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Friends, Welcome in to an early September edition of this League Uncut. Mark Stein here with Chris Haynes. We kind of tease this one. We didn't want to give too much away because I get superstitious sometimes and I don't want to I don't want to take take a guest booking for granted, But we did it. We have secured a special guest for this edition of this League Uncut. And it's especially timely because our guest is Day Jae is coaching the Los Angeles Clippers, but he is a
member of USA Basketball's coaching staff. At the Feeble World Cup. It is Monday morning, Manila time, the morning after the United States incurs its first loss at this World Cup Sunday night in Manila, Sunday daytime in the United States, Team USA losing one ten, one oh four to Lithuania. But when Taran Lou makes a date, he keeps the date and he joins US now again live from Team USA camp in Manila. Coach, it is so good to be with you.
Thank you very much.
I am.
I guess what what's the strategy coaching staff wise to kind of what's going to be the messaging to the team today after obviously a result that you guys were not expecting, just.
Having a good film session, you know, just seeing the the speed and the force that they play with offensively, which we talked about, you know, going into the game and you really can't, you know, simulate until you actually get on the floor and see how they play. And so they've been leading the FEBA game offensive rebounds. We tell how important that was going to be, but coming out making their first nine threes, you know, it really put us behind the eight ball.
Coach, were also want to ask about those threes you talked about the offensive rebounding and the three pointers made.
Obviously they will in the tear there.
You know, oftentimes when there's a team that is just expected to pretty much be the team that's targeted every now and then there's a setback, or you might call the setback or whatever, but oftentimes people will say, well they needed that, you know, is that is that kind of the alignment that you kind of think about, you know, after after that loss, you say, is that something that was needed or how do you process that?
I mean, I don't think.
I think it's better to learn from from winning, you know, than it is you know, just seeing the second half how we competed. We made some adjustments and just kind of seeing like how we had to play them and what we had to do.
And our guys are a great job of fighting back.
When you get down by so much, you know, any mistake, you know, can you know spring the lead back up again. And so that's what happened because I think for four or like five and a half minutes to go in the third quarter and we just couldn't get over that hump.
But you know, our team, like I said, they've been great.
They've been preparing and to put a team together for three or four weeks, you know, expecting to be great.
You know right away then you know it's gonna be tough to do.
And so our whole mindset coming into our coaching staff and our players to get better every game.
And so we still have the opportunity.
Yesterday, it was a tough game for it when we see what we need to do in order to be successful in fever with basketball.
I mean, Lithuania had eighteen offensive rebounds, and I think everybody knew going into this tournament that rebounding would be an issue for the United States just because you don't have a lot of size on the roster. But the slow starts have kind of also been something that we've it's it's it's I think it's fair to say it's become a bit of a pattern at this point. How concerned have you been and the coaching staff about the slow starts we've seen.
Yeah, we talked about just you know, getting off the better starts and not easy into the game. And so, like I said, we have a target on our back or on our chest or whatever you want to however you want to say it, and we just gotta we got to come in.
With the mindset. We're going to start the game with a defensive mindset.
We're going to play the right way, and we've been getting off to slow starts and against these good teams, you can't you know, you can't afford to do that. So last night was a good test for us. We knew it was going to test our defensive principles and like they've made a lot of threes. They got to the paint, the pick and role play was really good. So you know, coming into the game tomorrow, you know, we got to lock in and understand what we got to get better.
At coach of of all the coaches on the on your coaching staff right now, I look at this this roster and how it's constructed, and obviously these are star players. Borderline star players are on the cuffs of being star players, and you have to try to distribute the minutes however
way you guys see fit. But you know a lot of these guys they have they have egos, they want to play, and you're probably the most equipped of that coaching staff because you you have to deal with a pretty deep light up, a pretty deep squad with the Clippers, how have you had to what was what has the conversations been like with some of the players who may feel like they're not getting enough time or won a different role, Like what's the conversation, How how you had
those conversations and how as your time with the Clippers helped in having those conversations.
Well, you know, I think with our players that we have here, they understand and so just trying to keep them engaged.
But they've been great, you know, and all twelve guys deserve to play.
Us a tough position to be put in, but they understand that we're just trying to do what's best for the team. They're gonna have their opportunity that you got to stay ready and our biggest and main main goals to bring home the goal. And so our guys we have on the team, they understand that. And Grant and Sean Ford and those guys, and Jim Tilley done a great job of just selecting guys that we're gonna be on board with, you know, just winning. And so that's
what we're focused on. That's what our twelve players are focused on. And they're gonna get opportunities. You know, you never know when they're gonna come, but they're gonna come, and they've been putting in the work, you know, And like I said, all twelve guys are ever to play, and all twelve guys are great to play.
