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ESPN NBA MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 21, 2007Dean DemopoulosQ. Must be a fun time to be coaching in Portland, huh? COACH DEMOPOULOS: Yeah, it's been terrific. They've got a real good handle on what's been going on, these guys. They've just been playing a together‑brand of basketball at both ends of the floor. They lift each other up. They're pretty cohesive in the thought processes. We've had some pretty good breaks, which makes for a fun time. Q. One of the things that's been reported on about your winning streak is that you've been having some good effects from playing zone defense. First of all, can you describe what kind of zone you've been using? COACH DEMOPOULOS: Well, it's Nate's zone, really. We've been together seven years, and we've played a lot of different types of defenses. Nate played for Valvano, so Valvano used to junk it up and play it back in the '70s, and '80s. And Nate was a great weak‑side rebounder. He just understands good defense. And it's more a hybrid of all the things that we've experienced, you know, or long live Monte Williams and Bill Banos, who is, you know, he played zone at UNLV. You know, and you have the luxury of having great video, you know, where you can break things down. We've got a guy named Caleb who just does an unbelievable job piecing everything together. So it's a lot different than it used to be. Q. Yeah. I've watched some of these games and it seems that there are stretches of games against Utah and Golden State, those are really good offenses, but didn't really seem to have a plan of attack against your zone. COACH DEMOPOULOS: Well, they did. And they took some shots that, you know, there is an old adage that you design a way to lose, just like you design a way to win. How are you going to lose if we're going to lose tonight? And, sometimes, with certain teams you do certain things. You can't take away everything, obviously, and all coaches know that. So there wasn't so much a plan of attack, it's just that, you know, maybe you missed shots in certain areas, and that was the area of the zone or any defense was designed to give up. It's a funny thing, zone's been played ever since there were double teams in the NBA. There is a zone, it's three playing four somewhere. It's just different variations of it. All good defenses have the same thing in common, man or zone. Q. Right, right. A lot of coaches kind of frown on the zone. You use the term 'junk it up.' But it seems like not quite as macho as playing man‑to‑man. COACH DEMOPOULOS: I know, you know. I think Bill [indiscernible] is a defensive zone coach. Q. Right. COACH DEMOPOULOS: Like I said before, a lot of times most things are in common in good man for man and good zone. You have great ball pressure, and good weak side presence, and five guys rebound. And every defense, again, is geared to take away certain things, regardless of whether it's zone or man. So everything gives up something to the offense and vice versa. So quite the cause and effect. Q. Is its effect tied to the element of surprise a little bit? Or is it just because it's good defense and it works because it's good defense? COACH DEMOPOULOS: I think it's a little bit of both. Just like a good change in your man‑for‑man pick‑and‑roll defense. You go from going under the screen to trapping it, you know? It's the same type of thing. There are three committed to two on the ball side, okay, and that is zone, you know what I mean? A lot of different things go into this. You can control the ball by one person, the better off most defenses are going to be. All great players require more than just single coverage. Q. Your roster, I guess, you're what about a year and a half into your time in Portland? How long have you been in Portland? COACH DEMOPOULOS: Well, this is Nate's third year. But we've just made major changes over the year. You know, Randolph was a great force. Q. Sure, sure. COACH DEMOPOULOS: And now we've traded him and changed the team up. So far you see growth, you know. That's what we're looking for as coaches. Who knew about wins in a row or wins for that matter. But you look for growth in your players. Things where they start repeating the things and fair amounts of times. So you can call it habit. Some of the things you're teaching them when you start from that area, the little things are really, really important. The little victories going away. We've just lost a lot of games the last two years around here. There's no one with their eyes in the sky here. We're just enjoying it, but we work to make sure that everyone creates the habit of playing winning basketball. With young players, that takes a lot of work, lot of effort, lot of patience on their part also. Our guys, I tell you, Monte and Bill Banos and Luke, they really work with these guys. These guys are a lot of little stories in the making. Like Monty Williams. Q. Travis is going from someone, I got nervous every time he would handle the ball. Now he's making huge plays down the stretch on close games. He's a great spot shooter now and putting the ball on the floor. He's got a big arsenal of moves, and he's playing good defense for tomorrow as well. COACH DEMOPOULOS: Yeah, Travis is playing really sound basketball. And again, he's done it now for a little bit of time in a row, so it's becoming a habit that you expect from him. You know, he's not going to do as well as others, just like all of them. But for the most part right now, you have to give him a lot of credit as a basketball player. He's grown into a new role this year as being a sixth man and a guy who is as good as I've seen so far this year. With that second unit, he seems to be the guy that can get his own shots some, which helps approach in his patterns, you know. And on the other end of the floor, he really makes a difference. He's part of a big defensive stop. Sometimes he's a big part of it where he gets the rebound also. So Travis has done really, really well. We all couldn't be happier for him, he's a really nice guy. Q. Another player