Lloyd Pierce Interview

[JayBirdHawk]

Quote

On 1st year - glad it's over, didn't set any expectations, just tried figuring out what works, what doesn't, create culture and getting to know team and city, incorporate coaching staff, create identity of how we want to play - exciting brand of basketball with our young team. A sense of accomplishment finishing 1st season.

On Trae Young - had an amazing rookie year and impact on the game, immediate impact to make his presence known in the league even though he struggled early shooting, his impact was felt in the league, the fan base and the city. He is one of our CORNERSTONES to grow with. He wants the ball, ability to take and make big shots, not afraid of the moment, loves being in the game late.

Kevin Huerter - biggest surprise since he wasn't ready to play bball to start the season - physically and mentally. Our most talented player, skilled shooter esp. from 3, underrated facilitator. Blames himself for lack of involvement, needs more involvement next season. He played 73 games which showed his growth since he wasn't expected to play.

No expectations set for next season, just to get better individually and as a team.

FAs - Dewayne and Vince has earned the right to do what's best for themselves and family whether here ir elsewhere but would definitely like them back.

Draft - he's Assistant GM/Scout and will give his input but won't be the loudest voice since the GM/Scouts have more insight - hswks are about Talent Acquisition - so best available player for what we do and how they fit what we do.

 

 

[Thomas]

Even Pops made a comment about how Trae can make you watch just him on the floor. He doesn't compliment much at all so seemed like a nice feather in Trae's cap to me.  

[REHawksFan]

44 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

I feel like I'm in the twilight zone going back and forth between 2 boards and liking the same post on both.  But I feel obligated to like this on here since I liked it on RGM.  

 

Also, great interview and the cornerstone comment was very apropos given the recent debates going on ad nauseam (of which I'm guilty of contributing to).  

[Gray Mule]

Great!  Watched earlier on RealGM.

 

[aali34]

What do u guys think of Huerter probably being the most talented on the roster?

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, aali34 said:

What do u guys think of Huerter probably being the most talented on the roster?

Means the hawks are not trading for Bradley Beal

[JayBirdHawk]

Another Interview:

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

2 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

Means the hawks are not trading for Bradley Beal

 Good one!

[hazer]

If The Huert lives up to his potential and approaches his ceiling, no need to waste any money on Klay Thompson...

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

[pimp]

No expectations set for next season, just to get better individually and as a team. It's winnable.

Team goal should be to win the division. It's winnable.
Orlando was the only team in the division with a winning record, and they were 42-40

[IheartVolt]

30 minutes ago, pimp said:

No expectations set for next season, just to get better individually and as a team. It's winnable.

Team goal should be to win the division. It's winnable.
Orlando was the only team in the division with a winning record, and they were 42-40

I believe the way CLP stated that was to keep pressure low on the young guys and not so much what he thinks the teams ability is. Let everyone play loose and have fun while doing it

[JayBirdHawk]

22 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

The Prevention and Protection Defense

” First, don’t allow penetration into the restricted area and, if you do, make the necessary adjustment to protect at the rim.

 

https://www.ajc.com/sports/basketball/prevention-and-protection-then-lloyd-pierce-will-get-all-his-back-pocket/T4hLtORDpxpenjkhRb9YTI/

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

Quote

I’m OK with mistakes. That’s not an issue. We are all going to make mistakes … but lack of effort is where you get frustrated.”

 

[JayBirdHawk]

Can someone who pays for this post the relevant info?.Thanks

 

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

On 6/6/2019 at 6:25 PM, JayBirdHawk said:

The Prevention and Protection Defense

” First, don’t allow penetration into the restricted area and, if you do, make the necessary adjustment to protect at the rim.

 

https://www.ajc.com/sports/basketball/prevention-and-protection-then-lloyd-pierce-will-get-all-his-back-pocket/T4hLtORDpxpenjkhRb9YTI/

 

 

That sounds like a safe sex ad.

[RedDawg#8]

50 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

That sounds like a safe sex ad.

Sounds like we may be looking for an elite rim protector

[JTB]

5 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Can someone who pays for this post the relevant info?.Thanks

 

 

 

 

This was absolutely incredible! I’ve never heard a nba coach tell it like is like this and give details like this not even legend pop himself.

as time goes on and we become relevant again I’m sure he get more strict in what he says publicly  but man this was inspiring. I really and truly believe Coach LP got it all down and knows exactly what he’s doing in terms of development! Can’t wait for part 2

[JayBirdHawk]

6 hours ago, JTB said:

 

This was absolutely incredible! I’ve never heard a nba coach tell it like is like this and give details like this not even legend pop himself.

as time goes on and we become relevant again I’m sure he get more strict in what he says publicly  but man this was inspiring. I really and truly believe Coach LP got it all down and knows exactly what he’s doing in terms of development! Can’t wait for part 2

Can you post the cliff notes version?

