Head Coach Jordan Ott Practice Media Availability | 10-15-25 | Phoenix Suns

square. Yeah, you coach. I know you’ve been obviously stressing the importance of the possession game and of course the turnovers. How how would you assess I mean the numbers show that you guys won the possession game, but just how you guys got to that number and what’s standing out to you the most in that regard? We’re looking at those same numbers. Uh yeah, forcing turnovers has been good for us. Um probably even better than what we’ve expected. I It’s so hard to tell exactly where it lands in the season because the we played two teams basically twice. So, um you know, they haven’t had full rosters. We haven’t had full rosters. So, it’s hard to know exactly where that lands. Um and we’re going to keep preaching our defensive rebounding. We know at times we’re probably a little bit on the smaller side. Um the Western Conference is big. So, um, we’ll keep stressing the defensive rebounding, trying to take care of that glass. I’m curious with, uh, do you have a shot goal, like how many shots you would like to average? No, I don’t think so. I mean, every game is so different. Um, team you play, style of play, the other team has, impacts, all of that. So, um, just more shots than the other team. When it comes to threes, is there a a magic number there as well? No, I don’t think so. I think I think people get into that. Um, you know, a number of threes or a percentage of shots that are threes. I would prefer getting to the rim or to the free throw line over the threes. We understand, you know, if you’re a really good three-point shooting team, teams have to guard you a certain way. So then you get the higher value shots, but we’ll just take high quality shots wherever they come from. To follow up on Jaylen, I was curious like the delicate nature of the travel and and being in China. There was obviously a conclusion made by you guys and and more so the medical staff that it was okay for him to be there, it was okay for him to continue his rehab there. Was there thought of having him rehab here? Was it always like if he can come with us, he needs to come with us? I think all those talks were had. You know, I think it’s a week in a different country and a unique experience for him and our team. Um, you know, we made that best decision at that time. Um, yeah, I mean, all those talks were had at that time without without him. No, go ahead. Go ahead. All right. Without him book and the balance of having him bring the ball up as opposed to finding him within the system and Grayson or Dylan bringing it up, how did you like that balance through those through those three games? Yeah, I think it we learned some stuff. Um, you always want multiple ball handlers on the floor. The way the game is played right now, which we do, I think OSO is the piece that adds another dimension to some of that. Um, and then how the defense guards us. Um, Brooklyn again plays a unique style. Um, how much they pressure and we were able to survive, you know, that after that first quarter, that first time we played them. So, yeah, we’re going to try to find solutions on a game by-game basis. Some nights we may need an additional ball handler, but for right now it I think it’s it’s been pretty good. And to your point, he he was really clinical once he got into the teeth of the defense. But that’s a challenge for you, right? Making sure he doesn’t get fullcourt pressured off the ball or gets trapped from like 40 ft away. You want to see him get into the teeth of the defense where you’ll know he’ll make the right play. Yeah, a little bit of both. Like if you’re going to put two on him, we have four on three on the backside and we we’ll get high quality shots, but we still know we want him shooting as well. So it’s a little bit of both. Um, you know, that’s why you want to play fast. You want to play fast so so they can’t load load up against him. They can’t put two in the basketball. Got to move him off the ball at times to get a catch. Um, get him to his spots, but yeah, he’s going to have the ball in his hands more. I know we’re a week out still, but do you anticipate kind of sticking with Grayson as as that guy in there? Yeah, right now that’s that’s what we anticipate. We we get through these next couple days healthy, and that’s that’s the what we’re what we’re thinking. Devin was saying that you want all five guys to be a threat offensively. Um, how much is playing fast help that idea? Yeah, absolutely. I think playing fast and moving both. I think you got to anytime I think I talked about it earlier. Anytime you cut to the rim, someone’s got to guard you. And um, yeah, all five guys got to be a threat. All five guys got to be willing to shoot. Even if that the ball comes to you and you have a good look at 20 on the clock, like that might be the best shot that you get. um can’t depend on getting another good look. I think last night we saw a little bit of that with our young guys. They were able to have a shot earlier in the clock. They turned it down. We couldn’t get another good one. And that’s the reality of in this league. For Book and the defensive attention you can receive, you can go back to like his second year when he started getting double teams and he would say like, I just want to make the right basketball play. It was never about scoring, assisting, whatever. How much does that help you as a coach to know he has that mindset where if you don’t find him a shot or two, maybe