LIVE: Pelicans vs. Bulls Pregame w/ James Borrego 11/24/2025
the test so far, you know, they’re or they’re answering the challenge right now. And that’s the goal here is to to give, you know, get better every day. They come with great attitudes. They got great spirits about them. They’re gamers. They’re stepping up. Um these are valuable moments for them. So, um, I didn’t expect that we’d be playing them this much and, you know, relying on them so much, uh, especially on the bookend positions like your your starting center and your point guard to be rookies. It’s it’s a lot. So, I think they’ve handled it great and, uh, wonderful spirits, wonderful people. How how concerned is the Chicago’s pace and how much they like to kind of get up and down? Yeah, tremendously. I mean, we gota, you know, we got to respond from the Atlanta game where we had really poor transition defense. So, it’s been a focus of ours, you know, uh, over the last, call it, 24 hours, and we got to get better in those areas, you know, and, um, it really starts with those young guys, making sure they understand what transition defense means for us, the urgency, uh, communication, talking, getting back. So, it’s the number one key tonight. You, Coach Veovich, when you were at Orlando, when he was very, very young. Um, did you have an inkling of back then of the potential and what kind of career? He didn’t tell you. I taught him everything he knows. He didn’t tell you that, then he did a heck of a job. Well, you should ask Vousvich, you know. Um, it was amazing. Like, he wasn’t I don’t want to go back to that trade, but, you know, he he wasn’t really thought of. I I think he was valued in that trade, but I think there were some other pieces that maybe were more valuable in theory and then you just watched this kid, you know, rise up and get better every year. And I’m proud of him. He’s one of my favorites out there. You know, we we spent a lot of time together um those couple years in Orlando. And just to see his maturity as a player, but more as a man to become a father and a husband. He’s a wonderful individual and he just carries himself with great poise and grace and uh wonderful wonderful person and player. I know it’s probably pretty obvious, but how much how tough is it when you don’t have hard to put out fires everywhere? It’s uh it’s tough. It’s tough on your defense, but somebody else has to step into that role. You know, that’s the goal here is that, you know, guys like Peavey and Bryce and Sadique have to step into that defensive mindset. You know, and that’s the that’s the beauty with this thing. Next man up, uh, go compete. You know, they’re watching a great example in Herb Jones. Hopefully for the rest of Micah’s career, he can look back and say, “Man, I learned from one of the greatest, you know, and I want to be that, and that’s going to be my role.” So, um, we’re going to miss Herb obviously tremendously until he’s back. But until then, these other guys got to hold the floor down, and I expect them to. That’s the goal here is that I expect them to step up. Uh especially on the defensive end right now. We’re putting a lot of time and effort and focus into that that end of the floor, and those guys are are more than capable of doing this. And now, there was also an update today that uh Jordan was clear for for basketball activities. Uh just what are the next steps for him before he’s finally going to be ready to play and how much it’s going to help getting him back out there? Well, it’d be great to get him back. As soon as he’s back, he’ll have major impact. you know, we miss his scoring, playmaking, veteranism, uh, shooting obviously, but, um, I think it’s probably be a slow ramp up. I don’t know exactly, you know, I’ll have to sit with the medical group probably tomorrow and kind of get a game plan together. I don’t have that, you know, for you yet, but, uh, I think the goal is to get him back into practice to some degree, shootounds to some degree. We don’t have a lot of practice time, but we’ll do as best we can as soon as we can get him on the floor, you know, and start with, you know, maybe some I don’t know where the contact is yet. That’s where I got to figure out how much contact he can do right now. And uh going back to Herb, we kind of talked about the other night that the soft tissue injuries and how they’re on the rise around the league. How how much are you guys kind of doing to kind of, you know, try to prevent those or be mindful of just kind of seeing how much uh is going on, you know, with teams around the league? Well, we’re very mindful of their bodies. You know, that’s kind of the number one concern. Make sure that our guys are healthy. Our performance team does a great job. They’re they’re in high communication with our players, with our staff. We’re very aware of, you know, where guys are physically. Fatigue is a a massive part of this, you know, NBA world. These guys are playing what, 11 and 17 at a high pace, high minutes, high volume. Uh it’s a lot on their body. So, uh we’re very aware of it. James, seemingly losses can negatively impact rookies. How cognizant are you of your three? I know it doesn’t seem like to us the public perception is that these guys don’t seem to be affected by like they’re bulletproof, but how cognizant are you behind the scenes about something like this? I think just in general, your your culture, your your team in general, I can’t even say it’s just the rookies, you know, it’s everybody, but um losing’s tough. It’s tough on the psyche. It’s tough on the spirit, on the on the fiber of your team. It challenges you in many, many ways. It challenges your your togetherness, your spirit, your and our rookies are feeling that right now. Um, but they don’t seem to be phased by it. I I know this is probably the the most they’ve had in probably a while, you know, and um, but you know, the goal is to get up the next day, work, get better. I think they’re looking as an opportunity right now, right in front of them. Here’s a great opportunity for me to get better, get minutes, and help this team win. And I think that’s more the the mindset coming from those three. Good. Thanks. Thanks.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Chicago Bulls live pregame interview with interim head coach James Borrego ahead of their game on Monday, November 24 at 7 p.m. CT during the 2025-26 NBA season.
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