[REHawksFan]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Can you post the cliff notes version?

Here's the last few questions... There was a bunch more and Part 2 is later today.

What have you seen this offseason from Trae, Kevin (Huerter) and Omari (Spellman) so far, and what are your reasonable expectations for them next season? 

When we walk out of this interview right now, you’re going to see them, Jaylen Adams, De’Andre Bembry, John Collins, Alex Len and Alex Poythress on the court, and what they’re doing doesn’t matter to me because the training staff is following their plan, and I trust what they’re doing. Players who trust our training staff and our coaches show up. All I can ask is for them to show up. We’re good. They’re getting better when they’re here. Our approach this offseason is different. Last year, we’re drafting some, I inherit some — there’s not really a full out plan at that point. I am trying to put schedules together and map out plans. I didn’t have a staff until June. At this stage, we’re so ahead of where we were last year. We have the same guys, but we already know our plan. We’ll be better, and we’ll progress just because we’re putting in the work. We’ll the results dictate that? No. Would we like to see the results dictate that? Yes. But the mindset shouldn’t change. We have to come in here and say, “How do we get better? How do we progress?” I love coming in every day now because I know that’s what they are doing.

With John specifically, he averaged nearly 20 and 10 this season, expanded his shot profile and became a better defender toward the end of the season. What’s the next step of his evolution? 

The challenge for John is balance. He shot 3s last year and ended up around 36 percent. The challenge is how many is too many? How many is not enough? How many 3s can we get John and still keep that dynamic roller and athletic presence at the rim? It’s tough because guys fall in love with one side and take away the other. We don’t want to take away from who John Collins is, but we want to grow John Collins. We have to find ways to get him more involved. If they are going to take away the roll, then we have to punish them elsewhere. If they are going to switch the pick-and-roll, then that’s when we are going to post John Collins. The flip side, I always tell our players that they tell on themselves. John told on himself late in the year. You recognized that he was a better defender late in the year than what he was at the start of it. Now he told on himself. Now we need the end of the year defender at the beginning and for the remainder of next season. We don’t need him to show up late. We don’t need him to show up at the middle. We need him to show up at the start because he already showed us he’s capable of being a good defender.

Speaking of defense, you were known for your defense when you were with Philadelphia. Atlanta was one of the worst defending teams in the league. Justin (Anderson) mentioned you didn’t implement your defensive system this season. What is the process of implementing your defense? 

It’s about finding out who’s on your roster. Everything on your game plan is based and predicated on who you have. I won’t mention any names, but if you get me some free agents, we’re going to run some different shit based on who they are. I have to first look at who’s going to be on our roster. What’s the roster they call Golden State? The Death Lineup? The Hamptons 5? That lineup has five guys who can switch. They have length. There’s a reason they go to that lineup, and it’s because they can switch and do whatever it is they want to do with that group. If you put (Andrew) Bogut in, you’re no longer the Hamptons 5. You now have coverage and concepts and schemes. Every case is like that with defense. You give me Trae and Alex Len, and we’re not switching. It’s unfair for Alex to switch on to an elite point guard, and it’s unfair for Trae to switch on to the best offensive rebounder in the league. We’ve got to figure out the best coverage we can with those two guys. You give me Taurean and Kevin, and we can switch. De’Andre and Baze switch. When we draft who we draft, I’ll think to myself, “What can he and John do in pick-and-roll?” That’s what will tell us what our defense can do. Then we’ll have to get better at it with our language, communication and effort. We’re still in the same boat. We have six picks with three young guys.

When I came into Atlanta last year, we would push on the side and send everything to the left in the middle pick-and-roll. We don’t do that anymore. That’s what I did somewhere else. It didn’t work for these guys because it was too confusing. We were shitty at the beginning of the season. We got somewhat better as the year progressed on all facets, but at least we got on the same page, so we were competitive. We weren’t great. We weren’t elite. We weren’t even good defensively, but we were competitive. We have to do that all over again. I have to figure out what we have and what’s the simplest and what it’ll take away the thinking and how we integrate that quicker than we did last year. It’s hard, and the challenge always comes back to, well, when you’re Golden State, your core has been there. San Antonio showed that for years. The core was there for years. It didn’t matter who they plugged in because they were going to learn the San Antonio system. It’s simple when the system is in place and the core is in place. You either get in, and you learn it, or you’re not going to make it. We’re a ball movement team, so you need to f***ing learn how to move it. We’re not a hold team. You’re not making it if you can’t do that here. So, what I’m saying is we do have a core, but they are still learning the communication aspects of defense and the effort aspects of defense. I have a core who is still learning and then a new group who will have to be taught. In a lot of ways, it’s f***ing frightening to think that we can be worse in that area next year just because the guys who weren’t very good at it last year will be better, but they are now going to be working with a younger and newer group.

