NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HAWKS VS. BUCKS

June 25, 2021

Nate McMillan

Atlanta Hawks

Game 2: Pregame

Q. In the last two-minute report from Game 1, it showed Giannis exceeded the time limit for some free throws in the final two minutes. Is that something you want to keep a closer eye on?

NATE McMILLAN: Absolutely. It's a rule we want them to call. The NBA announced that that should have been called, and we hope that, if that happens again, that it is called.

Q. I wanted to ask you about John's role this year. So the last couple of years, he's been 20, 25 points per game, and this year he's more of in a different role. How have you thought of his adjustment to what you guys want him to do this year?

NATE McMILLAN: He's been pretty much a pick-and-roll guy. I think that's what he was, he was used mostly last season. We are using him in a few other ways, posting up, spreading the floor with the combination of both he and Clint. They both are really good roll guys.

I think his last couple years, he's been the primary roll guy, the pick-and-roll guy. They were spreading their five man. This year with Clint being a really good pick-and-roll guy, we've been able to really take advantage of John's ability to shoot the three by spreading him and still using him in the pick-and-roll. So pretty much just trying to take advantage of his skill, his ability to post up, his ability to shoot the three ball, as well as playing him at some five to allow both he and Trae to continue with that connection they have.

Q. Nate, I guess just to mess around a little bit with free throws, Bud's point, when we were pressing on it, if you put a stopwatch on everyone in the paint longer than they're supposed to be, it doesn't get called. He gave another example. The point is that some of these timing things, the calls just don't happen every time. What do you make of that or what's your reaction to that as far as like there are a number of instances in other parts of the game where it's a timing situation that doesn't get called.

NATE McMILLAN: Call it. He's right, though. There are guys that are camping in the lane for three seconds. Sometimes that's not called, just as he mentioned on both ends of the floor, the offensive end of the floor as well as the defensive end of the floor.

What we have to do is try to bring that to the attention of the league, to the officials during the game, and hopefully they make those calls. It's the same thing with the 10 seconds at the free throw line.

So it's not called every time, and the officials, sometimes they miss that. We want them to be consistent with making those calls.

Q. You're having the conversation with us. Do you know, have the Hawks had that conversation with the league and do you expect it to be called?

NATE McMILLAN: I won't talk about conversations we've had with the league, but this is something that I think has been brought to the attention of the league in the last couple rounds.

Q. You had Monty Williams on your staff in Portland. Do you have any favorite memories from that time with him that sort of his success he's had that kind of led to that? Second, we heard from a lot of players last year seeking representation among coaches and executives. Do you see any significance that three of the four remaining coaches are former black players?

NATE McMILLAN: Monty was a great assistant for me. I enjoyed working with him. He was a guy I needed at that time from a young group. I needed that energy from my staff, and he was a guy that we were developing at that time. So he was really the right fit for me working with him. Yeah, a lot of fond memories with Monty.

We had a lot of success in Portland, and what he is doing now is really no surprise. He's a prepared coach that's been in a lot of systems, and he's a student of the game. So what he's doing with his team, really continuing from this summer, is really not a surprise.

As far as the black coaches being in The Finals, there's a lot of good coaches out here. I certainly believe that, if given the opportunity and a roster that they can work with, they will show that they can have success. A lot of times you're getting rosters, whether you're starting over or a development roster, that's going to take some time to build. You don't see many opportunities where we're getting these jobs where that roster is already in place and you have to go out with the expectations of winning. Normally, you're kind of building that roster.

Sometimes when that roster gets in place, you're removed, and someone else is filling in. So it's good to see guys get that opportunity, and it's a lot of good black coaches out here.

Q. The other day Travis [Schlenk] said that John was the heart and soul of this team. Do you agree with that assessment?

NATE McMILLAN: I feel we've got a couple of those guys, and John is certainly a major part of this team. Me coming in this season, he's part of that core. I would say that John and Trae and Dre [De’Andre Hunter], those guys are part of the core that I think the organization is going to build around for the future.

So he's a corner, cornerstone to the future of this organization, and it's a good group as far as young talent with potential, I think, to go into the future with.

Q. In discussions with the league, but during Game 1 when Giannis appeared to be taking too long on the free throw attempt, did you talk to the officials at that time to try to get a call?

NATE McMILLAN: Again, I won't get into what we've talked about with the league, but we have the opportunity to send them plays and send in things that concern us that we felt was missed. We are constantly talking during the game about situations like that. So, again, the officials, they don't have a stop watch, but it's something that we want them to look at, just as we want them to look at three seconds and we want them to look at the contact as far as how we're guarded.

