To wrap up our coverage, we’d like to present two exclusive interviews. OSL’s Mike Whitman discussed the team’s immediate future with shooting coach John Townsend and assistant coach Joe Prunty.
John Townsend -
OSL: There are only a few teams in the league who employ a shooting-specific coach. Talk about how your role has expanded with this year’s team.
JT: I don’t know if it’s expanded so much as it is me being more hands on. You know, my first year year with the team, I went with Taurean Green and Josh McRoberts to the D-league and spent some time with them…especially Josh who was probably one of my main assignments. Compared to now, you know, last season, I traveled quite a bit with the team. I was on every trip except for one, where I had an intestinal virus, and they wouldn’t let me fly. So it wasn’t like the team wanted me to stay back. So I would say it’s just more hands on now. I mean, my first year, I would still get all the players who needed some work, needed some reps, or needed a little tweak, and I’ve done that last season as well. So it’s probably just a little more hands on, where I can get some reps with the guys before games or on days off.
OSL: You say “the guys.” I’ve heard you’ve been working a lot with Martell during his downtime as he recovers from his injury. Is that correct?
JT: I haven’t spent that much time with Martell. Martell is a gym rat as it is. He’s in the gym a lot. If I’m there, and he has any questions, obviously I’m available. The way I coach, it’s more like [I'll say], “Hey, Martell, everything looks great, and these are the two things that you’re doing really well. I don’t know if he’s lost weight, but he’s really lean. He’s light on his feet. He’s jumping well on his shot. He basically has his shot back from what it was this time last year.
OSL: Somebody else who has slimmed down is Brandon Roy. A concern could be that him being lighter could hurt him going to the hole and banging bodies. Do you think him being lighter will help his jump shot?
JT: Yeah, I think it’ll definitely help his jump shot. I think for him, just watching him shoot…he had a repetition this fall where I think he had 16 in a row…four in a row from four different spots. It’s just a matter of him getting his timing back and jumping. I mean, he shoots better with a hand in his face, because you jump up, and you don’t think about it. You just shoot it. Compared to if he’s left open, he just doesn’t have that timing yet where he just jumps up and lets it fly. But he’s been shooting the ball really well. I think lighter for him all around is going to be better, and even on his jump shot.
OSL: Has anybody else taken a big stride so far, or is there anything that’s jumped out at you as a coach that’s a big improvement for somebody?
JT: I think Steve Blake has maintained his consistency. He’s an unbelievably smart worker, and you could translate that as being a hard worker. But he knows what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it. Whether or not somebody else is doing something different, well, that’s somebody else. That’s not Steve Blake. He’s very, very smart. He’s very consistent at what he does. So I would say it’s very impressive considering he shot basically 43 percent – a career year from three – with a major injury to that shooting shoulder. And coming of the surgery, I think he’s maintained consistency.
I think Jerryd Bayless is shooting the ball a lot better. He was working with [former Phoenix Suns head coach] Frank Johnson. Frank got him to do some of the things I couldn’t get him to do in regard to jumping, which transferred into a higher lift and a better, more consistent jump shot. So, he shot the ball really well in some of the scrimmages that we saw this fall.
I think Travis and Martell have both shot the ball really well. So, we’ll see.
Joe Prunty -
OSL: I’ve heard this year that the Trail Blazers are going to try to play faster and get more fast-break buckets. The last couple of years, the Blazers have been one of the slower-paced teams in the league. Is there any truth to that?
JP: Well, that’s the funny thing. I think a lot of teams around the league always say, “Oh yeah, we’re going to run, or we’re going to do this or that.” What you end up doing is what fits best with winning games with your personnel. I think there might be a few more opportunities to run [for us]. We did improve last year from the previous year.
To backtrack a little, when I was [an assistant coach] in San Antonio, we were known as a slow-down [style team]. And the fact of the matter was, it wasn’t that we didn’t run, we just didn’t run like Phoenix did. So, we were always willing to look for a great way to get an easy basket. So if there was an opportunity to run, then we would do it. But we weren’t going to do it at the expense of throwing the ball all over the gym. And I think it’s very similar here. We’d love to run if that’s going to produce an easy basket. But if it’s not, then we’re not going to do it for the sake of just getting a shot up in five to 10 seconds if we can get a better shot in 15 seconds. If there are opportunities, we’ll take them, but not at the expense of turning the ball over.
OSL: Do you think that running might be more of a focus due to the acquisition of Andre Miller?
JP: Well, that’s what we’re going to find out. Does he help our guys…throwing the ball ahead? And Steve does a very good job with that. Do our guys get out and run the wings better? We did a really good job at the end of last year running lanes, LaMarcus in particular on what we call a rim run, and running the floor hard. And so there’s a lot of components to doing it, and you never want to put it on just one person. We think he can help, because he gets the ball up, and he does make other people better, but it requires the wings running, and it requires the bigs running and having good floor balance.
OSL: That was one of the things last year that really jumped out at me was LaMarcus making that rim run right down the center of the floor at sort of a strange time where defenses weren’t really expecting. You’ve got your wings running full-blast and the five trailing the ball, and then LaMarcus just in front of the ball scoring easy buckets. What can we expect from LaMarcus’ game this year? Has he put on any muscle? Are we going to see anything different out of him?
JP: You know, I haven’t seen him recently, but I will soon with camp starting [Monday, Sept. 28]. One thing, and this is important for all our guys, you can’t rest on anything that you’ve done in this league. Whether it’s winning 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 games. You know, the Lakers are the defending champions this year. They’re not resting on being the defending champions. Every team wants to go out and get it done this year. So it’s not just LaMarcus. It’s everybody. We want to take another step. Improve at least one facet of your game, and maintain all the other ones. Whether it’s being a better defender and still shooting 40 percent from the three, or getting 10 rebounds instead of 7 and blocking a few more shots. If we can increase it and improve it, we want to do that. And that’s everybody, not just one guy.
OSL: Brandon is coming in much lighter this year, right around 203 lbs. I also heard from shooting coach John Townsend that Martell is a little bit lighter. He thinks that’s going to help them with their outside game as far as jump shooting, getting more lift, things like that. Do you think that will hurt them driving in the lane, Brandon especially having less meat on his bones?
JP: Obviously in this league, being in great condition is of paramount importance. You can never underestimate that. Playing the game the right way, sharing the ball, playing good defense requires you to be in excellent physical condition. One of the things that great players do is they adjust their games as need be to improve it. So Brandon isn’t going to do something that’s going to be a detriment to one area of his game. If he’s lighter or heavier, then he’s going to do things a little bit differently based on that.
A guy like Tim Duncan, for example, has never been a tremendous athlete. But if something is bothering him, then he doesn’t go to that as much, or he’ll find a different counter to it. So I use a guy like him because he’s been an MVP, because he’s won championships. Well, that’s what we’re trying to get to with our guys. And so that’s something for a guy like Brandon to do. How can I improve in one phase of my game without being a detriment to another part. So, I don’t think it’s going to hurt him in the post or something like that. And I think he’ll figure those things out, because he’s that smart, and he’s that talented.
But I also think a guy like Martell is going to have to figure his niche out. He only played five minutes last year. And I know for me that I don’t want to put too much pressure on him to begin the season. You can’t make up for one year in one game. It’s going to take time to get back into the rhythm, feel comfortable, get re-acclimated with the system. Don’t put any pressure [on yourself] other than getting better everyday. And I think that if we do that as a team, that will take care of a lot of that stuff. If we just get better as individuals and as a team, all these other things, whether it’s weight or conditioning, they will take care of themselves.
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