Rod Thorn Good Quotations

Barring injury, barring something crazy happening, I definitely think we're a playoff team. I think we're a team that certainly has a good chance to get home-court advantage in the first round.

He's a good shooter, he's a force down low and draws a lot of fouls. We feel he's a player who can play in our rotation and help us.

He's a good athlete who has had some moments in the league. We're hopeful he can give us some help on our bench.

Jason's attitude about our team is as positive as I've heard him since his second year when we were coming off the Finals. When your better players think you have a good team, I think that's a very positive thing.

Our first 20 games, we didn't play very well. We weren't playing very well defensively at all, and offensively, it seemed to me that ... Vince was kind of waiting on Richard, and Richard was kind of waiting on Vince. The mesh wasn't as good as we anticipated.

Our bench has played better, ... Our starters can play with anybody. But when our bench is going, we're a very good team.

Those are the areas we obviously have to play well if we want to get deep back in the playoffs. We've got to do it. We've got a very good defensive coach (Lawrence Frank). I'm sure our schemes will be fine, but we have to have players who will do it. And that's the key to our team.'

You have two guys who, when you put them on the low post, both demand a double team and they pass the ball, which means you can get good open shots with no one contesting. And when they don't do that, both of them draw a lot of fouls. We should be able to get to the foul line a lot.

So much of this game is about confidence. It's about feeling good about your teammates and yourself. I think Lawrence does a good job of recognizing that. He started giving players extra time on the court even when things weren't going great. Our bench has become an asset to us.

Something came up that nobody had any idea about. There is a time frame in which this will play out in the next couple of days. Shareef is a pro. He's a good guy. He's going to continue his career no matter what. Hopefully he'll have a long career. He's under contract (to the Nets). Hopefully that's the way it will stay, and he will play long time for us.

As far as we were concerned, we had a good season, with a real nice run at the end. But now, things start over.

And if you talk to our three best players, they all think we have a good team,' ... If you talk to Jason, his attitude is as positive as I've heard since then. When your better players think you have a good team, that's a very positive thing.'