Larry Brown Team Quotations

Right now, you're looking for guys that you want to keep. Because this is the most difficult part of a season for a team that is not going anywhere, and you can really tell who cares in situations like this.

Teams have won with young players playing key roles. A lot of teams draft based on potential, but we have guys here who have played in college for a while. They will respect the minutes they get, not expect them, and they will be given every opportunity to play.

I told him I wanted him to listen. I told him I appreciated the way he cheered for his teammates at the end of (Wednesday's) game. It meant a lot. I was sorry that the crowd, some of the people booed him. And I told him I just wanted him to let us coach him the rest of the year. He's not going anywhere, and let's move on.

If I thought we were disorganized, I would have called time. Jamal just made a great play ... I'm happy for the team they can go home and relax and be energized. In that locker room, they needed something positive to happen.

It's important both teams get better. If you look at what Boston meant to our league, every game they played was a huge rivalry.

Look, I've been coaching how many years? A long time. I never left a team in worse shape than I got it. Not once. Think about that. Think about me and think about the guy who's talking.

We tried to score too fast. Against an athletic team like them, that's tough. I thought we had advantages if we could go inside, but we just got caught up playing their tempo.

It feels good. I always feel good after a team tries hard,

I hadn't had too many guys that didn't realize you're trying to help them and make them better. You want to be fair. I've never seen a happy team losing. If you're happy and enjoying it you should be doing something else.

We were reluctant to (go). We went out, watched it and it did bring us together. (The team in the movie) didn't do well at the beginning, but after hard work and discipline, they decided to come together. That's exactly what happened for us.

What team wouldn't want to take advantage of a player like that?

What's the criteria? Make your team better. Then look at the record, the people around them and then make a decision.

We have to figure out how we defend. It doesn't matter if you have five bad defenders, as a team you can accomplish a lot. That's where we have to get a whole lot better.

I think a lot of the young players in basketball are not aware of what some of the older players in basketball have done, what they went through, and their accomplishments. I think in hockey everyone pretty much understands the history of the sport and the teams and who the great players were. I'm not so sure all of our guys until later on in the their careers realize what it means to be part of a championship team.

I'm happy for the team that they can go home and enjoy this game and be energized. For me, I'm going to try to find ways to coach better and help these guys. I can feel better because these guys needed something positive.

I think everybody on this team cares deeply about him. We've got to just be supportive.

I think if you look at the M.O. of this team all year, we have had trouble making stops. We have turned the ball over, we lead the league in turnovers, points of turnovers, and assist-to-turnovers. I keep telling them if you want to play playoff basketball, you've got to take care of the ball and execute. We don't get it and we have to keep working on it.

I think he's got to make up his mind to continue to improve. We've got to make our teammates better ... I'm confident he'll understand that. But it can't be on one guy. We have a lot of guys that have got to step up. But believe me, this isn't going to be the same team.

This is a team game. I want guys who play hard, try to defend, share the ball and make their teammates better.

I don't tune them out at all. I hear it all. I'm embarrassed. I know how much they love basketball and love this team and want us to do well. And when we play poorly, I hear it, and it kills me because I'm responsible.

Our first team didn't shoot all that well. The Magic had 14 steals to our zero. To me, by accident, you can get a steal. That makes me think we weren't aggressive defensively.

I hope I can make a difference. I'm going to try my hardest to make this franchise proud of the team we put out there.

I hope he wants what I want. I hope he wants to win games, make his teammates better. That's the only thing that really matters. I heard he wants to play like Allen. I heard he wants us to play like Phoenix. I don't get caught up in that. I thought he was playing great and if he plays like he played before he got hurt we'll win games next year.

Story of our season. When teams make a run at us, it's very hard to find the competitive spirit you need to get back in games.

They just came out with a lot more passion than we did. They outplayed us and were extremely physical. They're an amazing team and played well.

