Instead of knocking on wood, Jamahl Mosley simply knocked on the side of his head.<\/p>\n
Moments later, Trey Murphy did something similar, bending down and tapping the wooden floor of the New Orleans Pelicans’ practice facility.<\/p>\n
Tuesday was the first day of training camp, and both Murphy and Mosley \u201cknocked on wood\u201d because the team was fully healthy as it starts preparing for the season. \u00a0<\/p>\n
No injuries to start camp is new territory for the Pelicans, but a healthy roster wasn\u2019t the only thing new.<\/p>\n
This was the first practice under new head coach Mosley, hired in May to turn things around in New Orleans. The words hanging on the walls were new, too.<\/p>\n
Relentless. Mental toughness. Resilient. Together. Dominate. Physicality.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the mindset Mosley is trying to instill in the team he inherited. It took just one practice for players to get an understanding of how their new coach operates.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve noticed about Mosley is that he\u2019s really, really into the details,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cIf we are not doing a drill right, he\u2019s going to make sure we do it over and do it right. That\u2019s something you can really appreciate. If you keep the rope tight, then whenever you\u2019re ready to pull (the rope), it\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosley, who spent the previous five season as head coach of the Orlando Magic, liked what he saw in his new team on the first day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the energy in the building, the intensity,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cThe work ethic was there. It\u2019s what we talked about from the beginning. Starting with the foundation of our defense and them moving into our offense and the structure of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That intensity will continue. Tuesday was the first of 17 practices before the Oct. 21 season opener. The first of some two-a-day sessions is Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Zion Williamson, entering his eighth NBA season, is pleased with what he\u2019s seen from Mosley thus far. Williamson was the last one to leave the court Tuesday, staying afterward to work on his 3-point shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to make a minimum of 50, and then I can get out of here,” Williamson said.<\/p>\n
He and his teammates are buying into what Mosley is selling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love basketball, and I love X\u2019s and O\u2019s and seeing how different people see the game,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cWhen he was in Orlando, he had a great defensive team. We want to bring that same thing, but with our own flair to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This time a year ago, Murphy and Herb Jones were both rehabbing shoulder injuries. Dejounte Murray was still working his way back from a torn Achilles. Derik Queen was nursing a wrist injury.<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t the case Tuesday with every player suited up.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cGetting on the same page right away without anybody walking in with anything happening right now. Knock on wood that everybody stays healthy as we are getting everybody on the same page and preaching the same message and communicating the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those messages was written on the T-shirts that Mosley and some of his players wore during practice. On the front, it read: \u201cIn Nola, culture means business.” On the back, it read: \u201cWe stand on business.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it means is this city represents grit, hard work, toughness, determination,\u201d Mosley said. \u201cNo matter where you\u2019re from in this city. We\u2019ve talked about representing it the right way and those guys have to feel it and know it every time they step in the building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday was the first step.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great first day of practice,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cWe are pretty much setting our identity of what we want to look for on defense and what we want to look for on offense. But today was more of a defensive day. It was a good day at work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Instead of knocking on wood, Jamahl Mosley simply knocked on the side of his head. Moments later, Trey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,5498,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":["post-847168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-basketball","tag-hardwall","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-pelicans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117357792696970611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}