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Speaker 1: Let it No.

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Speaker 2: One Sports Talk seven Andi, We're gonna spend ten minutes

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with our friend he May Doka Rockets will be taken

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on the Oklahoma City Thunder tomorrow and OKAC we'll visit

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with coach about what has happened so far the last

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couple nights. Disappointing performance is obviously against Boston and against Charloie. Coach,

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thank you for the time. It feels like and this

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happens with every NBA team. You certainly be in the

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league long enough, maybe there's sometimes a race to the

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All Star breaking. You guys, especially your stars, have played

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a lot of minutes, and I know that's an excuse,

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but how much does that play a factor with the

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way that maybe you think your squad's played the last

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couple nights.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it looks like our energy isn't there no doubt?

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Speaker 3: And so for us, you know, before the Boston game,

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we talked about our last five games with Boston, Charlotte

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go on to OKC and then the Clippers on the

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back to back. We want to finish on a good note.

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A lot of teams in the league. League is struggling,

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are struggling right now, and we don't want to be

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one of those who want to go the opposite way,

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and obviously haven't had the right energy or competitiveness in

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the last two games.

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Speaker 2: And one of the things that has been such a

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trademark of your front, your team, well you've been in charge,

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is winning the fifty to fifty balls, and I'm sure

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there's a metrics to determine that the last couple of games,

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and it feels like those have not been a part

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of the Rockets repertoire the last couple of nights.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that stood out for sure, that lack of rebounding.

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I think you know, you can count fifty to fifty

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balls loose balls or offensive rebounds for other teams, and

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you know, to be to give up twenty against Boston

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and then be out rebounding last night on offensive glass by Charlotte,

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you know, a team that's playing more small than you know,

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one one or two bigs at a time shows that

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the competitiveness on the glass is not there, the race

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sales balls not there, and areas that we usually dominated

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we're getting beat in.

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Speaker 2: There was a comment that you were responding to about

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the pick and roll with Alpie, and there was some

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defensive issues again last night. That's got to be something

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that you know that Alpi has got to feel bad about.

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Obviously that he had used a couple of times on

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baskets he was so fluid offensively, and then the last

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couple of games, is that ankle causing maybe perhaps more

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issues that he's want to.

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Speaker 3: Let on to be at this point, I mean, there's fatigue,

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no doubt, and you know, you tweak it a few times,

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you're going to be a little limited with your movement.

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But I don't think Albert was going to use as

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an excuse. So you know, obviously played through it and

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they had a great game in Indiana, and it's going

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to be up and down until you can kind of

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rest it. But you know, I think just in general,

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it's not just on the outpeat picking roll as.

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Speaker 1: A two two main defense.

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Speaker 3: Two people after guard and our guards are getting clipped

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way too easily on screens and not really fighting through.

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Speaker 1: So it's tough when.

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Speaker 3: Guys are coming downhill, you got a lot of threat

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behind you, and uh, we just need to do a

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better job overall being up at the level initially to

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take them off the jump shot and then keeping the

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roller in front of you.

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Speaker 2: On that it's you're not teaching this. I mean, these

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are grown men that have been playing basketball a long time.

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They've been around picking rolls all their life. But what

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kind of adjustments can you make? Is it it simply

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showing Alpi or anybody else involved in that that here's

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what's happening on videos. You got to fight through these things.

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You got to be able to get a step ahead.

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What do you all of a sudden in the middle

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of a season, when you're trying to play three games

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in four nights to say, hey, if this is on tape,

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other teams are going to try to do this against you.

