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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

May 29, 2019

Andrew Bogut

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day

Q. What are your thoughts on the NBL?
ANDREW BOGUT: It was good. The league's an up-and-coming league. As we saw yesterday with one of the top high school prospects signing over there, and it's getting better. The league's taken its hits over the last decade or so. But a new ownership group has taken over the league, a new commissioner. I feel like the league's starting to get some momentum in a positive direction. Still work to do but it's been a really good 12 months for the league and hopefully it continues to grow.

Q. Are there pros and cons to having all this time off?
ANDREW BOGUT: Maybe a little bit. Maybe a little bit. They obviously just came out of a tough series. We finished ours off pretty early. But once you get to this point, you can argue it either way, depending upon who wins Game 1 you can write a story saying it helped or hindered us. So we're not too worried about it. We definitely were a team that needed those rest days. We have a lot of guys that were banged up at that point with Andre and obviously KD and DeMarcus.

So we cherished those days and got some time to spend at home with our families before this circus starts.

Q. What impresses you about them?
ANDREW BOGUT: Their length first and foremost. Pretty much at all their positions they have length. Kyle's not as long but is bulldog defensively. He takes a lot of charges, he's physical, he's a high-basketball IQ guy. I think his effect on a lot of games aren't statistical, I think he does a lot of things that don't show up on a stat sheet. And you throw in Kawhi and Siakam and they got Ibaka off the bench and Gasol and Danny Green is a pretty good defender, so they got some guys that can defend. So they pose a lot of issues for most teams.

They got a lot of guys that can switch one through five, especially with Ibaka at the five. So we just got to make sure we're not loose with the ball. That's something that we kind of have as a staple coming in this series, if we play loose with the ball and not fundamental with our ball handling and passing and they get in the lanes, Siakam and those guys can get out and run, we'll be in some trouble.

Q. When you look at a guy like Draymond and a guy like Kyle Lowry, do you see similarities in the way those guys kind of sell out physically to extend possessions, and how valuable is that to have important players on your team to win some of those hustle plays?
ANDREW BOGUT: Really important. Unfortunately in today's kind of sporting landscape everyone looks at the stat sheet at the end of the game and judges players on what they have in the box score. But when you watch a game and you know anything about basketball, those two guys are prime examples of people that affect the game in so many different ways that you can't really add it up on a stat sheet. They're kind of the emotional leaders of their team, I think for both guys. Kyle likes to get physical and take charges and get on the floor and chase loose balls, and Draymond is much of the same. So we know that both of those guys are vital for either team to win.

Q. When you say emotional leadership, what do you mean by that?
ANDREW BOGUT: Yeah, they're physical, they get on loose balls, they're happy to do the little things that win basketball games that might not show up on a stat sheet. Like I said, Draymond for us, grabbing a rebound, being a wrecking ball and pushing the ball, he might not get an assist on the possession, but he opens up somebody else. His IQ to be able to switch one through five and clog up the paint, and know when to help and when not to help is very important.

So those guys, they show up in games like in a series like this and in a series like last series, because games in the playoffs they do get bogged down and you got to have guys, those one percent possessions are very important.

Q. On Alfonzo McKinnie.
ANDREW BOGUT: He's been great for us. He had huge plays throughout that Houston and Portland series in vital moments of Game 6 and Game 4. Great guy in the locker room, comes in, puts his work in, shooting the three ball at a clip, and he gets a lot of extra possessions for us as well. He's a very good offensive rebounder, very athletic, very strong. So it's great story. Looney, we have a lot of guys off our bench that continue to surprise people and aren't probably given enough credit because we have Steph, Klay, KD, Draymond, DeMarcus. Our bench guys don't probably get as much attention, but I think that's kind of a reason why we're successful.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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