Clippers coach t Roan Lou joining us here on this league uncut, joining us from Manila because this summer to Roan Lou is a member of Steve Kerr's coaching staff alongside Eric Spolstra, alongside Mark Few and that staff as we speak dealing with Team USA's first dose of adversity Sunday a loss to Lithuania to complete the preliminary rounds. The United States now has to rebound Tuesday quarterfinals against Italy.
It is knockout time. There is no more room for any kind of losing if the United States hopes to win a gold medal, something it hasn't done in this competition since twenty fourteen. Ty, how shaken do you think the guys were by losing a game? From what you've seen and interacting with the guys after the game and today, how do you think they cope? They're coping with it.
Oh yeah, I don't think it was shaken any more.
Pissed off you know about the way we played, how we didn't establish a defensive presence to start the game, and you know, and you should be pissed off. And so you know, they're not shaking at all, Like their conference is not shaken. It's just that, you know, we knew we could play better. We didn't play our best game, and so that the way they took it to us, they were aggressive. They was a more aggressive team and
then they won. And so our guys know, we got to come back and regroup, but we're not shaking it all.
Coach, Can you take us behind the scenes a little bit and share some of the moments after a game like that that that leaves you to be encouraged The.
Way we played in the second half, you know, I think, you know, being down seventeen, I think we're down twenty one at one point, but being down seventeen a halftime and cut the lead to you know four in a matter of you know, five and a half minutes, You know, that's something to be encouraged by. And like, you know, be able to make adjustments on the fly, and then just seeing our teams fight, you know, and our will to win and so on. The way we played in
that second half was great. You know, we knew it. You know, it was a preliminary game and we still had a chance to play for the gold and guys could just meld it in. But that's not our team's mentality, that's not our coaching attach mentality. And so they came out in the second half and really played hard, played great, and we just still came up short, we did to do some good things.
What's it like just being with these coaches? I think there are seven championship rings among you and Spoe and Steve and obviously Mark feu has seen it all in the college game. You guys must have some pretty interesting meetings. What kind of glimpse of that can you share with us in terms of what it's like for the four of you guys to get together.
Yeah, I mean it's been great for me, you know, being the youngest side of you know, a whole coaching staff, and even started back in Vegas when we had Matt Painter, we had Jim Boyling, we had Jamal Mosley, you know, Jeff Van Gundy has been with us the whole way. And then, like you said, with Mark fugh and and Spoe and Steve, just learning and just you know, basketball minds in the same room and just bouncing ideas off each other.
And you know, I'm just trying to learn every way I can.
I said, I'm a young coach in the game and ath that can pick up here and there to be better.
I want to be better, And they taught me a lot.
At least four weeks have really, you know, taught me a lot and helped me understand a lot of different situations. How you know, they handle different situations as well, And so I just want to keep learning, you know, keep going as a coach and happening this USA opportunity. You know, I want to thank Grant and Steve and shan Ford and those guys again forgive me the opportunity because it really has, you know, enhanced my coaching, and I want to continue to keep getting better.
Everyone says that the FEBA game is so much different than the NBA game. Can how would you kind of describe the difference or quantify the difference just in your time this summer with this squad. What what jumps out to you about what makes it so different?
Well, one is the physicality, you know, I think the physicality of you know, being able to push and grab and you know, get into the ball, and you know, that's one thing of physicality. I think the second thing is in FEEBA, the game is really won by the players, you know. I think, you know, you only have two timeouts per half, we can't really run a lot of atos.
And then you know the game being shorter.
You know, I think our guys are used to ease it into the game because it's forty eight minutes.
But you know, with forty minute games.
You know, you got to start the game with, you know, a defensive mindset and getting off to good starts. And so there's a lot of different rules that our guys have to adjust and get used to and doing a good job of doing that. And so, like I said, we have I think we are one of the teams to have room for the most improvement, and we're going to continue to keep improving every game.
Because one thing I like what you said about you know yourself, is that you're still trying to learn, You're still trying to grow become a better coach, because I think when you talk to a lot of people about the coaching ranks in the NBA, they they will say a lot of people will say number one. You know, from top to bottom, they probably put you number one, just as far as coach and acumen, adjustments, you know, just everything that a coach has to do on a
night to night basis. And so when you think about that, you think about going into the next season, like how do you feel like this experience will make you a better coach going into next season for the Los Angeles Clippers, just seeing.
What I've seen, learning what I've learned from, Like I said, Spoe, you know a few and and Steve, and for me, I wanted to do things you know, different at times, just trying to just see what works and what doesn't work. And you know, I think going into this next season, I think it's gonna be.
It's made me a better coach already.
