Anthony Davis hasn’t spoken to his new coach yet.
“I know he’s an offensive coach who likes fast-paced, up-and-down scoring,” Davis said Thursday in a telephone interview with Reuters promoting NBA 2K16 with which he shares the cover with Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Houston’s James Harden.
It was his first public comments about the Pelicans coaching change. According to his father, Davis has been working out in Los Angeles for the past few weeks, but he not been available for any interviews until Thursday.
Davis is the second Pelicans player to make the cover of the most popular basketball video game. In 2007, Chris Paul of the then-Hornets was on the cover of NBA 2K8.
“I’m guessing every one of us grew up dreaming of the moment we’d be on the cover,” Davis said. “I’ve seen so many players I know head off and put on a suit with all of those balls (for motion capture duty).
“It looks so fun.”
Davis also addressed the pending max contract offer worth up to $144 million he’s likely to be offered by the Pelicans on July 1.
“You always want to get better and try to go into next year with a different mindset,” he said. “I want to figure out how I can make my team better and to more than just get us to the playoffs.”
The Pelicans did make the playoffs for the first time in Davis’ career but fired coach Monty Williams 10 days after being eliminated by Golden State in the first round.
Gentry is the Warriors associate head coach. But while Davis said he will be watching the Finals with extra interest, he doesn’t plan on talking to Gentry until the Finals are over.
“He’s coaching a team in the Finals,” Davis said. “I’ll let him concentrate on that.”The latest edition is expected to be released Sept. 29.
Pack predicts
Newly named Pelicans assistant Robert Pack posted his thoughts about the NBA Finals on his blog Wednesday but said the series between Golden State and Cleveland would be too close to call.
The New Orleans native joined Gentry’s staff earlier in the week — along with Darren Erman — but hasn’t been formally introduced by the franchise. Pack didn’t mention Gentry in his blog post but did reference how formidable his offense is.
He also mentioned his familiarity with both systems after scouting them this season as an assistant for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“As a coach, especially when you’ve been scouting these guys for years, it’s tough because you try to watch the game as a fan,” Pack wrote. “But you know the plays they’re running, and if a guy messes up, you’re thinking, ‘You weren’t supposed to be there!’ You’ve seen the film over and over, and you know the plays they are running, so it’s hard sometimes to just watch as a fan.”
Via- Scott Kushner and Ted Lewis | Advocate sportswriters