The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Mike D'Antoni on Westbrook Joining The Team & Getting Back To Play

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

Mike D'Antoni on Westbrook Joining The Team & Getting Back To Play

That is a base hit. Ballers and bangers. This is Sports Talk 790. Home for your home teams. 1231 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. Matt and Ross with you. We go to the bubble Orlando, Florida, Walt Disney World War today.

I'm assuming that Coach Mike Day and Tony is in excellent spirits because A, he's healthy and B, he's got Russell Westbrook back. Coach, how are things? Good, man. How you doing? No complaints, no complaints. How did Russ look this morning? I look good.

Athletically, obviously, but pretty good shape. Probably did about 80% of our practice. And he looks good. So nothing on the ordinary. I mean, kind of picked up where he left off. You said 80% was just more as a precaution or anything else? Yeah, I mean, you know, we played about five games of six-minute games, so about 30 minutes.

He probably played about 20 minutes. He probably played about 24 of them, and everybody else pushed it a little bit harder, but you don't want to get his leg to make sure that he's okay. I mean, he could have done it, but I know he was risking it and kind of, you know, work him up to a level that I don't know if he'll play Friday or not for scrimmage, but after that, should be ready to go. I'm going to assume the gentlemen were very happy. His teammates were happy to see him.

Did PJ really, was he really surprised to see Russ up and around and able to come work out with him? Do I know? Was PJ really legitimately surprised to see Russ today? PJ. P.J. Tucker? No, well, why would he be surprised? Well, because I...

There was a Twitter feed. It's like he couldn't believe he was there. I'm like, that's why I was kind of confused by it. I don't know. Who knows? But he shouldn't have been surprised I was hoping earlier, but it didn't happen. It was good to have me now. So what kind of things, I mean, I would assume you wouldn't hold things back because Ross wasn't there,

but were you able to elevate and put a few new things in today because he was able to be with you guys in Orlando? No, we were just, we had to go over the things who already went over, which is okay. It's a little bit of course, somebody else. But for him, a couple new plays and a couple new wrinkles and just trying to, you know, add a little bit of whatever to it. Coach, it's Ross here. Do you think this is, you guys, to me, it seems like with Eric Gordon and the injuries that he was battling, and same thing with James Harden throughout the season. This break, in my mind, benefits you guys somewhat more than other teams.

So do you agree with that statement? Yeah, I think, you know, we'll see, obviously. But I think Gary Gordon definitely benefit from it. And you're right, some other guys, the same thing. You know, other teams, I don't know what they were dealing with, nagging injuries here and there, but it'll help us gather ourselves a little bit, be recharged. And, you know, we have to play at such a frantic pace that it should help us in theory.

But, you know, to make it a reality, we won't have to play faster and harder, see if we can do that. Busy with Mike Dan Tony here on the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Coach, you have been in the bubble now for a couple weeks, give or take. have the practices not necessarily ramped up but are they crisper than maybe they were say four or five days ago?

Yeah, it's getting better. Still a little ragged at everyone's wild. They're kind of tired of playing against each other and do normal stuff that you would find in the training camp. But I think that, you know, everybody's getting the rhythm back a little bit. They're looking pretty good. And the timing and the attitude has been great.

They're getting to a nice rhythm in the bubble. where, you know, it's mostly like training camp. You're eating and you're sleeping and come back and faxing and go back and eat and sleep and come back back back. So once you get in that routine and then we start playing games, it'll go back quicker. I think guys are in a pretty good place mentally. Was that a concern, not necessarily for just you and the Rockets, but just for all the coaches when you guys get together about keeping the guys mentally well during this time, knowing that they're going to be there hopefully a long time.

and on top of that, they're way from their friends and their family? A little bit, but I just go back to you. It's like USA basketball. That's the same thing we did when we'd go over to China or Japan, and you don't, you know, maybe that day didn't go on the excursion out to the city. So you're mostly hanging around the middle room where you're having, you know, you're just talking with players or here, at least they're going boating or they're doing, and they're having some activity.

So, no, I wasn't concerned. Oh, I thought that players would, if you like basketball, it would be great. And when the competition starts, there's going to make three or four games a day that you could either go to or watch it or on TV. And so it's going to be, you know, basketball 24 hours a day. But I think, you know, there's no distractions. It's just, you know, working on their craft. So, no, I didn't have a, you know, I thought players were that pretty quick. So eight games left in the regular season resumption, coach.

Besides, of course, winning games, what is it you want to see from the team? What are some of the things that you're looking forward to see out of your group? I just make sure that we get our timing and our chemistry and how we want to play and that we're doing. I know that we'll make mistakes, and I don't know how the eight games will go. You don't even know the teams that you're playing against. So they, you know, like the Lakers, they have nothing to play for it. they're going to be first. So does that, you know, so I don't know if it's a true test all the way through,

but I think everybody individually has to just try to get their teams ready. And then we'll see where the Chips fall. We'll see if we go up a little bit on the standings or slip a bit. It doesn't really matter. He's still playing against the same two, three, four teams that you would meet anyway. It just might be a different order. we know we have to beat and we'll try to be ready for him. Mike Dan Tony with us here on Sports Talk 790.

Clearly, you'll want to get to a rotation come playoff time of 8, 9, 10, whatever the number may be. But for these first three scrimmages, is this just a case where you want to give everybody just a little bit of time? Because my guesses are all antsy to go against somebody not named their own teammate. Well, I'm not going to get everybody a little bit of time, especially the first day we're going to play in 10 minutes of the first one. and that'll mostly be, you know, James got to get Rams up here and start to play some minutes.

