NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HAWKS VS. BUCKS

June 30, 2021

Nate McMillan

Atlanta Hawks

Practice Day

Q. Just wondering if you have any updates on Trae and Clint.

NATE McMILLAN: I don't. I have not gotten an update with our trainers. I'll meet with those guys. We're meeting at the plane. We didn't come in this morning to talk about anything.

Q. What kind of growth have you seen from Onyeka throughout these playoffs? It seems like he's been able to give you some big energy plays and is just playing well.

NATE McMILLAN: He's doing a really good job. He's showing that he has a good feel for the game. I think his basketball IQ is very high and that has shown, really, throughout this season. Having to make adjustments on what to do out on the floor as far as setting angles of screens, rolling to the basket, the timing, playing off of Gallinari. A lot of times teams are trying to front the post so the connection of the two bigs is really important. He's done a really good job of making reads on the offensive end of the floor.

Defensively, he continues to improve on his pick-and-roll defense. He's had to basically guard Giannis. So keeping a forward like that, really a point forward, in front of you, he's really done a good job, a solid job of doing that, as well as rotating, defending the basket and rebounding the basketball.

He continues to show growth throughout. He's done that throughout the season and certainly throughout these playoffs where he has been very productive for us.

Q. Have you been impressed with the maturity and poise you're seeing from him considering that he's only 20 and he's battling so well in Conference Finals?

NATE McMILLAN: Yeah, he has a calmness about him. He goes out there and he's not afraid. He's a confident player. He asks a lot of questions about what is needed, what should I do. He's constantly asking questions to our coaches about things that he needs to do and how to do them. He has shown that growth. He does play as a very mature rookie coming into this league.

Q. Just to piggyback off of that, looking at the team overall, a lot of these guys had not played in a playoffs, and you continuously see them learning as the playoffs go. Have you ever been around a team where the entire team is learning like this, and can you pinpoint why they were able to learn so fast on the fly?

NATE McMILLAN: I give a lot of credit to our staff. Our staff does a great job with these guys, not only working them out on the floor but showing them video. Basically, they see video of themselves or what we want them to do pretty much every day. So our coaches have done a great job of coaching and teaching, especially our young guys, who we know that we are developing. Spending time with those guys in the video room. Spending one-on-one time with them out on the floor. That has helped these guys when they have gotten into a situation where they have to play.

Big O, all of our guys, Trae, all of those guys are showing that growth. That's a credit to our coaching staff. The coaches are doing a great job with the players.

Q. What have you learned yourself throughout these playoffs?

NATE McMILLAN: Just have to be patient. The same thing that I'm telling my guys that they need to do or they need to bring to the floor, I need to bring that same mindset to the court. Be patient out there. You're constantly learning with this group. Last night, we had to basically come up with a rotation with Trae being out. All of a sudden, we've got to bump guys up, move guys around. It really challenged you to come up with a rotation that will help these guys or put these guys in position where they can be productive with the lineup that they are playing with out on the floor.

Cam has not played a lot for us, but last night, we were able to get him in the rotation and he really came up big for us. I thought he played with a lot of poise, under control, just was solid on both ends of the floor, bringing that length. I think he had five or six rebounds. We needed all of that from our guys.

Basically, I'm still learning with our group. Really, I've only coached Cam for two, three games, because when he went out, Coach Pierce was coaching at that time. I've only had two or three games to work with him. The kid has a lot of talent, and he really helped us out last night.

Q. Now that Clint has shown the ability to hit from behind the backboard, does he have to be more involved in the offense?

NATE McMILLAN: [Laughs] Sometimes there are plays in the game that you make or an opponent makes that you know that it may be your night. When Clint shot that shot, and the follow-through -- I mean, I think Larry Bird shot a shot like that, but it wasn't as deep as Clint. Clint was out of bounds, fading away. You just felt like it was going to be our night when that ball went through.

