BUCKS: Larry K End of Season Avail

Well, we made it through the season and I’m extremely optimistic about what lies ahead. We visited with every player on the roster last Thursday and Friday – exit interviews – and (there’s) an awful lot of positive feedback coming from our players. I think there’s a serious level of commitment, motivation, to try to get this franchise rolling again and I’m certainly committed to doing my part, trying to get the city alive again with Bucks basketball. I can guarantee our players are going to be putting in a lot of work this summer. A lot of them have expressed interest in getting back here early in September and really trying to get the culture heading in the right direction and getting some excitement back in Bucks basketball.

Have you made any decisions with your assistant coaches?

Everything is solid right now as the season finished. I think, obviously, I have to replace myself in the mix. There’s a spot open there. And, kind of the nature of the business, there’s always movement. And I haven’t had a chance (to focus on it yet). The priority has been on our players. We met briefly as a staff yesterday, kind of getting lined up with some summer plans and how we’re going to scout the playoffs and broke down some teams that way. Probably here in the next week, we can sit down and make sure guys are on the same page and move forward. So nothing’s really been solidified that.

Would you keep your current three assistant coaches if you could?

Most definitely. Most definitely. They were a great group when the change took place, even prior to the change. We were … trying to figure out ways to get things done. I think they’re all solid guys, everybody on that staff – the film department, the advanced scouting. There are a lot of great basketball minds and I’ve been pleased with what everybody’s brought to the table. Certainly, there’s one more spot that we need to look at and now’s the time. You get into the Pre-Draft Camp in Orlando and there are a lot of bodies and a lot of people. That’s when I got hired a year ago. We’ll kind of cross that bridge when we get to it, but I’m really happy with the guys we have.

What did the players have to say in your post-season conversations with them?

One of the things that we talked an awful lot about was our defense. We tried to pick their brains in terms of why we were poor defensively. And it was a pretty common response. It’s an accountability thing and we had a number of different breakdowns. We broke down team-wise and individually. There got to be some finger pointing. We lost some close games. It’s a pretty fine line. But I think it starts with some accountability in training camp and making it a priority. It’s really easy to talk about defense and how important it is, but you really, really have to commit to it. And the only time you can really put that into place is when you have their attention for three weeks in training camp. If you put too much off until the season starts, there’s just such limited practice time. But I’ve got it on paper. I’ve wrote all the notes down from everybody. They’re ready to be coached harder, pushed a little harder. They may need to be reminded of that when training camp starts, that they gave us the green light and that they wanted to be coached and pushed and have the standard set a bit higher.

You and Bucks owner Senator Kohl have mentioned in the past that your off-season training program for the guys will be tougher this year. Were some of the players not in good enough shape this season?

I might have stirred that up inadvertently in just talking about conditioning in general. To really play basketball the way I think it needs to be played – we extended an awful lot of energy on the offensive end of the floor and I’m not sure we always had that same energy coming back on the defensive end of the floor. I’d kind of like to switch roles a little bit with that. So I’m challenging our guys. If we never had an injury last year, I would have said we weren’t in good enough shape. I think that as a coach, you’re never really content with the conditioning. A guy like Ersan Ilyasova needs to be 10 or 15 pounds heavier and there are other people that need to be lighter. It’s not a perfect world. And I think what happened is I started talking about conditioning and then the conversation turned into injuries and then that became the same paragraph. I’m not pointing the finger at anybody. Andrew Bogut’s injury in training camp had nothing to do with his conditioning. He was in top condition from playing for his country all summer. When Charlie Villanueva smashed on the floor and tore up his elbow (in Atlanta), that had nothing to do with conditioning. So, don’t misunderstand what I was saying, but at the same time, I’m going to focus on what I can control to make our franchise better and I would expect the players to do the same thing and that’s going to consist of them getting in better condition.

Bobby Simmons committed to do a majority of his rehab here over the summer. How important is that and can you monitor what guys are doing in the off-season?

Certainly, you need to try to do that. Everybody has got their support system in place. A lot of guys spend time in their second home. Milwaukee is not everybody’s home year-round. Guys are professionals. A little bit of it is on them to get back and take care of themselves. We at the same time, with our strength and conditioning staff and medical staff, are going to be reaching out to everybody through the summer and making trips in as we did last year – spend a couple of days (with the guys). It’s not a micro-managing deal as much as it is just to let them know we’re there to support them and want to be a part of what they’re doing. In the perfect world, we’d have more people make Milwaukee their year-round residence. That’s part of the culture changing a little bit and guys committing to this city and organization – in saying that ‘you know, I’m ready to come here.’ And Bobby’s setting a little bit of a precedent with that and hopefully some of that will trickle down into our other guys. Like I said, I know a lot of them are going to come back a lot earlier than they have in the past and try to get this taste out of our mouth. We aren’t going to start making our advancements and getting where we want to go the first day of training camp. It’s going to start this summer and I think our guys realize that.

Have you talked to Michael Redd about taking on a more diverse role as team leader?

