Wittman Conference Call 10-2

Wolves head coach Randy Wittman spoke with selected media once again on Tuesday evening from Istanbul, Turkey, suggesting that he's pleased with the team's progress thus far.

Q: On the first scrimmage of training camp:
A: (I'm) pleasantly surprised. When you do a lot of drills and two-a-days, that first scrimmage can be sloppy. I give the guys credit; they were pretty good. They got tired obviously at the end. We went about two-and-a-half hours and then scrimmaged. (Getting tired is) going to happen when you first start playing here in camp. We scrimmaged for two eight-minute quarters, so 16 total minutes.

Q: On the development of Randy Foye from last year to today:
A: He's made great strides from the point. He's been much more vocal. A rookie coming into the league last year having not really played the point at Villanova, he was a quiet kid and to play the point you can't be quiet. You have to be demanding and you have to be able to get guys where they're supposed to be. He's really made strides in that area, and again, I want to continue to work him away from the ball as well as on the ball. In terms of where he was last year at camp and where he is now, from a personality standpoint, he's a different person.

Q: On how the veterans and young guys are mixing:
A: Our veterans have been really good in terms of leadership on the floor, off the floor. Juwan (Howard) and Greg Buckner has come in here and really done a nice job. I mean incredible, not knowing anybody. Walking in here late, he has kind of been an (assertive) guy during practice, and that's been a big help, another pleasant surprise. You never know how a guy is going to react to a trade like that, and it's nice to see. The talking, the helping the young guys get to spots, doing the right things, when things go wrong telling them how to do it better, those are the main things (Howard and Buckner) have done well.

Q: On it being valuable for the younger players to play with each other at Target Center for the past month and change:
A: There's no question our guys who were here for a month have a good little thing going. You can tell that they've played together a little bit, now mixing in the guys that weren't here. That's why you try to encourage these guys to come in the month of September leading up to camp. I don't think anyone really realizes how important that is when you play with somebody a month prior leading into training camp, especially when you have a team as new as we've got.

Q: On Craig Smith:
A: No question, that was an important thing for Craig to work on his body after that first year. He knew it too, after going through the battles he has to go through to at that position, the strength that he needs and the stamina that he needs. Craig worked his (butt) off this summer to really do that and it's unfortunate that he turned his ankle. As I mentioned to you guys last night, he's making great progress. He was out on the floor today doing dummy drills with us, and shooting. He might be able to do something when we get to London if he keeps making the strides that he's been making.

Q: On any other bumps and bruises:
A: Rashad (McCants) had to sit out, he cramped up pretty badly at the end of scrimmage. His hamstring was really still tender tonight, so he sat out. Theo (Ratliff) sat out the night, his back stiffened up on him a little bit, so we didn't want to push that issue. We'll come back tomorrow with a good hard practice and see where those two guys are at.

Q: On Gerald Green's shooting:
A: He's a good shooter. Where I think Gerald falls into problems is his shot selection. His percentage as a shooter isn't what I think it can be. I love his stroke and his ability to shoot the ball from three-point land. He just needs to understand a good shot from a bad shot and I think that's where his percentage really goes the other direction. He'll take some tough shots. I'm more concerned with teaching him what a good shot and a bad shot is than doing anything with his form or actual shooting.

Q: On if Wittman has established any kind of rotation:
A: No, not really. This is the first day we've really done any five-on-five full-court scrimmaging. I have to see more guys playing together and different combinations before I can get a good feel for that. It's one thing to be a hell of a player in drills and half-court, but our game is 94-feet up and down.

Q: On how many combinations he will use:
A: We're going to play a lot of guys, and I'm not worried about anything other than that in the exhibition season. I've got to look at different combinations and I've got to look at different people. We've got a lot of people we have to make decisions on. We only have 16 guarantees, so obviously you have to let somebody go. We've got to figure out roles on this team and who's going to play them and what roles those are going to be. Last year we basically had a starting five coming out of training camp and had good idea of who our top eight were going to be, and really had to formulate a couple of spots in our mind in exhibition, so this is totally different than that.

Q: On if he has any concerns:
A: No, not really. You just hope you stay healthy through most of it. We need to get Craig back, because he's one of the guys we need to look at. I don't have any overall concerns right now. We'll see how that is as time goes on.

Q: On working with new assistant coaches Ed Pinckney, J.B. Bickerstaff and Jerry Sichting:
A: Those guys have been great. They've really bonded with our guys; our guys seem to have a good report with them, and it's worked really good. I'm very, very pleased with that.