Posted: October 12, 2012
Suns head coach Alvin Gentry met with the media after shoot around Friday to talk about the night's matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers. Check out some of the key points that stood out to Gentry from practice and what the team needs to do to improve from their first preseason game.
1. What needs to improve in the second preseason game: “The big thing is we have to have improvement. The Achilles heel for us last year and in the first game was the offensive rebounding. We’ve got to get better in that department and the dribble penetration. We had breakdowns on the perimeter which caused us to have to rotate with our bigs up to the guards penetrating and that breaks down your defense. Those are my concerns.”
2. On how the rotations will play out against Portland:We have to take a look at some of the guys we have on the roster because they’re very interesting. They’ve had good practices and done a good job of standing out in scrimmages and situations like that. You have to take a look at them in a game situation.”
3. Challenges of having a new roster in the preseason: : “We spend a lot more time teaching because basically over half of our team isn’t familiar with what we’ve done here in the past. Then we’ve got another three or four guys that have only been here for a year. We’re still in the stages of doing some elementary teaching. I think we’ll get it and by the time the opening game rolls around we’ll be ready”
4. On being excited for the first home game: “I think you get excited any time that you have an opportunity to go out and gauge where your team is and the things we need to work on. It doesn’t matter, preseason, regular season or playoffs you always get excited as a coach to see where you are.”
5. On Brown, ect.: Coach Gentry says that Shannon Brown and Sebastian Telfair, both who both sat out against the Kings on Wednesday, will play tonight against the Trail Blazers. He also said that Jared Dudley will play limited minutes tonight because the coaching staff knows what he brings to the team and wants to give other players time at shooting guard.