SAN ANTONIO –Becky Hammon has endured a few changes now that she’s on the front bench as an assistant coach for the Spurs, but the most notable is the fact she has a better view of the action.
During Hammon’s first few years an assistant coach on Gregg Popovich’s staff, she occupied a seat on the second row which came with its own challenge. There were too many heads in the way of the 5-foot-6 Hammon. Hence, she had to adjust continually.
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“Sometimes, I’d be looking around, getting on one knee just to able to see,” Hammon said.
With her seat upgraded thanks to a promotion last summer, Hammon not only has a better view but can offer more input to players. And she’s always learning when to offer suggestions and when to observe.
“It’s still a lot of voices so I still think it’s about timing and finding the right spots because even at the front bench, there can be too many cooks in the kitchen,” Hammon said. “So, it’s about picking your spots and having great information that’s pertinent in that situation that can help us in the moment.”
After beating the Oklahoma City Thunder last weekend, the Spurs are set to close their three-game homestand against the Denver Nuggets on Monday at AT&T Center.
There has been some improvement with the Spurs’ play over the last three outings. Their defense has been better, and a change in the rotation has provided the bench unit with more balance.
Hammon took a few moments with The Athletic to discuss the team’s play, their approach for the 18 games of the season as the Spurs are fighting for a playoff spot, and the play of Derrick White.
Less than 20 games are remaining, what do you feel it’s going to be like for this team in the final stretch?
I think just fine-tuning our defense. We know we can score the ball, it’s about buckling down, down the stretch. This is a difference. Every game counts now between; you go back to a few seasons ago when we missed that playoff (seeding) by one game. You know, and we’ve had a few games that we’ve dropped that we don’t want to come back and bite us in the butt which they could, so we got to handle our business now that is right in front of us.
How has it been using man and zone defense together over the last few games? It appears this team is trying to slow teams down by mixing it up.
I think it’s good just because in the NBA you don’t have time to practice going over stuff like that. So, I feel like we can keep teams off balance and the bottom line is, it’s switching up defenses. If you give any player in this league a steady diet of a defense, they adjust. They start figuring it out, and I think it will help us down the stretch being able to switch back and forth a little bit.
When people ask me questions over Twitter and chat rooms, they always wonder what happened to the defense? In December and early January, the defense was solid. Where did it slip?
Well, if you can find out, let me know (laughs). We certainly slipped and like to get back there. We’ve got to figure out a way to guard when our offense isn’t going well. We don’t want to be the team that just tries to outscore people all the time. That’s never been our identity. It’s kind of turned into our identity this year, but we’ve got to get back to getting some stops. And I think at the end of the day, we have a cycle – a defensive principle cycle how to hold people and how it should look. And it turns into transition defense, and we’ve been very poor at transition defense, and a lot of that is effort and attention to detail when the shot goes up just being alert to running back.
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So, I think down the stretch, when you talk about things to really work on and fine tune; even though we’ve been stressing it all year, we’re hoping a light goes on, and eventually we get back in transition because that is the beginning stages on your defense obviously.
What has Gregg been like, especially coming off that Rodeo Road trip where the team finished 1-7. Has his patience worn off?
Probably a little bit, and rightfully so. We’ve had 60-plus games not to get it together, so the hammer starts hitting a little bit harder now. And the demand has to be more on these guys. There are no more excuses of we’re a new group, we’re this, or we’re that. The guys have to come together and put it together. And like I said – it’s new for Pop to be like, not top five defensively. But we also lost a lot of good defensive players when you’re talking about Danny (Green), Kyle (Anderson); I mean Kyle was guarding (Kevin) Durant for us last year. So, we lost a lot of height and guys that were defensive minded. We’ve got to find that identity as a group because it’s not like we have that one guy. Derrick (White) has kind of come into that mold, but he’s shocked us at times that he’s kind of morphed into that stopper. So, we’ve got to get more guys buying in and taking individual pride in one-on-one defense and see where it goes from there.
You mentioned Derrick, and until now, I thought a young guy like that couldn’t be the difference, but he seems to be. Is it real? Is he really the difference maker?
He makes a huge difference for us.
In what way?
