Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet & Houston Rockets Respond to Being ELIMINATED vs. Golden State in GM7

Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet & Houston Rockets Respond to Being ELIMINATED vs. Golden State in GM7

Uh for Alpie, uh 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 player uh for me and one of the best players being in the league long time. Just learn a lot, man. learn 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 know it’s I 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 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 could you speak about your partnership with Emodoka? It seems more than a normal player coach relationship. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I I I know I’m a little new here, but I’m never going to speak about contract stuff publicly. Um, I 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 short-term 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. U, we’ll get to that when it’s time. Fred, 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, 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 the multiple games this series. Um, but Jaylen’s gonna be all right. I don’t and I don’t I’m not really online right now. So, I’m not I keep hearing like the narratives that are going on, but 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 is tough. We got to find ways to be effective and uh I believe in him and I know that he’s going to use this this summer to to get even better and come back next year a better player. Um I don’t have your first playoff experience off top of my head, but is but are those things that you could 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 that knowledge? I mean everybody’s journey is different, right? But I mean, I can share with 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 them. They did it. We played them 12 times, I think, this year. So, they kind of played him 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 Amen 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 can find his spots. Um, he’s such a athletic force, but I think at times you can 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, I’m super proud of him. Fred, in postgame, Steve Curry 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, bring 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 outsh 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 and we just didn’t convert at a high enough clip in the paint. Hey Ali, 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 learn 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 it’s going to be a great offseason for us and you know just get better next year. I’ll be um being defended by Draymond for these last seven games. Are there little counters that you feel like that 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 whole 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. 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. Alpie, 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 of 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? Did he talk to you afterwards as well? Uh, I just I think I hit the ball. U, 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, we 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, no, that was a 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. I mean, I know that you guys are crushed right now, but how proud are you of this team just as a whole for what you guys were able to accomplish? Yeah. Um, you know, that one hurts, but I’m really proud of the team. um getting it back to game seven, almost being able to win that game. Um yeah, a man, how would you sum up your season and what’s the next step for you? Uh with the summer coming up, working on your game, what are some of the things you want to key in on? Um I mean I mean this furthest I ever got, so that’s a step obviously. I mean, second year and just um I want to use this motivation, you know, feeling hurts to lose like that. Just um you know, there’s a lot to work on obviously and um got a whole summer for it. Um what do you take away from your first playoff experience and you know how the game changes in the postseason and what you can do to adjust in the future? Um it’s just more intense, but um can’t let that stop you from playing basketball. It’s still basketball at the end of the day. And um yeah, kind of to that point, you guys had like 30 some odd missed shots in the paint. Were they doing anything in particular to make it really tough to finish tonight? I think we were just missing shots. I don’t think they were doing anything different today. We were just missing the easy ones we usually make. Anything else? Hey, Almond. Uh, you talk about, you know, using this as motivation and and looking to get better during the summer. In today’s era of a lot of three-point shots, maybe how important is developing even the mid-range and and try to maybe attack that way. Um, I think it’s super important, you know, like I feel like I can get wherever I want, especially that mid-range area. So, um, that’s something I work on. That’s something I’m happy with my steps with. Danielle man, how do you look at the jump that this team took overall from last year to this year? And do you think that that can be replicated from this year to next year? Yeah, I mean like I’m proud of the team. You know, we didn’t even make playoffs last year. This year we’re the two seed going against um bunch of Hall of Famers and um came close. But I mean, next year I feel like we’ll have that experience, you know, coming into the playoffs time. Like we all have been there at this point. Like, you know what I mean? A lot of our rotation guys, I think we got three that even ever been to the playoffs. So, rest of us are young, so we can just build off that. Great. Thank you. Hey, man. What were the main source of the offensive issues that you guys had tonight? Uh missed shots. Um close range shots. I think 23 for 55 in the paint. Uh a lot of really good looks there. Didn’t get up that many threes. Only 18 on the night. Made six of them. So that’s a low number for the threes that we had been generating. And then the zone that they ran got us a little stagnant. Um and but when we did find