Glenn
02-02-2008, 11:53 AM
Taking the Temperature
Joe D checks in as season nears 50-game mark with a Pistons status report
:langlois:
by Keith Langlois
Pistons president Joe Dumars sat down with Pistons.com editor Keith Langlois on Friday for a wide-ranging interview that touched on the All-Star selection of Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, the state of the Pistons just past the season’s halfway point and the outlook for the season ahead as the playoffs approach.
LANGLOIS: As the guy who brought Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton to town and now sees them selected in tandem for the third straight All-Star game, talk about their continued evolution as players. In many respects, you could make the case they’re both having their best years when you look at their efficiency and shooting percentages.
DUMARS: They are All-Stars this year in a different way than they’ve been in years past. We asked them to come back this year and to do something different than they’ve done the previous two years. We’ve asked them to play less minutes. We’ve asked them to be more efficient. We’ve asked them to not only mentor young guys at their positions, we’ve asked them to embrace these young guys. That’s a lot to ask of a backcourt. And for them to take that on and for us to still have an elite record and them be recognized as All-Stars probably makes it their most impressive year. In years past, we didn’t ask them to play less minutes. We didn’t ask them to be more efficient. We didn’t have any young backcourt they had to mentor and embrace. They just went out and played and it was all about them and doing their thing. So under that scenario, it’s probably the most impressive run for them in terms of making the All-Star team.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Watching your game at Indiana the other night, the thought was reinforced for me that when you play a game at that pace and score 110 points, everybody’s numbers are inflated. Because of the nature of your team – where five starters are all capable of leading the team in scoring on a given night – and because the Pistons play a more deliberate, grinding pace, individual stats aren’t going to be conducive to getting a lot of individual recognition. Has that hurt players like Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince?
DUMARS: I think a couple of different things. A few years ago when we had four All-Stars we played at a much slower pace then. For us to have multiple All-Stars beyond Chauncey and Rip, we almost have to have the best record in the league and it has to be phenomenal. Because we promote team so much, we don’t get into promoting individuals. If we don’t have the best record and we’re not playing like Phoenix, I can see how we would have only two. When we had four All-Stars, we weren’t playing as fast then as we do now. But we had this ungodly record at the time, so we had to be recognized for that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: A few weeks ago you won at San Antonio on the Thursday night TNT telecast and Rasheed was extremely active and had a big game against Duncan. Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith both said he was one of the top two or three talents in the league when he played that way. Again the other night at Indiana, you could see from Rasheed’s body language that he knew he could dominate against Jeff Foster, Troy Murphy and David Harrison. His 3-point shooting is a weapon and there’s a fine line to walk, but would you – as many outsiders also say – like to see him spend more time posting up and less on the perimeter?
DUMARS: I would love to see him on the low block more than he is. I also know you have to allow him to pick and pop and shoot the long ball as well. I’ve always said for every four possessions, I’d love to see him on that block three times and shooting that 3 once. I’d love for it to be a 3:1 ratio with him. On the nights that it is – the San Antonio and Indiana nights – you see how good we can be. You see how good he is. So that’s always a constant battle, to have him on that low block three times as much as he’s on that 3-point line. But when you have a Rasheed Wallace, you take all of it. You can’t cherry-pick just the part that you like. Sometimes you live with what comes with it and know and trust that he’ll be there for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Let me ask a layman’s question then. Wouldn’t it be as simple as to call more plays that call for him to start off in the post?
DUMARS: Yeah, absolutely. But there are ways not to shoot that ball in the post even when it’s called for you. You can end up drifting out a little bit further and facing up and shooting an 18-foot jump shot. On those nights like San Antonio and Indiana when you see he’s committed to being on that low post, you know he’s committed to it. And sometimes we’ll call the same plays and that might turn into an 18-foot jump shot. It’s just a matter of commitment to staying there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: I get that question a lot, too, and my answer comes back to the tremendous physical price you pay to make yourself a low-post option. And now that you’re also asking him to defend the low post more than ever, that’s putting a lot of burden on a 33-year-old body. Is that valid?