Organizationally. I think just getting guys in the right spots. He’s a good basketball player, and he can do a little bit of everything. He can shoot the (3-pointer), he can shoot the pull-ups, he can get to the rim, he can dump off. But defensively, his height; he’s got good instincts, and he’s actually a pretty good shot blocker for his size. He’s a little deceptive and gets off the floor pretty quick; and just a smart guy when it comes to angles and understanding how to play defensively. And yes, we did miss him tremendously. So, having him back in the mix, you can see it.
When he came back from the original injury, it took him a few games to find himself and for us to get that confidence back in him. He worked his way into it and earned every minute. I mean, because he had it, then didn’t have it, and earned his way back. He’s going to be a very good player. I mean, he’s already a very good player, but I think he’s going to be around the league for a lot of years just because of his brain and his mind and his feel for the game. He’s got a great feel offensively and defensively.
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Switching to DeMar DeRozan. Do the coaches feel the team got the DeMar from the beginning of the season and did the All-Star break help?
You know, I don’t know how up front he was with us with his knee. I think it was bothering him more than he was letting on. And so, being able to get him that rest and just trying to manage his minutes – I mean we had to overplay him so much at the beginning because of Derrick’s injury, and we really put a lot of pressure on him (putting the ball in his hands). I mean, he really carried us that first quarter of games, I thought. Now it’s just a matter of him staying aggressive, getting the ball to him and letting him – you know, I love it when he gets rebounds and just brings it himself. He can get downhill and just find guys. I mean, he’s the No. 1 reason why we’re the best shooting team from three.
On another note, how will the coaches keep LaMarcus Aldridge healthy and making sure he has enough left to attack the postseason?
I think we have to have great communication with him. He’s another guy you can be running into the ground, and you don’t even know because he goes out there just like DeMar. Those two guys, you have to check in with them often and check on their needs and see how they are feeling because they play through a lot of pain. And down the stretch, it’s such a fine balance of we want to win games but at what expense. So, it’s always a balancing act for us.
Is that balance working with Rudy Gay? I noticed he’s been coming off the bench in the past few games and the goal was to get more balanced in the second unit. Is that working?
I mean, it’s a fairly new thing. We go back and forth. Sometimes it’s a matchup thing; sometimes, it’s a matter of whatever it is that night. So, a lot of that is Pop’s decision and his feel and whatever he wants to do. So, we’ll see. It could be different every night. He could be back starting one night and the next night coming in off the bench. But what we do know about Rudy is a scoring machine, and we need him to score whether it be in that second unit or with the first unit. With the first unit, it’s a little more ISO (isolation) ball, but we do feel like we can take advantage of matchups so that the defense just can’t key in on DeMar or LA. It keeps the defense a little more honest. And then, we have the second unit which is a little more (ball movement). I actually thought he played very well, especially in Brooklyn. I thought he was moving well with that second unit and the ball finds him a little bit more there. So, we’ll see.
What is the team looking for in Jakob Poeltl now that Pau Gasol is out of the picture and he’ll probably get extra minutes?
Well, Jakob is a guy we feel like we need to develop. We like his defense; just his energy and sprinting the floor and running and setting screens. He’s a hard roller for us which really sets up our 3-point shooting. So, he’s a very important piece for us down the stretch. But I thought, especially the last game (against the Detroit Pistons), still kind of a work in progress how he plays with (Aldridge); those two bigs and how they complement each other because where is Jakob going to go when (Aldridge) is in the (post)? We’re still trying to figure it out ourselves, and they’re trying to figure it out. But I thought there has been progress and they’ve been better in the last game.
Is there a mindset or motto the team has approaching this final stretch and trying to clinch a playoff spot?
Well, that hunger and that desire and that competitiveness needs to come from them individually first. Like, you’ve got to bring it yourself every day because when you bring it yourself, then you can hold everybody else accountable but if you ain’t bringing it, how do you hold other guys accountable? So, individual accountability and if they don’t understand the importance of it; I mean they are all pros. They’ve been here. They’ve been around. So, hopefully, we don’t need to preach that lesson but if it needs to be preached, believe me, it will be preached.
(Top photo: Nicole Sweet / USA TODAY Sports)