Dipesh Mistry, Sacramento Kings Summer League HC
[Music] Yeah, I’ll go upstairs. Yeah, no worries. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How much uh how much are you just looking forward to this opportunity yourself? Oh, probably waiting this all my life to be honest with you. Um yeah, no, it’s it’s been great. The first practice was great and yeah, this this opportunity is very great and uh just thank you. I’m thankful for Doug for giving me this opportunity. How did it come as a surprise? I mean, were you obviously ready for it, right? Yeah. No, it it was a surprise. Um and then I started thinking about it a couple weeks ago when he told me and yeah, just preparing for it and yeah, it was amazing. What is the uh game plan, you know, for these players, you know, going into uh Las Vegas? What are you guys trying to get them organized with? I just want them to establish their defensive identity. This team is going to be a defensive mindset of team going into summer league. Like we’re going to make them feel us. We’re going to communicate, right? And then we’re going to compete and those are the three things I’m really harping on. And I think the defense is going to create our offense. Now, I know this was just obviously the first practice with all of them, but you know, was there anyone in particular out there that really surprised you or any particular player who you really were like, “Wow, I didn’t know they had that.” um to to be honest with you, I like I really enjoyed Devin’s leadership, you know, and I I know like he’s played limited amount of games this season, but he’s been working hard in um in the summer every every day he’s been in here. And I just I just like how he controlled his team and that’s what kind of really shocked me. Not not just as his play, it was his leadership of his team. You said he’s going to be uh playing anything that you guys ask him, but is you guys going to be running them a lot at the point? Yes. Yes. I I want him to I want him to handle the ball. You know, we got multiple ball handlers cuz we’re going to play fast. So truly, we don’t really have a point guard. You know, we’re going to have multiple point guards. They’re going to bring up the ball. And Dem is going to be one of them. And we’re going to test him to see if he can handle the pressure. And I think he has cuz he’s been working on it. Would Nick be kind of factor in that as well? Yes. Yes, of course. And you know, Nick played little point guard in high school. Um so we’re going to test that out and see see how he handles the pressure. And I think he’ll do a good job. Um we’ll test it out right now too when we scratch and stuff. when when you have um you know this opportunity obviously you got the coaching staff hovers around you and do they give you a long enough leash to be able to kind of handle things your own way or is there that support from them? Yeah. No, they I mean there’s some direction from up top. You know, we want to test out some new things also, but they they’ve given me full reigns of what I want to do and I lean on them a lot because they they got so much knowledge in this uh arena, you know, not just on my summer league staff, but also I’m on a normal big staff, you know, and I lean on them a lot. Is it is it is it um part of the do you anticipate having Devon for the full go of of summer league? Uh yeah. Is it right now? Yeah. Okay. Y D you’ve uh you know kind of established yourself as a valued like member of this coaching staff like you know the previous group and and you know now still being here like your path like what what have you tried to do just to kind of work your your way up and and prove yourself as a as a coach in this league? I think like I just having the attitude of two things is like no job is beneath you, you know, it doesn’t matter what it is no matter how high you go. It’s like and and the other thing is just having a no problem attitude, you know, like you need a coffee, no problem. You know, you need a scout report, no problem. You know, you want me to get you a new play for an ATO, I got you. And if you have that attitude in life, and I try to tell that to the video guys cuz I’ve been in there for 8 years, and that’s how you succeed because eventually the trust starts building, you know, and whether you get them a coffee on time and then you get them a playbook on time and you get them a scouting report on time and then trust builds. What’s this process like for you, you know, trying to obviously roll out a good group, but you’re attempting to evaluate guys here too in a very short period of time. Yeah. Yeah. Um it it’s a fun process honestly and u we get to see all the work that they’ve done in the summer and then obviously the new guys with Max and Ne get to see them a little bit and mesh together but I think we just keep focusing on the defense you know and that that’s where we’re going to really kind of evaluate them and then the offense will come. What would you say just about that relationship? Obviously Doug obviously seemed like it started even before last year but where do you see kind of maybe that foundation beginning between the two of you guys? When my first year we came here, me me and Doug are like early risers. Like we always come in at 6:00 am and so we just having coffee and then we talk scouting reports and we talk all kind of different things, you know, around basketball. So we just built a good relationship that that’s where it kind of stemmed from. How happy are you, you know, to see him get get a real opportunity at this job after, you know, filling in for the last 51 games? Yeah. No, I I’m really happy for him. And um like it it’s very difficult to do things on the fly. you know, I’ve been in Atlanta where I’ve been part of a lot of coaching changes, you know, and so I seen how difficult it is. I saw what Doug did and it was an incredible job he did, but it’s kind of nice that he got a whole full off seasonason to kind of now think about what he wants to do and really establish his identity going forward and really kind of have the coaching staff to hire and actually think about what he really wants to do with the team. Summer has so much capacity tendencies and names. Um, just how what do you anticipate seeing on Thursday, that first game with such a short camp? I mean, I mean, we’re gonna have a dress rehearsal game before that, so hopefully that kind of takes off the nerves and all that stuff, but um, it might be a little bit sloppy, but I just want them to compete. That’s the biggest thing. If they compete and they communicate, I’m going to be pretty happy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys.
