“He's just tough . . . he plays extremely hard, he's played for some good coaches, and he's a good player. I've talked to Larry Brown (who coached James in Detroit). Larry thinks the world of him, he's never had any problems anywhere he's played. We're hoping that improves our chemistry.”
“I just know how to deal with the players different now. You've got to learn as a coach, and especially first year with new players, which buttons to push, and how to push them, and when to push them.”
“I'm going to try to empower my guys to help teach, to help motivate, to help encourage them, to help these guys when they have a bad stretch to keep their confidence up.”
“Right now, everyone's going to predict different teams and they should. San Antonio, Miami, those teams on paper have guys stronger. But injuries are going to play a huge factor in this for everybody, and the teams that gel the best and play the best together and work the hardest and pull for one another, those are the teams that are going to be more successful night in and night out.”
“We're going to simplify a lot of the things that we do because we are young, we're going to try to get as good as we can in a few things and not try to be mediocre in a lot of things. I think if we can do that, we'll have some success.”