So there's not a whole lot of minutes to play everybody. You know, we have like 13, 14, 10 guys. So we'll probably play 9, 10 guys and then go on to the second scrimmage and engage it from there. But, you know, I rely on medical staff and the players themselves to see if they need more minutes, last minute, see how they're doing and see what they need to work on. But obviously, the rotation, we're trying to get it down. down right and just making sure our main group of guys are ready to roll when it's time to go. How much time have you guys spent on the different courts where you'll be playing these games

in the next few weeks? Players have not seen them yet at all. And we had to walk through the coaches. A couple of us went over to look at it. And it's going to be pretty impressive. I think that the NBA does an unbelievable job. And, you know, I don't want to get too far ahead. but I think you guys will be, wow, that's pretty good fan experience to watch the games.

A lot of stuff that's going to look real. And I don't know. I think the players will be surprised. I think it'll be fun playing that way in that atmosphere. So looking forward to it, actually. I know that you said you were planning on wearing a mask while coaching the games, and I know that you're trying to be safe, but let's be honest. The reason why you're going to do that is so the officials can't read your

words, right? I mean, because when I'm not going to be able to hide you, coach, you know that. Well, one, they won't be able to see my face. They won't know if I'm saying anything to them or not. But I'm going to think about it is, mad. I'm sure. Oh, seriously. You should have been serious.

Is that we're in trouble right now because we haven't been wearing masks. And if we wear a mask, then everybody's safe to work and everybody, if we get this thing done. So, obviously, we have a platform. That's one. Right. Two, you know, I want to keep, in my players, safe and hopefully that and the best of my coaches and you do it because it's a right thing to do

and now we'll definitely be doing it what was it like hearing around the the bubble when the results came back yesterday that all those players took tests and you didn't have a single positive result I hope that resonated with the guys really really well yeah I think so I you know they've done terrific job just to get here you've already tested two or three times negative at least two or three times, but probably did about seven times, but two days in a row for sure. And then once you arrive, you're being quarantined. You're tested another two or three times over two days.

So that's like four days of four tests. And, you know, that probably weeded out some. I think some guys during that time got a positive, especially when they first got here. But after that, once you're in here, and it's controlled and you're testing every day, then I shouldn't get in here. You know, and everybody's, most, I would say, most people are very responsible and knowing how important it is to pull this off

in a safe manner. And most people are, you know, definitely going by the protocols, them, passing, distancing, and sanitizing everything and taking, just making sure that it's too important, too many people that some knuckleheads will mess it up. So everybody's doing a good job. Well, it's certainly very encouraging to hear.

The most important question we wrap up our conversation, coach. We were talking about you and what you like to do on the road and where you like to go eat and whatnot. A lot of our audience is curious about how you're getting your Italian fix during this time. It's tough. It's a little challenging, a lot of challenging. But you know what? Like I said, I think I can handle it.

The food's been getting better every day. And, guys, like, you know, again, we understand what we got to do and why we're here. And this is not bad at all. But, Coach, you know, your owner of this basketball team we all work for owns restaurants. He can really come up with something special for you if you needed to. Tell me one more time because Philadelphia, guys, we just walked off. Oh, I just said the – Sorry about the word.

Yeah. I just said that, you know, Tillman runs a few restaurants. I don't know if you know that or not. He can really create some special menu for you if you needed a little bit of something, something on the side. Yeah, we've been ordered out from his restaurants. And yeah, it's been great as always. All right.

We'll tell Joe Embed, we'll see you in the finals. And you and I will talk on Sunday because I've got the Rockets Grizzlies game. I'm looking forward to calling the game and talking with you again. Thanks for the time. And we'll visit you in later this week. All right. Sounds good, man. All right.

That's Mike Dan Toney with us here on the show. Do you think they're doing a lot of that? Hey, Joel, what's up, man? I don't, yeah, I think so. Ben Simmons, what's up? That shot looks great. Yeah, you know, people have always complained about how the camaraderie between teams rather than hating each other and how everybody grew up together through AAU

and they all know each other. And there's just not that animosity that there was in like the 1980s when everybody's getting fist fights. It's going to be even worse now. Everybody's going to be there, everybody's best friend, right? Do you see who's getting along now? Who's that? Charles Barkley and Draymond Green.

Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Oh, I thought you were going to say Rudy Gobert and Donald Mitchell. That's long done. Unsavageable. No, that's, yeah. Remember, I've had a pretty good summer predictions. Yes.

You and I argued about whether that was going to go bad. It's ugly. It's, well, you know, they're all right. I think they're going to live. He's going to pass the ball to him still. Until they get a lemonade and he's like, I'm getting the hell out of here. One of him's going to say that. Actually, Donovan's like, I'm going to get the hell out of here.

unless you trade. And then Rudy's going to be gone. And Rudy's playing for the Charlotte Hornets. Dang. 1244 is our time. We got some phone calls to get to on the Astros. We've got to do some more bitching about Yahoo and ESPN. It's just so, so irresponsible. It's just low-hanging fruit.

And look, we are in sports radio. We are the epitome of low-hanging fruit. We just are. Certainly as you age. Which, thankfully, we're all doing very gracefully here on the show. 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-790 with a message here for the Shell Federal Credit Union. Would you like to get low interest rates on your new vehicle? Use vehicle, perhaps a refinanced vehicle. It can happen all today by going to the Shell-FCU website at shellfcU.org. ShellfcU.org. Auto loan rates, listen to this, as low as 1.99% APR. And you get two skip a pays a year. And you get deferred payments. And you get $250 in cash bag. there is never a better time to refinance your vehicle or get a new vehicle today with a nice low interest rate than doing it right now with the Shell FCU.

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