Milwaukee Bucks: Media Day Roundup 2016-17
By Adam McGee
Jason Kidd
On coping with Khris Middleton’s injury:
"“I think we all understand it’s a freak accident. As Wes just talked about, it’s sport. We all would love to stay healthy and make every shot but that’s part of the game. We have 15 guys, we gotta keep moving forward. We feel confident that we can still compete, and we are going to compete. The schedule’s out and the next man’s got to step up, and as a team we all have to step up.”"
On his biggest disappointment last season:
"“I think looking back, our defense, we took a couple of steps backwards. We felt that’s what we laid our hat on each night, it was playing defense and using our length, and as a coach I’ve got to do a better job of reminding them that we’ve got to get some more deflections and steals and rebound the ball. But I think it was a big positive because we didn’t have any veterans. You know, we were a young team and we went through it together, understanding that it’s hard to win.”"
On aiming for the Playoffs.
"“That’s the goal no matter if we’ve 15 rookies or we’re the oldest team in the league. As a professional, that’s the bar. If you want to be an elite team in this league, that’s what you work for and hopefully one of these years that you make it to the playoffs, the ball bounces your way and you win a championship.”"
On the East:
"“There’s only one team I’ve looked at and that’s Cleveland. LeBron is still in the East, they’re the team to beat. Everybody else I haven’t paid attention to because we’ve got to be worried about ourselves. And that’s the way I’ve always approached it as a player, and now as a coach. If you take care of your business and don’t be worrying about anyone else’s you’ve got a better chance of surviving.”"
On advising Giannis:
"“Being able to understand the game, the time and score. I think John can probably talk about this, but when they first saw him he might have been playing the point guard position and trying to make plays. He’s a very unselfish player. We gave him the ball when we first got here and things didn’t go well, but it just showed that the next time we gave him the ball; his growth. He just accepted it. He didn’t put any pressure on himself, he just went out there and was himself. I think the game’s starting to slow down for him. He’s starting to recognize what he can do on a nightly basis.”"
On how he’ll split bench and starting units:
"“We’ll probably look at a lot of things here in training camp, and we’ll probably start off with looking at the second half of the season, looking at Michael [Carter-Williams] and Greg [Monroe] coming off the bench, but we won’t make that decision until later in the week. We’ll go through training camp, we’ll have them start, come off the bench, we’re going to look at a lot of combinations but I think we like the way that it ended last year with Miles [Plumlee] starting. It gave us a lot of firepower off the bench and it made us deeper. We’ll look at all the options but starting tomorrow, we just want to keep everyone healthy, we know they’ll be winded as it’s a long day but we’re going to look at Miles with that starting group. Tomorrow, we’re going to look at Miles and Vaughn in that first group.”"