DUMARS: Right. And think about this, too. Think about Tim Duncan. You think about him as a great low-post scorer, right? But how often do you see him step out, turn, face from 15 feet and shoot the bank shot off the glass? That’s what he’s known for. That’s his signature shot. You have to get off that post sometimes. You have to give that guy a different look. You have to relieve your body of the pounding sometimes. So it’s not like we don’t ever want him to get off that box. We want to take advantage of the fact he’s a 7-foot guy who can drain 3s. That’s a weapon. You don’t want to lose that. You just want the right balance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Almost 50 games into the season now. That’s a pretty good measuring stick. What’s your general assessment of where your team is at this stage of the season?
DUMARS: One of the things I like is that we have one of the top two or three records in the NBA and we’re not focused on having one of the top two or three records in the NBA. It’s a function of how we’re playing, the guys we’re playing, incorporating younger guys, cutting the minutes of the starters and still being in that position. When you sit there and say that in the summer, it’s what you envision. To see it play out like that after almost 50 games, you say to yourself, Yes, that’s what I was talking about. We can still be elite. We can still be a contender. We can still be one of the one or two teams that has a chance to play in the NBA Finals from the East and do it this way. We don’t have to go with 40 minutes a night from the starters, dragging, lethargic play, just living and dying with your veteran guys. There’s more than one way to success. I’m happy with the fact the minutes of the starters have been cut. I’m happy with the fact these young guys are really, really starting to come on. And so from that standpoint, I’m really happy with where we’re at right now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: At the end of last season you talked about the complacency and laid down the law that that was going to change. Are you satisfied that everybody has lived up to the spirit of that?
DUMARS: Yes, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve had brief conversations with some of the veteran guys on the team about that. I think they realize that me saying that is not for my good, it’s for the good of this team. They understand that. I think also, if I’m going to say that, then it’s my job that we have enough people here not to have to live with complacency. It’s one thing to say that – OK, now put your team in position where you don’t have to live with it. That’s why I’ve been so adamant about these young guys. That’s one of the key ways you get away from complacency. Look at the minutes last night. Look at the minutes in Indiana. It’s 32, 33 minutes basically for the starters. Rip played 38 at Indiana, I think Prince played 38 last night. That’s one guy in each game. Last year that’s 37 minimum for every guy and you’re lethargic and you might grind it out, you might not. Both games, I’m telling you, we don’t win at Indiana and we don’t win against the Lakers without those young guys, without that energy, enthusiasm and effort they brought. There’s no question in my mind we lose both of those games without them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Talk about the bench in general. It’s still a little bit of a work in progress, but talk about where you see them at right now and where you think they’ll be by the time you get to the playoffs.
DUMARS: I think the bench will only get better and here’s why. Not only are they trying to come together as a bench, as a unit, but three of them are trying to learn the league at the same time. You say Amir Johnson is in his third year, but this is his first year playing. It’s Stuckey’s first year. It’s Afflalo’s first year. So not only are they trying to come together as a unit, they’re trying to learn the league as they go. Rodney Stuckey is on the floor last night and he’s guarding Derek Fisher – he’s never played against Derek Fisher in his life. What we’re asking those guys to do, we’re asking them to contribute, we’re asking them to bring energy, we’re asking them to go in the game and make a difference, we’re asking them to play as a unit … we’re asking them to do all this and say, But I know you’ve never played in the NBA before. It’s a lot we’re asking those guys, so it’s not always going to be pretty. Arron Afflalo and I were talking about that yesterday. He said, “I think I’m going to be so much better defensively next year, because I’ll know the guys.” It’s new. That’s a lot we’re asking those young guys to do given the fact they don’t really know the league.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: When you look at that entire five-man second unit now – Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell, Stuckey and Afflalo – the real veteran of the group is Jarvis Hayes and he’s only 26. If there’s one guy you’re going to look to be a consistent scorer off the bench, it’s him. And he’s been a little bit in and out. Is that a concern or is he, too, sort of finding his niche with this team?
