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By Matthew McQueeny
NJNets.com
April 23rd, 2008
The Season…
“There were a lot of ups-and-downs. Obviously all the stuff with the J-Kidd-slash-Devin-slash-whoever else, everybody else trade. It took a little bit of our concentration obviously. With something of that magnitude going on it’s tough to completely focus. I think we did a pretty good job of it. We obviously didn’t finish up the year like we would have hoped for. There were a lot of games that we probably should have won that we just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch and then ended up costing us games and eventually ended up costing us making the playoffs. We just need to look back and realize the good things that we did and just kind of take them and move forward with it into the off season.”
On what you learn from this season…
“You have to finish games. Like I said, there were a bunch of games this year that we were in until the very end and we just ended up making one or two less plays than the other team did and it ended up costing us the games.”
Personally you were said to be a bright spot…
“I definitely progressed a lot from last year. When you get more time, you obviously are going to do more things with it because the more you’re out on the floor the more accustomed you are going to get to it, the more confidence you are going to gain, and the better you are going to do. Not only that but my teammates had a lot of confidence in me as well. I probably wouldn’t have scored too many points at all this year if it wasn’t for my teammates feeling that if they passed me the ball I was going to do something good with it.”
On six (points) and six (rebounds) per game being the goal entering the season…
“That was the goal coming in. Twelve of anything was the goal coming in.”
On being a starter for 53 games…
“I didn’t know. There was always the chance. Whoever works the hardest and whoever proves that they want to be out there the most is typically going to get that spot. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity after we played the Clippers and I just tried to make the most of it every time I went out there.”
Did this season teach you that you are an NBA player for sure?
“I think last year I pretty much figured it out but after this year I definitely feel that I belong here and I’m definitely good enough to play on this level hopefully for a long time. But we’ll see; a lot of things can happen, all I can control is how hard I work.”
Getting through the season healthy was a major positive…
“It definitely was. Up until the last few games I hadn’t missed a game this year due to injury so that was a very good thing and hopefully I’m going to continue that through the off season. Hopefully I’ll make it through this entire off season without having to do anything like have a surgery or something like that, which I’ve had to do the last few years and it’s very frustrating to me. But besides the little thing on my knee right now I’m in good health so I shouldn’t have to worry about that.”
Plans for summer…
“I’m not sure whether they’ll have me play in the rookie league or not. If they do, I’ll be down there for about a week. I have one vacation planned to somewhere a long way away from here – an island a long way away from here – for about two weeks in June so that will be good just to get away. Other than that, I’ll be making trips to Maryland and Connecticut just to see people since I’ll finally have time to do that.”
Where do you port during the summer?
“(New) Jersey. My house (townhouse) is in Jersey. I don’t have a place in Maryland or Connecticut anymore. Connecticut I stay in hotels; Maryland I stay with friends.”
Where do you look to improve? Jump shot and post move?
“I need to definitely continue that. The more I shoot it, the more confidence I’m going to get and I’ve been shooting it a lot better than I was earlier in the year. It’s a night and day difference between what I was doing at the start of the year and what I’m doing now. (Nets Shooting Coach) Bob Thate’s really been helping me a lot with that. Just overall confidence in my offensive game: I need to prove that I’m more than just a guy that can roll on a pick and roll or get an offensive rebound. I need to show that I’m someone that can actually make his own shot.”
What do you expect from yourself going into next season?
“I just want to do everything I can to get myself better and then whatever happens next year will happen.”
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