(Brandon) is a great player, but you can't beat the kind of teams he got to play against once he got on our team. And that's definitely appealing to Division I coaches. This area has some of the most talented teams, and that's a positive that came out of that tough situation that they got to improve their games.

Never asked anything of my players any different than I'm doing right now. Think about that. So the bottom line is, I want us to rebound, defend, share the ball, play hard. That's all. If you can't do that, if that's not important enough to you, it's not on me. You owe it to your teammates to do that every single night if you care about the right things.

Obviously, without Eddy we don't have a post presence. We have to do it on the perimeter a bit. But you know we're trying to get to the rim . . . The whole thing in this league is that when you have a low-post presence, you can create double teams to open up outside shots. If you have a perimeter presence that can penetrate and kick, it's the same situation. It would be nice to have both.

Matter of fact, I spoke to him today and he wanted me to write down what kind of makeup of the team we would like - what kind of guards, forwards and centers.

I looked out on the court, we had our summer team out there to beat a pretty good team. You know we are playing a playoff team and competing, and it was really fun to watch.

We have a different team now. I think the young kids have gotten better.

We had a lot of guys contribute. To win one on the road against a pretty good team is a good feeling. ... People don't win in this building much, so it feels good.

The way we want to coach and play . . . he exemplifies all of those things. I thought with this young team he was vital for us because he's the most mature and the most experienced and really a true professional. I felt it would really help the young guys.

The way we want to coach and play . . . he exemplifies all of those things, ... I thought with this young team he was vital for us because he's the most mature and the most experienced and really a true professional. I felt it would really help the young guys.

He's a Chicago kid. That team had a great future. I don't know if it's ever easy being traded. My hope is that this is a good situation for him.

I'm just proud of them because that's a quality team and we managed to survive, and then we figured out a way to win.

You've got to be smart and your team has got to talk and you've got to adjust. We can make excuses about that but we have not improved that area. We have not kept people in front of us very well. It's something we've just got to keep working on and working on, because if we don't, you'll never be able to guard in this league.

If you don't really play hard, you have no chance. Can we be the kind of defensive team San Antonio or Detroit are? No. I don't think we have the personnel. Can we be a good defensive team? Yes. I really believe we've lacked the commitment in terms of effort and the toughness in terms of having a mind-set and a trust.

I thought with this young team he was vital for us, ... I wouldn't have enjoyed watching him play handicapped as he is.

You don't have players on the team that can't play a style that's comfortable for the coach. Isiah and I understand that. He knows the guys I like in the league. It's not easy to make trades. My job is to find out what these guys can do and if they can do the things we think will help us be a good team for the long run.

He's the most improved player I think I've ever coached, and he's as good a kid as I've ever been around. He does things for our team to please me to a fault, but you get enough like that and we'll have some people cheering for us.

As I told the team, maybe we'll walk the ball up the rest of the year and call a play every time, so the other team can't score 120 points and shoot 57%.

When I was a kid, they had six hockey teams, they had eight to 10 basketball teams. The teams played each other once, twice a week. Maybe we should stack (the schedule) a little in terms of conference games.

I'm sure I've been 0-3 a lot, ... And most of my teams have struggled early.

I'd have trouble coming up with a starting team some games. Where are you going to get your offense?

We can talk all we want, but if the team is shooting 65% and we're turning the ball over and we get in early foul trouble you can't make it a high-possession game. The second half, we didn't make it a high-possession game. We don't have the interior defense right now if we do get beat. We can't play like them.

You gotta understand what I?m about, ... This is a team sport.

Everyone on your team has to have the mindset that they want to guard. You're never going to be successful unless everyone has the mindset. Everyone has to have the mindset that you have to play hard and execute.

Hopefully, he'll be all right. If not will have a little more pressure on him, and Jamal will have to play. It's hard for him right now. He doesn't know any plays. Not that we ran any the first half. But Arenas was phenomenal, getting 46 points in 30 minutes. What's indicative of our team is Malik was the leading assist guy with three. We had 28 turnovers.