Lionel Hollins on Brook Lopez

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No. We’re trying to win and there’s a lot of guys that have been in this league that have made All-Star teams that eventually they’ve been on the bench. I read something where somebody said ‘reduced to a reserve role.’ We’re a basketball team. We need everybody. Believe it or not, when those guys are back, and the fact that they both can score, it gives our second unit a better look than what we had before. That’s what I’m trying to get to. It’s not always the All-Stars. John Havlicek was a perennial All-Star and came off the bench. And before him, I think (Gene) Connolly was as well.

You have a lot of guys that come off the bench and play because you have to balance your team. It’s not just about status. It’s not just about money. It’s not about All-Star appearances and all that. It’s about how best can a coach fit the team to be successful. It just worked out when those guys got hurt it showed another side of our team that I would have never gotten a chance to see unless we lost 10 in a row and decided to make a lineup change. We’re fortunate in that regard. And Deron and Brook have great character. They want to win and they’ve had individual success. We want to have team success as we keep building to be as good as we can be this year and in the future as long as they’re here. The only people that bother me, that I worry about when those guys aren’t playing, are you guys, because I hear it all the time. Somebody wrote, ‘Oh he sat two $35 million players on the bench.’ Come on. It’s not a demotion. It really isn’t. They’re still part of the team. Neither one of them got cut. They both go to the game every day and get paid every two weeks—and they get paid handsomely. This is a job. If you look at San Antonio, should Ginobili be coming off the bench? He’s been coming off the bench most of his career and he’s made decent money. I’ve seen Duncan come off the bench for them. I’ve seen Tony Parker come off the bench for them. I just think it’s basketball and today’s society gets into, ‘Well, he’s a max player so he’s supposed to all the minutes and get all the shots. Nobody else can shoot the ball. He shouldn’t even play defense. He shouldn’t even do anything but what he’s good at. I think basketball has always been a five-man group balanced, playing together, everybody contributing on offense. And when you get that, you get a San Antonio situation where it’s difficult to guard them. You get a Golden State situation where it’s difficult to guard them. You get the same thing in Memphis, in Dallas. Some of these teams are hard to guard because they have such great balance and camaraderie. And it doesn’t matter who scores, except for the name on the front. It doesn’t matter who’s playing defense, as long as you stop the other team from scoring. It’s not, ‘Well I stopped my man.’ Because if you’re stopping your man, he may not even be that great a scorer, so it doesn’t matter. That’s the way I look at. That’s why I’ve been trying to harp on more on, it’s about the team, it’s about the Brooklyn Nets because people keep bringing up Brook, keep bringing up Deron. I love both of those guys and they’ve done well and I expect them to continue to do well. And help us win. Roles are fluid anyway, even during the course of the games. Joe is shooting a lot in the first half, Brook is shooting a lot in the second half. It’s just the way the game is.

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