Past 2 years difficult. Optimism for this season? What precise things will make this season better? Silas: I’m super excited about this season. Excited we have a group I’ve been with for awhile and has more experience. Excited about the work they’ve put in the summer. Whole team here working on their game/bodies. Excited about the young guys we picked up. What will be better? Been studying a lot, talking to a lot of people, evaluating our players. Main thing is we’ll be super hard to play against. Use our quickness and athleticism on both ends. How do you define/measure success? Rafael: He just answered it. If we’re a hard team to play against on both ends of the court. That’s the step forward we’re looking for. … We know enough that we’ll be able to measure are we hard to play against? That’s the measure of success. Steve: To piggyback, level of improvement. The team we see next Sunday against SA will be different from the team post all-star break. There has to be steady improvement as the season goes along.
SS: Talking to Jalen, “are we still doing the same stuff at the end of last year?” Yes, we are. We can go quicker this year, tinker with things we did last year. Last year, we didn’t know what we were getting. This year, we have a much better feel. Is everyone healthy? RS: Marquese Chriss is not but everyone else is. What can you do with Jalen this year that you couldn’t last year? SS: Out in transition, playing downhill, helping him make quicker decisions with better spacing. We’re gonna need room for these guys to play. Buy in on the defensive end will be big for him. We weren’t as good as I wanted to be defensively last year.
Where do things stand with Kevin Porter Jr. and possible extension? RS: We don’t talk about negotiations. Summer, he’s had an amazing summer. Really just happy for him. I know we talked in exit meetings about the summer he wanted to have and he had it. Most consistent guy in getting in the gym. Built really good habits and seems like he’s in a happy place. He’s had a really good summer. Excited to see how it takes him through camp and the season. Stephen, fill in the blank. This year the Houston Rockets will be _______. SS: Can I say hard to play against? It’s not gonna be an easy night playing against the Rockets. We’ll be super hard to play against on both ends of the floor.
Feigen ruins the whole day by asking a non native speaker to explain why he has a chip on his shoulder "Why you ask this I have not eaten chip today"
