	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

WNBA MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 10, 2017

New York, New York

MODERATOR: We are joined by Brian Agler of the defending champion Los Angeles Sparks, and Fred Williams of the Dallas Wings and Mike Thibault of the Washington Mystics.

Q. Hi, Brian. You had some exciting additions this season on the coaching side and the players side. Can you talk a little bit about what you expect out of the team, and on the coaching side, your thoughts on adding Bobbie Kelsey?
BRIAN AGLER: Yeah, when we knew Kristi was going to Washington, we knew we lost a really good player and somebody that had come off of an extremely good season, both individually and her part of the team. So we needed to find a way to replace her. Not that we could replace her with Odyssey, but we also feel like Odyssey is a really good player on her own behalf.

So the opportunity presented itself for us to make a trade with Dallas, and I think both parties were pleased with how it initially played out. I can't speak for Fred, but we're happy with Odyssey, and I know they had a chance to get some really good young players in the draft.

So we feel like Odyssey can provide us quality minutes at the point and on the perimeter. I don't know if she'll be starting for us, I can't tell you that right now. But she'll play quality minutes.

In regard to Bobbie Kelsey, Bobbie is a basketball junkie. She has a great history with her coaching pedigree, playing at Stanford and coaching there and being a couple of other places. My philosophy in hiring staff is I want people, just like our players, to be hungry and to be energetic and be proactive. Sometimes if you look at sort of my track record of hiring people, I've hired people that have been on the outside looking in. And the reason I do that is because I've experienced that myself, and I know how difficult that is and how hard it is. But I also from experiencing that, I knew and felt confident that I could still do a really good job.

So I know that I'm not the only one like that. There are other people like that. So hiring Court, hiring Amber, hiring Bobbie, hiring Tonya, those people have been great additions. You know, we have to get them up to speed a little bit with the league itself, but I'm confident she's going to do a really good job for us.

Q. Mike, I'm wondering, with so many changes to your team in the off-season, with Kristi and Emma coming in just this week, how do you get your team to method together enough to get ready for the opener?
MIKE THIBAULT: I don't know if you're ever really ready for the opener. You just know in this league almost everybody's going through the same situation in one form or another. Some teams are probably a little bit ahead as far as having that many players in compared to others.

I can't speak for Fred's team, but I know that Brian and I have been just sitting here waiting for people to come in. You know, Emma will fit in just because she's been here long enough to know how we do things. She's comfortable with how we play and what we do and with the majority of the teammates that are returning.

Kristi's a very smart player who picks up things quickly. The way we are playing kind of fits what she's already done. We're probably playing a little bit closer to how L.A., stylewise did last year. So I think that will fit her. Luckily they're both very smart players, but it's going to take us a while just to develop the on-court chemistry you'd like. Luckily those two have played together all winter. So that should help.

Like I said to someone the other day, I don't know that we'll be who we're supposed to be for a while into the season. Emma's going to leave again in a couple weeks. But as long as we're playing our best basketball when it counts, I guess that's probably all that matters.

Q. Brian, I'm wondering how you think the combination of Kristi and Elena will compare to Kristi and Candace?
BRIAN AGLER: Well, you know, every player's a little bit different. Especially, Mike, we've been around this a long time and know these players as they play here and internationally. And Kristi is a really, really smart player and so is Candace and so is Elena. Candace and Elena are a little different. They're similar from the standpoint that they have length, they have ball handling skills, they're probably as more comfortable facing the basket as they are with their back to the basket. So from that standpoint, you know, there's going to be some similarities.

Kristi's going to have a chance to play, and she's played with Candace. She hasn't played that much with Elena yet, but good players figure out each other pretty quickly. You know, Elena's really has that scorer's mentality. That's a big part of her game. She knows how to ring up numbers. She's versatile. She can do it a lot of different ways. She probably has more range than Candace.