You bet. You know, we’ve got a young team on paper. Some of the leadership qualities are just starting to come out of guys, I think – identifying what they need to do. We all know what a great scorer Michael is and I think he’s kind of gotten to the point now, in conversations with him, where he’s looking at us saying, ‘okay, what’s next?’ Well, that’s where we come in. Well, what’s next is getting five, six, seven assists in a game, averaging five, six, seven rebounds in a game, kind of bringing his teammates into the mix a little bit. Everybody knows he’s number one on our scouting report. Teams want to stop him. But truly, to get to the next level, I think Mike needs to bring that into play and he’s ready to do that. He’s welcoming it with open arms. (In) the few games he played before he got injured at the tail end of the season, he had, I think, five assists in one game, six assists in another game and our offense was a lot more free-flowing. And I think in the long run it’s going to take a lot of pressure off of him.

But some people are born leaders and some people just don’t have it. Can you teach someone to be a leader?

That’s a great question. I can relate that to when I became the coach at Montana and one of the kids stayed after our first team meeting and he was almost in tears and he said, ‘Coach, I need you to teach me how to be a leader.’ On paper, it’s really hard to define. And so much of it is leading by example. And he was concerned about the differences off of the floor that he had with other players – that they were so far apart in personality types and what their off-court behavior was like that he didn’t think he could touch them.

The whole key is for us to focus on what we can control. And for Mike (Redd), if he leads, if he’s himself and he works hard and goes the extra mile, then there are going to be people that want to follow him. But I don’t think that this is a position for him to start standing on a pulpit and pounding his leadership abilities. Part of it is on me, truthfully, as a coach. I hope that I can provide some of that leadership. There’s been talk about the Bucks needing a leader and I think that some of it comes with winning some games and winning some of those close games. Rather than having it like this season (when) we lost an inordinate number of close games and I think people (were) searching. It’s easy to point fingers and do all of that kind of stuff. I’m going to provide a level of leadership with what we’re expecting effort-wise and hopefully that’s going to trickle into our players. If each of them can become ten percent more of a leader, I think that’s going to be beneficial for all of us. But I don’t like putting it on one person individually.

Are you excited about having such a great draft pick going into your first full season as a head coach?

I’m thrilled about it. I’ve made the comment at a number of our practices that it’s a great day to be a Buck. I would run up and down the floor saying that as our practices started. And it is a great day to be a Buck. We’ve had a rough go. The positive is that we don’t have to sit in our pain and anguish and deal with that much longer. We’re going to get a top six pick and there are twenty really good players that I can think of. Knowing that we’re going to get one of those six for sure is going to enhance our franchise. If nothing changed next year, I’d be optimistic. I like the guys that we had this year if we could have kept them all healthy. As any franchise, you’re going to try to make yourself a little bit better and tinker with it. It’s not really my job to do that as much as it is our management and they do a great job of it. The day after our last game, and I told (Bucks General Manager) Larry (Harris) this, I’ve never been that excited about the next season. Usually you go through a couple-week period of decompressing and you’re a little bit depressed and all that. And maybe some of that happened as our season winded down, but I know that when we started visiting with players, there’s a lot of excitement and reason to be optimistic about it.

If there are changes, do you know what positions or type of player will be the focus?

Well, that’s so broad. Number one, what pick we get in the draft has not been determined yet. That’s going to trickle down and change the rest of what (type of guy we’re) looking for. I am new enough in this profession and, as I said earlier, trying to focus on what I can control. I don’t have a big wish list. I know that we’ve got some solid guys with us right now and we’re going to improve our team. It’s really not up to me to talk about what I think we need or what we don’t need. I think that (if) everybody brings a little bit more to the table on our roster and we add a couple of nice pieces, we’ll be heading in the right direction.

Where do you see Charlie Villanueva playing? Power or small forward?

He started at power forward. I look back to our first game of the season and things went well at Detroit. Again, you start losing some games and you start grasping at straws and you try to tinker with things, injuries. I don’t think we got a fair assessment on a lot of guys this season. But I would say his natural position is going to be a four. He’s as skilled as any player that we have in the league and he’s one of those guys who is motivated. Talking to him the last few months, he wants to get better. He knows what his weaknesses are and he wants to address those.

Getting back to the previous question. In an overall sense with everyone on our roster, we need to get tougher. That’s one of the things that I think we lacked a little bit was just a bit of a junkyard dog mentality where we were going to fight some people more than we did and not think so much about out-scoring people. It’s not as much of a personnel thing in my mind as it is a mindset with the people we have.

Can you teach guys to have a tougher mentality?

I think so. I feel like we can. It’s not an overnight deal for sure. It’s going to be a process. I’m really excited to get it started in practice. I think about training camp being wide open. There are going to be a lot of bodies flying around and people ready to compete, but just trying to get a little bit better and a little tougher each day. I think it compounds itself a little bit – becomes contagious.

What did you say to Andrew Bogut at the end of the season?

