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Transcript: Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry media availability – July 14, 2020

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Alvin Gentry Media Availability – July 14, 2020

On scheduling off-days, while still trying to prepare for the NBA season resuming:
“Well, I just think it’s really important that if guys are going to work hard, they’ve got to have days off. We’ve gone five straight days now, and it’s a good time to give them a day off because they’ll have all day off tomorrow, and then we don’t practice until seven o’clock on Thursday, so it’s almost like having two days off. They’ve done a lot in these five days, obviously trying to get back in the swing of things and just the timing and the physicality of the practices. It’s really a good time to give them a day off.”

On when they will start game-planning for the Utah Jazz and if they have started that already:
“We put a little bit in practice every day, especially of Utah right now. We cover a couple of areas every day so that we’re not trying to do it all in one game plan day, so we’ve gone over some of the plays that they run. We tried to have certain teams run those plays, and we try to defend against them…the same thing that I’m sure all the other teams are doing that with their first game. They (Jazz and Clippers) are really two tough games, but for us it’s all about preparing ourselves mentally and being able to execute defensively in what we’re trying to do, so most of the emphasis right now obviously is on us rather than Utah. We’ll slowly put in a game plan for them as it goes along. We do have a long time to play. We have some scrimmages coming up – scrimmage games coming up – that we’ll also try some things and try some rotations in those games that we wouldn’t normally try.”

On how the food is in Orlando and the process to access food:
“First of all, the food has been fine. They do a great job here of giving you a variety of stuff to choose from. Very many entrees they give you. At breakfast, there’s a ton of things to choose from, and if you’re a healthy eater, they also have things available as far as people who are eating healthy or want to eat healthily. Lunch, dinner they have many different combinations of things. So if you’re talking about it being a five-star restaurant, no, but if you talk about it being good food that you can eat and enjoy, I think it is. We’re not eating off of fine china, but we’re also eating off of biodegradable containers which I think is very smart to do. Obviously, we’re not eating with silverware because that poses a threat as far as spreading the virus also. Everything that they’ve done here with Disney and everything that the NBA has done has tried to be as safe and healthy as they can possibly be from the standpoint of trying to protect everyone against contracting the virus.”

On how Kenrich Williams is looking at practice and how much he can add being back in the rotation:
“Well, the one thing that Kenrich has done really is that he adds energy to the practices. Defensively, hustle plays, coming up with things like that, so just having him out there. The thing that he still has to try to get to is the consistent shooting and things like that, but if he’s out on the floor or somewhere along the line, he’s going to make a couple of plays or give you a couple of extra possessions. That’s kind of been who he is since he came into the league, so just having him back on the floor, as I said, is going to energize practice even more.”

On being without Jeff Bzdelik and how much he is still involved in the defensive planning:
“He’s been so very much involved. We talk to him every day after practice. I talk to him every day. I talk to him again at night. He talks to Fred (Vinson) who’s doing most of the defensive stuff for us right now, and they talk and they exchange ideas. They also exchange clips from the practices so that we have an opportunity to sit down to maybe have some clips for the guys. But he’s involved in every practice, so he’s not here physically, but from a mental standpoint as far as preparation, he’s involved as much as anybody.”

On how guys are adjusting to the lifestyle of the ‘bubble’:
“It’s different. It’s a lot different than anything you’ve ever experienced, but that’s true with everyone here. There’s not one single person here that has ever been through this situation, so you do it on the fly. You adjust as you go. I think everybody here understands this is a new situation and still the most important thing here is safety and health. I think the NBA has gone beyond the call of duty to try to make sure that that’s the case with everyone here. We’re tested every day. There’s so many different layers of security that you would have to go through to be able to get to the hotel or to be able to get into the food room or dinner room or whatever you want to call it. Every day we have an app that we have to turn in our temperature and our level of oxygen, so there are so many areas that they’ve really done a good job of putting up layers of security as I said, and for it to be brand new to everyone here, I think everyone is trying to follow protocol as much as they possibly can because we understand the consequences of not following that and that there are consequences when you decide not to follow it because that’s not what you want to do, so you end up in quarantine again, or really a possibility of leaving the campus. Everyone knows that this is a new thing, as I said, and we have to try to do the best we can to adjust to it just like everyone else here.”

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