DUMARS: That’s the nature of a gunslinger and we acquired him and put him in the role of a gunslinger. You come off and you look for shots because that’s how you’re going to make a difference for us. You’ve got to come in and look for shots. If you go back into the history of the league, good teams have always had guys who come off and – boom! – whether it’s Brent Barry or Eddie House in Boston now or Barbosa or Vinnie Johnson back when we played, good teams always have those type of guys. We had Jon Barry here. And they’re not going to always be on. They’re going to go through spurts where they’re great for 10 games and then go through spurts where they can’t hit shots. When you put a guy into that role, you have to accept as a team what you’re asking from that guy is high-risk, high-reward. He had a stretch where he couldn’t miss. Now he has a stretch where it’s hit and miss a little bit. I accept that from that particular position. Gunslingers, they’re hit and miss.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: The one common denominator with the guys you mention is they have short memories and boundless confidence. They always think the next shot is going in. Do you get that sort of sense from Jarvis?
DUMARS: Yes – and I’ve spent a lot of time talking to him about that, too. Don’t become self-conscious if you miss two or three shots. Be unconscious. You have to be unconscious out there about what you’re doing. The first half of the Laker game last night, I leaned over to (vice president) John (Hammond) and told him, man, these young guys, they were on the verge of opening it up, but they were playing so fast and so hyper, they made turnovers, and I said, That’s the fine line you live with. You tell them, I want you to go full blast, high energy, reckless abandon, well, you can’t really complain if they make a couple of turnovers. Amir Johnson comes in and makes a couple of turnovers right away. Don’t get down. We’ve asked him to play like that. And so you have to accept that part of it. That’s like Phoenix. They accept turnovers because that’s the style they play. With these guys off the bench, you have to accept mistakes and turnovers sometimes. Because we’re asking them to play at a pace that we’re not asking the starters to play at.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: I did notice with Amir last night, after making those two quick turnovers, he did not go into a shell. He stayed as frantically active as always.
DUMARS: I think one of the best things Amir Johnson has going for him is he’s not self-conscious about anything out there. He just plays. He just plays the game. He doesn’t overthink the game. He reacts to what’s happening on the court. And for a young guy like that, that’s the best thing he can do. He’s not trying to analyze every play, figure out what angle to take. He reacts to what happens. If it calls for him to block a shot, he blocks it. If it calls for him to jump higher than everybody to get a rebound, he does it. If it calls for him to outrun everybody, he does it. He’s going to have time to learn the nuances of the game, but for the time being we need him to play with that reckless abandon you’re seeing him play with.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Stuckey, the last couple of games especially, looks like he’s getting closer to the player you were pretty sure you had coming out of the preseason before he broke his hand. It doesn’t look like he’s fighting himself the last few games.
DUMARS: No question. You can see it. I go back to the last preseason game before he got hurt. The light had turned on. From the time training camp started until that last preseason game was about a month. How long has he been back now? Just a little over a month. It’s the same thing. That’s what that two months did. It kind of set him back almost to the beginning. That’s why I have no doubt that he’ll get it. You can’t teach what he does. What he does instinctively, you can’t teach that. That’s a special gift that few guys have, to get to that basket the way he does. Yeah, I think he’s going to get it and I think he has a chance to be a key contributor for us over the second half of the season.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: The first two big guys off your bench now are Maxiell and Johnson, two very young guys who are a part of the rotation really for the first time this season. Would you be comfortable going into the playoffs with two such inexperienced players in such key roles?
DUMARS: Absolutely. When you get to the playoffs, if you can recall over the last couple of years, the team with the most energy won. The team that had the fresh legs. The team that had the higher intensity won. The team that was able to sustain that. We weren’t able to sustain it. Not against Miami a couple of years ago and not against Cleveland last year. LeBron was brilliant last year, but young Daniel Gibson broke our backs. Fresh legs, wasn’t afraid, no pressure on him. Come off the bench, play off of the veterans. We haven’t had that. So you ask about Amir and Maxey? I love having those young legs, man. The team with the most energy, with the most juice left in them, has got a better chance of winning. I like the fact that those young guys, their energy is going to be off the charts come playoff time. They’ll be ready.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Maxiell was pretty much lights out in December. He hasn’t made as many of those eye-catching plays in January – the emphatic dunks, the spectacular blocks. Is it a function of him playing an expanded role for the first time, getting more minutes, hitting the wall, learning to adjust?
DUMARS: It’s all of those things – expanded role, more minutes, hitting the wall. It’s the dog days. I expect him shortly to bounce back. I fully expect him to come back from the All-Star break ready to play. Once he gets away for four or five days, gets his legs back under him, he’ll bounce back and you’ll see Maxey as we’ve seen him for the last two years here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Here’s another one I get asked a lot and I know you’ve been asked endlessly. Now that Chris Webber has signed with Golden State, did it ever come close to happening here?
DUMARS: It never changed. The Webber situation never changed. What I said to you never changed and what I said to Chris never changed. We have 15 guys. We’re not in a position today to just eat a contract to create a roster spot. If we could clear a roster spot, then we’d have something to talk about. And I said to Chris, I’m not going to tell you we have something here when we don’t. Chris and I had that conversation last Saturday. He called me. He said I’m kind of tired of waiting, I have a couple of other options, I think I might take one of those. I told him I completely understand. I couldn’t tell him to wait, wait, wait, wait. Unless I knew I had something going. That’s how it played out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Besides staying healthy, what would you most like to see play out over the next few months?
DUMARS: The continued development of this bench, of these young guys. We have a rock-solid starting lineup. Those guys are absolutely great. The difference for us is going to be the continued development of this new blood we have and how much experience they can gain from now until the playoffs start and how comfortable they are stepping on the floor and making plays. That’s what I’m interested in most from here until the end of the season and the time playoffs start.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Then I’m guessing the last 10 days have made you pretty happy with what you’ve seen from Stuckey, the steps Amir has taken and Afflalo, as well. He stroked a couple of 3s pretty confidently last night and didn’t back down an inch when you asked him to guard Kobe Bryant.
DUMARS: When you see that happening, rest assured that I’m happy. Like I said, the key for us is going to be how much we get from these new guys, these young, athletic, energetic guys. The better they perform, the better the chances are for our team.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: The trade deadline is about three weeks away. You have an unusually deep team right now. Are teams calling you and inquiring about the availability of guys who aren’t even dressing now who’ve been starters in the NBA?
DUMARS: Not yet. I fully expect those phone calls. People normally wait until a little closer to the deadline.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: So many teams in the East are a hot week away from making a move on the playoffs. But with so few of them having fallen out of contention, does it kind of freeze the market because nobody’s looking to dump players?
DUMARS: No, I think it might open up the market. That’s why you see a team like Charlotte sign Earl Boykins. Maybe he can make a difference. I think Charlotte might be only two or three games out of the eighth spot. They’re right there. It gets those other teams thinking, man, if we can add one more good piece, that might be the difference to us having that one hot week. I don’t think it will shut the door.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Because you have a lot invested in your bench and because that bench still has a lot of room to grow, you might not be looking for anything. Do you have any feel yet if you’ll be active at the deadline?
DUMARS: I will be open to be active. The sign in our window is open. I don’t think you can ever show up here with the sign in the window saying closed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: But you’ll at least feel like you’re dealing from a position of strength?
DUMARS: That’s what you want to deal from. You don’t want to feel like you’re compromised when you call people and I certainly don’t think we’ll feel compromised.