It’s kind of the same message with all of them, really. Everybody needs to raise up their game. It’s on each of the guys. On paper, people want to talk about predictions and where we’d be next year. The whole idea in my message to each of our players was to take accountability individually. Worry about what (you are) doing and what (you can do) to get a little better. And, obviously, they have to take some time off. But if they’re addressing their weaknesses and really polishing up what they do well, you know, with their strengths, and then when we all come back here in the fall, that result is going to be a much stronger group. We’re going to be ahead of the game. I guess the message to each of those guys was that, again, to focus on what they can control and not worry about things around them. Put themselves in the best position to succeed and Andrew is one of the guys walking out of the room that’s excited to do that.

What did you learn in the transition from assistant coach to head coach?

That’s a good question. One of the things that I realized – and I thought it all along, but I needed to actually be in that seat to convince myself of it – is that it doesn’t matter if you’re five years old or fifteen years old or a rookie in the NBA or a ten-year NBA all-star, I think guys still want to be coached hard. They want to have some discipline. They want to have some rules. They want to be driven. They want to have a game plan. And so I kind of convinced myself in the last 18 (games) what I thought all along through the way our guys finished the season and the way they stayed professional and bought into sharing it and playing hard. Even in April with the circumstances the way they were, I was happy to see we had 16,000 fans at a number of our April games. That’s probably the focus those guys need to keep in mind.

Will you get on guys that don’t play hard or don’t defend?

I really believe that most of that is going to go on in practice. So I would be lying if I said there weren’t going to be some confrontations in practice. But really, if you get out on the basketball court in front of your fans, you’d like to believe that you don’t have that type of conflict at that point. You’d like to think you’d (take care of it) before you got to that point. I’m going to stand up for what I believe in and if somebody’s not getting the job done defensively, then, yeah, I’ll be willing to sit them down and deal with it. Hopefully it’s not going to become anything that’s blown out of proportion. It’s going to be the line that we follow and the expectation is going to be the same for everybody, regardless of who it is.

Will you show more emotion and back up your players more than has been done in the past?

Possibly. Probably. I don’t see it as a negative towards Terry (Stotts), though, as much as you just have to be yourself. In any profession, if you try to put on an act or become something you’re not, I think that’s kind of a false image that’s portrayed. I’m pretty intense and aggressive, but I also realize after being involved with a number of different levels of basketball is that, contrary to what a lot of people believe, the officials in the NBA are the best officials in the world. I’ve been in the CBA where it got a little bit sketchy from time to time. So I’ve got an appreciation for what they try to do. Will I get a number of technicals? Probably. It’s not necessarily to try and stick up for our players, but I’m just going to be doing exactly what I’m asking them to do – scratching, fighting, clawing and doing whatever they can do to get a win. If that involves me getting involved with a ref, then that’s certainly part of the gamesmanship of the NBA.

What are you looking for Ersan Ilyasova to do this summer? Will he play with the summer league team?

Ersan is going to be really heavily involved with his Turkish team in the summer and won’t be with us in the summer league. I’m optimistic about his future. A lot of it, the ball is in his court. I think he’s trying to figure out (if he is a four-man or a three-man). You’ve heard it, everybody in this room has heard it, the fact that he’s a 19-year-old kid still. He would have been a sophomore and he just turns 20 in May. He’d be right in the thick of his college career and you think of a lot of guys from their freshman to their senior year in college what happens to them. I have got a lot of confidence in him. Trust me on this. He works as hard as anybody we have in the organization, puts more time in off the floor and is real competitive. He’s very much a perfectionist. So he’s as hard on himself as anybody and I think that’s one of (his) traits.

Do you see him as a three-man or a four-man?

I would probably see him more as a four, to play away from the basket. One of the things you can fix in Ersan’s situations, one of his weaknesses is his strength, his lack of strength. A lot of that is maturity and, again, he works with Tim (Wilson) as hard as anybody in the weight room. So, some of that is going to come and that’s going to make him an even better four if he can battle some of those guys down on the block. But I think his future’s really bright.

If there’s one word that will be able to describe your team, what word would that be?

I would use the word you used to ask the question – the word “team”. Just trying to do things together on both ends of the floor. Whether it’s a defensive scheme, making baskets, relying on each other. That’s probably one of the other things that came out of that meeting with the guys was that there was a little bit of a level of trust as the year went on that broke down. Guys didn’t necessarily feel like we were in the fox hole together fighting for each other. That’s the big challenge, but that’s the thing that I’m most excited about – get our guys to trust in each other and not shoulder the burden. Be the essence of the team, what the definition is.

Do you consider Michael Redd a superstar?

That’s a broad definition. The majority of people on this planet would call him a superstar. Maybe it’s against my nature to put somebody in that category because I know he can do more. He knows he can do more. Are you talking about ten superstars to list of all-time? Then Michael Redd is not a superstar. Is he in the top one-tenth of one percent of people in the world basketball-wise and does he shoot it as well as anybody on the planet? Yeah. So the definition is a little bit broad. It’s just like talking about defense. How are you going to get guys to play defense? If (you’re dealing with someone who is) poor (at defense), you’re going to try to get him to be an average defender. So we’re just trying to get a bit more out of Mike. Those rungs on the ladder get further and further apart. For him to be a star and then go to a superstar, it’s not just a little step, it’s a huge step. I guess it’s kind of in the eye of the beholder what that term would be.

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