You and other people in the organization have mentioned how you guys can’t skip steps. The steps haven’t been explicitly defined by anyone. What are they, and what is the next step?

The steps — I’ll always go to the individual. Each guy is on a different step. Trae started this past season as a starter. Kevin didn’t. Trae’s first step was game experience. We couldn’t bypass that. There were games where I wanted to take him out, but the value of game experience was more important. We’re going to make him our starter and live with the growing pains. Jeremy Lin helped with the decision to start Trae because he was hurt at the start of the season, so there really wasn’t a competition. The plan was, “I have two new guys, and I have no idea who’s going to start.” Jeremy just wasn’t healthy, and Trae was, and he was pretty good. It wasn’t a competition. I wasn’t given the opportunity for it to be a competition. My plan was, “We have a veteran on our roster who I know is going to be ready to play in an NBA game in the event that this rookie just isn’t ready.” Kevin’s situation was that. I don’t think the plan was to start Kevin knowing that he wasn’t ready at the beginning of the year and not knowing when he would be ready. But we had Baze and Taurean and even De’Andre that had NBA experience. Kevin just showed he was ready and was able to do more. When the opportunity came, we weren’t playing well, and it was an opportunity to shake things up and get him game experience because he earned it. So skipping steps is still individually based, but just in general, the easiest analogy I have to break this down is it’s hard to play in late June.

There are two teams playing right now. Not everyone is built for this moment. Not everyone is built to go into Toronto down 3-1 and win that game. The reason why that team can is they have played in June for a bunch of years, and they’re not going to be rattled. They don’t panic when there’s an illegal screen called with under two minutes left that could have cost them the game. They don’t panic when there’s a backcourt violation that could have cost them the game. They came down on the other end and f***ing defended. You have to learn how to win in May to play in June. You have to learn how to win 82 games to play in May. May is a big month. You have to learn how to win a game in the NBA. We’ll still be learning how to win a game this year. What does that mean? It means giving John 42 minutes would be unfair to him. He averaged almost 20-10, well, giving him 40 minutes per game isn’t going to make him get 30 points per game. What it does is it might expose him, and you might put him in a bad spot thinking he has to carry a team. Now he’s not practicing much because he’s playing too many minutes. You’re going down this negative slope trying to do much. It’s great that he averaged 19 and 9. How do we do it again? And then how do we do it better? That’s the efficiency part that we talked about. When he overcomes that and can do it in his sleep, then it’s, “OK, well we need to play him 36 minutes and bump him up from 30 minutes.” That’s the next step.

I’m probably skipping steps here myself, but what do you feel like this team needs to improve upon or add to make it back to the playoffs?

I don’t know about the playoffs. I say that because I don’t know the six guys we’re going to get. It’s the same situation as last year. It’s hard to ask someone who has never played in the NBA to place an expectation of the playoffs and then ask three guys who have never been there to carry you. I think you can ask that guy in L.A. (LeBron James) to carry anybody because he’s been there and done that. It’s hard to ask Trae or John to do something they’ve never done and do it at that type of level with guys who have no clue what they’re doing. For what we need to improve upon, we need to find consistency every night of how we play. We’re pretty good offensively. We have some unique characters at their positions. Trae is a wizard at point guard. John is as dynamic of a big in the pick-and-pop and pick-and-roll as we’ll have in the league. Those two guys together are an unbelievable tandem in the pick-and-roll. Kevin is coming into his own because his skill set is extremely high. We can put him on the floor, and he can create for his own self, and he can pass. We need to add to that. We need to add to that core of young guys. We need to add skill players to complement what they do. Alex Len shooting 36 percent as a five-man helps. Finding De’Andre better shooting numbers helps. If you have Trae and John in pick-and-roll, who’s another guy who can create offensive rebounding opportunities. When we sub, do we have a guy can do what John does? He probably won’t be able to do it at the level he does it, but can he play in the pick-and-roll and can we still be effective?

The ultimate answer is how competitive are we going to be next season? I just had a conversation with Trae about leadership and what his maturity level is going to be like next year. He’s ready for it. He wants it. It’s different when you have to do it, though. You’re the leader on the floor, but now you have to be the leader in the locker room, the leader in the film room, the leader in the practice sessions. Maturity, competitiveness is how we get better, and that’s going to help us more than anything. I don’t know if it’s a position thing. We want more talent, and we want high-character guys and highly competitive guys and want guys who have a skill set that complements what we do.