A few quotes from Fat's article
Q: You mentioned the right amount of work. How do you establish that? What is the right amount of work?
A: For every roster it would be different. With an older team, it's going to be different than with a younger team. But you have to establish a work expectation in practice, a work expectation in shootaround and an overall expectation that whatever we're doing for the day — it may be just film — but whatever we're trying to do, we should use the opportunity to get better.
Q: Let's hit the defensive end. What makes it work?
A: We play right out of an NBA base defense. I'd like to say we do all these different things but to be honest. I talked to Stan. He came to our training camp, stayed for three days and gave us notes and we sat and talked a lot. I went to Chicago for a day in September and talked to Tom Thibodeau. They both said the same thing: Establish your base defense and let that be the heart of it the first year and build from there.
Q: How important is making the playoffs this season for the growth of the team moving forward?
A: One, I believe these games, the last 18 games, will be a great experience for us. If we get the opportunity to play in the playoffs, it would be good for the city, good for the players and great for the organization to go through that.
For the players, the playoffs are a different level of execution and detail.
We have very good perimeter defenders so we don't have to double team. Josh, Cody and Anthony Tolliver, when he plays the four, naturally make multiple efforts, which is critical for a four-man. They can go from pick-and-roll to help and back which is huge in our league.
Q: What did you like about Charlotte when you were looking at the situation?
A: I'll be honest. I interviewed with three teams, and look, with my background where I didn't play in the league, the first team that offered me a job I was going to take it. That's just being honest.
But the thing I liked about my visit and the time I spent, I felt comfortable when I sat down with Rod Higgins and Rich Cho that we all had a similar idea philosophically how to build it — balanced play, size, skill. That's what we talked about. When I left there, I felt good about the meeting with them.
The other thing, the film work that I did. Last year, we lost in the first round of the playoffs with the Lakers, so I had time to study the team, and the thing I liked was the competitiveness of the younger players. Those were really the two things.
Q: Offensively, you said it's in the right direction the past 25 games. What are you looking for?
A: Within the offense, you need balance. For us, our post-up game is the best part of our offense. Not just Al scoring, but us being able to score on cuts and things off him, which is good because he'll make the right play.
The second-best part of our offense is Kemba's pick-and-roll game, which he's done a really good job at. He's still scoring but his assist-to-turnover numbers are way up over the last month or so.
Then, you have to have as many ways to score as possible — screening, five-man basketball — because when you play the best defensive teams, if you're just doing the same thing over and over again, they will take it away.
Q: Coaches come in and want to change a culture. Sometimes, it's easier said than done. How have you been able to accomplish that, by and large, with a lot of the same guys who have been there the past couple of seasons?
A: A lot of what we're trying to do is similar to what I learned from working for Jeff and Stan (Van Gundy). We're a culture of the right amount of work, where there's a definitive style of play which will lead to being able to win big in this league and then a level of accountability both from coaches to players and players to coaches and players to players.
All of that can only happen and work out well if you have the right kind of guys. So much of coaching, particularly at this level, is dictated by the character and competitiveness of your roster.