Q. I want to know what your initial reaction was when Giannis went down last night in the third quarter.

NATE McMILLAN: You're always concerned. He's an opponent, but I have respect for him. You don't want anything bad to happen. I didn't really see the play, so I didn't know exactly what happened on that play. I thought it was an ankle injury, and I found out later that it was his knee that he hyperextended. So I didn't really see what happened on that play.

Whenever the whole bench and the coaching staff comes out to the floor to check on a player, and the trainers, and he can't get up, he needed assistance off the floor, you're concerned. You don't want to see that. He's a hell of a player, but you still don't want to see that.

I really had a great deal of respect for our fans last night when they supported that. They didn't want to see that. They were respectful when he was going off the floor, and they were happy to see that he was able to really go off the floor walking as opposed to needing a lot more assistance. I really thought that was really good by our fan base.

Q. I know we don't know at the moment, but how do you prepare for the Bucks now without Giannis?

NATE McMILLAN: That's still a really good team. It's the same way we've been preparing for them. There are times when he's on the bench and they come with a different lineup, and they will feature certain other guys. With him being off the floor, the preparation is really still the same as far as preparing for them. You don't just prepare for Giannis. They have a lot of other guys over there that are productive and can play and they can go to.

We'll continue to prepare for the Bucks as opposed to just one individual.

Q. You had said last night that Cam was going to be in the rotation either way. I was just curious what led to you guys deciding to give him that kind of opportunity, especially, like you said when he hasn't had much of a chance to be on the court recently at all.

NATE McMILLAN: I just felt it was time to go with that rotation.

Q. You've pretty much led your guys through every situation. Nothing surprises you at this point. You've won on the road. So as you head to Milwaukee for Game 5 and so much currently up in the air, not knowing the status of Trae or Giannis, what is the message to the team?

NATE McMILLAN: I haven't met with the team this morning. We are meeting at the plane. We will have a meeting once we get to Milwaukee.

The message will be to get yourself prepared. I think preparation is the key to success. We've been talking about that for a long time, but we certainly talk about that before last night's game. Mentally, physically, getting yourself prepared to play a tough game. That will be the message tonight when we get in. Get what you need, get your rest, get away, massage, treatment and mentally get yourself ready for what is going to be a battle.

We know it's going to be tough to go into Milwaukee and win there, but we've done that. We're capable of doing that. We have to get our mindset ready for that challenge as far as the things that we're going to need to do, the energy that we're going to need to bring. So recharge tonight and tomorrow. We're going to have to dump everything we have out on that floor again tomorrow night.

Q. As a coach, everything tends to be about next game, next game, next game and how you prepare for that. Have you had a chance to step back from this and take a look at the bigger picture and think, man, this is some kind of run we're on here?

NATE McMILLAN: I know we're on a really special run, and really it's a blessing. It really is. I know we're on a special run. But I haven't really thought too much about that because we are still on this run. The focus is the next game. I think when all of this is over, and whenever that may be and hopefully that's a ways down the road, you'll sit back and you'll think about all of that.

But right now, no. The focus is on the next game because we need to win the next game and we need to prepare ourselves for that next game. Yeah, that's in the back of your mind, but the focus is always on that next game, being better than you were because you're going to need to be. That's been our focus, to stay focused on what's in front of us.

Q. The preparation for this game, obviously you don't know if Trae is going to be there or not for you. How do you prepare? Will you have two different plans?

NATE McMILLAN: No, we don't have two different plans. You have to adapt to conditions. That's part of coaching. That's part of the NBA, being able to adapt, being able to adjust. We talk to our team about that all the time, because during the course of an NBA game, you're constantly making adjustments and you're constantly adapting to situations that you can't really plan for.

It was very similar to Trae going out and trying to warm up and he's in uniform and he's trying to give it a go, and 40 minutes before the game, he can't. So, okay, we've got to adjust to him being out and we have to make that adjustment. You talk to your players, you talk to your team.

Similar to a player getting in foul trouble early, and you have to go with a different rotation. You're constantly doing that throughout the game, throughout the season. It's just part of what we have to be prepared for and be able to make those decisions and make those adjustments on the fly like that.