AGUA CALIENTE CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 17, 2021

Paul Hewitt

Press Conference

Q. First and foremost, how does it feel to have home games in a home arena this year?

PAUL HEWITT: Yeah, it'll be fun. It'll be fun. The bubble was well-managed, and it was a good little -- kind of like basketball camp, an expanded basketball camp, but looking forward to playing at the Toyota Arena.

Q. We got asked about Serge. It's not often you get a guy that decorated and experienced running with these guys. What's he been like and what do you see from him?

PAUL HEWITT: You know, first of all, when it's all over, I've got to thank him because he's been great reinforcing the message that I've been trying to get to these young players about how to prepare themselves and how to play. I've overheard him talking to them about everything from how much rest they're getting to how they're eating, how they treat their bodies.

He's been particularly good in the half-court situation getting these guys to understand how they've got to slow down and read their defender and set up their cuts. What I've told our guys is that I said, listen, if he doesn't run with you in transition, go ahead and go shoot the ball. I've told Serge, if you don't run with them, you're not going to get it.

But he really has been a pleasure to have around, and he's been a major asset for my coaching staff and I.

Q. I just wanted to know, just not too long ago, the lineup you guys had with Brandon Boston and Serge Ibaka, Amir Coffey, you guys had such a solid lineup. Is there anything you've seen from them because we see guys like Coffey and Boston go from the G-League to the main stage and they perform, like Brandon Boston just had a big game. What have you seen from those guys as they go back and forth?

PAUL HEWITT: Well, particularly in the case of Boston, he's got a maturity level that you don't see in guys that age, in terms of his approach to the game. Extremely hard worker. Very coachable. Just wants to play.

He's a guy that'll get up at 6:00 a.m., get a workout in, come into our practice, get another workout in, obviously, in our practice, and then stay afterwards and shoot.

With Amir, you talk about a professional. He just -- his approach, his demeanor has been -- I had him last year in the bubble, so I'm not surprised, but he's just such, again, a mature kid.

But Brandon really, I'll be quite honest with you, because I scouted him a little bit, he's been a surprise to me in terms of just his whole attitude. Not that I thought he had a bad attitude, but you think of a 19-year-old kid, he's going to act like a 19-year-old. On the court he's acting like everything but a 19-year-old. He's been mature in his approach. He works hard.

Are there some things we need to get him to improve on and mature? Yeah, definitely. I think his shot selection can improve. There's some things defensively -- which has been impressive.

Q. Ty talked about how Serge was the one who asked to go down and said the game was too fast for him at the NBA level. I'm curious because Brandon the other night was saying G-League is all run, run, run, run up and down. What can Serge get in the G-League ramp-up wise that he couldn't get in the NBA or that might be tougher to get at the NBA level?

PAUL HEWITT: Yeah, I think his timing. One of the things he talked to me about was he feels faster. He feels stronger than he had in a long time he said. But there's nothing like the condition of playing basketball, where you've got to cut, you've got to catch, you've got to make decisions. He genuinely says he feels better. He feels definitely more athletic. But hadn't played in eight, nine months I guess is what it is.

Just to get his feel back, just when you're winded a little bit, catching the ball, making a decision, making a pass. You could see a little bit the first game he was definitely a little rusty, but then as each passing game he's gotten better and better, and we obviously have one more opportunity with him tomorrow night against OKC Blue. But that's what he was searching for.

I think also for our guys, like I said, he's gotten our guys to slow down a little bit in the half court because young guys just want to play fast, play to their athleticism, play to their speed but not use their vision much and use their reading of the defense much. He's helped us in that way.

But he told me, he said the big thing for him was just to kind of regain basketball conditioning and regain his basketball timing.

Q. With regards to Brandon, obviously he's a 19-year-old, he's very young, but is there a sense that he has this basketball maturity about him? Yesterday we were talking to him about some of the advice he gave to Reggie Jackson and he was talking about talking to the basket nicer, talking to the rim nicer, that's your girlfriend, happy wife, happy life. What's his basketball maturity been like as a player on the court and about the game? What's he like?

PAUL HEWITT: I've found him a guy that's very curious. He's constantly wanting to watch film. When you talk to him -- sometimes you talk to young players about mistakes that they're making or things they have to improve on. You can see their head drop, their eyes start searching around because they're trying to get out of the conversation. This guy locks right in and he'll follow up with questions.

That's where I -- again, there's an unusual level of maturity that you don't see in kids that age because a lot of times kids that age can get defensive when you start picking apart their game.

One of the things we've talked to him about and I know our big club has talked to him about is just being more efficient with his dribble. When he gets past four, five, six dribbles he can kind of -- defensively there's some rotations that he knows he has to get better at.

The thing I love about it, we had a couple days in practice here with him where I basically told everybody on the team, every chance you get, scream Brandon Boston. We basically put a target on his back because fighting through screens was something he had to improve. He took it with a smile. He took it with a joke. I've been in that situation, especially as a college coach where I've been with the freshman and they get ticked off. They think you're picking on them. He didn't take that approach.

If you watch from -- we started training camp October 26 to now, between the work he's gotten with the big team and us, he's done a much better job of fighting through screens, getting over screens. There are some other pieces that have got to improve, but again, when you go at him, he doesn't take it personally, he takes it as a challenge and he sees it as an opportunity for growth.

Q. Just one more question about Serge. It's so interesting to me that he chose to come down to -- come over to the G-League to get his rhythm back. I was wondering if you see that as an option for more players going forward? We don't really see that in basketball where players rehab, so to speak, in the G-League. Do you think there's a value in that being a more common path?

PAUL HEWITT: Yeah, especially with our organization because I think Lawrence and Ty have done a great job of really trying to integrate me and my coaching staff into training camp. I've followed their team around the whole training camp. I went on the Dallas trip with them because I don't want to have any gaps in what we're teaching and what Ty needed done.

I do think it takes a player to have some humility about them because it's not the coolest thing in the world to go run around with the Agua Caliente Clippers in New Jersey and stay in some of the hotels we're staying in. It's not what they're used to.

I think Serge showed me and showed -- I didn't know until this experience, but he's serious about trying to get back to where he was as a player.

He recognized that he needed reps, and sitting on the bench in street clothes and watching games wasn't going to do it, so that's why he went to them. He practiced with us two or three days when we were in LA and he played in a South Bay scrimmage with us and I think he had a positive experience because I believe Matt Morales has done a nice job putting together a really mature roster of young kids with this G-League.

I think he's enjoyed being around them. I think he saw that they were listening to what he was saying, and he saw that he had some opportunity to add value to their careers while he got his career back to where he wanted to be, his playing ability back to where he wanted to be.

Q. I think you mentioned, it sounds like Serge has one more game there with you guys? Was that sort of always the plan or was it sort of up in the air?

PAUL HEWITT: You know, that's between Lawrence, Ty and him. My anticipation is one more game and then they'll decide. When he first came -- hey, if he wants to stay the whole season, I'm deal with him. I'll handle him. (Laughing).

Q. Do you think a guy like Brandon gets a little extra motivation from falling from a No. 5 projected pick to a late second-round guy? Is that something that fuels him or is he going to be this guy anyway?

PAUL HEWITT: Yeah, I would imagine it fuels him, but he's never mentioned it. He's never walked around like hey, I'm going to prove people wrong. This is my first experience with him. He strikes me as a guy that just loves to play ball. He's one of those guys you could have picked him first, you could have picked him 60. I think he would always -- he just loves basketball.

I talked to his trainer Chris Johnson one day about him because I was just trying to learn him a little bit more. This dude is a tireless, tireless worker. Chris has been around him I guess about four years now and says that that's what he's always been.