But I won't get into discussions about what we sent to the league.

Q. I asked Mike a similar question about the conversations he has with his staff, and I'm going to ask you. What are the conversations like, whatever you can share about the defensive discussion about guarding Giannis? Is it animated? Have you had so many suggestions?

NATE McMILLAN: No. (Laughter).

I mean, he's a helluva player, two-time MVP. You're trying to come up with ways to defend him, and so you're talking about matchups. You're talking about help, where your help is going to come from, things that you're trying to do. It's like preparing for any really good player in this league. You've got to game plan for him because he does so much out on the floor.

He initiated a lot of their offense. He's in probably, I would say, 80 to 90 percent of their actions even if he doesn't have the ball. He's involved on the offensive end of the floor. And defensively, he plays one through five. They had him at the five in our last game. So you have to game plan for him. I could say the conversations are long.

Q. I know previously you've said that you want the team to kind of block out that outside noise and a few of your players have said they have a bit of that underdog mentality. What do you think about that as a bit of motivation?

NATE McMILLAN: It's going to be difficult to block out everything that's going on out there. Some guys don't want to. I think it's up to the individual how you deal with this time. I personally try to block it out. Some guys get off of social media during this time, and they just get locked into what they need to do, but some guys look for that as motivation, and they feed off of that.

I've played with players who approach the game like that. I've been with coaches that go and they search for things that people are saying about them and things that they can't do, and they feed off of that. That lifts them. That motivates them. That was a comment basically made to the team about the guys that are important or the message that is important is what's said in our locker room because that is going to be the group.

What everybody else is saying doesn't really matter. What we are saying and what we need to do is really what matters because the guys that are in the room are going to be the guys that are going to get it done.

Q. When you look at your ball club, you see a team that's gelling, that's clicking on all cylinders, and still has a tremendous upside. Can you talk about this team and the brand of ball that you guys are playing and it works and it's winning and you guys are moving forward?

NATE McMILLAN: I think we are showing a connection and showing growth on both ends of the floor to the ability to defend at a high level, execute our offense, play a 48-minute game. I think these guys have done a really good job of being able to adapt to the game as it goes on. They have shown that they understand what they need to do going down the stretch from the first quarter to the start of the second half to the end of the game, and they've been able to do that.

So just really a group that has shown maturity, a connection, a trust, a belief in what they're doing, and they believe that, if they do what we condition ourselves, we train ourselves to do, we will give ourselves a chance to win games.

Q. In closing, I know a superstar when I see one, from the days back when I was a ball boy at Portland sitting under that rim with Clyde [Drexler] and Terry [Porter] and you guys would come down from Seattle. When we look at Trae, he has all those attributes, and he's a player. Can you just talk about Ice? And he's getting better every day.

NATE McMILLAN: He's a very talented player. He's a very confident player. He has a few different skills that a lot of people don't have. His ability to continue to pressure a team by attacking them. His ability to stretch the floor. His ability to see the floor and pass the ball. He can shoot from deep. He has a mid-range game. He's an excellent free throw shooter.

So when you have that many things that you do well, now it's just a matter of learning how to use all those weapons and those tools. He's shown the growth of being able to organize his team while continuing to stay aggressive and play his game.

Q. You already talked about Trae Young, so I would like to ask about John Collins and Kevin Huerter. How would you describe their growth, their job, their development and the way they're helping this team succeed.

NATE McMILLAN: Again, both of them are showing growth on both ends of the floor. What I've really tried to do is get our team to be two-way guys, not just focusing on the offensive end of the floor, which most NBA players, they have a skill, and most of the time it's on the offensive end of the floor. Defensively, I think both of those guys have really stepped up their game.

Kevin certainly has done that. He's gotten the opportunity really a lot this season due to the injuries we've had. He's had to start and guard some of the better twos and threes and guard point guards this season. We've really depended on him to take that step and take that challenge of becoming a better defensive player because we lost De'Andre, we lost Cam Reddish. Those are two guys that are elite defenders, but we didn't have them for most of the season, and Kevin had to kind of fall into that role.

The same thing with John Collins. John is a guy that we're playing him at the three, four, and five, and he's had to guard bigger players, smaller players. He just came out of a series where he was guarding Ben Simmons. So in this series, he'll be on Giannis. He'll be on Middleton. We had him on Jrue Holiday a little bit. Just the versatility that these guys have shown and the growth of being really two-way players has helped this team really develop and have some success.