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Speaker 3: No, you definitely can teach it and still walk through it,

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and then you know, shoot arounds and get our technique

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back to where we were, you know, obviously training campus

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for those reasons. And when you're one of the best

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in the league at it, you know, the technique starts

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to slip, obviously, And so for us, it's like I said,

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it's not just out for and it's guys impacting the ball,

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getting into the ball when the screen's there and kind

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of fighting over and blowing it up. But that's the

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first point of it. And so you know, we're taking

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a circular route to try to get back in front

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or running right into the screen, which leads two on one,

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and so starts with the ball handler. We always put

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the onus on them to get through and the contest

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guys and get back in their rear view. But if not,

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Alpi has to you know, play two for a second,

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hold up for a little bit and let guys get

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back in front without giving up the lob.

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Speaker 2: Like I said, a similar bad stretch last year heading

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into the All Star Break. And then of course we

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know in December, with a lot of traveling games on

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the road, there were some losses that you guys would

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have liked to not have. What do you take away

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from that as far as trying to get out of

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this funk.

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Speaker 3: The shooting will come back around eventually, and that was

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the case in December. So it's a little bit different

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here where you know, yeah, guys aren't playing at their best,

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no doubt, but the energy and the competitiveness was there

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in December. It was just a case of missshots and

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if you don't compete at the level we did and

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you missed the shots like we did, and there had

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been a lot of blowouts but they were very close games,

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some overtime losses, and so that's what we got to

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get back to the edge and just the competitiveness on

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the defensive side, offensively being aggressive and confidence still and

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that's the main thing now, you know, it's just missing

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shots before and we're still in games where now we

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got to bring the juice and energy that we didn't

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have in these last two games.

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Speaker 2: Head coach imy Adoka with us here on Sports Talk

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seven ninety No moves made at the trade deadline? Was

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there anything that as far as discussions you were involved

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in where there were some moves that were possibly close,

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And I guess it seems like the chalk topic is

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that you guys might be active in trying to find

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some buyout moves.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt.

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Speaker 3: People called we have a lot of young, talented players

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and a deep team, So teams were definitely calling about

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our guys that we like where we're at.

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Speaker 1: I think with our group.

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Speaker 3: You know, you have Fred Out, you have Steven Alis,

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so some of our depth has gone there and some

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of our you know better than leadership and.

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Speaker 1: IQ and those things.

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Speaker 3: But the team that we have now has got us

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the fourth place in the West right now, not playing

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our best right now, and we know we have a

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much higher ceiling that we can get to, and so

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what we want to see is just get back to

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who we've been.

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Speaker 1: You know, a lot of teams are struggling right now.

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Speaker 3: If you look at the standings or the streaks right now,

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we're seven and three on our last ten even with

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those two losses, and a bunch of teams are five

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and five, four and six, you know, kind of going

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through it right now. And that's when you look at

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okay See or Minnesota or the teams right around us.

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A lot of teams are going through this right for

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All Star breaks. So we're going to do stay of

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the course with our guys, see growth and improvement with

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our young guys throughout the rest of this season, and

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that was our that was our mindset with it right now.

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Speaker 1: As far as a buy out, you.

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Speaker 3: Know, there will be guys out there and there will

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be opportunities to look and we obviously can do something then,

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but it has to fit has to kind of go

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with our plan of improving with our young guys through

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the rest of the season and seeing if anything we

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can add will help us, like really, really jump into this,

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into that lineup. You know, it's tough to beat out

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some of the guys that we have now, and so

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we'll look at that when the time comes.

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Speaker 2: Hey, when I don't know if Rafel and you were

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on conference calls or Rafel came to you, but were

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there some calls you took that were like, are you

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kidding me? Or are you too late in the game

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to be doing silly kind of trade proposals?

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Speaker 3: I mean, there always are guys will throw out names

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of of the guys they like, and you know, throw

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out scenarios, and it's just really exploratory things, and I

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think for the most part, we shut those down pretty

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pretty quickly.

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Speaker 1: But no, when you have them out of talent that we.

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Speaker 3: Have and guys that some of the guys aren't starters

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that would be starters and other teams, teams are definitely

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gonna call about them and and throw out some ridiculous

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trades and stuff like that. But obviously, we love our crew,

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we love the core of our team, and like I said,

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it's all about getting back to doing what we were

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doing previously before these few games.