Joe D checks in as season nears 50-game mark with a Pistons status report
:langlois:
by Keith Langlois
Pistons president Joe Dumars sat down with Pistons.com editor Keith Langlois on Friday for a wide-ranging interview that touched on the All-Star selection of Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, the state of the Pistons just past the season’s halfway point and the outlook for the season ahead as the playoffs approach.
LANGLOIS: As the guy who brought Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton to town and now sees them selected in tandem for the third straight All-Star game, talk about their continued evolution as players. In many respects, you could make the case they’re both having their best years when you look at their efficiency and shooting percentages.
DUMARS: They are All-Stars this year in a different way than they’ve been in years past. We asked them to come back this year and to do something different than they’ve done the previous two years. We’ve asked them to play less minutes. We’ve asked them to be more efficient. We’ve asked them to not only mentor young guys at their positions, we’ve asked them to embrace these young guys. That’s a lot to ask of a backcourt. And for them to take that on and for us to still have an elite record and them be recognized as All-Stars probably makes it their most impressive year. In years past, we didn’t ask them to play less minutes. We didn’t ask them to be more efficient. We didn’t have any young backcourt they had to mentor and embrace. They just went out and played and it was all about them and doing their thing. So under that scenario, it’s probably the most impressive run for them in terms of making the All-Star team.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Watching your game at Indiana the other night, the thought was reinforced for me that when you play a game at that pace and score 110 points, everybody’s numbers are inflated. Because of the nature of your team – where five starters are all capable of leading the team in scoring on a given night – and because the Pistons play a more deliberate, grinding pace, individual stats aren’t going to be conducive to getting a lot of individual recognition. Has that hurt players like Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince?
DUMARS: I think a couple of different things. A few years ago when we had four All-Stars we played at a much slower pace then. For us to have multiple All-Stars beyond Chauncey and Rip, we almost have to have the best record in the league and it has to be phenomenal. Because we promote team so much, we don’t get into promoting individuals. If we don’t have the best record and we’re not playing like Phoenix, I can see how we would have only two. When we had four All-Stars, we weren’t playing as fast then as we do now. But we had this ungodly record at the time, so we had to be recognized for that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: A few weeks ago you won at San Antonio on the Thursday night TNT telecast and Rasheed was extremely active and had a big game against Duncan. Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith both said he was one of the top two or three talents in the league when he played that way. Again the other night at Indiana, you could see from Rasheed’s body language that he knew he could dominate against Jeff Foster, Troy Murphy and David Harrison. His 3-point shooting is a weapon and there’s a fine line to walk, but would you – as many outsiders also say – like to see him spend more time posting up and less on the perimeter?
DUMARS: I would love to see him on the low block more than he is. I also know you have to allow him to pick and pop and shoot the long ball as well. I’ve always said for every four possessions, I’d love to see him on that block three times and shooting that 3 once. I’d love for it to be a 3:1 ratio with him. On the nights that it is – the San Antonio and Indiana nights – you see how good we can be. You see how good he is. So that’s always a constant battle, to have him on that low block three times as much as he’s on that 3-point line. But when you have a Rasheed Wallace, you take all of it. You can’t cherry-pick just the part that you like. Sometimes you live with what comes with it and know and trust that he’ll be there for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Let me ask a layman’s question then. Wouldn’t it be as simple as to call more plays that call for him to start off in the post?
DUMARS: Yeah, absolutely. But there are ways not to shoot that ball in the post even when it’s called for you. You can end up drifting out a little bit further and facing up and shooting an 18-foot jump shot. On those nights like San Antonio and Indiana when you see he’s committed to being on that low post, you know he’s committed to it. And sometimes we’ll call the same plays and that might turn into an 18-foot jump shot. It’s just a matter of commitment to staying there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: I get that question a lot, too, and my answer comes back to the tremendous physical price you pay to make yourself a low-post option. And now that you’re also asking him to defend the low post more than ever, that’s putting a lot of burden on a 33-year-old body. Is that valid?
