NBA FINALS: HEAT VS. NUGGETS

May 30, 2023

Jeff Green

Denver Nuggets

Practice Day

Q. Jeff, when you made the Finals in 2018, is there anything that you can take from that and apply or say, this was my experience several years ago, and I'm not going to let that ultimate result happen again?

JEFF GREEN: Yes and no. I mean, a lot of things that -- it's more feeling and being in the moment. A lot of things you carry over to the Finals when the Finals start. For me I was stuck in the moment of just making it to the Finals instead of actually enjoying the moment of being there and playing.

But it's nothing you really take over. It's just about accepting where you're at and being prepared.

Q. You were on those Boston teams playing against the Heat in 2012, 2013, 2014. How much respect do you have for the organization with Spoelstra, Pat Riley and this new group of players they have now?

JEFF GREEN: A lot of respect. They've created a culture. It's their way. It works. They established something that's been beneficial to them, that's gotten them to places over and over and over that a lot of teams haven't.

Much respect to them. Much respect to Spo, how he gives his guys confidence to go out there and produce no matter who's on the floor, and obviously Pat is Pat. He's been doing his thing in this league for a long-a-- time. You've got to give respect where respect is due.

Q. Having seen every defensive scheme thrown at Nikola and Jamal, what do you expect Spo to try to do, and knowing how good Joker is at the elbow, how do you think he'll handle any zones that might be thrown at him?

JEFF GREEN: Honestly, I don't know what they're going to do. This is a question for them. I know we're prepared for what they bring to the table. You watch their game, and they play zone. They play hard-nosed man-to-man. They can play all different type of ways.

But we have to make sure that we're prepared and we execute whatever we're trying to do.

Q. How do you guard against rust? You have nine days off, so there's a benefit to the rest, but there's the rest versus rust. How do you guard against coming out not as sharp as you'd like?

JEFF GREEN: I mean, at the end of the day it's just about playing with effort. We did what we had to do in the Playoffs to get to this point, and that came with rest. Our job is to go out there and execute, play hard, and try to get the win.

Rust, I don't think nobody on our team has even thought about it. I think Coach did a great job of making sure that we stayed well-conditioned through the practices that we had, and when the game time comes, everybody is going to get tired. Like we can't control that.

But our job is to go out there and play with effort and play with pace and play Denver Nuggets basketball.

Q. Can you take us inside some of those practices and just describe a little bit more in detail how Coach did implement conditioning into game-like strategy and different scenarios?

JEFF GREEN: How much time we got?

Q. Whatever you'd like to give us.

JEFF GREEN: I mean, one scenario is just a lot of up-and-down. Probably one of those scenarios, 5-on-5 scenarios. That's pretty much it. Without giving you a long breakdown of every practice, high intensity, throwing every kind of scenario at us.

All I can say is he did a great job, without going into too much detail.

Q. Aaron has gone from guarding KAT to Kevin Durant to LeBron to Jimmy Butler now. From your perspective what's been the most impressive aspect of the defense that he's played in these Playoffs so far?

JEFF GREEN: The adjustment of going from player to player, and it's not -- you just named three guys from each series, but Aaron has been guarding multiple guys each series. It's not just the guys that you singled out. He's been doing a good job of understanding the assignment of who he's guarding but also knowing personnel, if there's a switch, but I think he's been doing a tremendous job. He's part of the reason why we're here. It starts with defense, and he's the head of the snake on that defensive end and the pressure that he puts on their main guys.

Q. The team -- Miami is known very much for playing a lot of zone and doing a lot, mixing up their coverages and whatnot. What's the key do you think in terms of attacking their zone this time around and various advantages you guys can create?

JEFF GREEN: Our job is to try to make plays for each other, try to find open spots, just try to make the right reads. How they play with their zone, they do different things within their zone, obviously, so our job is just to be aggressive and make plays.

Q. Ten years ago something life-changing happened to you. You said you worked your butt off to be back in this situation. You know having a taste of what the Finals feels like before but obviously now you have an opportunity to win the championship again. How do you look at your journey, and how do you process it differently this time?

JEFF GREEN: Thank you, first of all. Great question. How do I look at my journey? Man, long story short, I'm proud of myself, from all the obstacles that I've been through in my career. Like you said, the obstacle that I faced 10-plus years ago, not allowing those type of things to hold me back, breaking barriers down, multiple teams, adapting to every circumstance.

To be at this point, 16 years of my career, I'm happy. I'm excited. This is a blessing. It shows the hard work. Whether people want to look at it or not, with all I've been through, which everybody knows, to be at this point, being productive, giving something on a great team in the Finals, I think it's amazing.

I'm proud of myself on how I got to this point and accomplished some of the things I wanted to do.

Q. Overall, what would it be like for you to not only win your first NBA title but bring a title to Denver, as well?

JEFF GREEN: It's everything. This is what I play for. For me, I always play for team first, and ultimate goal was to always win a championship. It would be everything. Like I said, with everything I've been through in my career, to win a championship is everything, and for the city of Denver, same thing. I'm pretty sure that they're excited for this. Long-awaited for this moment.

We go out there, we play for the city of Denver, and we're going to give them everything we have in order to bring that championship home. We're looking forward to the opportunity.