Rick Aldeman
[Talk on his summer]
Grant: There has been a lot going on this summer, do you approach this camp the same way as in the past or do you try different things?
RA: Well I think you have to be aware of things that have happen, been said and everything else. But the biggest thing is that guys come out on the floor together and that they're ready to go, and I think that's going to be true. I don't know how its all going to play out. But I think its important, we've had a great situation the last four years. We still have a real nice core group. We still have to find out what Greg gives us that Vlade didn't give us, and if he can help us. Brad's going to step in and play well I believe that, but nothings ever easy. I think once you reach a certain level in any sport, its one thing to get there and its another thing to stay there, and we've been able to stay there for four years and that's a challenge for this group. They've always responded, we've always found a way, and maybe that's sometimes...you loose something and you don't know how good it was and that's why I am going to try to part them that we've still got a chance to be pretty good here, its really what you want to make of it. Nothing is more important to us than winning and losing as a team. I talked to Peja and I think he's going to be ready to practice tomorrow and that's all I care about right now.
Lam: How much of your job is group dynamics and making sure everyone gets along?
RA: I think we've been very fortunate with the group that we've had here and they have gotten along extremely well and genuinely liked each other. The chemistry's been a big thing. I've said before, well we've haven't got past the Lakers and they had very little chemistry, so maybe we need controversy on this team, I don't know. I really think it comes down to, these guys are going to have to work hard at it. We lost Vlade, he was a real glue for us. These guys are going to have to reach out to the young guys. How far do they want to go, what do they want to happen to this team? If you want this team to splinter, you can do that. I've talked to Chris about it, I'm going to continue to talk to him and talk to each player individually, you know, what can they do. Not everybody reacts to, where you get in their face, some guys react better if you pat them on the back some guys are different. But you have to each others back. These guys have always felt that someone has their back all the time, and that's why we've won when people have gone out with injuries. I expect, with the core group we have, for them to come together. Because we better, with the way we start the season with the 3 Texas games and we've got to be ready to go.
Lam: Great coaches always do what you said...how different is it dealing with a BJ as opposed to a Peja , Mike Bibby opposed to Brad Miller?
RA: They're completly different. Bobby's a hard it and he knows it. I deal with Bobby Jackson by just talking to him and really we have a good time going back and forth with each other. I told him the other say when he didn't work out, it was a nice peaceful work out, there was no one bitching about the officials. He said you know who I am, and I said yeah I know who you are. I think you have to get a real sense of what pushes each guys buttons and you got to keep talking to them individually as much as you can. I think that's going to be even more important if you do have a little bit of controversy. That's why I want them to understand how good they have it. They have a chance to be a very good team again and if they lose sight of that, its going to be gone and they'll wonder what happened. So I really got to make them aware that they have a great opportunity to succeed, and I'm going to let it slip away. I'm going to make sure they still have every opportunity and that's the attitude that they have to have.
Grant: How anxious are you to see Chris Webber practice tomorrow and are you approaching this preseason differently because of the travel?
RA: Yes, I'm anxious to see how Chris plays. I just talked to him about you know…Chris always wants to play and sometimes I don't think its in his best interest to play 40 min a game. I don't think that's true for our whole team. I don't think its in Doug's best interest to play that much, Peja's. We should have enough people to play instead of them. The biggest thing I want to see…I think the China week, you through out the window and then the first 3 days back you through them out the window. After the Fresno game the you start back in again. The biggest thing I'm telling this team, the next 8 days are crucial for us. We have to find out about these young guys, what we are going to do with the team. We're not easing into this, we got to be ready to go. I am going to coach it a bit differently. One of the things I really want to do is I want to is with Bobby, Daruis and Greg, and if Doug's back, I want to put a 5 guys on the court as a second group to see if I can't fin a group that night and night can give us energy and can play well together and that can come at the other team a little differently than our starters. I think we have some young guys who can play and adding Greg and having Bobby back-and Bobby looks great-and having Darius another year, I think we can find a second group that can do that for us. I want to see that happen in exhibition season.
Lam: You're looking for a change up pitch…
RA: Well the starters generally get in playing the same way. And sometimes you get lock in to what you want to run as a team, its great for the starters, but maybe the second group doesn't have Brad and Webb on the court, so those big guys do something different for you. We can still run the same stuff but you but the emphasis of loading a Bobby Jackson up, you put the emphasis of doing things out of our offense that maybe the starters don't do. I really believe with young guys, they're obedient, they'll do things that maybe the young guys won't do and we've got to find a way to see if we can make that happen.
Lam: You said something about Chris, that he would go 40 min every night if he could, do you have to protect players from themselves because they do want to go at it every time?
Grant: I think that over a long season especially. I think the biggest thing we want to do, we want to set ourselves up over 82 games being the best spot possible and the end of the year but we want to be ready. I thought because of injuries last year, I though Doug especially wore down because Bobby got hurt, we didn't have him the last 30 games, I thin Peja got wore down. I think people always say you shouldn't have done that you shouldn't have done this, but honestly, the only guy I had to play behind Mike and Peja was Doug. Because Gerald was hurt a lot of the time. But I think we got some young guys, you put them on the court and get the some time, they're going to surprise some people. So, I'm trying to protect those guys a little bit more, I want to see us fresh. If we get injuries, I don't know how deep we are, because we don't have a lot of centers depth, but we'll see. I mean I like this group coming in, its kind of interesting to me, it give challenges to me and the coaching staff, it's a different team yet at the same time I feel really good about that core team coming back that we know a lot about.
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Return of the "Bench Mob" ?