DUMARS: Right. And think about this, too. Think about Tim Duncan. You think about him as a great low-post scorer, right? But how often do you see him step out, turn, face from 15 feet and shoot the bank shot off the glass? That’s what he’s known for. That’s his signature shot. You have to get off that post sometimes. You have to give that guy a different look. You have to relieve your body of the pounding sometimes. So it’s not like we don’t ever want him to get off that box. We want to take advantage of the fact he’s a 7-foot guy who can drain 3s. That’s a weapon. You don’t want to lose that. You just want the right balance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Almost 50 games into the season now. That’s a pretty good measuring stick. What’s your general assessment of where your team is at this stage of the season?
DUMARS: One of the things I like is that we have one of the top two or three records in the NBA and we’re not focused on having one of the top two or three records in the NBA. It’s a function of how we’re playing, the guys we’re playing, incorporating younger guys, cutting the minutes of the starters and still being in that position. When you sit there and say that in the summer, it’s what you envision. To see it play out like that after almost 50 games, you say to yourself, Yes, that’s what I was talking about. We can still be elite. We can still be a contender. We can still be one of the one or two teams that has a chance to play in the NBA Finals from the East and do it this way. We don’t have to go with 40 minutes a night from the starters, dragging, lethargic play, just living and dying with your veteran guys. There’s more than one way to success. I’m happy with the fact the minutes of the starters have been cut. I’m happy with the fact these young guys are really, really starting to come on. And so from that standpoint, I’m really happy with where we’re at right now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: At the end of last season you talked about the complacency and laid down the law that that was going to change. Are you satisfied that everybody has lived up to the spirit of that?
DUMARS: Yes, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve had brief conversations with some of the veteran guys on the team about that. I think they realize that me saying that is not for my good, it’s for the good of this team. They understand that. I think also, if I’m going to say that, then it’s my job that we have enough people here not to have to live with complacency. It’s one thing to say that – OK, now put your team in position where you don’t have to live with it. That’s why I’ve been so adamant about these young guys. That’s one of the key ways you get away from complacency. Look at the minutes last night. Look at the minutes in Indiana. It’s 32, 33 minutes basically for the starters. Rip played 38 at Indiana, I think Prince played 38 last night. That’s one guy in each game. Last year that’s 37 minimum for every guy and you’re lethargic and you might grind it out, you might not. Both games, I’m telling you, we don’t win at Indiana and we don’t win against the Lakers without those young guys, without that energy, enthusiasm and effort they brought. There’s no question in my mind we lose both of those games without them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Talk about the bench in general. It’s still a little bit of a work in progress, but talk about where you see them at right now and where you think they’ll be by the time you get to the playoffs.
DUMARS: I think the bench will only get better and here’s why. Not only are they trying to come together as a bench, as a unit, but three of them are trying to learn the league at the same time. You say Amir Johnson is in his third year, but this is his first year playing. It’s Stuckey’s first year. It’s Afflalo’s first year. So not only are they trying to come together as a unit, they’re trying to learn the league as they go. Rodney Stuckey is on the floor last night and he’s guarding Derek Fisher – he’s never played against Derek Fisher in his life. What we’re asking those guys to do, we’re asking them to contribute, we’re asking them to bring energy, we’re asking them to go in the game and make a difference, we’re asking them to play as a unit … we’re asking them to do all this and say, But I know you’ve never played in the NBA before. It’s a lot we’re asking those guys, so it’s not always going to be pretty. Arron Afflalo and I were talking about that yesterday. He said, “I think I’m going to be so much better defensively next year, because I’ll know the guys.” It’s new. That’s a lot we’re asking those young guys to do given the fact they don’t really know the league.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: When you look at that entire five-man second unit now – Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell, Stuckey and Afflalo – the real veteran of the group is Jarvis Hayes and he’s only 26. If there’s one guy you’re going to look to be a consistent scorer off the bench, it’s him. And he’s been a little bit in and out. Is that a concern or is he, too, sort of finding his niche with this team?
