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LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 29, 2019Patrick BeverleyLandry ShametLos Angeles, California Q. I'm going to start this one off. Pat, congratulations on your new contract. When I first saw that cross Twitter I was so excited that you were coming back. How excited were you to be coming back and putting on this Clippers uniform again? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I'm super excited. Anyone that has been around me the last couple years dealing with the knee injury, I mean, the city has opened its arms to me, accepted me for who I am, and allowed me to be myself. I mean, I have nothing but love for the city. With that contract, I want to do as much giving back as I possibly can. I think the city deserves it. Q. Shortly after that a lot big dominoes fell for this team. Describe the emotion you were on to just get the contract and shortly thereafter to see Kawhi join this franchise? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I think from -- thank you. God is good, of course, for the contract. But I think from a team standpoint, I think when we both got the news I think it was almost like we couldn't -- I couldn't believe it. How did you feel? LANDRY SHAMET: Yeah, I was asleep, woke up, and my phone was blowing up. I thought I got traded. I been traded before. I know what that feels like. Phone starts blowing up 2:30 in the morning. No, it's exciting obviously. That's what you want. We knee we had a good group from last year and we added pieces, and, you know, we're excited about where we are at. Q. I would like to ask you both, last season one of the great strengths of your team was that it was like this junkyard dog mentality. Scrappy. No superstars. Now you've got two superstars in your midst. How does that change things, or have these guys already shown willingness to blend in and be one of the guys? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I think it's the same thing that you just said, that scrappiness attitude, but on steroids. Q. But not real steroids. PATRICK BEVERLEY: However you want to put it. LANDRY SHAMET: Yeah, they both fit the mold. Everybody that's comes in has the same mentality from the top down. I mean, that's just how it is here. Q. Pat, direct this one to you. With the additions, looks like a big part your identity this year is going to be on the defensive end. Considering your reputation on that end of the floor and your understanding of that, how important is it to develop sort of an off-court chemistry that can then translate to what you do on the court from a defensive perspective? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I think first off, I think the first part of your question, I think it's going to be the totally opposite. I think we're going to lay our hat on defense. But if I was a coach and I'm looking at this team and I'm looking for one person to help, it'll be me. So I have to be ready to take the necessary shots, make the necessary plays. So when it comes to defense, that's going to be the easy part because that's what we lay our hat on. For the most part, we want to get as close together as we possibly can, that family environment that we had last year, and see where it takes us at the end of the year. Q. Landry, you were pretty much contributing to the team as soon as you arrived last season. Now that you're here and here for the beginning and the start of the season, training camp and fishing trips, how much do you appreciate being here from day one? LANDRY SHAMET: Yeah, I mean, it's just a different feel here with just how much time we all spend together going on fishing trips and going to Rams games and whatever. We're spending a lot of time, and I'm just glad I get to be a part of it. Glad the cards fell the way they did and I got to come here and join this great group. I mean, I'm just excited to be here from the beginning to end. Q. Got a question for both of you guys. Mr. Beverly, you touched on a moment ago about giving back to the city. Why is that important to you? And Landry, what did you do this summer to improve your game? What specifically did you do? PATRICK BEVERLEY: For me, I think giving back, if people would have gave back to the community I was from maybe the death toll wouldn't be a thing that's going on. I think that giving back doesn't solve the problem, but definitely helps it. It gives inspiration to the kids out there that do want to play basketball, that come from the neighborhoods that I grew up. You tell those guys that someone like me made it; you guys can do it also. So giving back is a step, and, you know, taking a small step is better than not taking a step at all. LANDRY SHAMET: For your question for me about what I did to get better, I mean, I kind of, based on last season and end of the year in that playoff series, I kind of expected how -- I was just looking at how teams were probably going to try play me, put me in a box saying I'm just a shooter. That's not the case. My biggest thing was developing and continuing to grow in other aspects of my game, sharpening and polishing those things off. I know people are going to be flying at me thinking I can't put it on the floor, but I'm going to be better defensively, working on my body, getting stronger. Just making I'm in a place to play 82-plus and be the best I can be. Q. Montrezl was talking about the pickup games that have started after Labor Day. What have you learned about this group in the last month or so? PATRICK BEVERLEY: That Landry can shoot. Q. You didn't know that before? PATRICK BEVERLEY: Not the way he can shoot now. But this is the group that we really enjoy each other. We can coach each other, police each other. There are no big I's, littles U's. There is no ego. Low man on te? Totem pole, if that's a quote you guys can use, the top guy, it's none of that with us. You guys have a problem, communicate, nip it in the bud, get over it. Let's get better. Let's be great. That's been our motto. LANDRY SHAMET: I think my thing, biggest thing I've noticed is just how -- whatever night it is, could be Lou's night, could be -- Pat could be hitting, Kawhi, Paul; Trez could be feeling good. Whoever it is, we can ride with them that night. That's just crazy. Look around the gym while we're playing and just see how much talent we got, just what options we have. And like he said, unselfish. No high man, low man on the totem pole. Just going to go with whatever we feel is best that night and helps us win. Q. Pat, we haven't seen three wings since you guys added PG and Kawhi this good on a team maybe since the mid-90 Bulls. What are your goals or expectations on the defensive side this year? