On the dynamic of distributing minutes with returning and new players
“The first thing I think you have to let them understand as far as minutes is that there are only 200 in a game. If you sit down with each player, which we do often and say, “Hey let’s sit down and let’s take each player and write down how many minutes each player should get”. Every year we do that, and it’s amazing, we need about 16 overtimes to get everybody’s minutes in. They think everybody is going to play 25 minutes a game. They truly don’t understand the value of minutes, but that’s nothing to feel bad about because most of the guys that we have have played all the minutes they’ve ever wanted to play their entire career. I think the first thing you have to let them know is how valuable those minutes are, those 200 minutes in a regulation game.
“I think players understand who should be playing more than anybody, I do, I think they know that. I think they see it and it’s easy because of the film studies we do and the different things we go through. Do they all want to play as they have their whole career? There is absolutely no question. And we would be disappointed if they didn’t want to do that. But at the pace and level that we want to play, for young guys learning to do that for two minutes is difficult. To where if you are seeking high level, if you’re seeking great execution to get them to understand that you’re going to be in a lot of close games, maybe decided by one, two, three, four possessions, it’s really important that they understand that every second you’re out there, there is some accountability going on and the focus to do that. But in practice every day and spending time with our guys every day we’re constantly talking about what they have to do to get the minutes that they want to play and I think as the season goes on it plays out with consistency.
“I think that’s when you get down from a coaching standpoint that’s what you’re looking for day in and day out. Who can we count on, do we know what that guy is going to give us every single night knowing that we’ve got younger guys that don’t know what it’s like to get ready to play. I don’t care who’s on your schedule, we believe that whoever we’re playing we’re going to do our work to get prep, but we want to do what we do. We want to play at a level where we don’t come back in and say “Why didn’t you do this” or “What were you thinking on this play”, “Why were you here when you were supposed to be on the other side of the court,” in terms of execution. That’s probably the hardest thing for younger guys to grasp is the details that go into being successful. But with that said as long as guys give us the effort, they do everything that we ask them to do in practice, we’re going to find a way if they’ll stay with it. Like I said, the year is a long year and we wouldn’t want guys that didn’t want to play a lot. But the first recognition is understanding how valuable those minutes are.”
NEXT: Rick Barnes’ media day continued