Notes and quotes from Mike Brown and Kevon Looney interviews from morning shootaround, plus yesterday’s media availability from Brown and Taylor Jenkins, below the embedded video.👇 The Memphis Grizzlies did not have morning shootaround today; I’m told they arrived in San Francisco during the early evening and Jenkins did his Zoom call from the team hotel (St. Regis).
DISCLAIMER: These are all just notes for my main workflow of YouTube videos, tweeted by beatwriters. I used to transcribe every interview but it became too tedious and not worth the investment for the small amount of views we got on the soundbites on YouTube. The links to the tweets are not available because sometimes I don’t use the full tweet and just having a ton of tweets on this website imo isn’t aesthetically pleasing and gets away from the main goal: transferring information (not so much entertainment) asap.
BROWN & JENKINS ZOOM CALLS
• Warriors said that Andre Iguodala will be reevaluated in another week, but said “he’s making progress.” (Mark Medina)
• Warriors say that Mike Brown plans to be the acting head coach until told otherwise. They don’t plan on having any daily updates. (Medina)
• Mike Brown: “Draymond Green has got to continue to be aggressive. If Steven Adams is going to back off him, he’s got to let it fly.” (Dalton Johnson)
• “Their length is second to none in the league… When Ja was playing he was a heavy focus on what they did offensively.” (Kylen Mills)
• “The smallball lineup has done well for us. It’s something that we won’t hesitate to use.” (Dickinson)
• Taylor Jenkins: “Yeah, I always talk about his spirit. You know, obviously it’s been disappointing news not being able to have him the last couple of games, but he has great spirit with his teammates in the locker room, the voice even at halftime, before the game and after the game is being felt and heard, talking about things, adjustments, bouncing ideas off with his teammates in-game has been phenomenal. He’s been doing that all season long, whether he’s been active or inactive. But then, the energy that you see on the bench, I mean, he’s the biggest supporter of his teammates. That’s the spirit that we have on our team. It doesn’t matter who’s on the floor and who’s giving it their all and being successful out there. We’re all going to support each other, and he’s been the first one to stand up and cheer for his teammates and it’s very infectious. We had great energy last night. We’re going to need him down the road and I know he’s going to be a big leader for that.” (NBCSBA)
BROWN MORNING SHOOTAROUND
• Mike Brown isn’t sure if Otto Porter Jr. can play tonight. “We’ll see how he feels. It’s one of those things where it’s wait and see.” Porter “went through some stuff” (some agility work and shooting, court work, tested out his sore foot) at Warriors shootaround for Otto and the Warriors’ medical staff. (John Dickinson, Dalton Johnson, Kendra Andrews, Anthony Slater, CJ Holmes)
• “I’m going to keep coaching til they tell me not to. We’re in constant communication (with Steve Kerr),” isn’t sure how much longer Steve Kerr will be out. (Janie McCauley, Connor Letourneau)
• Brown said three of the Warriors’ priorities tonight. Win the possession game defensively, cut down turnovers and have a greater awareness of Desmond Bane after he got loose in Game 5. Rebounding is also up there thanks to Steven Adams’ presence last 2 games. (Evan Barnes)
• On playoff adversity: “We know that to get this point of the season, it’s hard. We expect it to be hard. The only thing you can do is attack it head on.” (Dickinson)
LOONEY MORNING SHOOTAROUND
• Kevon Looney on Steven Adams: “We just gotta be physical with him and play with more force. … He’s been doing a great job this series. We gotta make adjustments.” (Dickinson)
• On sharing the floor with Draymond Green: “I think it’s gonna help us on the glass if we do turn to that lineup.” (Johnson)
• On Kerr: “Definitely miss his presence on the court and in the locker room, but he did a great job of establishing the culture.” (Dickinson)
• On the Game 5 loss: “It’s not the end of the world. … We’re excited to get back there on the court. After losing like that, you wanna go out there and prove yourself.” (Dickinson)
• On Otto Porter Jr.’s status for Game 6 being up in the air: “We live by that strength in numbers.” Talked about how huge Porter has been in the playoffs, but it has to be a “next man up” mentality if OPJ can’t go. (Johnson)
👍👍💛💙