DUMARS: That’s the nature of a gunslinger and we acquired him and put him in the role of a gunslinger. You come off and you look for shots because that’s how you’re going to make a difference for us. You’ve got to come in and look for shots. If you go back into the history of the league, good teams have always had guys who come off and – boom! – whether it’s Brent Barry or Eddie House in Boston now or Barbosa or Vinnie Johnson back when we played, good teams always have those type of guys. We had Jon Barry here. And they’re not going to always be on. They’re going to go through spurts where they’re great for 10 games and then go through spurts where they can’t hit shots. When you put a guy into that role, you have to accept as a team what you’re asking from that guy is high-risk, high-reward. He had a stretch where he couldn’t miss. Now he has a stretch where it’s hit and miss a little bit. I accept that from that particular position. Gunslingers, they’re hit and miss.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: The one common denominator with the guys you mention is they have short memories and boundless confidence. They always think the next shot is going in. Do you get that sort of sense from Jarvis?
DUMARS: Yes – and I’ve spent a lot of time talking to him about that, too. Don’t become self-conscious if you miss two or three shots. Be unconscious. You have to be unconscious out there about what you’re doing. The first half of the Laker game last night, I leaned over to (vice president) John (Hammond) and told him, man, these young guys, they were on the verge of opening it up, but they were playing so fast and so hyper, they made turnovers, and I said, That’s the fine line you live with. You tell them, I want you to go full blast, high energy, reckless abandon, well, you can’t really complain if they make a couple of turnovers. Amir Johnson comes in and makes a couple of turnovers right away. Don’t get down. We’ve asked him to play like that. And so you have to accept that part of it. That’s like Phoenix. They accept turnovers because that’s the style they play. With these guys off the bench, you have to accept mistakes and turnovers sometimes. Because we’re asking them to play at a pace that we’re not asking the starters to play at.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: I did notice with Amir last night, after making those two quick turnovers, he did not go into a shell. He stayed as frantically active as always.
DUMARS: I think one of the best things Amir Johnson has going for him is he’s not self-conscious about anything out there. He just plays. He just plays the game. He doesn’t overthink the game. He reacts to what’s happening on the court. And for a young guy like that, that’s the best thing he can do. He’s not trying to analyze every play, figure out what angle to take. He reacts to what happens. If it calls for him to block a shot, he blocks it. If it calls for him to jump higher than everybody to get a rebound, he does it. If it calls for him to outrun everybody, he does it. He’s going to have time to learn the nuances of the game, but for the time being we need him to play with that reckless abandon you’re seeing him play with.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Stuckey, the last couple of games especially, looks like he’s getting closer to the player you were pretty sure you had coming out of the preseason before he broke his hand. It doesn’t look like he’s fighting himself the last few games.
DUMARS: No question. You can see it. I go back to the last preseason game before he got hurt. The light had turned on. From the time training camp started until that last preseason game was about a month. How long has he been back now? Just a little over a month. It’s the same thing. That’s what that two months did. It kind of set him back almost to the beginning. That’s why I have no doubt that he’ll get it. You can’t teach what he does. What he does instinctively, you can’t teach that. That’s a special gift that few guys have, to get to that basket the way he does. Yeah, I think he’s going to get it and I think he has a chance to be a key contributor for us over the second half of the season.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: The first two big guys off your bench now are Maxiell and Johnson, two very young guys who are a part of the rotation really for the first time this season. Would you be comfortable going into the playoffs with two such inexperienced players in such key roles?
