Behind the Scenes with JB Bickerstaff: Day 5
July 7, 2006

(On practice)
Things have been going really well. This is the fifth day now and guys are competing and we’ve made improvement from the first day. I think it’s tough when you get a brand new group of guys in here. You try to put in a system and you try to run the offense that we will use in the regular season, but the guys have been good. They come in, they listened, the guys have been really coachable and they pick up things pretty quickly.

(On Adam Morrison)
He’s pretty good. Just by watching him you are amazed by the different ways he can score the ball. Some guys just put it in the basket and make stand still jump shots -- he has a range of offensive moves, that I think will surprise and impress a lot of people.

(On Ryan Hollins)
I think he has a chance to be really good. Whenever you get a guy who is seven feet tall who can run and jump and do the things that he can do he has a chance. It’s going to take some work, but the best thing about him is that he comes in here and listens. We talked about it before -- he came in his workout and asked questions. Most guys come into there draft workouts just to show you what they can do, but he was asking questions trying to improve and I think, in talking to his college coaches, that’s one of the things he does -- he listens and asks questions. He’s better defensively, now than a lot of guys coming out of school because he’s prepared – his rotations are always pretty good. They do a good job of that at UCLA.

(On Hollins scoring)
He’s the kind of guy who can get you points and you don’t have to call plays for him. He will run the floor, he will get dunks, he’ll get offensive rebounds and put backs. I think we will work with him on offensive moves and get him some back to the basket stuff -- like all big guys now he wants to shoot threes, so we will work with him and get some post up stuff. But like I said, being coachable, we will see him improve quickly.

(On Emeka Okafor)
It’s a progression with Emeka. He took that time off because of the ankle injury, but he’s working to get back. We try not to do too much and bring him back too quickly because we want him ready for October. He’s come a long way from where he was. We started running on the first of June and now he’s doing five on five and pick up. He’s getting his explosiveness back, but I think with Emeka the most important thing is his timing, his rebounding, his shot blocking all that depends on his timing and he just has to play basketball to get use to that.

(On Okafor’s frustration last season)
We watched it all season long. He was frustrated not being able to go out on the floor and help his teammates win. I think that’s one thing that people over look about Emeka is that he’s a winner -- people don’t take that into consideration. So when he’s sitting on the bench in a suit with a cast on his foot, you could see the frustration on his face. His everyday appearance started to change because he was so frustrated. He’s happy to be back on the floor and he’s excited for training camp to get here and the season to start.

(On Curtis Withers)
Curtis is one of those guys who gets you possessions and I think that’s one of those things, as a coach you love. He rebounds -- he does all of the dirty work. In the scrimmage he ended up with 20 points and 10 rebounds and we didn’t call one play for him. All his stuff came from effort, running the floor, getting loose balls, setting screens, and getting open and rebounding the ball. I think that’s one thing you really appreciate as a coach. There are very few superstars and then there are the guys who take advantage of opportunities. The way Curtis plays, he has the ability to take advantage of those opportunities

(On the summer league starters)
We have guys that we have commitments to and we want to give those guys experience and then we are looking for who surprises us the most. We bring in a group of guys that we feel can compete, who are close to getting in the NBA or who just haven’t gotten the right opportunity. But obviously Sean (May), Alan (Anderson), Kevin Burleson, and Adam (Morrison), we want them to play together and get as comfortable with one another as possible. We look for the next guy like Alan Anderson and Kevin Burleson who were two guys that played in our summer league team and made our roster. We take this seriously and we are looking to find as much talent as we can.

(On summer league goals)
We try to win no matter where we go. I think you need to develop that winning attitude and that winning environment, so we go down there and try to win basketball games. We are going to play guys together, we’ll play different rotations, we want to give guys an opportunity to get some experience and see what they can do. We want to put Sean (May) in the position where he is not always back to the basket. We want to put Alan (Anderson) in positions, Adam (Morrison) is position, give Kevin Burleson the opportunity to run the point to see what he is capable of doing. We are just trying to get as much experience as you can and give guys an opportunity, who haven’t played together, we’re trying to give them that extra step. Now they’ve played together a bit and they are ready for October.

(On Adam Morrison’s fire)
We’ve had a couple of scrimmages and in the first scrimmage his team was down by 23 and then he put on a show. He was scoring every way and they came back and won that game. The combination of him and Alan Anderson is pretty tough -- both of those guys are really competitive. Alan comes from Michigan State, which is always has that tough, hard nose program, so those two guys push each other. That’s been fun to watch those two guys go after each other because they are both so competitive and they both want to push each other and make each other better.

(On Curtis Withers’ game)
I think it’s very important. Not everyone gets an opportunity. There are probably guys right now who are capable of playing in the league, but don’t get an opportunity to do so. Curtis has gotten the opportunity and he is taking advantage of the opportunity.

(On his connection with Maurice Hargrow and Kevin Burleson)
Kevin and I have known each other since I was probably in the third grade and I think he was in the second living in Seattle. It’s fun to watch guys grow up. I’ve know Maurice since he was 15 years old, so now to see him at this point in his life -- it’s good to see guys mature and grow and I think that’s one of the reason’s why you get into coaching because you watch guys grow and develop and you get to watch their games grow and them as people.

(On their development in the summer league)
They are doing well. I think with Maurice we are trying to make the transition from him mostly being a two guard to a point guard. I think that will take a little bit of time for him to develop some of those point guard passing first instead of looking to score first skills. With Kevin we are trying to get him as many minutes as he can because we feel that Kevin could be a good point guard he just needs some playing time and some experience and that’s what the summer is for.

(On Burleson’s leadership skills)
He’s been around the block. He spent a whole 82 game season here and he understands what we want, what we do, how we play and he’s shown other guys who are new what exactly we are trying to do.