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Shaq Defends Michael Malone After Being Fired by the Nuggets | NBA on TNT · Bleacher Report

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  Speaker 1: But the shocking news that happened was with three games
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  Speaker 1: left in the Denver Nuggets season, they have fired parted
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  Speaker 1: ways with head coach Mike Malone. They are fifteen games
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  Speaker 1: over five hundred. This was his eighth straight winning season,
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  Speaker 1: of course, winning the title back in twenty twenty two.
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  Speaker 1: This is the latest we have had a coaching change
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  Speaker 1: in forty five years. He is the winningest head coach
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  Speaker 1: in the history of the Denver Nuggets.
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  Speaker 2: Why don't we go to the statement from.
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  Speaker 1: Kronki, the governor, just to show what they said after
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  Speaker 1: this shocking firing.
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  Speaker 2: This is from Josh Kronky, the Governor.
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  Speaker 1: No pleasure that we have announced that we have relieved
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  Speaker 1: Michael Malone of his head coaching duties. He goes on
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  Speaker 1: to say David Adelman will assume that role. He says
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  Speaker 1: the timing of the decision is unfortunate. That coach Malone
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  Speaker 1: has helped build the foundation of.
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  Speaker 2: A championship level program.
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  Speaker 1: Goes on to say, we look forward to building on
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  Speaker 1: that foundation over his record breaking.
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  Speaker 2: Ten year career.
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  Speaker 1: Is with our utmost respect, we'd like to thank coach
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  Speaker 1: Malone for the most successful decade in Nugget's history, setting
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  Speaker 1: the all time wins record and helping deliver Denver our
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  Speaker 1: first championship.
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  Speaker 2: Now, people online.
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  Speaker 1: Today we're noticing that in recent press conferences, maybe Malone's
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  Speaker 1: attitude was a foreshadowing.
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  Speaker 3: Take a listen, my job is to be honest. It
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  Speaker 3: was a brutally honest message. And the guys that are
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  Speaker 3: fully won't hear it. You know, they'll say coach is tripping.
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  Speaker 3: And the guys that maybe do really care will because
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  Speaker 3: they don't want. They're not going to go back and
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  Speaker 3: watch their minutes, because nobody watches their minutes. Nobody watches film.
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  Speaker 3: We'll have to show them the film. And I said,
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  Speaker 3: if somebody disagrees with me, please speak up, and nobody
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  Speaker 3: said a word. Each guy's got to look themselves in
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  Speaker 3: the mirror and start coming to each respective game with
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  Speaker 3: the proper mindset and have some pride.
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  Speaker 1: Also today the general manager the team, Galvin Booth, was
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  Speaker 1: also let go, and if you watch TV at all today,
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  Speaker 1: it was pretty clear that those two didn't like each
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  Speaker 1: other according to all reports, but the move is shocking
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  Speaker 1: based on the timing. With three games left, Candace, I'll
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  Speaker 1: give you the first crack at it.
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  Speaker 4: I think gone are the days that we see a
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  Speaker 4: Jerry Sloan, Greg Popovich and Eric Spolstra. Let's just be honest,
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  Speaker 4: because the more player empowerment, the money that the players
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  Speaker 4: are going to receive. I think it's the more power
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  Speaker 4: and that Minnesota lost, I think broke them and you
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  Speaker 4: could see.
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  Speaker 2: With the overtime game week.
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  Speaker 4: I think that overtime game, I do that was kind
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  Speaker 4: of feasts or famine. And to be honest with you,
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  Speaker 4: I'm not in the locker room, I don't know. But
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  Speaker 4: at the same time, Jerry Buss, I think he said
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  Speaker 4: it best. A coach has your attention for five years,
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  Speaker 4: and that was his philosophy with things. And I think
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  Speaker 4: we're going to see a lot more turnover and gone
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  Speaker 4: are the days of the old respect. I think now
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  Speaker 4: the NBA is a copycat league. The coaches are getting younger.
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  Speaker 4: If you look at it, what ten I wrote this down.
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  Speaker 4: Ten coaches in the NBA are forty five or younger.
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  Speaker 4: You think about Missoula and what they did in Boston,
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  Speaker 4: and I think everybody's taking notice of that. You talk
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  Speaker 4: about how Golden State changed the way that the game
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  Speaker 4: is played in terms of shooting, I think front offices
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  Speaker 4: are looking at how can coaches hold their players' attention
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  Speaker 4: for longer, and I think that that's going to continue
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  Speaker 4: to happen. And you think about JJ Reddick and that
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  Speaker 4: higher think gone are the days of long tenured coaches
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  Speaker 4: because of the.
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  Speaker 2: Need to win.
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  Speaker 4: Now, when you're spending billions of dollars on a roster
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  Speaker 4: to try to fight for a championship.
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  Speaker 5: My only thing is the timing of it all. And
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  Speaker 5: I'm thinking of if I'm thinking as a player, now,
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  Speaker 5: we're three games out of play in into playoffs, and
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  Speaker 5: this is the time we're trying to get ourselves. Our
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  Speaker 5: roster are, the way we're going to play, a rotation
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  Speaker 5: all these these things. We're in the fourth so we
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  Speaker 5: have home court events, so we're playing for an opportunity
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  Speaker 5: because they're still good enough. It's not like this team
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  Speaker 5: is not good enough injuries or whatnot. And I get it.
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  Speaker 5: Sometimes you need to change the voice and maybe you
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  Speaker 5: have that meeting or something and you do that later.
