Adrian Griffin on Raptors' defence with Poeltl and staying ready

Raptors coach Adrian Griffin discusses what he learned from coaching against the Pistons, how Jakob Poeltl helps the defence and players off the bench staying ready to contribute.

Video Transcript

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Go Chiefs, man, that was a tough game. Both teams played well enough to win know but I'm glad the Chiefs pulled it out it's a little too intense for me. But I thought taking the knee after yard line, like, that's gutsy call there. But it worked out, you know. So I learned something. I never saw that before. But that was pretty good.

- Hey Griffin, [? how was ?] your performance out there?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Um, always looking for ways to get better. You're always your toughest critic after a game, so, win or losses. And you know, I just love feedback. So one thing I try to do is just ask a lot of questions after the game to the other coaches, like, what could I've done better? What could the team have done better? And I got some really good feedback this morning about just managing, the game managing the rotations. And it's a lot goes into sitting in that chair.

- [INAUDIBLE] you get a guy back in the game?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Yeah

- [INAUDIBLE].

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Every game is a game within itself. You got so many moving parts. You got the starters you need to keep a nice flow. And then you got the subs coming in. And each guy has his own strengths and weaknesses. And you're trying to use their strength and magnify their strengths and try to minimize the weaknesses on the floor. And then you're trying to do that against their opponents. You know, how can we neutralize what they're doing.

So it's a lot. But I leaned on the-- like, any one of us as far as the coaches could have coached that game. We got a really good staff. Coach Nurse has done a great job assembling the staff. And the players were great. You know, like I said before, Freddie and all those guys were leaders on the court. And we always talk about having just a team of leaders. And so it was just a collective thing. But you always try to do some reflection after each game, win or loss.

- Getting a guy like Delano in there, was that a feel thing based on what you did in Detroit? [? Were there ?] things you use in your practices [? that you had liked? ?]

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Yes, for sure, just watching the game from the previous game in Detroit. You play extremely well on both ends of the floor. And he's working hard in practice. And we just felt like, OK, this is his time. And he didn't disappoint him, man. He was great. And all those guys coming off the bench, Malachi was particularly great. Thad always and Chris giving that energy. So we-- they held the lead. And they fought. And they bought us some time for our starters to get back into it.

- What do you think is the most important thing for Delano heading down the stretch in terms of what you guys are seeing?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: You just, like all young players, it's just all about with consistency just every day finding ways to get better and not-- when your lows-- you don't want your lows to be too low. You know, and when the coach puts you in the game, you always just try to maintain the lead. You don't want to give up the lead. You don't want to make mistakes and turnovers.

That doesn't mean you have to go for 30. A lot of times it's just about being solid. I played that role many times in my career where you just want to maintain the lead and work hard and get some defensive stops and buy some time for the starters to come back in the game. So everyone has a role on the team and the biggest message sometimes with young players is this is a team sport. You know, and in a perfect world you'll get 20, 30 shots. But it just doesn't happen that way all the time.

And you just kind of wait to it's your time to shine. Everyone's going to get an opportunity. But you just got to embrace the little things. It's-- sometimes younger guys only see-- and I'm not talking about Delano. I'm just saying in general, a lot of times younger guys only see what's right in front of them instead of long term and longevity. It's really about making a career out of this. And you want to play 10, 12 years if you're lucky. And then that's about being a constant pro. And sometimes you're going to sit there maybe be a game or two.

But when the coach calls your name, you got to go in and produce. And when you do good things happen. This league rewards you. We've seen it time and time again. You do the right things over and over again, you get rewarded.

- Is that something you look for on the bench where it's like, hey, they're maybe not getting an opportunity. But are they still locked into the game? Or are they still [INAUDIBLE] stuff?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Well, that's the minimum. That's-- as a professional athlete, you know, your job is to stay ready. Of course, we appreciate the professionalism. But that's your job. You know, I've done that the course of my career where you just got to train. And you got to keep working. You may not see the results at the time. But there's going to be a moment during the season where the coach puts you in the game. And it's up to you to perform. And I think one of the toughest things for young guys to understand is that you have to convince the coach to play you. And sometimes they want in reverse. They want the opportunity first, and then I'll show you.

But you have to show them every day when you go into practice and your work ethic and your attention to the details, your concentration, even if it's just drill work. And that's how you build trust. When you're consistent every day and you continue to do the right things, you show up, the trust is built. And then the coach feels comfortable putting you in the game. So basketball is a good life lesson, teacher, motor. Sports, it teaches you a lot about discipline and doing the right thing and building character.

