Everything Steve Clifford Said in His Final Press Conference as Hornets Head Coach

Steve Clifford recaps the season and discusses his future.

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 emotions of the season coming to an end

“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

“I think that all that stuff is to be determined. We haven’t talked a whole lot about it other than I’m going to take a few days off here and next week and then my role will be to be determined by Rick, by Gabe and by Jeff, so I think some of that might, depending on who the coach is, if I’m going or not, or what they want. Different coaches want to set up their staff in different ways. You’ve got to let the head coach have the say on how they want to do things. What I want to be is a plus for the organization. I want to do things in a way, regardless of what it is, that might just be study. It might be just whatever, we’ll figure it out why some teams pick-and-roll defensively better than other teams. I want to be more of a resource, but I want to do it in a way that I’m only a positive. I was in the system for a long time, and the one thing that I learned is that if they give you three things to do, do those three things as well as you can. When you think you’re good at them, do it better. Don’t worry about doing his job, his job or his job. I tell my staff that all the time. If everybody does what they are told, that’s how you function well. This league is hard enough, you need everybody pulling in the same direction. You want guys that get duties, responsibilities and they try to knock them out of the park. That’s when you have an effective staff. What I want to be is high work and no maintenance. I want them to view me as somebody that we’re lucky is here. I’m not in a position where I’m going to be trying to hit home runs here.”

Current state of the roster and what needs to be added

“These guys played 14 minutes together this year. We had 14 minutes in Orlando when they were all healthy, that’s it, and ‘Melo went down early in the second quarter. Obviously this is a team game with flow. So much of it is talent, number one, but it’s how guys fit together. The guy who took a big step up, the guy who plays in a manner where he can make everybody fit together, when he’s in play, that’s ‘Melo. You watch ‘Melo against Boston, he was 36, 10 assists and nine rebounds, or nine assists, eight rebounds, against Boston. Mark in that game was 16 and 14. You watch the Dallas game, and remember ‘Melo wasn’t even cleared to play 5-on-5 until the game started, so those first few games, I think Dallas was maybe game seven, six, or eight, and he still wasn’t in shape, and yet in the first three quarters, that’s what we had gotten to, when he was only trying to get everybody else the ball and then he took over in the fourth. That was his first really good game of the year. I think it’s really hard to evaluate. I will say this, offensively, and this goes about Miles (Bridges) who’s obviously a talented, talented player, after 10 games playing without Miles, we were ninth in offense and that’s with ‘Melo not in shape, Mark Williams, not to their own fault, but just because they got cleared and Mark wasn’t the same. We already had injuries – Terry (Rozier) missed three of those games, but you can see the offensive part. I told Jeff this, and I’ll share it with Rick and Gabe, too, the hard thing for me is this, and this is my responsibility and there are a lot of factors in it, too – whoever we hire as the coach, I can’t say to them, “Pick-and roll-coverage with Mark Williams, this is what we need to do,” because we didn’t do it for a long enough period to say it was going to work. I’m aggressive, always have been, with pick-and-rolls and stuff like that. I think you can’t sit back and let teams just run their offense in the NBA. It’s a lot different. Other people aren’t. It always worked before, when I was here before, it was with Al (Jefferson) and Cody (Zeller), and we went to Orlando and we did pick-and-roll defense and we were blitz happy with (Nikola) Vucevic and they didn’t think it would work, and we were top-10 defense there. I do think some of it can work, but I would tell the new coach, I’d start from scratch. I’d be careful how much of the film I watch that way, and finding the next way forward with Mark Williams or whoever, to do everything because we had stretches of defense these past few years. 10 games here, 18 games there, but never sustained it, and that’s what this league is all about. It’s having the talent that you have right in that group. I’m not running away from the question, but I don’t think it’s fair with all the injuries that we’ve had, they weren’t on the floor enough together for me to really say. They didn’t play enough together.”

Not having LaMelo Ball

“It was pretty difficult. He wants to play. ‘Melo is great. I think that he has elite talent, but his size, his shot creation, shot making and desire to win is exceptional. The desire to win piece I don’t think people have seen around the league yet, but they will. Hopefully he gets to play some bigger games. He’s extremely coachable. One thing I feel comfortable with is, for him, his pick-and-roll offense in limited games improved tremendously in two years. His finishing at the rim, decision making in the game, he got a lot better at. His defense is a lot better. I think that nothing has changed other than he’s got to get healthy. In my mind, he can be a top player, second-best player on a great team.”

Being a part of the head coach interview process

“Just a little bit, just with discussions with Jeff. He will talk to me about this guy or that guy. I’m going to come back next Monday and we’re going to sit down and talk about it. To be honest, with the question about working with the next head coach is depending on that, that’s something I’m interested in. I’m also interested in learning about the draft and how they organize the draft, or what they do to prepare for free agency. I’ve never been that much into personnel, so that part of it I’m looking forward to also, so if it’s working a lot with the new coach, that’d be great. I am, selfishly, I do want to learn. Jeff, Ryan (Gisriel), those guys in Brooklyn, Sean Marks and those guys, they are on it. They are super organized, so I would like to be in those meetings so I can learn from them.”

High points in coaching career

“I think last year, we went 18 games where we were second in defense. It really started with Mark Williams when we weren’t playing him much early when he was in the G League and then right after the trade deadline, when he and Nick (Richards) were playing, he really changed our team on the defensive end. He was dominant. He did all of it. You guys may remember, we’re plus one here, we got the switch, he blocked Trae Young’s shot. It’s just a great, great play that not many guys his size would be able to make. This year, LaMelo likes to talk about how he stripped (Tyrese) Haliburton. I call that a mis-dribble. Winning in Milwaukee last year, winning in Sacramento, and a bunch of good wins this year against good teams, Boston here. The game last year when we beat Dallas here was a good win. For me, we don’t have a way to play. You’ve got to have a way to play. There’s got to be a way that when the game starts every night, they all know that if we do this on offense, if we do this on defense, if we do this rebounding, we’re good. That’s my disappointment because that’s what I’ve always been able to do. You go back to Kemba and those guys, they would say, ‘We’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do this.’ That changes from team to team and that’s when you’re getting to what wins in the league from what the strength of your roster is. That’s how the guys were in Orlando – Vucevic and those guys. Once they figured out that if we do these things we’re going to win, that’s when we’ve got a chance.”