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Sean Marks:
On going forward: “I think we’re another year into this. A new set of guys, a new group. I’d like to think we’re deeper. It’s a great opportunity. Again, when one guy goes down it’s the next man up. I think our guys will hopefully rise up to that occasion and seize this opportunity.”
On Dinwiddie: “I’ve been surprised and pleasantly surprised by not only Spencer’s play, but a lot of the guys.”
On convo with DLo: “It’s definitely frustrating for D’Angelo. I was just with him before. He’s going into this as another challenge. He knows he’ll bounce back from this and we have no doubts in our mind that he’ll be better and stronger than he was before.”
On return this season: “It’s an arthroscopic surgery, so the plan would be for him to return this season.”
On specifics of the injury: “This was a direct correlation to the incident that happened in Utah. I think with any 21-year-old that’s played a lot of basketball you’re going to have a little bit of wear and tear. The good thing is he’s young enough and he’s certainly going to bounce back from something like this. We’re not too concerned in that regard.”
On applying for a Disabled Player Exception for Jeremy Lin: “Probably a pretty good chance" Brooklyn applies for a disabled player exception.
Kenny Atkinson:
On Isaiah Whitehead: “I still think he’s a young player. I don’t want to throw 25 minutes at him, 20 minutes. Like you saw with Caris, he’s supported by Caris. Caris can do it too. It depends on his play during the game. He’s a little more inexperienced than anything. We’re giving him doses. I don’t want to throw it at him all at one time. As he plays better and his confidence grows, he’ll get more and more minutes. I will say I was very pleased with his defense. I think that’s where I stand right now. He gives us a nice defensive presence, nice size. He can guard twos, threes, ones. The point guard stuff has got to come. Him and Caris, the way we play, they can share the ballhandling duty a little bit.”
On DLo’s spirits: “He’s a positive, positive person, which I really enjoy being around. I talked to him today. I think like anybody that has a little injury, these guys at this level think, ‘I want to get back. I want to help the team.’ He talked about the game tonight and what we need to do. He’s engaged, he’s involved, hasn’t distanced himself. So, positive spirit, yes.”
On what he needs to do: “Be engaged with the group. I think any of our guys that are out, whether it’s Jarrett Allen, D’Angelo Russell, Jeremy Lin, we like to keep those guys engaged. I’m in constant contact. There’s no, ‘Forget about you, you’re over there.’ Especially with point guards, you want to hear their opinion. ‘What did you see?’ They help me. He’s good, and Jeremy has been good with that. So, continue that engagement and keep them involved with what we’re doing.”
Moving forward: “We do it by committee. We have a good group of wings, and guards. I think we’ve strengthened the roster. I think we’ve developed sufficiently enough to withstand injuries. So Spencer obviously will continue in his role, Isaiah, Caris, and SK will be in that mix, too. So we’ll do it by committee; that’s how we do things.”
On Spencer Dinwidde: “I love how he defends. 6’6” and athletic. I think he’s come a long way. I think He’s come a long way with his strength, physical standpoint. He’s gotten stronger, he’s got more confident. We put him on sometimes the best wing when it’s the end of game, because he’s agile, he understands defense. So that’s great. And he’s got a good understanding of what we do on offense. That’s just his being here a long time. so grasping that better and better. I thought the last game we did a pretty good job getting in our offense and moving the ball side to side. I think we had 27 assists, which is nice; so he understands what we want.”