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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v SPURSJune 7, 2007Gregg PopovichSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game One Q. What one thing will you find yourself probably constantly reminding your team in the huddle tonight? GREGG POPOVICH: I don't know (laughter). Q. Well, before you taught rebound, rebound, rebound. GREGG POPOVICH: I'd like to see what's going on before I tell them anything. I don't want to make it up ahead of time. Q. I asked you the same question before and it was rebound, rebound, rebound because they're a very solid rebounding team. I just wonder if there was anything specific like that for Cleveland. GREGG POPOVICH: Well, that's a big one. They get more offensive rebounds than anybody in the league, and they score a lot of points in the paint, and that will definitely have to be an emphasis, as you said, like it was against Utah. So it's something that we're really aware of. Q. I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on Sam Presti getting the general manager job in Seattle? GREGG POPOVICH: Sam is a really talented young man, somebody who's mature beyond his years who thinks out of the box and brings a great combination of intellectuality and creativity at the same time. He's not your standard run-of-the-mill sort of manager in the sense that he does everything by the numbers. He tries to think of new ways to get some things done, and I think he's going to be great in Seattle. It's a loss for us. Danny was a big loss a couple of years ago and now Sam. So we'll have to try to find somebody else to fill in, but that's going to be real difficult. Q. Are you aware of why so many teams are targeting your organization for hires that you're almost struggling to keep up personnel-wise? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, it has been difficult in some ways over the past few years, but I don't really have any control over that. You know, our job is to hire good people, and if they move on to a bigger position, we're happy for them. Q. In the historically, what we now call in the Popovich era -- GREGG POPOVICH: Are there any other questions (laughter)? Q. The notion that you're playing the Spurs is that you wanted to speed up the Spurs and make it feel small, and other teams have tried to do that with not always success. Is this a different sort of series in that sense that you want to speed up the game a little more because they'll play slower? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, I'm not sure we can automatically speed up the game. But I think we generally play a faster pace than people realize. It's a team that can play pretty well in the half court. I don't think we're great at it, but we do a pretty good job in the half court. But with Manu and Tony, we've really made an effort to push the basketball, and it's helped us in a lot of games, both regular season and playoffs, to score. Defenses are good these days, especially in the playoffs. Every time we're up against a team that's a better defensive team, you know, Phoenix was a better defensive team than everybody gave them credit for, and we had to find other ways to score. We did it by pushing the basketball and getting more early offense, so to speak. So we'll try to do the same thing with Cleveland because we played better that way, when we play at a faster pace. Q. I'm sure you're trying to keep everything the same from game to game in the playoffs, but we're within a couple hours of this game. Is there a different feeling going into the NBA Finals than there is in other playoffs as much as you try to maybe keep thing on an even keel? Do you think your players feel differently now? GREGG POPOVICH: I think so. I think there's probably a heightened anxiety if everybody is honest about their feelings. It's a real thrill to be part of the Finals, and I think that affects one's emotions and one's sort of anticipation in the first game, especially this one, since it feels like it's been last season since we played. Q. How much does it help to have gone through it before do you think, now that you've gone through it several times before? GREGG POPOVICH: You know, I really don't know how to answer that. It's such a subjective thing, and you can't quantify it analytically. For me, you know, it's the same boring, trite answers that I would give. You know, we try to do it a game at a time, and you can just add all the other ones -- because it is a sport, it is a team game and the same things apply. The same things win and lose ballgames, no matter what round or regular season. If you can do what you do best, you're going to have a pretty good shot at being successful. If you try to invent the lightbulb, that's when you're going to get in trouble. Q. Can you talk about Tony Parker's development from the last time this team played in The Finals and in what areas he has developed, and do you give him more responsibility, obligations to do things during the course of the game than he had that last time? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, he definitely has more responsibility than he's had in the past, and in that sense, the decision-making responsibility, where he's more aware of the clock, the score, what quarter is it, is it the end of the quarter. You know, Tim hasn't touched the ball in X number of minutes or so-and-so is guarding so-and-so. Some of those things, he thinks a little bit more like a coach out on the floor and is really helpful in that regard. So I think that's probably where most of his development has taken place. Q. Do you believe in the idea that the NBA needs a transcendent player like a LeBron James or even Tim Duncan for the overall health of the league to be strong? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, I think superstars are tremendously important for any of the sports leagues. You know, name recognition and people who conduct themselves in a way that people both respect them and want to watch them play is huge. So I think that that's quite important. Q. Last year Michael Finley kind of struggled in his role. It seemed like he was always trying too hard to please coming into a team that's had championships. What's been the difference with him this season? GREGG POPOVICH: He's just relaxed, I think, and feels more comfortable in his role, whether it was coming off the bench or starting, as he does now. We just gave him the green light, and I think it really helped him. If he's on the court and he's got the ball and there's any space, we want him to fire it. We don't care if he's 1-for-10 or 6-for-6, and he works better under that sort of a scenario. The second thing is we worked real hard on him letting go when mistakes are made. He's almost too professional a player. He's really spectacular in that regard. He wants to please coaches so badly that he's just too hard on himself at times, and I think that he's learned with some humor and some discussion that it really is easier to play well if one can let go of a turnover or a missed shot or whatever it might be, and just go play, because the consequences aren't very huge. We're all going to get up in the morning like everybody else on the planet and conduct real life, so I think that's all helped him. Q. He's always been known as one of the better people in the NBA. What is it you found out about him that you didn't know by having him these last two years? GREGG POPOVICH: That's a great question. We knew him pretty well when he signed with us, but I would say it's just a matter of level of professionalism, where he's even more of a leader than I thought it would be. He's more vocal than I thought he would be. And he commands even more respect than I thought he would. He's really a remarkable individual. Q. It's natural for people to think of LeBron James when they think of Cleveland, but as you look at tape of what they've done down the stretch here, what other couple of players keep you awake at night or cause you concern? GREGG POPOVICH: Well, I think that Danny and Mike have done a great job of putting pieces together. The players that are playing with LeBron fit. You know, they've gotten enough players to spread the floor, to make it difficult defensively. They've got energy people, they've got people rebounding, they've got bigs who can shoot it, they've got toughness, they've got older leadership available. So in that regard they're a complete team. It's not just LeBron James. Obviously he pulls the train just like Tim Duncan does for us, but Tim wouldn't get it done, either, if the pieces didn't fit. So that's the first thing. And then individually, I think that Zydrunas has done a great job in the middle, rebounding the basketball, making open shots, being a presence down low. You know, everybody knows about Gibson coming in when Mike made the change and making shots and that sort of thing, so he'll have to require some attention. But in general, it's going to be a team defense against a team defense. End of FastScripts |
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