Q. 82 games, three playoff series is a really long winding road. What did you see from the team and try to navigate all those ups and downs, starting 24-1 and all the things you guys managed through the season?
CHET HOLMGREN: I think there's a lot of resilience from all the guys. As a team, we had our challenges and adversities and really great moments. I feel like everybody individually had those same things.
Overall, I'm just proud of the fight that we had as a team all year.
Q. Chet, a lot is going to be made of the series you had. It's pretty clear that the Spurs are not going away. How do you approach the off-season to make sure what happened in this series does not happen again?
CHET HOLMGREN: I feel like it comes down to looking at the tape, figuring out where I can improve individually, and then trusting my work through the off-season.
Q. You've had (indiscernible) shot attempts, 3-point attempts in this series. What do you think led to that?
CHET HOLMGREN: I think part of it is being -- I mean, also, I'm going to have to really dive into the tape to really understand the specifics of it, but just kind of from like a feeling, I feel like part of it was being kind of closed out heavy too, and then also kind of just being a little bit out of it at times.
I feel like there were definitely opportunities to get more attempts up that I didn't in the moment, and that's an area to improve.
Q. When you think about getting better personally, is that more so in refining those skillsets, or do you have those things you want to spend time on to get better for the next year?
CHET HOLMGREN: I think both. It's always both. No matter how good you are at something, you can always improve. Nobody's perfect at any skill. I feel like every basketball player wants to improve and add and get better at different things.
Q. You spoke before about how earlier in the season you didn't have a lot of experiences, so every mistake was almost magnified and it was maybe a bigger deal than it really was in the grand scheme of things. How much does that perspective change throughout the years, and how does that help you process through this season?
CHET HOLMGREN: You're saying like my first season?
Q. Yeah, you were saying how it's easier to magnify mistakes.
CHET HOLMGREN: I feel like the longer you live, the days start to feel shorter because you've lived so many. It's the same thing with mistakes. If you've only ever made one mistake, that mistake probably feels so heavy and so easy to dwell on, but as you make more mistakes, you learn that there are opportunities to learn from and improve from and find different ways to get better.
Q. One of your strengths is being a big that can stretch the floor. Your 3-point rating has gone down every year and you're taking more shots at the rim every year. Is that an intentional thing, or just kind of how the game is flowing?
CHET HOLMGREN: When you say 3-point rate, that's just the percentage of shots from the 3?
Q. Uh-huh.
CHET HOLMGREN: I don't know. I think it can be a factor of -- am I shooting less attempts, though?
Q. Yes.
CHET HOLMGREN: I feel like that could be -- I feel like basketball is a very fluid thing. There are typically multiple factors. It could be anything from different -- playing different positions to different -- being put in different situations to just attacking in different ways. But I didn't know that.
Q. Both Mark and Shai made it a point to say, when we have a healthy Chet, we're the Number 1 team in the NBA. Without him at his best, we're not as good as we can be. Talk about that support, especially from those two guys in particular, Mark and Shai.
CHET HOLMGREN: It's always great to have support from people that are not only great people, but people who are as talented as they are at what they do. It's always inspiring to kind of see their lead and try to follow that.
Q. How do you sort of balance the context of the Western Conference Finals and sort of not playing to your best there but also playing some of the best playoff basketball you've played in New Orleans?
CHET HOLMGREN: I'd definitely say it sucks losing. It's hard for that to not overshadow everything else. But you also have to look at everything, understand where you've improved, understand where you still need to improve, and then kind of look at everything objectively and continue to put your head down and continue to work from there.
Q. How have you seen ^ (indiscernible) evolve and grow as a defender this year?
CHET HOLMGREN: He's leaps and bounds. I always thought he was a pretty good defender, but I think his biggest strength was kind of playing defense with the mind, trying to get his positioning. This year he's really done an unbelievable job of tying in his kind of defensive intelligence, tying that to his feet, and he's moved his feet extremely well, and he's made plays with his hands.
He's made leaps and bounds in that area. He's a helluva player, helluva competitor.
Q. How have you helped guys like Sorber and Topic -- you've had Topic a couple years and Sorber for this year. What does that look like, your relationship with them as they're starting their NBA careers similar to how you had to?
CHET HOLMGREN: It's almost like trauma bonding. They're extremely hard working guys, extremely determined. I don't think I've seen anybody with the determination that Topic has, and Sorber is not far behind him.
I just try to offer them kind of encouragement in their processes of rehab. You know, they're kind of clearing the floor some, the hard parts of that.
But just trying to offer encouragement and give them some wisdom wherever I can. I'm not the 60-year-old wise guy with the whole life experience, but I've been through a couple of those situations myself. So just trying to help them out where I can. They help me out just as much with encouragement, and seeing them work, it inspires me too.
Q. Did you see Sorber before he got hurt?
CHET HOLMGREN: I saw some tape at Georgetown.
Q. What did you pick up on?
CHET HOLMGREN: I think he was playing some pickup last summer, but I wasn't in town during that.
Q. How different are the challenges the Spurs present? And how much film are you going to watch this summer and how much will be tailored towards that matchup that seems to await you all the next several years?
CHET HOLMGREN: I definitely think it's different in terms of I don't think there's another team that has their play style, their personnel. So they're unique in that way. Definitely have to -- you can't just kind of just play like a base normal, you know, this is what we do on an average Tuesday night type of thing.
The way you have to attack it is look at the film, look at where you can improve, and then work on the things that you need to work on to be ready for any night no matter who you play.
Q. You experienced a lot over your total basketball career. How do you think you've evolved accepting those losses, particularly at the end of the season?
CHET HOLMGREN: I'd definitely say they don't suck any less. Losing isn't fun, but I definitely feel like I've gotten better at being able to kind of take a loss for what it is and look at it objectively rather than emotionally and try to figure it out and work forward from there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports