Wittman Conference Call 10-4

In today's catch-up with Coach Wittman, we learn how Craig Smith and Rashad McCants are progressing, if the team is ready to play against different jerseys and the intensity level throughout camp.

Q: On if Craig Smith did anything more in practice:
A: He did nothing with contact. He did all our shooting drills, dummy drills, things that didn't have any five-on-five or three-on-three, or any action of that nature. He was a little sore tonight so we didn't want him to do anything. Like I said, this has become a situation where we want to make sure that we don't make this a chronic thing with him.

Q: On if Smith will be able to play in London:
A: Hopefully. I don't know if he will play (against Boston) in London, but I think maybe he'll be able to do some five-on-five stuff. So if he continues the way he's going I would foresee that.

Q: On the differences between Smith and Chris Richard:
A: Totally different players. Craig is a more skilled player offensively. He's got more swagger to his offensive game. Chris is more of a banger, a guy that's going to get to where he wants to get if he has to run through a wall. Craig can beat you and deceive you with moves and different things. That's the main difference. Craig can put the ball on the floor I think a little bit better right now than Chris, but Chris takes up space and from a defensive standpoint has been really good.

Q: On how Rashad McCants is looking:
A: He practiced the majority of this morning. This evening he did about a quarter and then sat out the rest when he became sore again. Again, his hamstring, we don't want to turn it into anything more than what it is

Q: On if McCants will he play Saturday:
A: I don't know; it's hard to say right now. We'll see where we are tomorrow. We've got just one practice tomorrow. We'll see how he responds. Obviously if he is as sore as he was today then I would say no. It doesn't make any sense for us to go out and have him do anything that's really going to set him back

Q: On if coach Wittman is ready to play a game against the Turkish squad (tomorrow):
A: It's not so much I'm ready, but I'm sure they're ready. They're probably tired of hearing me and probably tired of hearing each other. In practicing against each other they've really gone after each other really good. Like we said before camp, we're really going to be competitive and there's a battle at each spot. So I'm sure they're tired of seeing each other too. Seeing somebody new, especially coming out of training camp, is always a pleasant thing as a player.

Q: On if he's happy with the intensity level:
A: No question. The level of intensity I don't think could be any higher. I'm very pleased with that. We'll see how we take that over into exhibition. Usually the first couple games are a foul fest because you've been so aggressive against each other. You make those adjustments as time moves on.

Q: On how defense is always ahead of offense at this stage in training camp:
A: It always is. We've kind of taken our time from an offensive standpoint because everything is new. The last thing you want to do in this kind of setting is overload our people, especially with as many young guys as we've got. Like I said before, it's different is you have a veteran group and a coach that's been there and they know the different things you're going to run and are acquainted with it. So we've really gone slowly from an offensive standpoint. We'll pick things up as we get back from London.

Q: On Randy Foye being more familiar with the offense as a result of the summer league and offseason workouts:
A: Yeah, no question. What we ran in summer league is the stuff we are running here. Those guys, Randy, Rashad, Craig, even though he hasn't been able to do anything, Corey (Brewer) and Chris are familiar with it. They probably have a little bit of a leg up.

Q: On where Gerald Green might play this year:
A: He's going to play the two and the three. We've really got a number of guys in Ricky (Davis), Rashad, Corey and Gerald whom I don't want to limit. The more versatile you can be, the more chance you have to play. So that's what I've told all these guys. Randy can go one-two. Sebastian (Telfair) probably being the only guy that I want at just the one spot. Marko can go one-two and all those other guys can go two-three. I'm not labeling any of these guys as just the three or two.

Q: On if the team is as interchangeable and flexible as he'd like:
A: Yeah. There are many different combinations we can put on the floor depending on where we are in the game. Two minutes to go but behind we've got a chance to put a pretty good long and quick team on the floor. We're going to have three or four different lineups depending on where we are in the game because of our flexibility.

Q: On if there is anyone who stands out in terms of conditioning:
A: I couldn't pick one guy out. I haven't been disappointed with where we are with anyone. There hasn't been one guy who has really stood out over another.