DUMARS: Absolutely. When you get to the playoffs, if you can recall over the last couple of years, the team with the most energy won. The team that had the fresh legs. The team that had the higher intensity won. The team that was able to sustain that. We weren’t able to sustain it. Not against Miami a couple of years ago and not against Cleveland last year. LeBron was brilliant last year, but young Daniel Gibson broke our backs. Fresh legs, wasn’t afraid, no pressure on him. Come off the bench, play off of the veterans. We haven’t had that. So you ask about Amir and Maxey? I love having those young legs, man. The team with the most energy, with the most juice left in them, has got a better chance of winning. I like the fact that those young guys, their energy is going to be off the charts come playoff time. They’ll be ready.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Maxiell was pretty much lights out in December. He hasn’t made as many of those eye-catching plays in January – the emphatic dunks, the spectacular blocks. Is it a function of him playing an expanded role for the first time, getting more minutes, hitting the wall, learning to adjust?
DUMARS: It’s all of those things – expanded role, more minutes, hitting the wall. It’s the dog days. I expect him shortly to bounce back. I fully expect him to come back from the All-Star break ready to play. Once he gets away for four or five days, gets his legs back under him, he’ll bounce back and you’ll see Maxey as we’ve seen him for the last two years here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Here’s another one I get asked a lot and I know you’ve been asked endlessly. Now that Chris Webber has signed with Golden State, did it ever come close to happening here?
DUMARS: It never changed. The Webber situation never changed. What I said to you never changed and what I said to Chris never changed. We have 15 guys. We’re not in a position today to just eat a contract to create a roster spot. If we could clear a roster spot, then we’d have something to talk about. And I said to Chris, I’m not going to tell you we have something here when we don’t. Chris and I had that conversation last Saturday. He called me. He said I’m kind of tired of waiting, I have a couple of other options, I think I might take one of those. I told him I completely understand. I couldn’t tell him to wait, wait, wait, wait. Unless I knew I had something going. That’s how it played out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Besides staying healthy, what would you most like to see play out over the next few months?
DUMARS: The continued development of this bench, of these young guys. We have a rock-solid starting lineup. Those guys are absolutely great. The difference for us is going to be the continued development of this new blood we have and how much experience they can gain from now until the playoffs start and how comfortable they are stepping on the floor and making plays. That’s what I’m interested in most from here until the end of the season and the time playoffs start.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Then I’m guessing the last 10 days have made you pretty happy with what you’ve seen from Stuckey, the steps Amir has taken and Afflalo, as well. He stroked a couple of 3s pretty confidently last night and didn’t back down an inch when you asked him to guard Kobe Bryant.
DUMARS: When you see that happening, rest assured that I’m happy. Like I said, the key for us is going to be how much we get from these new guys, these young, athletic, energetic guys. The better they perform, the better the chances are for our team.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: The trade deadline is about three weeks away. You have an unusually deep team right now. Are teams calling you and inquiring about the availability of guys who aren’t even dressing now who’ve been starters in the NBA?
DUMARS: Not yet. I fully expect those phone calls. People normally wait until a little closer to the deadline.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: So many teams in the East are a hot week away from making a move on the playoffs. But with so few of them having fallen out of contention, does it kind of freeze the market because nobody’s looking to dump players?
DUMARS: No, I think it might open up the market. That’s why you see a team like Charlotte sign Earl Boykins. Maybe he can make a difference. I think Charlotte might be only two or three games out of the eighth spot. They’re right there. It gets those other teams thinking, man, if we can add one more good piece, that might be the difference to us having that one hot week. I don’t think it will shut the door.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: Because you have a lot invested in your bench and because that bench still has a lot of room to grow, you might not be looking for anything. Do you have any feel yet if you’ll be active at the deadline?
DUMARS: I will be open to be active. The sign in our window is open. I don’t think you can ever show up here with the sign in the window saying closed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LANGLOIS: But you’ll at least feel like you’re dealing from a position of strength?
DUMARS: That’s what you want to deal from. You don’t want to feel like you’re compromised when you call people and I certainly don’t think we’ll feel compromised.