Willie Green interview | Pelicans-Spurs Postgame 10/24/2025

Willie Green interview | Pelicans-Spurs Postgame 10/24/2025

Obviously tough loss, but let’s let’s start with the rookies and trusting those guys at the end of the game and and just what what did you see from both Jeremiah and uh DQ? Uh I saw a lot of poise from both guys at the end of the game um throughout the whole game really. And um you know just their competitiveness, you can see it like they want it and um you know when you when you evaluate those two guys on the floor with our group um the future is bright. And so that’s some of the positives that you can take from the game for sure. And obviously just I mean the we’re kind of going into overtime there was a lot of if you go back to the other night you know we we saw the third quarter and that was kind of where things got away. This one had a few of those moments where it seemed like it could get away keep kind of fighting fighting fighting get get yourself into overtime. What were kind of your thoughts just from from from that point about how things went? Yeah. Uh I loved our resiliency. I loved our fight um throughout the whole game. uh especially we we especially when we got down uh we fought right back just made the right plays defensively we just tried to mix it up on those guys a bit and um you know like I told our group they got nothing to hang their heads about um it it I I get it nobody wants to lose tough loss but those guys they they battled they were connected um that’s a good team over there and we we gave them everything they wanted and more and just a couple key plays that we got to clean up we’ll keep working on it together as a group and um you know this is going to help us as we as we look big picture. And Willie down two with 417 left for the women fouls out. What do you think happened just down the stretch there? Um I I thought we got a few good looks that we missed and you know they made a couple more plays than us. That’s really what it comes down to. And um you know we’ll go back I I’ll watch the tape a bit but we still have offensively we still got to play faster even in the half court. Uh we can’t get bogged down can’t you know let things become too slow but I thought for the most part they made it they made a few more plays than we did. And obviously not the result you want but just what’s it like seeing two young stars like Z and WY go at it the way they did tonight. It was great. I I thought, you know, they they understood the task at hand and they stepped on the floor, both guys, both teams, and and competed uh their hearts out. And uh kind of similar, you know, pattern to the first game where you guys, I think, made seven threes in the first half. I think it was only three second half and OT. Uh what are you kind of seeing where just you’re not getting that three-point production in the second half of these first two games? The same that I just talked about earlier. It’s like sometimes teams make the adjustment to just be a bit more physical, put the hands on us. We still got to find ways to play with force, uh, to get in the paint, to get kick outs, play faster. Uh, and I thought we missed some of those shots in the second half. Um, we got some good looks. Uh, we missed we we missed a few of them that we we know we can make. Hey, were you expecting those two rookies for Jeremiah and and Derek to to be able to play like this this zone or have they kind of exceeded your early expectations? You know, they’re they’re uh both of those guys, they work extremely hard. Um the staff is doing a great job every day watching film, working on different concepts on both ends of the floor. And um they’re competitors. They want to step on the floor. They they they want to contribute to winning. And I can’t necessarily say I’m surprised because I I get a chance behind closed doors to watch how they work. Um, but I’m I’m very pleased with their play on the floor. Is there any way to speed up the synergy? Because obviously those guys have such a little NBA experience and you’ve got guys out there with far more. it. I think there’s obviously a lot of good things, but is there any way other than just playing to kind of maybe speed up the the synergy that you need to find with everybody? You know, I wish we could. Uh the best way to do it is is continue to get to work. Just continue to work at it. Uh continue to watch it, you know, be be honest about some of the positives, be honest about some improvements. Uh step on the floor and keep working at it. And Willie, what are your overall thoughts about playing small? I think Derrick Queen was maybe the only player that can be classified as a center. Um, more teams have been doing it, you know, last several years or so, and uh, we’ve had our moments, uh, where we played small. Uh, it’s something that we’re going to continue to look at. We got guys that can do it. We just got to work with those groups, um, to to get some synergy on the floor. What do you think about tonight’s effort of going small? I know they got I think it was 20 offensive rebounds, a lot of second chance points, but seemed like you guys did a really good job on Victor Winyama for instance. He saw a lot of hands in his face. Yeah, that that was our game plan to try to be extremely aggressive on him. Um they they definitely hurt us on the boards. I thought our guys battled. We have to do a better job there. We we know that that’s something that they do well. Um and so just again continue to watch it, continue to work at it. Um not having some of our our centers available tonight. um that that was their advantage and they capitalized on it. Is it safe to say that that’s one of the toughest if you’re going to go small, that’s one of the toughest teams to go small against. Um it can be at times, but I thought we did a great job of negating that by by mixing in the zone. Uh just kind of throwing them off rhythm, not allowing them to post us up and isolate us. But the one thing in the zone is you have to rebound. and um Cornet and and Wimby and and even some of their guards, they they they’re really good at it, especially tipping those rebounds out. So, you know, again, guys battled. It’s an area that we can improve in though, for sure. I mean, Derek Queen did no training camp, second career game, got the wind assignment for a good chunk of this game. Just what you think about he just kind of battled in that assignment kind of as much as he did a great job. He he fought him. Uh he his game plan discipline was at an extremely high level. He executed exactly what we wanted him to. Guys will make mistakes but we want them being aggressive. We want them being able to have carryover from practices film to the games and we saw that for the most part. It feels like Jordan Bull’s shotmaking it flashes at times but he also kind of struggles to get a lot of open shots. How do you try and get him more looks in this? It’s It’s something that I’m going continue to work at, work with him, work with our staff, get him some great looks. I thought he had a few tonight. Um he made some, missed a few, but he’s going to stay shooting. He’s going to stay aggressive. Uh and that’s what we want him to do. But we’ll we’ll definitely work at that. All right. Thank you.

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green’s postgame interview after the Pelicans game against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025.
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