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Boylan

“I should have been playing Aaron Gray all along. Thirty-five minutes and I asked him at the end of the third quarter if he had another twelve minutes in him. He said yes but I was not real confident so I asked him to give me as much as he could. I thought he played great down the stretch. He almost had 20-20 but he missed that layup at the end. It was a good night for him and it was a good night for Tyrus Thomas. The season is over. We are not sitting where we thought we would be sitting at this point. It is incumbent on everybody in the organization to evaluate themselves and see how we can straighten this thing out. That is what we plan on doing in the offseason.”

Has Aaron Gray shown he can play in this league?
“Yes, there is no doubt. Toronto pulled their guys. But when you go out in an NBA game and get 20+ rebounds, you are doing something right. His big body is an asset for him. He just needs to work and improve his conditioning and every aspect of a big man's game. I thought he made good progress this year. I'm confident is going to reach his potential and he's going to work really hard in the off-season. I have a lot of confidence in him that he will do that.”

How would you describe the last four months?
“It was fun. I had a lot of fun doing it. It was full of all kinds of experiences – some good and some not so good. Sitting in the head coach's seat was comfortable, enjoyable and I loved the challenge. Hopefully I'm here for a long time. The games that we lost early on set us back a little bit and we had some injuries but that is all part of playing in the NBA. I thought it was a great experience and one I will cherish for a long time.”

Anything surprise you?
“When I was hanging around with Scott (Skiles) we talked about you guys, the media. And he said it got to be a little tedious handling the media. To be honest, it does get a little tedious. You guys have been fair to me and I appreciate the way you have treated me.”

Gray

On if he should have played more earlier in the year:
“It's a business. I just have to be ready to play whenever I am called on, whether it is eight minutes or 30 minutes. Tonight it was tough out there the last few minutes.”

On why he was taken out before scoring his 20th point:
“I think (Jim Boylan) wanted to allow the crowd to show its appreciation and they certainly did. It's really a great opportunity to play in this city for these fans.”

When did you find out you were going to start tonight?
“Coach came in right before we were going out to warm up and he said 'Aaron, you have the start tonight.' Obviously, Joakim had to deal with some family issues that were really serious. Just to be able to step in for him, and obviously he supports me greatly, he didn't have a cold shoulder at all for me. He was he first guy to tell me to go out there and shine. To have that support from him was great.”

On changes in the offseason:
“I have another year guaranteed on my contract, but I hope they want me around. I'm real excited to be here and to thrive on this opportunity. There probably has to be some changes made, but I'm not the person to make those changes. I'll be the guy to support whatever our organization does because they truly have our best interest at heart.”

Hinrich

“We would definitely like to be getting ready to start the playoffs. It's definitely disappointing but there's nothing we can do about it at this point.”

On the season:
“We had a plan to establish ourselves as one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference and we didn't perform in the manner that would allow us to do that.”

On looking forward to next season:
“I think the organization is committed to do whatever is necessary to get us back to the playoffs.”

Deng

“It's disappointing. I really don't have a lot to say about this year. Obviously we didn't do a lot of things right.”

On if the team can rebound next year:
“I mean, definitely. Individually, we as players have got to get better. We've just really got to take this summer and really work on our games.”

Mitchell

On takeaways from tonight's game:
“Well, no one got injured. We wanted to win this game and a lot of the guys played that way. Our starters played hard for the minutes that we had them out there. The main thing is no one got injured. They all played hard for the minutes and got ready for the playoffs.”

Ford

Did you feel the team accomplished what they needed to tonight to get ready for the playoffs?
“Everybody knew there would be an opportunity to play tonight, being the last game of the season. So I think guys came in and played hard and we wished we could have came out with the win but we didn't.”

On tonight's performance:
“The biggest goal was to go into the playoffs healthy. So now we have to get ready for Orlando and go up there and get a win.”

On his hot start tonight:
“I just wanted to come out and be aggressive and just try to get my mindset ready for the playoffs. It's either win or go home.”

On playing Orlando:
“We're going against a team we feel very confident about. Hopefully we can gel in the playoffs. “

Calderon

On looking forward to the playoffs:
“I think with more experience everybody knows what the playoffs mean. We're playing Orlando so we have to go down there and try to win some games.”

How difficult was it to play the game tonight?
“It was not really difficult. Everybody got an opportunity tonight, everybody had to be ready for the playoffs. We're going to need everybody, that's why today all the guys who have not been playing a lot of minutes played tonight. They did a great job, that will be valuable for the playoffs.”