Willie Green on rotations, preseason in Australia | Pelicans Training Camp 2025

Willie Green on rotations, preseason in Australia | Pelicans Training Camp 2025

So, how was uh practice today? What are you guys working on? Focus on particularly reviewing our defense uh our principles, making sure we focus on rebounding uh adding some layers defensively to um continue to just add to our package. And then offensively, a little on the ball, off the ball, um for our group. And so, really intense practice. Guys are spirited. Uh, I know it’s been a lot we’re throwing at them, but they’re picking it up and they’re getting better and better. You talked about everybody being spirited, but one name that’s really stood out as Herb Jones. Can does it feel like he’s ready maybe to take a step forward in both not just leadership, but on the court, what he gives you as well? He is. He is. He’s he’s leading this group. Uh, he’s becoming a bit more vocal. Uh, he’s a quiet guy. Um, just that’s just his nature, but he’s a bit more vocal. And the biggest thing is he’s doing it by example. Uh that’s who he’s been since he’s stepped foot in our building. High character, works hard. Uh he competes night in and night out, and our our group is following them. We see uh Zion and Trey over there working on like some twoman reps. Just how important is it for them to get these early reps in and and how much of a role is that going to play like in your offense this year, those two guys? Yeah, it’s important. It’s important. And um you know sometimes we think we could just step on a floor and it comes together but it’s really about working with different combinations getting on the floor together seeing how you know what works for us and sticking with that seeing looking at things that we can improve on. But you know the two main combinations that we’ll see sometimes guys working together looking at different you know nuances of the game talking through it that’s extremely helpful on both ends of the floor. Not sure if this is the last time we talked to you before you guys leave for Australia, but um is it too early to talk about like playing time during preseason like how you distribute minutes like um you know how many guys you play, stuff like that. Yeah, not not yet. We’re not there yet. You know, you know, we got a long flight to think about it, but uh eventually we’ll get to a point where we we start looking at how many minutes we want to play guys and what’s our rotations looking like. Some of the uh players have talked about in terms of their excitement to see Australia kind of like different animals they want to see and stuff like that or um and other guys have said like I don’t want to I want to stay in the hotel. I don’t want to get near some of these uh dangerous animals. Um is there stuff like that that you’re looking forward to doing like uh some different sites and stuff like that? Yeah, I’m looking forward to experiencing a different country, you know? I’ve I haven’t been there before. Uh, I’m I’m looking forward to the fan engagement, fan interaction. You know, I’m hearing that everyone’s excited. Uh, we’re excited to to be able to have this opportunity. Such a blessing. Um, when you really look at it in totality. So, we’re going to go we’re going to try to, you know, continue to work hard and compete, but try to enjoy it as well. And um I don’t know if I’m going to get a chance to see anything uh outside of like you know practice and meetings and you know a couple dinners would be nice but I don’t know I’m going to get a chance to you know get to see some of those those animals these guys are talking about. Do you do you have a feel at all for how huge the fan base in Australia is for the NBA? It seems like the last few years in particular we hear from people from Australia more more and more. It just seems like that country the fan base is just increasing. Yeah, I think it’s a credit to to the the NBA and you know they’re um being intentional about making the game as global as possible and Australia is one of those countries that we’ve seen a number of really good basketball players um you know Dyson and Patty Mills and um I could go on you know a longer list but we’ve seen some really good players come from from the country and so they’re excited about the game. We’re excited to go there and compete and um you know try to enjoy it as well. What what things most surprising for you about Jeremiah Fear so far? Say it again. What’s been most surprising for you about Jeremiah Fear so far? Just his ability to he just doesn’t back down from anything. Uh he’s tough. Um he wants to grow and get better. He’s extremely talented and the fact that he’s doing this at 18 years old is it’s incredible. um most of us couldn’t touch the surface that he’s on right now and the fact that he can do this so young. He’s so he he’s had he has a maturity about him that I love. Uh he he goes about his work. He comes in every day. He’s getting after it. So just a lot of you know I have a lot of uh passion and and I’m grateful for the things that he’s able to do at this age and and then it’s still our our responsibility to help him navigate this. Willie, I know you asked about the starting lineup yesterday and you don’t want to delve into that yet, but I’m curious, what do you want to see out of your starting center because you seem to have two really good options in both Ees who started last year for of course Kaban what he did over at Golden State. You know, number one, anchoring our defense. You know, early loud and continuous communication and being a big that, you know, can guard and pick and rolls, you know, can execute multiple multiple coverages, competing competing is rebounding, competing is getting up the floor, setting screens. Um, and so those are just some of the concepts that we want, but it’s really about who who’s who’s going to give us the best opportunity to win games in in the past. um you’ve opted to use versatile lineups uh with a lot of switchy defenders and to increase the spacing. You have Sadi Bay on the team now. Do you feel like you might be able to hit that button again if you want to turbocharge your offense or just speed up the defense a little more? Yeah, absolutely. I think we we we’ll have multiple guys that we can put on the floor that gives us those that type of spacing um offensively, but really just the defensive mindset. um we can get steals and deflections, we can rebound, we can get out and run. Um and so we’re going to continue to work with some of those groups for sure. Obviously the league changes every single year, but how much of training camp is still like an emphasis on the basics of spacing, pace, just the fundamentals um as opposed to introducing new concepts. I think the biggest part in training camp, it starts with the mentality to have a competitive edge. And then you you sort of build out from there. Now you build out how you want to defend. You know, what’s our rebounding technique? You know, being a protective paint team, contesting shots at a high level. You build out your offense, you know, playing fast, rebounding the ball, getting to space, setting good screens, sharing the basketball. So, but it starts all of those tie into the competition for us. And so, we want to be a team that steps on the floor every night and give ourselves an opportunity to win. So, we’re just working on some of those concept steps. [Music]

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green speaks with the media following practice on Day 4 of Pelicans Training Camp at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025.
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