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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 24, 2018

Raymond Felton

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Q. There's a lot of new young talent on this team. There's a lot of guys that -- last season something that the team really valued from you was your ability to really just take guys under your wing and like really just be a great mentor. I mean, that's got to be exciting, right, like there's so many new guys that are coming in to the squad and looking for their role. Do you embrace that opportunity to just kind of be the guy for them?
RAYMOND FELTON: Oh, no question, man. Being that leader, being able to give back the knowledge that I have over the years is something that's going to be -- it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun this year. We do got a lot of new talent, young talent at that, and it's going to be a special year. I look forward to it.

Q. Ray, you were backing up point guard, played some with Russ last year. Now they've gone and traded for Dennis Schroder, another quality NBA point guard. I was told that you actually were open to that idea and endorsed that idea. Can you talk about why you're excited about another really good point guard coming in and crowding your position?
RAYMOND FELTON: Oh, man, I'm all about winning basketball games. I'm all about getting better, and I felt like having multiple play makers is good for a team. I've been in the league for it's my 14th season, and I played with smaller guards than Dennis, I've played with bigger guards than Dennis, and just being able to have multiple playmakers on the court I think is a problem on offense. So yes, of course, I feel like there's a lot of things that we needed to do to get better, and that's something that we want to do as an organization. We want to get better. Of course I'll be accepted to that, for sure.

Q. Raymond, just from what you've seen in the summer, the brief times that these guys have worked together or you've worked with them, what have you thought about the dynamic of Russell and Dennis, and how do you think that'll work on the court?
RAYMOND FELTON: Well, I think it's just a situation of just knowing the game, regardless of them having the same type of game. I feel like they still can play off each other. Like I said, if you have even more play makers on the court, that's going to be hard to guard. So if you add Dennis and Russ out there at the same time and you add Paul, I wouldn't want to be on that opposing team.

Q. Ray, Sam Presti said when guards get into their mid to late 30s that their shooting numbers tend to rise if they're still in the league. What goes into the process of improving your shooting because a lot of people just seem to think it's something as simple as locking yourself in a gym and taking 300 or 400 shots and you magically become a better shooter.
RAYMOND FELTON: No, that's not the case, but definitely getting in the gym, that helps, just working on your shot, working on your craft. I think the main thing for me is really understanding that at the age of 21, you're not as quick or as fast as you are at the age of 34. So you know, just have to really not change your game but add other things to your game in order to stay in the league or in order to get better at what you do. That's all it really is, just really just working at getting better at things that maybe you wasn't as strong at at 21 that you need to be better at at 34.

Q. Last season, the season-long story line was Paul's future, what's he going to do, is he going to stay, leave, whatever. Was there ever a point when you started getting confident, hey, this guy might stick around and thinking he's going to stick around? How did you see that all play out?
RAYMOND FELTON: Well, you know, being close to Paul, being like a big brother of the team, I kind of knew a little bit more than maybe others, so you know, I really wasn't panicking. It was a process that he had a lot to think about, his family, being home or being in whatever place he felt comfortable in that he loved. So I'm glad that he chose the place that he loved, and we're definitely happy to have him back for sure.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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