Head Coach Jordan Ott Practice Media Availability | Phoenix Suns | 10-17-25
What’s up? What’s up? Good afternoon. How’s it going? Coach was uh how many guys scrimmed? Little Jaylen and Mark able to be in there. No, Jaylen, but Mark. Yeah. How good was that to see him continuing that mark with the regular guys and being able to play? Yeah, it’s good. It, you know, he’s done live with us before u but now he’s fully participating in it. We didn’t scrimmage a ton again today. The plan is tomorrow to do more scrimmaging. When you look at when you’re leading up to like the bigger scrimmage, is it been something where you how much how much did today’s scrimmage play into what you do tomorrow? I mean, like is it is it just a buildup off of that or are you adding There’ll be more scrimmage tomorrow. Today was like still continue to install some stuff um and kind of wind up into the scrimmage. Tomorrow is going to be a heavy scrimmage day. Only other thing I had was we had the referees on a conference call yesterday. They were talking about the high five foul and now where before they wouldn’t call that because it was a hand part of the ball and all that. What do you think of that rule change and how you think it may change how the game is is played? I think it’s for the good of the game. Like any extra curricular activities meant to injure someone’s hand is not what we need. So, you know, you can still hit the hand. It just can’t be a secondary action outside of your normal follow through. Do you know with the injuries that you’ve had with Jaylen and Mark, do you do you have a good feeling for where you guys are going into next week? Yeah, I think we know exactly where we’re at with with Mark. You know, Mark’s trending in the right direction. Jaylen won’t be playing in the opener. Um, you know, he’s just doing more and more each day. No, I mean, just as a team, just where you guys are as a team going into Yeah, I think in general, like in the preseason was pretty good, but again, we had three preseason games plus that fourth one. I think we all would like a couple more reps at it. Uh, but we knew with the China trip that was different. We don’t have a ton of minutes returning from last year. So, um, and we’re a new staff, so you would always want more time, but I do think we tried to maximize our time in the days that we’ve had. I mean, I know your focus has always been on getting your team ready, but have you allowed yourself just a moment to appreciate you getting to this point in your career? Will that come next? I think I think that first day really when we when you get the call, but um I’m pretty focused on what even tomorrow, even the scrimmage is tomorrow. Um I mean I really grateful for the opportunity and um you know it it’s great to have a staff like that we’re all moving in the right direction and you’re trying to lead and grow them and put your imprints on what we do dayto-day. But it’s also like the basketball piece. Now we get to test it. Get to test some of the thoughts. Um be in the, you know, the man in the arena quote rings true. You know, you want to be in the arena. You want to be out there competing. Um there’s nothing like those game nights and now instead of suggestions, it’ll be decisions. So that part it it will be fun to see. Um but no, I mean I think we’re we’re always on to the current mode is how can we get better today? How can we help this group? Um, and that’s where we’ll stay with the with the regular season, you know, getting closer and closer. Um, have you been impressed with anybody specifically in terms of how quickly they’ve picked up your system both uh offensively and defensively? I don’t know if I’d single anyone out. I think um the guys that were here early um and then the vets that came into town and we we had we had great participation in our gym. So, I think overall we felt like we were in a good place and you know you try to tear it out a little bit. The summer league guys obviously had a head start and then uh the younger guys that were here early but the vets was more about let’s let’s get them in the gym to condition. I feel like we’re in a good place there fitness wise so then we can build into our system and we’ve tried to stick to that build our system as much as we can through these practices and then the days we’re going to play we’re going to play um to see exactly where we’re at. I think overall it’s been been pretty impressive. I think our IQ of our group is pretty high. Um but yeah, we’ll get tested early. You know, the three games in four nights, that’s a tough test early um against, you know, a couple veteran teams. So, we’ll see exactly where our system’s at at that point. You mentioned opportunities. Uh Alex, you got the opportunity to be headaches. Obviously, y’all spent time together. I was curious what were your maybe first impressions when you got time to spend with him in Cleveland last year and just how you see that group of coaches get more opportunities to step up in the picking room. It’s not surprising like Alex is such an outside the box thinker. Um which is exactly who Kenny is. So wasn’t surprising that Kenny found him. Um, Alex is one of one in how he thinks about the game, how he applies the game to player development. And it was much more than just the constraintled approach in player development. It was in practice. It was in how we did scouts. Um, he has his fingerprints all over that place. So, it’s not surprising that he got his own opportunity. Hey coach, how hard is split in my head how hard we play defense? Definitely might get a couple stitches there. But yeah, I mean it’s not surprising about Alex. Um but it also is it speaks volumes on Kenny too. Like grabbing a guy like that is definitely not the norm in the NBA. Um, that’s how Kenny thinks and now Alex will get his chance to to make the decisions instead of all the suggestions that he was making. Coach, what what happened with Dylan at practice? Yeah, he got hit on an elbow that was freak play pretty or in the middle, I guess, of the the last part of practice. He just got split open, I think, right along the eyebrow. So, he’ll I’m sure he’ll play that one up how many stitches he has. So, we’ll we’ll all hear how many stitches he gets. Was that him trying to put the pressure defense on or was Yeah, he was defending a little too close and he got got clipped. So, yeah, that’s part of it. Well, but interesting because Colin was sitting there saying that Dylan’s got flips a switch like off the court is pretty chill and then on it he becomes someone else. Um I know that that’s not nothing new in the league, but when you have it on your team, um how does that you know help? because you know it does put guys in it puts perspective on the game a little bit. Yeah. If we ever want intensity in practice, we just have them play five on five. Like it’s instantly broad and I don’t think it’s Dylan leads it for sure, but um everyone picks up their play. You know, that entire purple squad also has grown into someone that will chirp back. Uh Colin brings his own edge to it. Um that’s who these guys are. That’s why they’re so successful and um they continue to grow in the league and Dillings brings that out. It’s every day. I mean, the how hard these guys practice, I’ll continue to say it is abnormal. Um we’ll see, you know, as if it translates to the regular season, but in the preseason, I felt like you could feel how competitive this group is. Can you speak to the defensive end of the floor? Um Colin spoke to you all doing things differently in Cleveland last year. He sees why it works so well. training camp. You look at your pick and roll defense specifically, like where you seeing strengths, where you seeing maybe room for improvement and just kind of how they’re kind of learning that dynamic of it all. You’ve seen like how aggressive we want to be in pick and roll. Um, we’ll continue to talk about the level. It’s easy to see with OSO because OSO is, you know, on the smaller side as a center. Um, so he has to be up and aggressive. We forced a ton of turnovers in in the preseason. a few some similarities from last year, but not not all of them. Um, you know, we just have different size defenders than what um Cleveland does. So, we’re we’re trying to emphasize the higher pickup points, the more aggressive, not just be in your spot, go take the basketball. Um, but yeah, with Mark back, we we’ll see see how that even looks with Mark. You know, that’s a different dynamic, his rim presence. Um, but we’re going to expect them to be up maybe not quite as high as also, but up up at the, you know, very close to being up a touch. How important is that low man rule within? Yeah, it has to be there. I mean, that’s how the game is played right now. You know, you got to and then read it like, do we need the low man? Do we not? So, in early, do we really need him to help or is our X5 back in front of the screener, the roller? Um, when he does get back in front of the roller, then we’re out and back back to our own. Thanks, coach. That’s coach. Appreciate it.
Phoenix Suns Head Coach Jordan Ott speaks to the media following practice on October 17th, 2025.
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