- What do you feel like has been the biggest area of growth since you guys last played Orlando?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Well, I think-- I mean, just take the last couple of games. And like, we deserve to win both of those games. And I think last night, we played well enough to win, obviously. And the fourth quarter we stuck together. We kept executing. Yesterday they made-- they scored 40 points. But we also scored. And sometimes that's all you need when you have a lead that's kind of balance them out a little bit. You just can't go 40 points and then only score 20 points in a quarter. Obviously, that-- that's not going to work on your favor.

But I think overall, Coach Nurse's message, like, people don't understand. Like, we've been really practicing hard and. He's really-- we-- the player's been putting a lot into it. We always talk about if you put a little into it, you're going to get a little out. You put a lot into it, you're going to get a lot out. So our shootarounds, our practice has been sharp. Like, coach been holding everyone to a high start standard. And the players been holding themselves to high standards. So like I said before, sometimes you don't see immediate results. But you keep doing the right thing, like how we're moving in the right direction. I like how we're playing for each other and trying to help each other, especially on the offensive end and then covering for each other on the defensive end.

Defensively, I thought we did a tremendous job. They were under 100 points until probably the last five minutes of that game. So you can see the effort out there. You can see the just a willingness to put forth and do the hard work. So I think that's kind of the biggest thing.

- How much can one guy-- and I'm talking about [INAUDIBLE]. How much can one guy sort of change your whole defensive outlook? In terms-- I mean, you guys have struggled all year, right, that's not [INAUDIBLE]. You got one guy, you got a rim protector now. How much can that one person change it?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Well, it's certainly a luxury that I have someone with his size. And he's just a smart, intelligent player. His-- when you can get stops, it just-- it's funny how one hand watches the other. Like, when-- the defensive end, like, we have guards, we're a pressure defense, right. So sometimes we may get beat off the dribble because we're up there pressuring the ball so much. But to have someone like Jakob at the rim giving us that rim protection and block shots and limit them to one shot. You limited to one shot and you can get out and run, and you're going to have some good success.

So his size and also his basketball IQ. And like, we were switching with our DHOs. And he was switching on to Bogdanovic a few times. He did a great job. He understands you got to press up on shooters and get them inside the line. And he's only been with us for a couple of days. And he's already picked up a lot of our concepts. So he's only going to get better, right. And then when Coach Nurse gets back, and Coach Nurse works his magic, good things are in store.

- What do you think of his ability to switch positions probably more so than he was doing in San Antonio?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Well, obviously, it's something that we use sparingly and strategically. We're not going to switch every possession down. But there's going to be times when he's going to have to switch. And we got to have that help build in the back side for him. But I think he just-- with his size, he just knows-- a lot of defense, like I had slow feet, but a lot of defense is positioning and working their angles and knowing how to cut people off at the right angle. And you don't have to be the fastest guy. But with him, he knows how to, kind of, get wide and long and use his length and keep guys in front. And if he's not able to keep them in front, he knows where the help is.

So you know, like I said, like, it's a work in progress. But I think we're heading in the right direction.

- We've seen Precious Achiuwa fill in a lot for essentially OG's spot that [INAUDIBLE]. Normally he's guarding in the paint. But now he's [INAUDIBLE] in the [INAUDIBLE]. What do you make of his role change in that sense and also sort of his versatility overall [INAUDIBLE]?

ADRIAN GRIFFIN: Well, in my opinion, since-- pressures have been with him. We've put him on the toughest-- even dating back to last year, we have put him on the toughest offensive guy. And he just has a knack-- uncanny knack with his size to move his feet. He has a great feet. And I thought he did a great job on Bogdanovic. There were times when Bogdanovic got a little loose, got a little free, got a couple of 3's off we normally don't want to give up. But before the game, Precious wanted to take the challenge. When we were doing-- when we found out Gary was out and we were looking at, OK, what are the match ups?

And we-- obviously we knew that Bogdanovic is their guy. And he's the guy you got to stop. And Precious wanted to take that challenge. And even throughout the game when there was times that Bogdanovic was making some tough shots, Precious just wanted to stay on him. And I thought he did a great job.

And then he made some timely shots in the fourth quarter at the rim. Fourth quarter is the time you got to get to the rim, you got to get to the free throw line, especially when teams are making runs. So I thought Pascal did a good job getting to the free throw line. And then Precious made that move in the post that helped kind of give us that lead.