Q. I wanted to ask you a little bit about playing with Shai; you obviously had a chance to do a little bit of that last year before he got hurt. What did you take away from that time playing with him, and what's your expectation of -- hopefully he doesn't get hurt this year, but playing longer with him this season on the floor?
THEO MALEDON: I think keep building chemistry, where we could facilitate for each other, making sure that off the ball, for example, I move and create windows, for example, to get open, where I could kick it for a three or get (indiscernible), but just building chemistry to make sure we're on the same page, to make things easier.
Q. There's obviously a young roster and a lot of ball handlers on the roster. How are you sort of approaching that competition as obviously you guys are teammates but competing against each other at the same time?
THEO MALEDON: I think it's a great thing. I think healthy competitions help rise the level overall of the team, so I think it's good. I personally want to see everyone win as much as I want to, so for me it's healthy and good to be out there wanting to compete against those people. But at the same time so that when we come and play against other teams, because of the way we're competing, we know what to expect and can handle it better.
Q. You got a lot of minutes last year. What can that help you going into this year? You got to soak up minutes, because watching Summer League it looked like you were more advanced than a lot of guys you were playing against. Now you're second year. How does last year help you this season?
THEO MALEDON: I think getting those minutes helped me a lot, gaining experience, getting to learn the play style, getting to learn little things that I would not maybe experience if I'm not playing. Just keep learning, keep experimenting and having those experiences and having a better way to put them when I'm on the court.
Q. I was wondering if I could ask you about Mark. Obviously his first year as a head coach last year. He seemed to connect with you guys. If that's not true, say so, but if he did build that chemistry with you guys, how did you sense he was able to do that, being that he was first year as a head coach?
THEO MALEDON: I think he just did his job how he's supposed to do it. Stuff like he was really there for us. He made us feel that at the very beginning. As long as we're doing the essentials, competing and playing together, it will help us, and help us as much as possible to get what we want. It's something that goes both ways. As long as both parts are working, things are good.
Q. Bigger picture, the Thunder organization, you as a rookie a year ago, and now there's a pretty decent amount of guys who are international guys coming for the first time to the NBA, to the Thunder. What sort of things did the organization try to help you do -- Mark was obviously doing the basketball stuff on that side of things, but did the organization do things that you now look back and think, wow, they were really trying to help me get acclimated and comfortable and everything in Oklahoma City?
THEO MALEDON: Oh, yeah, definitely. For example, the visit at the memorial museum. I felt like that was a great thing and was great stuff to set a base and get a glimpse of Oklahoma City, the culture, what to expect. Yeah, they did a lot of things, making sure to make sure we were as comfortable as possible there. That really helped me being on the court, too. Having those guys coming in, those new guys, felt like it's one of my jobs to do the same thing as much as other people did to me when I first arrived.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports