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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS VS SPURS

May 13, 2017

Mike Brown

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Just from a distance, it seems like Steve [Kerr] is looking good.
MIKE BROWN: I mean, he looks good. We got here and started meeting at 9:30. He was here at 9:30, and throughout the coaches' meeting, then he was here throughout practice. He came in for our meeting yesterday. We met yesterday at 8:30, so a little bit earlier, and he was here for that, too.

Q. So today was his first time back with actual players and everything since going to North Carolina?
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, being on the floor, but he's come to meetings, coaches' meetings before, and like I said, we talk a couple of times a day at least by phone.

Q. I know you're letting Bob [Myers] kind of handle his updates, but do you feel good about him potentially coming back at some point?
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, that's a question for Bob. I just coach until they tell me otherwise, you know. If they tell me otherwise, I'll do the otherwise.

Q. Steph just said how nice it was to hear Steve's voice today, and that that was a nice moment. Can you speak to that a little bit, what that means to everybody to have him here?
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, well for me, it's a little different because I hear his voice a couple of times a day at last, so that's good, so for me, more than anything else, it was great to see him out here, especially during practice, walking around, talking to guys. You really enjoy that because he's our leader, and he's the guy that laid the foundation and got everybody heading in the right direction. The more he can be around, it's a better feel that all of us have, not just the players, but us as a staff, so on, so forth. It was good to see him out here today.

Q. I know you addressed it yesterday, but being with the Spurs last year, how much did that wet your appetite or get your juices going to get back into it?
MIKE BROWN: A ton. You guys know Pop, and I said this before, he's done a lot for me off the floor, away from basketball, and just as much on the floor, too, so to be able to be around here 13 years later because last time I was around him was 2003 really from a day-to-day basis, and then to come back and do it again in 2016 was awesome. I mean, it got my juices flowing. I learned a ton, had a lot of fun hanging out with him. I mean, I love the fact that, shoot, he loves to go eat and drink, but more importantly, I didn't have to pay. (Laughter.)

I miss that more than anything else.

Q. Makes the food taste better, right?
MIKE BROWN: Makes the food and drink taste a lot better. Pop, we going out again? Yes. (Laughter.)

Q. You might not be surprised that his reaction when somebody asked him today about stopping your high-flying offense was pray, and Steph said that's just gamesmanship. Is that just talk?
MIKE BROWN: That's Pop. He's doing a lot more than praying right now. He knows what he wants to do against us.

Q. How is he so good at -- when he faces teams that rely on the three-ball a lot, how is he so good at running guys off that line and making sure guys got there but maintaining the defensive discipline on that?
MIKE BROWN: You know what, he has a feel for doing just the right amount of stuff to get his point across. What I mean by that is he watches the right -- he watches the right amount of film with the team. Not only does he do the right drills, but he drills them just enough. He scrimmages them just enough. That's the fine line, because you've got pros that play a ton of games, and you're talking to them all the time, and if you go even this much overboard with a group of guys on this level, they're going to tune you out, and once they start tuning you out, then it's a wrap. You don't have a shot at all.

And what's so remarkable about his situation is -- I mean, he's been there 20 years, and a lot of those guys have been there a long time, and to hear his voice day after day after day but them still accept it and still try to go do it, that's just as remarkable as his record and championships and all that other stuff.

Q. Based on the last series and even watching them over the years, when his team gives up an open three to a three-point shooter, it's like he goes ballistic. Is that like the thing he hates the most or is that something that just bugs him?
MIKE BROWN: More than anything, it's game plan discipline, meaning that if a certain guy that they're okay with shooting threes knocks down a three, makes a three, and in their game plan, they said, hey, since you're guarding this guy, you're going to be more in a help position, you can close out to him late but close out and play him for the drive. If he knocks down a three, Pop may be okay because in Pop's mind, he loves gamesmanship like we talked about earlier. Pop wants you to make that three. Why? Because the next time you get it you're probably going to shoot it, and he knows that you shooting threes, that's not going to beat us today. So it's all part of -- I'm sorry, I should have -- I think you can shoot it. I know he can't.

Q. That same guy is an actual three threat?
MIKE BROWN: Correct, and it's part of the game plan, because he's finally saying, hey, don't leave him or run him off the line. Even if he makes a two, you get him off that three-point line. If he doesn't and he knocks down a three, he goes crazy, you best believe it. That is coming right away.

Q. What do you see from LaMarcus Aldridge during these Playoffs? Obviously he had a great game in the close-out game?
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, and even the games that he hasn't played probably up to his expectations, you know he's a threat. He's done it for many years. You know -- it's like a safety valve because they can throw him the ball at any time and get a great look, and if he gets doubled, he's done a fantastic job of kicking the ball out and getting the ball to three-point shooters that make you pay in another way.

But what I like really a ton about him, whether he's scoring on the block or not, is he's done a fantastic job either rebounding for put-backs, keeping the ball alive, or rebounding and kicking it out and giving them extra shots from the three-point line. He's been big in those areas.

Q. Seems like the players have gotten the message on the rebounding importance. Steph was over here talking about it earlier, just making sure to get the rebound, playing 24 seconds of defense.
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, we know -- you watch film on those guys, and they're sending a lot of guys to the glass on a single possession. They may send their two and their three or their one and their three to the glass, and so for us we've got to box out, and obviously if they're sending all those guys to the glass, we want to push it, whether it's a make or a miss. We want to play at a high, high level of pace.

Q. You're coming in to coach in a difficult situation. Was there a period of awkwardness initially as you went through that, or are you still in the back of your mind wondering is he coming back next week, next series? Is that at all difficult for you, just the lack of really clarity of the situation?
MIKE BROWN: No, maybe because I've been coaching so long. I've been in a lot of different situations. I mean, it hasn't changed. Bottom line is they told me I'm a coach until they tell me not to, so for me it's pretty easy to follow that game plan. And then on top of that, like I said, Steve and I are in constant communication, so it doesn't necessarily feel like I'm here and I've got to pull myself back when he comes back or anything like that. I'm just trying to hold down the fort until he gets back, and we've got a tremendous coaching staff that's helped out, and all of our players, especially our veteran players, have stepped up and helped on the court and off the court and made the transition pretty easy.

Q. I know these are difficult questions for you to answer, but with Steve participating in practice today, would he be on-site tomorrow night?
MIKE BROWN: I'm not sure. There's a chance he may be, you know, and obviously if he's there and I get asked, I'm going to say whether he's there or not, just like he was here today. But we hope he is, but not sure. He came to game -- I want to say Game 4 in Portland. I don't think he was at any games against Utah, but we'll see tomorrow.

Q. How much did he do today in practice?
MIKE BROWN: He addressed the team at the beginning, but the routine was kind of the same. So did I. Then J.C. [assistant coach Jarron Collins] showed some film to the guys, and then on the floor he was talking to guys individually for the most part, and we just kept doing what we've normally been doing, and every once in a while he'd interject.

Q. We know that Pop likes to go with two bigs a lot of the time, I think pretty much every time you guys played them they went that way. They went small a little bit more in the Houston series. Do you expect to see more of that from them in this series?
MIKE BROWN: We think they're going to go small some against us. You know, we even think that they may possibly start small. I mean, it's all a guess or a crapshoot when it comes to trying to figure those things out until the game actually starts.

Q. What different challenges does it present, their big lineup versus their small one?
MIKE BROWN: One of the biggest keys for us is their ability to rebound, and we always say we want to win the possession game, and if we win the possession game, we feel like we'll have a good chance of winning the game with our scoring power, so when you play two seven-footers that are capable rebounders, plus you're allowing your small forward, your two guard, sometimes your point guard to go crash the offensive glass, I mean, that slows the game down when they offensive rebound. That size alone is something that we have to do a good job of keeping the guys off the glass, especially if we want to turn this thing into a track meet?

Q. Can you talk about Draymond's performance, especially the three-point shooting percentage?
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, Draymond took terrific shots the last series. He's been taking terrific shots the whole Playoffs. He's getting a lot of his open threes because our guys are driving the ball, and we talk to our guys about drive and kick, drive and kick, trying to keep our opponent on their heels, and so our guys have done a nice job driving, and Draymond is spaced in the corner, he's spaced at the top of the floor, he's got his feet ready, his hands ready. When that ball kicks to him because his guy helps a ton, he's getting some good looks, and we want him to continue shooting the ball because we see it on a daily basis how hard he works on his three-point shot, so we want him when he's open to shoot that thing and knock it down like he's been doing.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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