to speak about contract stuff publicly. Um, handle the business behind closed doors, but obviously I put my heart and soul into this, and this is where I want to be, and um, it’s definitely a family situation. Um, I got a lot of love for our coaching staff and uh, Rafel and the Fatilla family and just what we set out to do, you know, when I had my free agent meeting two years ago and we’re on that track and it was never a shortterm vision. It was a long-term goal. So, um, we’re on track. We’re on schedule. It’s a tough way to lose and end the season, but, um, my mind’s very far away from contract stuff right now. Um, we’ll get to that when it’s time. you played with um some of the best and against some of the best. What What can Jaylen Green take from this playoff series to fuel him going into next season and in the future? Yeah, just stuff to work on in the in the offseason to fuel motivation. Um every great player has struggled at times. Every great player had to learn how to adjust and adapt. The ultimate sign of respect from the opposing team is to take him out. We saw them do that multiple games this series. Um, but Jayla’s gonna be all right. Um, and I don’t not really online right now, so I’m not I keep hearing like the narratives that are going on. I haven’t really seen much of it, but uh, we’re not we’re not going to make this about Jaylen, you know what I mean? He’s he had an incredible season this year. Um, carried us a lot, made big strides, played unbelievable basketball, and um, obviously, you know, in the playoffs it’s tough. We got to find ways to be effective and I believe in him and I know that he’s going to use this this summer to get even better and come back next year a better player. Um I don’t have your first playoff experience off the top of my head, but is but are those things that you can share with Jaylen um that it does get better or or what are those type of things how do you you know look to impart that? I mean everybody’s journey is different, right? But I mean, I can share him what I’ve seen and what I’ve been through. And um again, it’s the weight of the the world seems to be on his shoulders at times with everybody else’s expectations, but I mean, he he he played well. He played team basketball. It wasn’t we were a balanced group all year. It never really was about one guy all season. So, um we knew that they were going to load up on him. They did it we both played them 12 times, I think, this year. So, they kind of played them the same way every game. Um but again as on the path to greatness there’s going to be stumbles and and shortcomings and failures and when you don’t win a championship it feels like failure and you use that you know in your summer time as you prepare and get ready to to come back a better player. Fred Amed really asserted himself in the second half of the series. What was the most impressive thing to you about him in his first playoff appearance? Problem solving. you know, again, he’s he’s starting to to problem solve in real time, starting to read defenses, starting to figure out where he could find his spots. Um, he’s such a athletic force, but I think at times you get slowed down trying to think and and over overthink a little bit. So, once he found his spots, he was able to get downhill. Um, sky’s the limit for him. Obviously, he was huge for us and coming out of the 3-1 hole and him finding that attack mode, um, he just adds another dynamic to our team. So, super proud of him. post game. Steve Kerr said you’d been a series changer and they wanted to try to stop that. I wonder from your point of view what you saw that they did differently tonight than they had. Yeah, I felt it tonight. Uh definitely stayed home a little bit more. Definitely showed some more pressure. Uh bringing the big up a little bit higher on the screens, fighting over a little bit harder. Um I mean honestly it felt like we were three for 12 from three the whole entire game before the last two minutes. So we didn’t even get any attempts up. You know, it was a game plan thing they did. So, we got some twos. Didn’t shoot great from two. So, you know, it’s hit or miss there, but it was just a numbers game tonight. I think Buddy Hill out shot us by itself from three. So, um this new era, it’s hard to to compete, you know, at that level of um shot making threes more than two. It’s just the way it goes. But they did a good job of of taking away a lot of our looks staying home and um forcing us to take twos. Um we just didn’t convert at a high enough clear in the paint. Hey Alfie, what do you feel like you learned about yourself during the playoffs? What I learned? I learned real basketball. You know, of course, we had really good season, but this was different and you know, we just learned a lot. We learned how to play together. Uh, you know, we playing the team over and over seven times. So just trying to be stay together you know uh talk every day and you know it was just you know hard series for usec like obviously we are upset right now you know but it just it’s going to be a great offseason for us and you know just get better next year. obviously um being defended by Draymond these last seven games. Are there little counters that you feel like you can pick up pretty quickly to make it easier to score against really good defenders like him? I mean, you know, uh obviously he’s one of the best defender uh of all time. So, it was great to play against him, but of course, you know, I have a lot to work and making all those easy shots. So, I just got to be, you know, I’m going to be I’m going to I’m going to work a lot this off seasonason on those shots and come back even stronger next year and, you know, hopefully make those next year in the playoffs. Alie, um, when you and Jaylen first came in, it wasn’t, you know, the best of situations here with the organization and, you know, what you all went through the first two years. What what was the conversation that you and Jaylen had, you know, after tonight’s game as far as I know that it’s disappointing right now, but it’s, you know, well far away from what you all came into. I mean, we were talking, you know, we earned, we earned this, we earned to come here and, you know, it was just been long, long journey, me and him together, and it was just happy to see us over here together. You know, it’s obviously it’s upsetting losing, but we got to learn a lot and you know, take this take this series a compliment for us and just get better and better and come back next year even stronger. You know, I believe in us and we’re going to come back stronger and stronger and it’s going to be different next year. Uh Fred, what happened that moment with you and Draymond where he knocked you down and then talk to you afterwards as well? Uh, I just I think I hit the ball. Um, the ball went flying obviously flood a little bit, knocked me knocked me down. Um, but yeah. All right, man. Listen, I got a lot of love for Draymond. Um, you know what he brings to the table. Um, those guys you hate to play against, but you love love to play with them. Um, so yeah, just competing. We got we got a a good enough rapport to work that stuff out. So that was a lot uh nothing. Last one. I’ll be in the back. Uh you talk about working in the offseason and and coming back stronger next year. What what what area in your game are you maybe wanting to focus on to develop? I think I improve my defensive uh way this season, but you know, I got to work a lot more in my offense, I think. And I didn’t have great year with my offense, you know. Uh I was even better last year, I would say. And I just kind of was, you know, struggling with offense, but I’m just going to focus on that and on my body, on my touch, everything, you know, and I’m going to long season, long summer is waiting for me, so I have a lot to do. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you.

Houston Rockets Postgame: Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet Talk Game 7 Loss.

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