Candace is more like -- Candace's game is like you saw last year in the stats. She was Top 10 in scoring, rebounding, and assists. So she's very versatile that way. But Kristi is the key because she's the common denominator that you're talking about. So there is no reason why she won't be able to fit in quickly with Elena.

Q. Brian, I wanted to get your thoughts about coach stock's personality and etch doing style, and also if you could speak to the learning curve both for stock's as a rookie coach and for a young Sky team?
BRIAN AGLER: Yeah, Amber comes from a great pedigree historically. In fact, I've known her for a long, long time. I knew her when she was in high school, in fact. Her mother worked for me and with me with the Columbus quest of the ABL. So I knew Amber. I tracked her through her playing career and early coaching career. She's been in some fantastic programs, if you consider Notre Dame and Tennessee good programs, she's been there.

She was out for a while, started a family. She married a basketball coach, so she has been living this life for a long time. She wanted to get back in, and we gave her that opportunity. She made leaps and bounds improvement in regards to knowing the league from year one to year two. She's a hard worker, she's a perfectionist. She likes things done right, and she likes them done well. She thinks the game from a defensive standpoint. But she also, I think, when you get in this league your mind gets opened up for a variety of ways. Especially when you're an assistant coach in this league, you get a chance to look at the game differently and from different vantage points.

I remember my three and four years as an assistant both in Phoenix and San Antonio just opened my eyes up to more to how players and how teams are playing and what works and what doesn't work. And it really helped me a lot being in that position.

So I know it really gave Amber a solid footing in coming in. As a first-year head coach, I can't tell you how she'll do. I'm confident she'll do well, but I also know as a head coach you're under a different type of stress and pressure and you're dealing with a lot more personnel matters than maybe an assistant coach does.

So, in our league that's very important. How you handle personnel and how you coach personnel is really a key factor to your success. So I'm hoping that she experienced and had a great experience here. I know she's hungry to do well. She's a great person. She's got a great personality and she's very engaging, so I think the players are going to feel comfortable with her that way.

So I'm probably as excited to see how that thing plays out as anybody just because I know her and I want her to do well.

Q. Fred, this week you announced the cuts of Tiffany Bias and Jordan Hooper. Can you shed any light on that decision?
FRED WILLIAMS: Well, that decision came through training camp. We had some very young talents that have come on to our roster here since the draft. I think those two players are really fine players who really helped us with our organization over the past few years. But I think the talent that we have in the years has really shown a great need (Indiscernible) quickness, ability to move certain players to different positions. You know, we've just got a team right now that I feel really comfortable with, and wish those two players the best where they end up.

But it's not an easy decision for me coaching in this league. When you get down to picking 12 players, we started the count with 15, and we had to cut that down quickly when players started to come back from overseas. That's where we are right now. We're at 12, and we're looking to move on.

Q. Mike, you've talked in the past about positionless basketball, and it seems like a number of teams made moves in that direction. Among them, San Antonio with Kelsey and Moriah in the back court, and Kayla playing as well. I'm curious what you think of that decision, and whether you just think what San Antonio is doing is part of the larger trend within the league?
MIKE THIBAULT: You kind of cut out there at the end, but I think I can answer most of your question. I think, first of all, whether they're trying to play positionless basketball or not, I think at the end of the day when they got to the draft, when you're a young team trying to build for the future, I think you need to take as many great players as you can and figure it out.

I think the clear decision for them was regardless of everything else that Kelsey was the best player in the draft, so you take the best player and you try to figure it out. I don't think you can ever have enough good guards in this league. I mean, we all like size and have post players, but the game is changing. We've seen it in even the NBA. I think our league is always a few years behind the NBA, but there are less and less young post players who, A., want to be back-to-the-basket players, and, two, work at it enough. And you see more young people put the ball in their hands and the games being created from the perimeter with three-point shots and penetration.