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Speaker 2: And when it comes to buy out guys and maybe

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grabbing somebody late. Is that an agent, Tom GM call?

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Can a player call you? Can you speak to them?

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What are the what are the rules about that kind

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of stuff.

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Speaker 3: I mean, once guys get bought out, their agents look

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for the best situation for them, and you know kind

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of canvas the league and rosters for situations that might

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be a good fit.

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Speaker 1: And you know, it's got to be a mutual thing.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, for us, like I said, it's it's going

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to take something incredible to you know, crack rotation and

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you know, kind of display some of the guys that

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are playing really well for us, and so we're more

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focused on ourselves. No doubt there would be some things

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that will probably be appealing, but we'll see when the

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time comes. It's just definitely a two way street as

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far as that, let's go.

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Speaker 2: To read real quick for let your run. There have

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been some magical games for him, and obviously he's playing

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much more than they ever played last year and it's

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given you much more production. But there has been a

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slump of the about the last five or six games.

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I don't know if you want to chalk it up

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to additional minutes going against the greatest players in the world,

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ball doesn't leave his hands while angles. Where have you

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seen the down production from reads in the last two

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weeks or so.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely just the mainy chats I think, you know,

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similar to Jabari going through it earlier and I'll be

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going through it at times. Young guys specifically are going

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to have these throughout their career, especially early on. And

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so it's it's it's mentally staying confident, continue to be aggressive,

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you know, and and and slowing down and taking and

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make the same shots you got. You know, you can't

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get better looks, and we are with a lot of guys,

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and for us, it's not rushing the shot or getting

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anxious with missus. But also you don't want to just

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determine a great game on made shots only. And so

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that's where we reiterate the point to the guys that

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if you're missing shots, are still other ways to impact

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the game, and we've seen guys do that without scoring

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a ton. But obviously for scorers and shooters, it can

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get into your head a little bit when you're missing

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these open shots.

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Speaker 1: You start to press a little bit.

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Speaker 3: But we want guys to stay confident, aggressive of knowing

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that you know, it just takes one game to kind

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of get out of that shooting slump, but you know,

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it sucks that it does happen to everybody. And then

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the worst part is when it's a bunch of guys

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at the same time. You know, he's the kind of

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snowball effect there, and we've seen games this year what

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that happened.

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Speaker 1: And right now, if you guys are going through it, well, let's.

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Speaker 2: End on a positive note. Jabarsmith Jr. Was seventeen points

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last night. Nice to see him bouncing back and the

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three point shooting has been better from that slump that

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he went to in the middle of January. Just your

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overall thoughts on him on both ends of the floor

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and specifically that kind of pet go to bread and

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buttershot of his that pull up mid range is really

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going down nicely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I.

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Speaker 3: Said, it's just continue to stay the course, you know,

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trust the work.

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Speaker 1: That you put in. We have faith that guys will.

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Speaker 3: Continue to work their way out of these shooting slumps,

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and he did that, and so it was great to

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see him back, you know, making the shots that he

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was making it a high clip early in the year,

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and we know that's always going to happen, it's going

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to come back around. But you know, as you're going

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through it, it's hard, but guys understand that they have

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to continue to be aggressive, continue to not shy away

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from things, and then, like I said, impact the game

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in other ways.

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Speaker 1: But Jabari with his.

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Speaker 3: Size and versatility and get to that spot and pretty

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much shoot it over anybody. And so good to see

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him obviously knocking down the threes, getting back to his

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mid range pull up which is very confident, comfortable in.

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And like I said, once he starts to make his

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like he has and Alfie gets his touch back around

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the basket and read makes these shots here you'll see

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it start to flip for us again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, man, thanks for the time. Good luck you Okay,

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so you'll see on the plane this afternoon, and we

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appreciate you joining us as always.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,