Monday morning, Steve Clifford met with the media for the final time as head coach of the Charlotte Hornets. He answered questions about his second stint in Charlotte, the team’s future, transitioning into a front office role and more.
“The one thing, when I left Orlando, I did the consulting thing in Brooklyn and I thought I was ready to kind of move on to this next phase of whatever was going to be there for me. I knew I wanted to be in the NBA, I love it, but I thought I would be good at not being a head coach. As much as I loved doing the consulting thing in Brooklyn, I definitely realized I wanted another opportunity, so when this happened, I was excited because I needed that. My basketball fix, I missed being in charge, but also because it was here. It was with Michael [Jordan], with Mitch [Kupchak] who I’ve worked for. In a place, as you guys know, especially when I was here the time before, I felt like we were knocking on the door. My first experiences were 20-plus years ago where we played in the open arena and these fans were unbelievable. I remember we were playing Toronto in the first round of the series, Charlotte swept Miami back when it was three out of five, Baron Davis, David Wesley, (Jamal) Mashburn and those guys. I saw up close and personal what this place could be like, but with the team. Before the series that we lost to Miami, in seven, the three home games here where the home court advantage for us was almost as good as it gets in this league. Part of the thing for me is, and it’s always been, to be a part of that. To be a team, as Michael has always said, and Rick (Schnall) and Gabe (Plotkin) will do the same thing where their goal is to build a roster that can be sustained for playoff success, and I thought we could do that. It hasn’t played out that way and yet, as I sit here, part of it is in these past two weeks, doing the Boston prep, doing the Dallas prep, both games where more of our guys played – ‘Melo (Ball) played both of those games, (Mark) Williams played both of those games – and if you sit and watch those games, you can’t help but feel good about where the roster is at. The new ownership to me, I think that their vision of what this can become is right on, the way they’ll handle things, the way they’ll organize things, they have a great understanding of how they want to do it and I think Jeff will be great here. There’s so much to look forward to, but the biggest disappointment for me frankly is just, these two years, and I don’t want to make excuses, but we just never had continuity enough to really build a game. People can say whatever you want, I know when you watch games, it’s always about chemistry and that’s not it. That’s not it. You’ve got to have a way to play, and chemistry comes into that, but it starts with having enough talent on the floor and this league has changed. It used to be eight, nine guys, and even 11, 12 guys, but you’ve got to have a way to play. With each group, each year that changes, that makes sense in the league, how you win now is about how you play. It’s always been that way, if you want to go all the way back, go ever since I’ve been in the league, you’re not just going to outscore people in the playoffs, and you’re not going to win 92-91. You’ve got to be good on offense, you’ve got to be good on defense. I think that this group is built that way. I think that drafting Brandon Miller is huge because he’ll be good at all of it, in my opinion. But I do think that it’s an exciting time and that’s why I’m looking forward to being a part of that, just in a different role from where I am in my life that fits me.”
Importance of LaMelo Ball and Mark Williams getting healthy
“I think that if you look at it, the offseason is always about progress. It’s internal progress and it’s the external progress. The internal progress is what they do on the floor – bodies, guys who get stronger, more fit. I will say all of our guys, looking at where they are right now and those guys who’ve been injured, I would be confident that they’ll all be ready for training camp. They’re all doing more now and that’s a big sign because you want to go into the offseason where they’re working on their conditioning strength, games versus rehab so I think all of those guys will be ready which will be an important, important factor for next year. The next one is the external. That’s the draft, free agency, trades, whatever it is. If you look year to year, there’s never one way a team is built. It changes. For our team this year, if those guys were healthy and we were getting ready to play next week for, say, a fifth seed, which maybe we could have. One of the biggest things last summer was Brandon Miller’s draft. I was excited about him last year and he’s a better player already than I thought he could be. You don’t know, but it could be a trade, the last time as you might remember, we went from being a non-playoff team to a team that won 48 games because we went from 27th in 3-point shooting to like sixth, so what were the factors in that? We got Nic Batum, we got Jeremy Lin playing for the minimum, who had the best year of his career. We hired Bruce Kreutzer and Marvin Williams worked with them all summer, shot like 39 the next year. Kemba Walker went from like 32.5 to 38, so that’s how we did it. It was both internally and externally. Sometimes there will be moves for every team this summer that won’t be the biggest free agent signing. When Jeremy Lin signed, nobody was going crazy, but he changed that team because he could play the two with Kemba, and he could play the point when Kemba wasn’t in there and it gave us a group of nine of just, veteran, intelligent, tough as hell team. We had so many free agents we couldn’t keep them all, so you’re not going to know, but that’s what the offseason is for.”
His new role and working with the next head coach