You look at Brian's championship team. The fact that Candace Parker can take the ball off the board and bring it up and Nneka Ogwumike can play on the block on the perimeter, I think you're seeing that throughout rosters right now. So I think if you think Kelsey Plum's the best player, you can figure out ways to play those people together. You certainly need depth regardless.

We're watching the NBA playoffs and seeing a team like San Antonio last night who lost Tony Parker and has lost Kawhi Leonard during a game, and yet they still have great other guards on the court at the end of games. You need depth no matter what. So I think San Antonio covered their base no matter what with what they did.

Q. Just a quick follow, if I can, about your team specifically. When we talked during the off-season, the conversation was about so many offensive options and defensively you go and you figure it out. You said on this call that you guys aren't what you ultimately believe you will be. Are more of those questions on the defensive end for you? And how close are you to figuring that out?
MIKE THIBAULT: To be honest with you, I think our defensive philosophy will stay roughly the same. We may make a few adjustments or tweaks. But I've been pleased so far can the commitment that Elena and other new players we've brought in have made on the defensive end in camp.

Again, we're learning to kind of be good teammates defensively, kind of be on the same rope and pull each other in the same direction. So that takes some time. But we added people like Krystal Thomas and Asia Taylor who think defense first anyway. So I think that part of camp has been probably better than we, at least, had hoped for in the first couple weeks. So I've been pleased with that so far.

Q. Fred, in the preseason and thus far, what have you seen from Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray? What kind of impact do you think they'll make in the early going?
FRED WILLIAMS: I've seen these two players come in, and especially off a championship season on the collegiate level, they've come in with a lot of energy, lot of excitement, given them a lot of minutes in preseason play to show what they can do performance-wise. These players, I felt were pretty much pro ready as far as their body structure and their basketball IQ. I think they'll do a great job for us to help us get to another level.

They're great kids. They understand the game. We have a great teacher in (Indiscernible) to help them get them prepared for the pro level. They pretty much understand the language we're speaking in training camp and some of the things we're trying to do defensively. You know, with their size, I think it really helps us structure-wise in that perimeter area to get a little bigger, little stronger, and also a little faster.

Q. If you could just go through what you've seen from Saniya Chong in training camp and how you're going to be using her? Is she going to be playing guard and what area of her game does she surprise you the most?
FRED WILLIAMS: She's a great floor lead. She comes out of a structure of a championship DNA organization in UCONN. And when you have that type of player, she understands winning, she understands her role as a point guard who can distribute the basketball and set up the team. She has demonstrated in practice and also in games that she played in preseason to show great leadership. So I look to utilize her a great deal this season and rely on her great basketball IQ.

Q. How much did you get to see her before you drafted her?
FRED WILLIAMS: Ever since she was a freshman. It started way back when and kind of followed the young lady. She has the possibility of being there in certain spots in the draft. But it started way back when she was a freshman in her freshman year and kind of built from there. But I thought she had grown over the years, especially with the UCONN streak, and she got more minutes than any other point guard that went into the pros.

Q. Coach Williams, how much of a benefit, if any, is there to having two college teammates on your team there with Allisha and Kaela?
FRED WILLIAMS: It's a great benefit. You get a lot of pro players that you play on the off-season together sometimes on the same teams. When you have players who really understand their tendencies on the floor. And I see that now with these two players in practice, certainly the drives they make and cuts.

So if you can get two players, three, four, that's great. But having two with that structure really helps us, and I think it's going to -- it's been making them feel comfortable together knowing they have a teammate out of college and they can lean on each other's shoulders.

Q. Fred, if you could simply say something about what you think will identify your teams this year when they play, in terms of style and identification?
FRED WILLIAMS: Well, I think for us, our style has always been to run, to be one of the high-scoring teams in the league. There is no secret to us that we have to tighten it up defensively. But we just want to be a relentless team and go out there and perform and compete, you know, compete for a spot towards the end of the year, at the end of the playoffs, that's one of our goals.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297