Alvin Gentry Media Availability – July 29, 2020
On if the Pelicans have any specific plans to peacefully protest before tomorrow night’s game against Utah:
“We’ve talked about it. We’ve discussed it with Utah. There hasn’t been a decision made yet, but anything that we do is going to be a unified thing. It’s not going to be us, or it’s not going to be Utah. If we decide to do something, it will be both teams involved.”
On how much Zion Williamson was able to practice today and if there is a plan to play him in tomorrow night’s game:
“He practiced some. We didn’t do a whole lot today because it was a little bit of an easy practice, but he participated in the practice and [did] some things. It’s going to be a game-time decision. We’ll talk about it again tonight. We’ll talk about it again tomorrow. Obviously, it all depends on how he’s feeling, but it will be something that’s going to be a game-time decision anyway.”
On if the Pelicans ran five-on-five during practice today:
“We did some things, but there wasn’t a lot of contact today, no. But he (Zion Williamson) did participate in the practice like I said. There was some (player development) work at the end where there was contact, but for the most part we didn’t do a whole lot of contact in the five-on-five situation.”
On how will he manage Zion Williamson’s minutes when he is healthy to play:
“Well, that’s something that I will leave up to the medical staff. I mean, obviously as a coach, you want him out there as much as you possibly can have him out there, but we have guys that are better equipped to make those decisions than I am from just a health standpoint and a minutes played standpoint. It will be collectively something that’s done by sitting down and talking about it, trying to figure it out if he does end up playing [tomorrow night].”
On how Zion Williamson has handled his first year in the NBA thus far:
“I think he’s a very mature kid. He’s a 20-year-old kid, and I think a lot of times we forget about that, as we did with LeBron (James). These guys are still kids. He does what all the 19 and 20-year-old people do, so I think we have to be a little bit careful about adding all these extra things on his shoulders. He’s here to play. He’s here to have a good time. Hopefully, he’ll be healthy enough to play and conditioned enough to play [for tomorrow night’s game]. But other than that, we should treat him like a 20-year-old. That’s what he deserves to be treated as. He handles it great. He’s a very, very mature kid. His parents have done a great job with him as far as being able to face this and do it in a real, real positive way.”
On if he thinks NBA teams will change their overall tactical approach in the seeding games:
“I think everybody will be pretty much solid. I mean, we approached it as it wasn’t a training camp. We just said that we had a hiatus from the season, and we are going to pick up where we left off. I think that most of the teams are going to approach it that way. There’s not a whole lot of time to make significant changes in philosophy or anything that you would do in these situations, so I think you’re going to see teams really play like they would play if the season was still continuing on.”