And you know, I don't want to share a lot of the things, but you know, if you stop growing and stop you know, wanting to learn and stop want to be better that.
You should, you might as well just quit. And so I'm not at that point.
And so I think, you know, every year, you got to continue to keep getting better as a coach. You got to continue to keep getting better as a player, and that's how you grow. And so that's what I want to do. And so thank you for the compliments, you know, and so still have a long way to go.
You know, I want to bring a championship to the you know, Los Angeles Clippers, to that organization, to the fan base, you know, mister O Balmer Gillion, you know, Lawrence Frank, Mark Hughes, Trent Red and all those guys have been great, you know to me, and so the ultimate goal is to win a championship and that's what I want to do.
And so this experience has been great.
You know, I think when you talk about players coming to camp in shape, I think coming on this the USA trip has really got my mind in shape to start camp.
Ready to go, you know.
So it's it's kind of it's kind of strange, but like I'm ready to go now. You know, just from having these four weeks, five weeks together has really you know, activated my mind and got my mind in shape and ready to go.
I got to ask you, I know you're ready to go, but a big part of you guys' success is going to be on what are your Your two big guys are ready to go, Paul, George Kawhi Leonard Any update on.
Their participation level come training camp.
Yeah, they will be one hundred percent come training camp.
You know, they're they're both on track to be one hundred percent by time training camp starts. And that's that's what we need, you know, our best players to be healthy. That's around the league, you know, our best players to be healthy. And we've just been in an unfortunate situation where you know, our two best players haven't finished season together the last three years and that's been tough on us, and so doing what we can do to make sure our guys are healthy.
It's not a fluke whereverybody's about load management and stuff like.
It's not that, you know, it's like, you know, they have injuries, and you know, we got to make sure we do the right thing by putting the player first, you know, making sure that they're going to be healthy, you know, one hundred percent through the way through through
the season, and that's our main goal. But you know, we have to play more games, you know how We got to do it, and we have to, you know, like I say, start respecting the regular season and you know, giving our fans you know what they what they want to see, and playing hard every.
Single night, putting our best product on the floor. And you know, our guys are ready to do that this year.
This was nice Chris coach lou transition to the Clippers without us even having to ask him. He did it for us, which was good because he I think he knew we were we were end up we were gonna want to go there too.
It's always better that way.
Yeah, I mean, you know, you yourself mentioned how challenging has it been for you that each of your three years as head coach you haven't had your two main guys at the end. I mean, if you if you do have them both, theoretically this team can do a lot of damage. Like how challenging has it been for you? And how receptive have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George been to your kind of messaging about the regular season.
And yeah, it's been tough for me. It's been tough, you know, for the organization. It's been tough for our fans, but more so, anything's been tough for Kawhi and PG. You know, they want to be on the floor, they want to be out there, and so to have those injuries, you know, it's just, you know, it's just it's part of the game.
And just you know, you wonder everything every day, like why is it happen to us so much?
You know, But it's something that we got to continue to keep building, you know, continue to keep trying to you know, make sure our guys are healthy, especially down the stretch. You know, we're going to the playoffs, and that just hasn't been the case, you know as of late. But I think more frustrated than anybody, I think PG and Kawhi because they want to be out there, they want to help their team and it's just been some unfortunate circumstances.
You've been very open about your fondness for Russell Westbrook, who obviously joined you guys mid season last year. What is coaching him on a day to day, day to day basis like, and you know he's going through an adjustment too, obviously Max contract guy, and that's obviously not the situation with the Clippers. Like how much communication has to come from you is for him to find his niche with this team.
A lot of communication, you know, I think, like I said, Russ Hall of Fame a great player, and for him to you know, take less money to come back to the Clippers along with you know, Mason Plumbley, that just says a lot about the Clippers organization and what we're trying to build there. And so they both could have went other places for more money, but they like what
we're doing with the Clippers. They like how we're building and you know, the foundation there is is really good, you know, And so just talking to him you know, he's been a brother fresh Air as far as how he competes every single day, whether it's practice, whether it's games. He's gonna play every single night, and he brought that extra extra line of toughness that we needed.
Can we trick you into telling us the other options they had?
I'm not going there, but I'm glad it came back to us.
Hey, Coach Lou, I have to ask you this follow up to you know, you said it on another podcast. Forgive me, I forgot what podcast it was when you first said, you know, we got to start respecting the regular season and going and taking it more seriously. Can you tell us I don't know if anybody's asked this followed, can you tell us like, what does that look like? What's the difference.
I'm not saying that they don't take it serious, so we don't take it serious.
