Q. You came here obviously with some high hopes. How would you break down the good, the bad, the ugly of this season and how you went through it?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: The season had a lot of ups and downs, as a team, personally. I think I haven't had much time to reflect on it but just flying home last night, it really hit me. Like it was a very, very fun, honestly, a fun year. With everything we went through, guys in and out of the lineup, you know, one, it builds character personally, but also as a team.
I think at least in my opinion, the team that we had has never been through a lot of the stuff that we went through this year. A lot of the stuff we went through was new things, and you can only build from and you can grow from it, and you come back next year and you build off of that.
Q. I know you guys fell short and didn't meet your expectations, but as far as your expectations, your first season here, did they meet them as far as the locker room, the coaching staff, the culture within the Warriors?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: Absolutely, yeah, that's why I made the decision could tomorrow here. I knew what I was getting myself into, and that's where I wanted to be. It's what I wanted to be a part of. Like I said, all the ups and downs this year, you're never going to go somewhere and everything is going to be sunshine and rain bows, you know what I mean.
Like I said, I haven't really had time to reflect on it because I'm still kind of disappointed and frustrated that we lost. But just briefly, very appreciative of everybody in the organization just to bring me in and allow me to continue to grow every single day on and off the court because I feel like I made great strides on and off the court this year.
Q. How about meeting your expectations as far as your play and your role, because you were obviously one of the guys who stepped in for injuries and were in and out as far as starter, off the bench, certain things like that.
DONTE DeVINCENZO: Yeah, I mean, personally, like selfishly, you look at it as, when guys were out of the lineup, that was my chance to kind of expand my role, grow as a player.
I think for me, the difficulties came when all those guys came back. I think that's -- it's hard, you know, when Steph goes out and you step up and you're playing X amount of time and doing this and that, and then Wiggs is out and you're dealing with Draymond is out and this and that. I felt like I was always the one, like you never know what to expect with me, and so when everybody came back, it was a little bit of an adjustment.
But we are a damned good team when everybody is back, and that's what I saw. That's what I kept feeling. Like I said, it's funny, not to quote Giannis or anything, but the steps -- there's no failure in sports. The steps to success, that's how I'm looking at this year, how do we take everything we've been through this year, and we build off it and come back next year.
Q. You obviously made your presence known this season, but you have a lot of decisions to make this off-season, specifically with your player option. How are you looking at this summer, and is there a part of that you sees yourself back here next year, and how are you looking at it going into this off-season? How are you approaching that option?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: I haven't thought -- to be completely honest, I haven't thought that much about anything in the off-season. I thought we would still be playing right now to be completely honest. What I will say is I absolutely love being a Golden State Warrior. The guys in the locker room, the coaching staff, the training staff, from day one, it's felt like home. So obviously I would love to be a Warrior. But I'll cross that bridge; we'll figure it out with the front office and everything. We'll figure out that bridge once we get here.
My goal this summer is to just get better. You know, to be able to take a step next year for the Warriors and try to expand even more; to be in a system I'm familiar with and just grow from there and get better as a player and as a man.
Q. Will that bridge be the Golden Gate or the Bay Bridge?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: (Laughing.)
Q. Yesterday you picked up your third foul in the first half. You guys had a lot of momentum at that point. Do you feel that stymied the momentum?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: I felt like a damn hack out there yesterday. A little bit. I think we were making a run, I forget at what point, but you know, they were up 17. We cut the lead, I think, was it 10? 4, it was the first half? Yeah. You know, we were feeling good.
But obviously it's a 48-minute game, and things kind of go back and forth. It's a game of runs. Do I think that specific event changed it? Not at all. But I think our physicality in the first half was good. I think that's kind of the team that we need to be going forward is that physical team, hit first, and not let teams hit us.
Q. You've formed a pretty good relationship with Jordan Poole for this last season. How have you thought being in the room with him and seeing him behind closed doors and stuff, how have you thought he has navigated this season with the brighter spotlight?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: I'll ride with Jordan till the wheels fall off to be honest with you. The amount of attention he has, the spotlight on him; I see him come in every day and never changed his work ethic. Never changed the type of person he is, and you know, for that, I have a great deal of respect for.
But the thing is, he's still willing to learn. He's still willing to accept different voices for him to get better. But the one thing about JP that I admire the most is his confidence. It never wavers, and we're definitely going to need that to go forward. You can't have people out there that second-guess themselves or their confidence isn't at an all-time high. I love sharing the court with Jordan. Like I said, no matter what happens with him, he's always going to come in the next day and be Jordan.
Q. What do you think you need to work on this off-season just to better grow your game and develop? What are some of those areas that you're focused on?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: You know, just for me, it's kind of everything. I approach the off-season kind of everything. It's not one specific thing, especially with this offense and especially with this team, playing multiple different positions, you know, guarding big guys, guarding small guys, playing point guard, I think that's the biggest thing for me that I kind of want to develop more is to be able to be the point guard of certain lineups and be able to run -- get JP off the ball, let him run around. Just do -- do other things that can help the team and be kind of more versatile for me, I think it helps me personally get on the floor, and two, I think it will help the team.
Q. How do you think yourself at times and then other guys like JK and Moses, just fluctuating minutes, not necessarily knowing when they are going to come, how long you're going to be out there, is that difficult at times this year, and just how did you guys handle that?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think I can speak for myself, honestly, like I said, when Steph goes out and Wiggs was out, I was playing a heavy dose of minutes while those guys come back from injury and stuff like that and things change.
I think with Moses, he was ready all season. You never know, but you keep tapping that rock, you never know when it's going to break. For him, it didn't -- the regular-season minute-wise wasn't in his favor, and then he stayed ready and when his name was called in the playoffs, he was ready to produce.
And the same with JK. JK is going to be just fine. He's such a talented player, and he's learning and getting stronger every day. Mentally, as well.
The league is not easy. And you can get swallowed up by the league in terms of you can get caught up in looking at what's being put out there, but I think what JK did a great job of is although the minutes weren't going his way in the playoffs, he never wavered of what the ultimate goal was for him was to win games, and he knew how to be a really good teammate. I think that's the biggest growth for him that he's hone shown me in the playoffs is that he's still connected to his teammates and he's still stayed into it. Because it's very easy to drift off, and I'm not getting X, Y, Z. You know, you've got to give him credit when credit's due.
Q. You've played under some of the best coaches, college level, pro level. What in this year under Steve Kerr have you been able to take away from him, even playing experience and coaching, learning under him?
DONTE DeVINCENZO: He's one of my favorite coaches to play for, for you are shoe. He just has an approach every single day that he gives you confidence. He's not a rah-rah type of coach, but he knows how to talk to you as a person. He's not coming to you talking to you as number zero on the court. He's coming to talk to you as Donte. For me, that was the biggest thing I appreciated when he needed to get into me a little bit, he knew how to do it, and he knew how I would respond to it.
So I think learning under him, my basketball IQ just grew. I think just seeing how he sees the game, it's always fun to play for a coach who played in the NBA. So I think that is the biggest thing for me is I learned more about the game playing under him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports