We want, obviously, open, good threes. It's important to us.

That's where your defense starts. If you are not good in transition, you probably aren't going to be good. Or you'll be taking it out of the net and playing a lot of offense.

I think days like Wiffle ball and other things that we do throughout the year to hopefully get guys to maybe take a breath and enjoy each other and enjoy this process and enjoy the season. I would argue that it helps you heighten your focus when it's needed. You never know; us coaches will try anything.

We always say the wine tastes a little better after a win.

For every team in the playoffs, their defensive intensity, their defensive attention to detail just becomes greater.

I've got all these memories of guys just trying to get steals and not being very solid or very good defensively. They have all these steals so they must be a great defender. I usually find it to be the opposite.

Respect for your teammates is important to us.

I always say you learn so much from the players.

As coaches, whether we're making personnel decisions or not, we're all critical of ourselves. We always want to get better. We push our players to do that. But nobody bats 1.000.

No matter what the matchup is, you have to make it a good matchup.

Any NBA coach, you just try to figure out what is best for your group.

The way things were done in San Antonio gave me a great 19-year look into how you can have sustained success.

Whoever has a great idea, it doesn't matter who it comes from. You just want to have as many good ideas as you can.

There is great effort to balance the short term with the long term. How are we trying to achieve sustained success? That includes success now.

Sometimes coaching is being hard on them, but there's a balance. I'm fine with the word nurturing. It's teaching in a positive way. You have to find what works for each group.

Organizations go through change.

Pop is amazing about listening to everybody.

The thing Pop did for me and did for a lot of coaches is - he let me coach. It seems really simple, and that's the beauty of being with Pop and being around Pop.

As an assistant you have lots of ideas and suggestions that might be perfect for that moment and time, but you don't think through all of the ramifications down the road. As a head coach it's about being conscious of the whole group and what's best for us long term. And that's on and off the court.

As a coach, I've got to get better. I've got to improve.

Guarding and defending is not easy.

If you're conscientious of where your team is, and the opportunities and what's available to them, I think you'd be naive - I don't think anyone would believe you - if you said that you weren't aware of it.

There's no doubt that having some guys on the bench that have been through things, and that are older and experienced, understand not just the highs but the lows of losing a game. Winning and keeping a steadiness throughout a game, their voice in timeouts, it's really valuable.

When you watch great teams around the league, whenever they lose, you don't want to be the team that comes and plays them next.