has like just two shots in the first quarter and it happens, you know, he’s not getting too frustrated over there. Yeah. I mean, Book’s always going to make the right play. I think that’s the goal. That’s what we all got to do. Um, you know, we got to get in the paint ideally and then make the right play. And we know he will. We know, um, if we play through our bigs, our bigs will. Um, anyone we put in the game, that’s the goal. Anytime you have the ball in the hands, make a play. be aggressive, make the play, but just make the right play. While we’re on the topic of double teams, we talked about with Brooklyn, they were sending you two to the ball a little bit more. There’s a is it a spray pass that you’re making off of the person that’s getting double, so it’s not naturally to the roller, but just in someone making themselves available and then playing off of that. Is that part of your coverage solutions that you’re looking at and speeding things up in the half court? You always want when they put two on the basketball, you want three outlets best you can roll plus two other outlets. And then once you make that first one, usually the next pass. So we talk a lot about pass pass. So if we hit the roll, it’s the next pass. If we spray it to the perimeter, it’s the next pass. It’s usually a longer close out than that first one. But that’s what we tried to emphasize against Brooklyn. Even last night, you saw some of it carry over. They played a different type of defense, but once you get into the paint, if you can get in the paint and spray, usually that second pass is even more wide open. You talked about the pick and roll as well. um with the guards screaming for each other in that what’s kind of the read for that person that’s screening? Are they looking for cues from the person that’s defending on the ball and that’s determining the decision that they make after that? Yeah, there’s a lot that’s going into those small small or non- fiveman pick and rolls that our personnel would be one roll or pop and then who is guarding on the basketball. You saw Marcus Smart was way more aggressive into the basketball. Um, that’s how he plays. Vanderbilt the first game was similar to where if it’s not quite that defender, they may want to accept the switch a little bit easier. So, I think it’s our personnel and, you know, a little bit of their personnel. Going back to your your first kind of, you know, interaction with Book. Is there anything specific that you bonded over basketball-wise? just basketball in general, you know, when when he’s such a basketball enthusiast, um is such a high level of care for for the game itself. Um I think we’ve connected over basketball in general. We’ve had some shared experiences or people that we’ve run across. Um but now it’s basketball. It’s basketball time right now. Um, you know, he obviously has been in Phoenix a lot longer than me, so some of the experiences he’s had here, some of the things he’s done on the court, um, kind of kickstarted that. Coach, now with the preseason out of the way, approaching this week, what is your approach ramping up for the regular season, getting ready for that? I think still a little bit post China, you know, I think just feeling right post China. That’s why we want to do something today to kind of get it all out. Um, tomorrow will be a day that we everyone can get away and then you’re kind of ramping up into it. This weekend we’re gonna have to play a little bit um because of our preseason schedule. Usually you’d have a preseason game a little bit later in this week and you know some of those guys didn’t play last night. So we’re going to get after it a little bit this weekend and then it’ll be on to Sacramento prep. Coach, how close was Jaylen to playing at China? I think Dwayne he was I would say there was a chance possibly on that second one but again this turnaround to come back 48 hours later I think we all all had hopes that maybe it would get there but um if not again we’re going we’re going to set up the same as we are are for the rest of our guys to to play a little bit this weekend and that was always the goal. What do you last one year it feels like whenever I get to talk to coaches they have their own definitions of it. What are your margins as far as 50/50 situations you want to be able to dictate? I think we’ve talked a lot about the possession game is one, but I think we’ve talked a lot about like just situationally we want to be really good. Um especially the ones that we can control or think through end of quarters. It’s an easy one to to think through. Um then end of game, which which we’ve gotten a couple reps, especially in China, those two games were close games. um to evaluate exactly what we want to get to. We’re we’re just installing stuff. So, you know, as you progress, you get more and more um into the situations, but even if it’s not our situation, we’re we’re hoping to use anyone else around the league to try to speed up this. We we talk about situations every day to start practice. Um that’s something I picked up last season and we’ve continued here. Thanks, coach. Thanks, coach. Thank y’all.

Phoenix Suns Head Coach Jordan Ott speaks to the media following practice on October 15th, 2025. Ott talks about the availability of the guys including Mark Williams and Jalen Green, what he saw out of the team in yesterday’s win, and the focus of the team as we head towards the regular season.

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