But I think just the overall, just you know, some some nights you're gonna have you know, a little nick little nick knacks, and that we can you know, do a better job of you know, playing more minutes or whatever, you know, and just you know, everybody you know, together like myself included like just having a different approach, you know, different mindset. I know we're playing a lot of games. I know, you know, every other day or you know, every day back to back. But there are things that
we can do and continue to keep getting better. And so for me, it starts with the head coach of just you know, if we can't practice, you know, more film sessions, if we can't practice more you know, thirty minute walkthroughs, and just cleaning up defensively what we can get better at or offensively as well, you know, and so not just taking those days off. And so when I say that, I'm not talking about the players. I'm talking about it starts with me versus a coach. It's just,
you know, I know our guys are tired. I know we have an older team. I know guys are banged up. But still we can still approach it by doing you know, some things that doesn't require you know, a lot of physical work, you know, And so those are the things that you know, I have to get better with and I'm locked in and ready for that, you.
Know, going forward.
And so it's gonna be nice where you don't feel it.
It's gonna be nice where you know.
But we you know, we got to play through some of those play some of those games, and play through some of those nick knack injuries and so. And it's not like I said, it's not like we don't take it seriously. But it's the mindset is making sure our guys are healthy. That's number one and so. But we also got to do, you know, do a little bit more. And it starts with me and coach.
When I I told this individual, I'm not gonna name them here, I'll probably name them off off record, but I asked him, I said, we got Lou coming on. What's the things I should ask and so here here here's a question for you, Lou, just about it's about the overall premise of coaching today's players. So the question was, how do you feel about professionalism in the league and has it changed from you feel like professional league in
the league has shamed from your time? And do you think AAU and the people around them have contributed to that kind of lack of professionalism and a lot of players now opposed to the way it used to be and that doesn't make it hard to coach.
So take that all in, how you see that?
Yeah, I don't think it's a lack of professionalism. I think it's a lack of mentors. I think, you know, when I came in the league, we had a lot of veteran players on the team that taught me wrong from right, you know, and you know, having Brian Shawl Robert or you know, Horace Grant, Shack d Fish, you know, Glenn Rice, Eddie Jones, like I had a lot of
great veteran guys that taught me the right way. And so now when you look at our rosters in the NBA and the way they're constructed, there's a lot of young guys. You know, your oldest Galan team could be twenty five years old, and so they really don't understand. You know, they have a lot of money, but they don't understand like those next steps becoming a man, you know, and so teaching you how to work hard on the court and being a good person off the court as well.
And so we always, you know, when I came in the league, we always had those older guys that those veteran guys that taught us and showed us the way. And so we've lost, you know a little bit of that, you know, in our league, and every team's not fortunate to have a you know, Donna's has them, you know, guys like that that has been around for a long time, but also can check the young guys, get them in place, tell them what it's supposed to look like and how
it's supposed to be. And so we're you know, we're missing that. And so I wouldn't say a lack of professionalism. I think a lack of mentorship, you know, older guys and veteran guys to show these young guys away, because we have a lot of talent. You know, it's a lot of talent in this league, and our young players are unbelievable. But I just think, you know, having some veteran guys in the locker room to show these young guys away is kind of what we're missing, all right.
I do not want to upset Renee Felton from USA Basketball, because I know you have a meeting to run to in mere minutes. So one last quick question and then we will let you go. I promise. Just in general, you're you're coaching, You're part of a coaching staff on a team that is never allowed to lose. When you guys lose, it is an international incident. It's huge news. What has that been, like, just dealing with that pressure that you guys are never supposed to lose.
Well, we've all dealt with that, you know. I think Mark Fus dealt with exposed, dealt with it. I've dealt with it with Lebron. Steve's dealt with it, you know, a by winning four championships. So we've all been a part of that.
And so I think the biggest thing is just you know, making sure that we stay calm, making sure that we you know, show the positivity to this young team.
And like I said, we're not shaking.
And if you, like I always said, if you don't have the pressures of winning every single night and having the pressures on your shoulder, then you don't have a chance to win. And so we understand that pressure. We want that pressure, and I think we're gonna be great.
Clippers coach Taran Lou in Manila, part of Team USA's coaching staff heading into the quarterfinals against Italy. Coach, thanks A mil for doing this.
Really appreciate it.
Appreciate your coach. I got my T n T schedule. I got a ton of Clipper games on the schedule, A ton.
Okay, sorry, I can handle it. I can handle it.
I love the Clipper guys.
This is your this is your training camp for those games.
Yeah, for sure.
Coach Little you take care brother. I appreciate you.
Good good luck for the rest of the tournament.
Thanks Amil, thank you very much.
And that'll do it for us, see you next time. This league and cuttage and iHeartRadio production.
Christine and Mark Stein.
Eight.
I didn't