the openings in in the middle, uh missed the threes that we kicked out or the the close-range shots. And so, um, as I said the other night, sometimes shots go in and it makes it it masks some things and, um, tonight stood out the other way. I know it’s kind of hard to look at this immediately after the season ends, but how do you view this season as a whole, some growth, some good, some bad. Um, obviously a a poor ending to play, you know, one of our worst games in the in the playoffs in in game seven. We had a few bad ones early and kind of corrected ourselves from there in a lot of ways on both sides of the ball and then to come out a little bit flat tonight. Um obviously that’s going to leave a sour taste in our mouth for sure. But um you look at big picture the growth that we made. Um, you know, now we just said no moral victories and whatever, we could be much more consistent, but uh getting to the two seed and 50 whatever wins and the growth that guys have showed kind of have a blueprint for where we want to be and the the standard on a year-to-year basis, but um all that doesn’t really matter when you go out with the you know, a chance to move on obviously and in advance and um you know, like I said, kind of laying an egg in our last game. It’s going going to sting for a minute. Even you mentioned the zone throwing y’all out of rhythm a little bit. What was it about just sort of the way they uh implemented their zone and how y’all attacked it? You know, we we found it when we when we usually find out in the middle, we get good results, whether it’s um kicking it out for the for the threes and we had some of those, but also just the uh openings at the basket and it felt like we missed a lot of point blank shots and the offensive rebounds although we have 14, didn’t really have a great percentage on the second chance. uh only made 50% of those and so a little bit of that. I mean then the other part obviously uh they had the most success against our zone for the first time in the series and Hill got loose there. So um they they hurt us when we were in zone and vice versa we struggled against theirs. Coach, the playoffs are obviously a different thing than the regular season, but is there anything you learned about yourself or about this team during this particular series? Yeah, we can’t waste opportunities. Um, you know, you you have that week of preparation while teams are in the playing and doing those things and we have to come out a little bit sharper for sure. Feel like we had wasted opportunities in the early games. Um, you know, you can kind of throw away game one with a poor offensive performance that we another game we didn’t shoot it well and then you went two and then three and four it’s right there and you have those one one possession games where like I said it’s a free throws or miss shots or um small things letting letting some guys get loose and hurt us and so felt we had chances there to not even be in this position. And so, um, the urgency to, um, adjust on the fly and and and and improve from game to game took us a little bit of time and felt like obviously we got rolling in game five, but um, a little bit too late to be in this position right now. Eay, why do you think Jaylen struggled so throughout the series? And what do you think or hope he can learn from the series? You know, you have to look at it as a sign of respect the way they went after him. um obviously a leading scoreer and uh their objective was to take him out of the series and um like I I’ve said throughout the series it’s he he gets the ball out of his hands and gets us the numbers and the advantage it’s he’s done his job there and you have to try to take advantage of opportunities in transition when we get stops and get out and run and and kind of be more efficient as far as that. But um you know when teams want to blitz you like I said I always say we should welcome that and kind of pick that apart. we’ve seen it quite a bit this year with him and so um his he has improved in that area but um you know he didn’t get a ton of shots honestly throughout the series or um when they did when they did guard him regularly had obviously had a big night and then they went right back to what they were doing and so um you know it’s going to sting for him as well not having his best performance in the series but um at the at the same time like I said you got to take advantage of those numbers and and he did his job to get off the ball and um everybody could have played better tonight obviously Eay with Amen. What was most impressive about him during his first playoff experience and particularly the the last four games of this series? Yeah, similar to some of the, you know, some of the other young guys who, you know, had had a little were a little rattled early on. He didn’t start his best in the series. I think the first two two maybe three games, you know, a little subpar for him and he just kept grinding, kept his head down and got in attack mode and took off from there. And so, uh, the defensive effort, he he had to, you know, exert that energy and and defense he displayed was top-notch like always, but, um, for him, he just kept attacking, never lost confidence or aggressiveness. And so, uh, finished on a good note. Obviously, tonight was was good for him as well. Probably our our more most consistent guy tonight, but um, you know, he learned like he does on the fly and then and really had a really good series after probably game three. Not to take anything away from the Warriors, of course, but would you say you guys beat yourselves more often than not in this series? Yeah, times for sure. Um, you know, like I was mentioned, you you miss free throws. Uh, that’s that’s a sign right there. You know, in in a one possession game, you missed 12 free throws or whatever it was. You saw the numbers when we missed free throws in in the three games that we lost early. So, that that part stands out. You know, open shots are open shots. You’re going to make them, you’re going to miss them. And I think nobody nobody’s intentionally trying to miss the shots. So we we had the poor shooting nights where we played good enough defense. And so like I said, those ones stood out, especially two games, game three and