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I think it will be hard this year, of course. We're not the surprising Clippers that we were last year surprising people. People know exactly who we are. Target is on our back. So we're going to get everyone's best punch. It's up to us to be ready day in and day out. Defense is going to take care of itself. We've been playing defense since we were a small child, so that won't change. Now it's just time to get to work. Q. Question for both of you. How is it playing for a coach like Doc Rivers? LANDRY SHAMET: Doc is great. He's seen every aspect of an NBA organization from player to front office, so he gets it. If he's telling you something you know it's coming from the right place. He's hard on you, expects a lot of you, but can talk to you like a player, like a teammate almost. I mean, I got traded and got to play for him last year, and this year, I mean, he's been great. PATRICK BEVERLEY: I think to add to that, Doc is -- he's a coach who preaches doing the right things. For me, behavior is greatness for me, and greatness is behavior. The better your behavior is off the court the better basketball player you'll become. That's his message and that's been his message. It's really sunk in with this group. The more we mature as individuals and a team we become that much more dangerous on the basketball court. Q. Landry, are you anticipating playing more point guard this year? What's your sense of how much more you'll be called on to do that? And for Patrick, as a leader of this team, bringing two new all stars into the fold, how do you expect your role to change as a leader? LANDRY SHAMET: I mean, my role, I mean, whatever is needed of me I feel like I can do. I expect that to change on a night-to-night basis. Those decisions are going to be made by Doc as far as point guard or whatever. I don't really care if we got, as far as I'm concerned, four on the court at any point in time. So it's kind of almost point guard by committee maybe. I mean, for me, I'm not too worried about how many minutes I'll play at this position or that. It more about just what's needed of me on a night-to-night basis and what can I do to help us be the best we can be and get as many wins as possible. PATRICK BEVERLEY: Hell of an answer, too. LANDRY SHAMET: Thanks, Pat. Trying to be like you. PATRICK BEVERLEY: Respect. Nothing changes. We are all -- even Landry. It's his second year, but he's a leader also. We're all a leader in our own little lane, whatever lane that is. Of course each lane is different. We just try to be the best in our rows that we possibly can be. With that mindset, that will take us a long way. Q. Mr. Beverley, I want to know, what were some of the things this summer that you worked on? Taking into account you had a knee injury and now a full summer of recovery and working on your games, so what were some things you can take away from the summer? PATRICK BEVERLEY: Like you said, I was healthy this summer. I was able to train at a high level. I think off the court behavior. I mean, you're going to hear me say this a lot this year. Behavior is greatness. Even with my teammates, family, and friends, my behavior has changed. You guys want me to be this guy in the corner just doing this, whatever, but I'm just trying to harness that. That does affect me when you do second in the NBA in technical fouls, and those are the type of things that we don't want. Just trying to control that. The best I do controlling that, everything else kind of play out for itself. Q. How do you think your dominating skills playing paint ball with translate to the basketball court? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I don't know. I still got scars to show. I think I was the only guy running around without a shirt on. Kind of psychotic. Q. Pat, I know you'll tell us how this actually went, but we're heard various accounts of this fishing trip you went on. Paul is supposed to be a professional fisherman, but Denise caught the biggest fish and Kawhi was maybe next in there. Who won that competition? First question. PATRICK BEVERLEY: I think I'll let Landry answer that. Q. Oh. Paul said it was competitive. LANDRY SHAMET: Yeah, we all had like a bag with a number on it. I was just out there to be the a boat. I just wanted to be on the water. PATRICK BEVERLEY: Were you driving the boat? LANDRY SHAMET: They didn't let me drive the boat. No, yeah, it was a competition though. Denise did catch the biggest fish. It was crazy. It was a lot fun. You could feel it. Got a little competitive. It was a good time though. It was a lot fun. Q. For both of you, Kawhi Leonard has been a force in the NBA for a long time but he's sort of new in town what have you got to know from him so far as a person? LANDRY SHAMET: Dude is funny. PATRICK BEVERLEY: Funny as hell. LANDRY SHAMET: He is funny. PATRICK BEVERLEY: He works extremely hard, too, him and PG and Mo. You can go down the list. I'm going to be honest. We have a really good team. Everyone here knows that. But it starts tomorrow. We're not going to -- I'm going to take the pressure off everybody right now. We're not going to talk about championships, any of that right now. We're talking about one day at a time, and that starts with media day. It's good to see you good people. Tomorrow it's time for business, which is practice. We're going to try to get the most out of each day. If you have that mindset and do that, by the end of the day, end of the year, you put yourself in a good position to win a lot of basketball games. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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