who has great potential and seems to be more efficient than he has been in the past is Sergio Rodriguez. Can you talk a little about his development? COACH DEMOPOULOS: Sure. Sergio his eyes are wide open and he wants to attack. He's a player who loves to play basketball and plays it with a flair. Everyone here respects him for that. He really goes at it 100% at both ends of the floor. He seems a younger person's joy at the game. And that's really needed in an 82‑game schedule. He's never down. And everybody really respects him, the coaching staff and the other players, and he can play. He's started to slow down and play situational basketball and allowing his options, his teammates to really get involved and he sees the floor better than a lot of young guards do. He along with Travis are growing together and Martell Webster. You know, so James Jones has helped that group an awful lot because he brings a little bit of patience and stability to the quarterback a little bit from that last position. Buried in the corner where he can see the whole floor and get the weak side moving offensively so his defense can't dig in. He's done some really fun stuff that way, and there is nothing like experience. Q. Can you give us a typical play and how you, what sort of chess pieces may be involved in what you're trying to do on the floor to get a good look? COACH DEMOPOULOS: On offense? Q. Yeah. COACH DEMOPOULOS: Right now we get down to where we have to win games, obviously, Brandon's handling the ball a lot. He's been pretty close to a triple‑double and heavy loaded on the points for a long time. So he's been making great decisions with the ball. We try to get our shooters moving so people can't get a read on them. Most of the offenses do that. There are few stationary offenses. And you know, guys are making shots. When we make them and we don't turn the ball over and we get the shot, we shoot the ball fairly well at times. You know, when we get a chance, you know, you have a pretty good chance if everyone tries to play defense down the other end. That's what we're trying to do, we're trying to get a chance, you know. Not throw the ball away because you can't set the defense off a turnover. And when the ball goes in, it is easier to play defense because you can set it and then go through all your schemes and your tricks and all that stuff. That's why it's a huge cause‑and‑effect between what happens on offense, and how you get into your defenses so. An old sage once told me an offense is your first line of defense. Q. Got to make that bucket. As your players are an extremely young team. But not as young as they were last year. Do you feel like you can let them play a little more now that guys work through mistakes. Whereas maybe in the past there would be a teaching point? COACH DEMOPOULOS: Yeah, at times, you know. During the last, well, this is relatively short lived now. Before this we were losing more than we were winning. And it's harder to teach the positive reinforcement when things are ending up in a negative fashion. As far as losses, that is the trick. For two years we've tried to do that, you know. Steady the course. And go with the changes. Then try to get them into the fold with Nate's philosophy. It's not†‑‑ it's always better to teach through winning, you know? That's where you can get on and really, really push guys. You know, when you're losing they feel as bad as you do, and it's hard to brow beat. You don't want to do that. It's easy to be negative. That's a challenge when you're rebuilding, both for the players and the coaches. Q. What kind of teaching the game stuff can you do with Greg Oden while he's watching all this? COACH DEMOPOULOS: Through osmosis a little bit. Just being there, feeling it, you know. Making sure that you show him things that are happening on the floor. I know when we were playing bigger, stronger players the Mournings, the Shaqs, making sure Luke watched those guys watched the power players play. And we don't have a power player on our team. There are only a few of them in the world. Guys always learn better from watching guys. That's how little kids watch and mimic you. You're a little kid or something like that. They learn better through watching and seeing what players do and stuff like that. You know, being around practice, he's a nice kid, he's a nice guy. Hopefully, he'll come back and get into position for us and start from there. Q. Last question, you've coached under John Cheney, and you were a head coach in college at Missouri‑Kansas City. And then you moved into the pros. What are some of the differences between coaching in college and coaching in the pros? COACH DEMOPOULOS: The game's different because of the clock and all the rules. So it makes it a different game technically speaking. Players overall, we have a bunch of guys that played in the NBA. I think 14 or 15, something like that. So it wasn't like I was not used to players that are of that ilk. It was all of them on the floor together, when there's ten body styles, it's a much more physical because the guys are just big and strong. The courts a lot smaller. So perceptually or spatially, it looks different. But the things that win basketball games are the same. Whether you go to junior high, you know, which I did coach. I coached at junior high, too. So the things you teach will be the same. But the game's different, and the players are different. So there's more needed. But the fundamentals stay the same. Q. I happen to know that you are the NBA's only active undefeated coach, right? COACH DEMOPOULOS: I don't know. I was lucky enough to coach twice and won. Somebody else, I'm sure probably is somewhere down the line. Q. That's a pretty good record though. COACH DEMOPOULOS: Yeah, I'd like to keep it that way (laughing). I hope Nate don't miss any games. Q. If he does, hope he misses them with a lead. COACH DEMOPOULOS: Yeah, haven't done that yet. Q. All right, well I thank you for your time, and good luck tonight? COACH DEMOPOULOS: Thanks a lot. End of FastScripts |
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