Doc Rivers praised Kevin Garnett for his unselfish nature and believes trading Kendrick Perkins away for Jeff Green was a mistake, from Justin Barrasso of Weei: “The word that starts with ‘f’? He thought it was a noun, verb and an adjective,” Rivers said… “He’s full of life and a great guy in the locker room,” Rivers said. “He’s so unselfish, I think he would have scored another 10,000 points if he wanted. He’s the only player I’ve ever yelled at for not shooting. He always felt like if he took three or four shots in a row, that was too many. He needed to share the ball.” Rivers acknowledged that the 2011 Kendrick Perkins-Jeff Green trade was a mistake that ultimately hurt Garnett. “I think so,” reflected Rivers, “because we needed the toughness. The one thing we did by losing Perk was we removed Kevin’s protector. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that, after Perk left, that Kevin got into all those little flicks with the other teams. Perk deflected all that.”
Klay Thompson explained why it’s great to have Andre Iguodala on board with the Warriors, from Marcus Thompson of Mercury News: “Going up against the best every night, it’s fun,” Thompson said after Wednesday’s workouts at the team facility. “But now I can focus on exerting just as much energy on the offensive end. … We’ve got so much balance and we’re so deep, you can really play your hardest and get a blow.”… “I was happy I don’t have to go against him any more,” Thompson said. “He’s going to be great for us. He’s a good scorer but he’s an even better playmaker. He’s a great leader. I can see it in these two weeks I’ve been here. He’s going to help us. He’s going to be like a swiss army knife. … That’s a huge signing for us.”
Josh Smith talked about teaming up with Greg Monroe to make a great passing big-men tandem, from Keith Langlois of Pistons.com: “It’s definitely going to help,” Smith said. “Whenever you have guys who are bigger who can pass the ball from the high post, it’s definitely beneficial, especially when guys get double-teamed down on the block and know how to kick it out to shooters who are open. That can be contagious, as well. Other bigs can learn. I’m a pretty good passer. I’ve learned over the years how to perfect it. Monroe, from the Georgetown days, it’s kind of natural for him to do it and it flowed into the NBA. Drummond will get there. As he keeps getting better at low-post offense, people are going to have to respect him and start coming down to double him.”… “If we communicate,” he said. “We’re long. We’re athletic, as well. We’re not just a long team that’s slow. We can move around a little bit. Being able to protect the paint and make teams shoot jump shots, that’s the hope to success and being able to win and make it hard for teams to come into that lane and just lay the ball up.”
- Watch Jalen Rose explain what college recruit visits are really like:
James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. Find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.