By InsideHoops.com

An inteview with Los Angeles Clippers coach Alvin Gentry, recorded on February 4th.

Alvin Gentry: The bottom line is that when you go through like we did and you don't have a training camp, because Elton (Brand) is out the whole training camp, Michael (Olowokandi) is out the whole training camp, two rookies are out practically the whole training camp, and then Quentin Richardson is out the whole training camp. We never really got a start like we anticipated, and we've been playing behind the eight-ball since the beginning.

Is there a time when you question how committed the players are to each other?

Alvin Gentry: Well I think what happens with young players is that - first of all, I want to preface everything with saying I think we got really good kids on this team. I think they think there's a concern about their future so they think by doing things individually, it's going to help them. And what I try to stress to them is that the only way it helps you is to play together as a team and have wins. I think that's the only way. I don't think playing on a bad team and having great stats helps you in the free agent market. I really don't.

Is that message getting through?

Alvin Gentry: I think for the most part we're playing as a team, playing unselfishly. We just have not played well in certain stretches. We've been in almost every game that we've played this year. There's very few games where we've just gone and gotten blown out. We've been in games all the way up until the fourth quarter. First of all, we haven't been able to close games that we've been in. We've got eight home losses... The other thing that's been so tough is that the roles on our team change so much; a guy is hurt and he's finally healthy and he comes back, now he's either plugged into the starting lineup and now the guy starting, his role changes. Or, somebody that's playing gets hurt, and now we've got to take another guy and plug him into a different role. So, we haven't really been able to establish any kind of rotation.

When your name comes up in conversations with other coaches, they tend to say that they don't know how you do this...

Alvin Gentry: (Laughs) I can tell you this right now, Elgin Baylor has done a great job of putting talent together with this team, and being able to give us an opportunity to help put players out there. What we have, though, is a group of all young players. And I think that right there is the only negative thing, in that, some of the guys that we thought would play a little better and be a little more mature, it hasn't happened for us. So, that's the bottom line. It's just like anything else, it's not an easy situation, but you just keep plugging away and you keep trying to do the best job you can. I know this, I've never quit anything in my life, and it's not going to start with this team right here, I can tell you that right now. I'm going to coach them to the very last day that I'm coaching, I can tell you that right now.

Has the free agency situation with the young players really done major damage to this season?

Alvin Gentry: The only thing I'll say to that is that, I think if you ask any athlete in the NBA, he may be concerned, but I do think that when you step out between the lines, all that stuff is irrevelant. I think when you step out between the lines and you compete, you're competing against the guy across from you. I use the analogy with a boxer. If you told Sugar Shane Mosley that, two minutes before the ring, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to pay you but half your money, but go ahead, we'll talk about it afterwards," I don't think he's going to go in the ring and not compete. I think he's going to compete, and worry about all the other stuff after the fight is over. And the only thing I've told our guys is that, I just think, as a basketball player, first of all we have no control over anything. There's nothing that can be done about contracts until July. So it doesn't matter what the situation is. I'm in the same boat as everyone else. I'm not going to spend time worrying about it, because there's nothing that we can do about it. I'm going to spend time trying to prepare this team to play the best they can, out on the floor. And then all that other stuff, it's either going to work out or not work out. But we don't have the authority to make those decisions anyway.

How many of these guys do you think you'll be coaching next year?

Alvin Gentry: The key word there is, will I be coaching next year? (Laughs.) No, I don't know. Obviously I think we've got a good core group of guys, and I think as a franchise we've got to decide who is important, who we're going to try to keep, who we're going to try to build this team around. Because obviously we're not going to be able to keep everybody on this team, it's just a known fact.

Talk about Andre Miller, and his play so far.

Alvin Gentry: I think what has happened is that he's struggled some. I think he would tell you the same thing. I told somebody that one of the things is that he was surrounded by quite a bit of shooters in Cleveland, and we haven't shot the ball well from the perimeter, which in turn has kind of limited what he can do. He's adjusting to new players and a new system. He didn't play with those guys the whole pre-season, or in training camp either, so it's still an adjustment period.

Any physical reasons for his shooting being such a low percentage?

Alvin Gentry: He's played hurt quite a bit this year. He's had some leg problems, really probably should have sat out. But he's not a guy to sit out games. He's missed two games his whole career. He's not a guy to just miss games. He tries to gut everything out and play through it. He went through a period where he really was playing at probably 70%. And obviously at 70% when you're playing against guards in the West, it's a little bit different, when you're playing against Gary Payton one night and the next night you're playing against Stephon Marbury, and then you're playing against Tony Parker on a night off. When you look in the East, and you look at the West, it's a big difference.

Do you expect this team to make trades before the deadline?

Alvin Gentry: That I don't know. I just think that we've got to look at all options, and I think we will look at all options. But, the bottom line is that we just haven't performed. It's everybody's fault, obviously I'm the coach and I'll take the blame. We've got a team that should have a much better record than we've got. That's the bottom line. We should have a much better record.

Does depth actually make your job harder? On the one hand, it gives you more options, but on the other...

Alvin Gentry: Well I think it does make it difficult, because I think the one thing with young players, the one thing in this league with one players is that they all want to play, and they all want to play major minutes. If there's one thing that probably makes it a bit difficult on our team is that, we've probably got nine or ten guys that feel like they should be playing 30 minutes a game. But unfortunately, that doesn't work out. When you add up (laughs) five guys on the floor for 48 minutes, that doesn't come to 300. We've got ten guys that want to play 30 minutes. I think as a coach you just got to decide, the one thing that we do have is we have situations where, when we're struggling, we're able to plug guys in, and guys are able to step up sometimes. We keep trying to establish a pecking order on this team. We know that we're going to go to this guy at the end of the game, we know that when we need a basket we're going to do this, and we haven't been able to do it because of the struggles that we've had. And last year I thought we had a pretty good handle on that.


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