“We have what we need. This is the message I gave them. We have what we need in this locker room”. Former very good defender, elected in the best defensive five in 2003, Doug Christie warned his players that the salvation of the Kings would require sacrifices on defense. To the point that he would like his guys to imitate the player he was, capable of giving everything on the field, to the point of asking to go out.
“I talked about consistency, focus, wanting to play for my team at such a high level that it hurt and I had to come off the field. It's up to me to find that.” sues Mike Brown's successor.
Keon Ellis as model
Clearly, this is not the kind of profile of its players, nor of its workforce, which is very focused on attack, as we saw again on Saturday evening against the Lakers. But like Keegan Murray, they are ready to play the type of basketball Christie demands. “Everyone likes Doug, and since he's going to be our interim coach until the end of the season, I think everyone is going to try to support him and give him the best situation possible, trying to save him from stress,” Murray promises. “Certainly he spoke to each of us in one way or another to try to motivate us. He's been great over the last 24 hours, trying to motivate our team to turn the season around. »
Even if Christie relied on the same five as Brown, he could quickly change the rotation, and one player could take advantage of the situation. It's Keon Ellis, one of the few defensive specialists in the squad.
“Keon is the perfect example of everything I want”confirms Christie. “When he came into play tonight, he didn't shoot. He put the ball under his arm and took the axis. I looked at him and said, 'Look, man, you gotta shoot. I need you to shoot because you shoot well. Defensively, you are improving. You are poison. You guys have to not give up. So we need a lot of the things he does, but we also need him to shoot. »