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  Speaker 5: It just the timing just bothers me. And I get it.
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  Speaker 5: If there's something bigger than what we're thinking where it
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  Speaker 5: needed to happen immediately, that's fine. But it's like when
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  Speaker 5: I'm going into the playoff. You want your leader, you
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  Speaker 5: need your voice, and I get it. Sometimes the voice
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  Speaker 5: is not carrying over, so you need to figure it out.
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  Speaker 5: But February, if you don't, you're not sure. Like all
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  Speaker 5: of a sudden, I feel like now needs to happen.
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  Speaker 5: With three games left, moving to the playoffs where we're
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  Speaker 5: trying to make a run to win a championship. When
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  Speaker 5: Yo Kisch is one of the best in the game,
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  Speaker 5: you still have an opportunity. Anything can happen to playoffs.
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  Speaker 5: I just that's that's the only thing that bothers me.
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  Speaker 6: I would have liked it to be done a little
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  Speaker 6: more professional. The winning is coach in Denver won a championship.
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  Speaker 6: It's still fall in the formula of possibly winning another
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  Speaker 6: championship despite what's going on. You want to have some
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  Speaker 6: type of home court advantage right now. They had that.
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  Speaker 6: And for all you idiots out there that think you
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  Speaker 6: have to have a smooth season winning championship, that's false.
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  Speaker 6: I can tell you.
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  Speaker 2: That for a fact.
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  Speaker 6: My first one was smooth, my second one was not smooth,
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  Speaker 6: My third one was rough. The fourth one we lost
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  Speaker 6: to Detroit, went and got another on in Miami. That
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  Speaker 6: was not smooth. Everything he said at the beginning was correct.
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  Speaker 6: Kudos to him for holding these players accountable. All of
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  Speaker 6: these guys ain't held accountable anymore because like Kennis had
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  Speaker 6: the money and the likes and all that. I had
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  Speaker 6: two coaches like that that help me accountable. That's why
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  Speaker 6: I can easily sit up here and say I got four.
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  Speaker 6: Phil Jackson got in my ass all the time. Pat
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  Speaker 6: Riley got in my ass all the time. And he's correct.
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  Speaker 6: His seating is the way it is because Murray was
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  Speaker 6: injured and Gordon was it. But despite all that, despite
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  Speaker 6: what was going on, they still have some type of
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  Speaker 6: home court advantage. When we went in Miami, we were
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  Speaker 6: awful the whole year. We got beat by Chicago by forty.
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  Speaker 6: We had a meeting, we started fighting GP and d
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  Speaker 6: Wade was going down to me and Antoine's going there,
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  Speaker 6: and then you know.
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  Speaker 5: It, because we should have beat you all by the way.
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  Speaker 6: That's right, yoh, should have. But you know the season.
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  Speaker 6: The season is about peaks and valleys, right, as long
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  Speaker 6: as you peak at the right time, like does no
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  Speaker 6: matter what happened in the rev Zee, if I got
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  Speaker 6: home court advantage and we played pretty good at home,
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  Speaker 6: and I got Murried stepping up, and I got Gordon
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  Speaker 6: stepping up, and we make.
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  Speaker 2: To the sickon round. We have a chance. So I
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  Speaker 2: would like.
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  Speaker 6: To see him if it didn't work after the year,
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  Speaker 6: say coach Malone, thankful what you've done then, but to
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  Speaker 6: let him go now before the playoffs.
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  Speaker 4: Which you said something that jumps out a locker room
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  Speaker 4: that's yelled, yelling, loud, full of passion. That's a locker
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  Speaker 4: room that wants to fix things. He said, nobody said anything.
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  Speaker 4: So to me, a quiet locker room where nobody wants
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  Speaker 4: to say anything, that's the scary part. And when you
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  Speaker 4: have a team that does not want to step up
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  Speaker 4: take accountability. Yogurts had a sixty point triple double. I
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: think what else could this man possibly do? And so
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  Speaker 4: I just think that it's at a point and I
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  Speaker 4: love coach Michael moreown, but at the same time of
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  Speaker 4: your organization, I think it's the why wait philosophy now.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And that's what shack is for the playoffs.
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  Speaker 1: What's interesting is and the question that we'll have to
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  Speaker 1: wait for the answer is what is the benefit of
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  Speaker 1: doing it now? If you believe that the coach has
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  Speaker 1: lost the locker room, and then what he's saying is
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  Speaker 1: he's the winningest coach in your franchise.
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  Speaker 2: Then you know you're going to make a move.
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  Speaker 1: Give him the respect of finishing the season unless you
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  Speaker 1: think that a change is going to spark it.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, but even if you do lose a locker room,
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  Speaker 6: it's the job of the players to step up, gotcha.
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  Speaker 5: And then you're putting the pressure on now your new
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  Speaker 5: coach Adelman to go into the playoffs with a team
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  Speaker 5: that is very capable with home court advantage right now
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  Speaker 5: to win because it's not like we're in this eight seed,
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  Speaker 5: seventh seed and whatever, we're in the fourth seed.
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  Speaker 2: That's a lot of pressure, a lot of questions.
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  Speaker 4: Is the respect for somebody Luca got traded?
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  Speaker 2: I think that's interesting that one, not the one one.
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  Speaker 2: That's one that's a pivot to our first game where
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  Speaker 2: we have the
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  Speaker 6: HM