four in Golden State, uh where we really had great opportunities to come back home and and really put some pressure on them. And so um those parts stand out, our offensive performance in some of those and then tonight not coming out our best. So, um, you know, they’re a veteran group that switched some things up and, um, put took us out of our game plan a little bit tonight, but overall, yeah, we had opportunities throughout the series to, um, really put pressure on them. And you touched on it a little bit, but just all the miss shots in the paint, like 30 something. Did Were they doing anything in particular to make that more difficult in the paint? No, I wouldn’t think I wouldn’t say so. I think the playoffs are physical. It is what it is. you have to play through some contact and you know not seek fouls go to finish and um at times I think we kind of got knocked off our spot but we were doing the same thing as well you know to them and so yeah you know you got to give it on one end take it on the other end and um just had to be a little bit more uh strong with our finishes no doubt or find your outlets instead of shooting over a few people but I wouldn’t say anything else today today specific they are really good at positionally coming across and helping and being in the right spots but lack rim protection so you just got to with our athletes in our size advantage. You got to just finish those easy ones. Fred has a club option for next season. Is he a guy you want and expect back on this team next year? And can you speak to just kind of the partnership that you guys seem to have here together? Yeah, absolutely. I think both sides um want to be here and want him here um you know from day one as I’ve talked about the importance of him you know at the point guard position kind of leading us in a lot of ways and allowing guys to grow at the same time and understanding um you know what he walked into what he signed with and and you know he’s a huge part of our growth in general and so um you know love everything he’s done um you know perfect combination of of of onball offball for our our guards and our young guys to grow and uh obviously love to have him back and I think the feeling’s mutual. With the offense struggling against the zone throughout the game, was it any thought to play Jabari more minutes with his ability to stretch the floor and of course shoot over defenders? Yeah, I mean I think we gave everybody a shot off the bench for sure. I mean um you know we didn’t particularly shoot it well or score well off the bench. I think uh we had 11 total combined so it wasn’t our best night as far as that either. Um, but uh, you know, I I think like I said, we were guarding well enough throughout the series and so we like some of our matchups with keeping our men in on Curry and and Fred there and so the defensive part was good. You you know, think you get your offense going a little bit more like Alpie had the opportunities. I think Dylan had some really good looks and others did as well. Even guys coming off the bench. um you know combination of their zone and just us having a poor shooting night um obviously stands out but u Jabari or anybody obviously didn’t have the best night. You you mentioned Fred uh he didn’t get as many clean looks as he had been getting. What did they do differently on Fred? Yeah, they were much more aggressive on him in the pick and roll. Well, obviously he’s had two or three really big games and uh the attention that they showed to Jaylen, they see seem to do that as well. But as I always say, if he’s going to make the right play, we have to, you know, score with the numbers behind it. And I think that was the point of us missing some of the kickout threes or or rim shots. And so, we got the he got the ball to the guys and they have to finish from there. So, um do your job when you get two on the ball and like I said, he’s going to find the outlets and just had to just score better in the paint, especially on the easy ones. Coach, I know the mood probably wasn’t um you know, the best once you went into the locker room, but what was your overall message to them? You know, we had our chances in this series. We all expected to continue to be playing obviously and so that’s a let down. Um but, you know, it’s going to sting now. Use it as motivation and um the growth and the things we’ve learned and showed this year. Um let’s all come back better. You know, coaches included. And so that was the message. Don’t be satisfied. you know, we had whatever amount of wins and second place and all that, but uh nobody cares about that right now. It’s it’s where we finished and um you know, experience is out of the way. Um everybody will take look internally and see how we can all improve and uh come back better and not, you know, not settle for first round or just making the playoffs, but advance. Eay, um this is your second year with this group. You talked about the growth from year one to year two. Is this team can this team take that next step? And if so, what do you need to do in order to to get there? Yeah, I think absolutely. Um, took a took a big one this year as far as not just in the win column, but overall guys understanding. I think our biggest thing for us, experience is one thing for sure. That’s that comes with time and and being in the playoffs and things like that. I think for us it’s the IQ. Got to improve overall just everybody being on the same page and um that comes with experience and going through certain things. But yeah, I think we can absolutely take another jump. um we have to we can’t just uh come back the same and that’s the message to the guys and so um a lot of obviously physical work to be done guys getting stronger and growing into their bodies and all those things but the mental side is going to be really important for us and um we got some guys that have that experience and if we can get everybody on that same page and grow in that area I think that’s going to help us take the biggest jump. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. [Music]

Watch as Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet & Houston Rockets Respond to Being ELIMINATED vs. Golden State in GM7

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