RealGM

OS: Is it correct that you envision using Aaron Gordon similarly to how your employed Paul George in terms of putting the ball in his hands?

FV: Yeah. Let's see what he can do. I think he's more of a 4 than Paul was. Paul is more of a 2/3. Aaron's more of a 3/4. But I've seen a lot on tape that I think that he can do a lot of similar things. And, more importantly, by playing him at small forward we're going to be really long defensively, which has always been sort of a trademark of those defensive teams in Indy, which is just to have length and athleticism on the perimeter and really at all positions. The difference between those teams and this team is the athleticism of our bigs: Bismack and Serge and their ability to switch and guard. It's what we didn't have in Indy. I think we can be in some ways better. But we're going to have to see how good we are defensively with our perimeter guys.

OS: Do you have rebuild Elfrid's confidence? Last season probably didn't go how he wanted. From what I hear, he's not a person who lacks confidence.

FV: He's a smart guy, a confident guy. He strikes me as a guy who's going to have a heck of a year. Obviously, you've got to reach a point in your career where you're stepping up and you're going to get the job done at a high level. It's tough for guys in their first and second years to do that when they're not surrounded by an already winning culture and veterans. So he had some growing pains, like this whole team did. But I think he's poised to have a great year.

Orlwillbeback wrote:This guy just breathes confidence and common sense. The difference is that those Indy teams had much better shooting at nearly every position.