Antonio Harvey: There are reports that a number of players are already at the practice facility working out. Can you confirm it first, and second, are you seeing things that make you feel good about the future of the franchise seeing as how the Blazers don’t have a draft pick? Terry Stotts: First of all, the are there. Last year we did the same thing. A lot of the young guys came in in June and it really helped with their development going forward, it helped with summer league. CJ, Allen, Will, Meyers, Joel, T.Rob, they’re all there and then we bring in some other guys so we have enough guys so we have enough guys to play five-on-five full court. We incorporate individual work, some two-on-two, three-on-three, fundamentals, offense, defense. We did it last week, this week and next week and then they’ll take a break and then we hit summer league. I think it’s invaluable, different parts of it. But just to get out there and play and keep feeling like you’re making the improvement. We need some of these guys, if not all of them, we need somebody to come in and make a difference next year and hopefully it’s one of these guys. Brian Wheeler: Maybe you can clarify Coach: what are you allowed to do with the guys at this time of the year when they come back and it’s the offseason though? Terry Stotts: We’re allowed to do anything up to three-on-three. We can coach and do anything that’s three-on-three. Once it gets to four-on-four, five-on-five, they can play but that’s when we have to step off and juts let them go. What we try to do in these workouts is do a lot of individual work, one-on-one, two-on-two, talk about schemes defensively and do that within the concept of three-on-three. Tone, you know what we’re talking about. And then trying to incorporate that so when they do play four-on-four, it kind of gives them a foundation. Antonio Harvey: How is my guy Meyers doing Coach? People were down on him, especially last season, but I try to remind people he’s only got four years of basketball in his blood and two of those were against high school kids who were 5-11, so he never really had to develop. I see a bright future for the young man. Terry Stotts: I do, too. What’s disappointing for me is we win 54 wins and, by all accounts, it’s a terrific season and if you want to focus on Meyers not getting a chance to play, it seems like it’s taking a myopic look on this past season. Meyers, Joel Freeland beat him out. It was much more about what Joel did than what Meyers didn’t do. Meyers has come in, he’s working very hard, he’s a talented big man. It’s a catch-22 because he’s in a situation where, like you said, he hasn’t had an opportunity to play at this level against high competition an he didn’t get that opportunity since we were in a winning mode last season that he wasn’t given the opportunity to develop and play through mistakes that a lot of young big guys get in that situation.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 17:53:59 +0000
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