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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 13, 2015

Alvin Gentry

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

Q. Coach, now that you had a chance to be around these young guys and worked with them, how talented is this new crop of NBA players?
ALVIN GENTRY: I think it's a great group of guys. I spent more time with the USA team, obviously. But if you look at the World team and the talent that they have, I think our league is in great shape. There's a lot of good young players, very talented players. I look at a guy like Wiggins and his potential is unlimited. To see a guy like Zach LaVine and guys like that and you can see that if they continue to work, they've got a chance to be very, very good. I also would like to say that I think we've got to rearrange this game; I think it should be North America against the World. And then that way we get Canada. If we get Canada, we have Wiggins on our team.

Q. Coach, I know you are partly joking there about Canada. What did you think about the format, the new way they did it?
ALVIN GENTRY: I think it's a good format. I think it makes it very interesting. I think it makes the game competitive, because deep down inside I think the guys really want to win. And the thing it does is also create a situation where you have teammates playing on the opposite teams. So that's pretty good, also. So I think it's a really good format. I think you have to look at it sometime maybe the U.S. team and the World team, and see if it's going to kind of even out or if it's going to be a competitive game. I thought it was very competitive tonight. I thought both teams did a good job. Obviously it's an All-Star Game atmosphere. So there's a lot of things that happened in that that would not happen in a regular competitive game. If this was a qualifying game for the World Championships or the Olympics or something like that, then obviously would be a lot different.

Q. When the sun is rising, the brightness is not so high. But these guys are really shining a lot. What do you think is the most important part of the process of them to become a huge star in terms of personality, in terms of attitude, in terms of habit? What do you think about it?
ALVIN GENTRY: I don't know if you can really tell a lot from a game like this. I think you can see obviously the abilities that they have. But there's a lot of guys that have unlimited potential. I look at a guy like Giannis and obviously he's Kevin Durant-like. Obviously he has to get to that point where he's consistent like a KD is. But he has unlimited potential. The guy is unbelievably long, good ball-handler. He's a good shooter. I think he'll become a better shooter. So all it is is hard work. You have to continue to work hard. They're very young players. When you look at a guy like him, who is not even 21 years old yet, obviously the potential to get better is there. And I think as they continue to work and improve, obviously they are going to be better players.

Q. Steve Kerr probably should have been in the Rising Stars, huh? Did you give him any advice on coaching the All-Star Game at all?
ALVIN GENTRY: Not really. To me it's a situation where I think you come here in this situation, it's a game where the guys should have a lot of fun playing. You leave here and you go back to your team, and the pressure to win is there all over again. So I think for him to just come into a situation like this -- the thing that we try to do is we wanted it to be a relaxed-type atmosphere. We wanted them to be competitive and play hard and get everybody involved in the game, give everybody an opportunity to kind of shine. And that's what the enjoyment should come out of it.

Q. Coach, I give you a tough choice. Who do you think is going to win the Dunk Contest tomorrow?
ALVIN GENTRY: The dunking contest? You know, to be honest with you, I like Zach -- I think Zach is going to have a chance. I really do. He's a special guy when it comes to some of the dunks. As you can see, even in the game, competitive game. So I think he'll be pretty creative. I think he'll have an opportunity.

Q. How about Andrew?
ALVIN GENTRY: I think he'll have an opportunity, too. You look at those guys. All of them are going to be competitive. If you ask me about the three-point shooting, you know who I'm going to say.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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