Q. How excited are you to play with Jordan?
ISAIAH LIVERS: Oh, super excited. I knew that was going to be the first question, but super excited. My roommate, my best friend. He was going to be my best man -- I didn't do best man, but he's my guy. I'm super excited. Being over here in D.C. is going to be a great opportunity.
Q. What was it like when the news broke and you guys connected right after that?
ISAIAH LIVERS: It was great. The first call on my call log was Jordan. I couldn't answer. I was in practice. I hit him back a little later, and all I see is this dude just smiling, just cheesing, like come on to D.C., man. Welcome to have you. Went from there, and talked to his parents and everybody.
Q. What did he tell you about it?
ISAIAH LIVERS: About here? He said he liked it. We've been talking. Like the moment he got traded here, I asked him a couple weeks later how he was doing it, how he liked it. He said it was an adjustment obviously coming from the west coast, but he enjoyed it, loved the guys in the organization, he loved the team. He loved it.
Gave him some food spot suggestions, and I got to check those out when we get back from New York.
Q. How did you guys become such good friends? I know you're the same class at Michigan. Did it click right away?
ISAIAH LIVERS: Man, it was before we even got there, so he committed before me early, and then I started to draw interest in Michigan and then I committed, and then I get a random text. Like this tells you all about this guy. Random text from a number one day waking up and it was Jordan just trying to connect. He was like, hey, what's up, man, welcome to the class. I'm committed. We're the next Michigan men, and took off from there.
After that, said we were going to be roommates. We were going to take over campus and do our thing, and that's what we did.
Q. For people here in Washington who aren't very familiar with your game, what are some of the qualities and characteristics you bring to the court and off the floor?
ISAIAH LIVERS: Yeah, on the court obviously I like to play the right way. I like taking the right shot. Another thing I like to do, I love guarding the best player. If I'm not guarding the best player, I'm probably guarding the second best player. I like to compete. I space the floor, knock down my shots, make timely cuts, and just play good basketball, and I think that's what's emphasized over here in D.C. is just playing the right way and help each other out.
Q. If I'm not mistaken this is your first time being part of a trade in the NBA. How much easier is it coming to a place where you already have a great friend and also coming with a teammate in Bagley?
ISAIAH LIVERS: That was the number one thing was not being alone in the trade, so my first trade -- actually Bag was one of my closest guys over in Detroit, so it was cool to have him with me the whole step.
He's been traded a couple times before, so he kind of gave me the rundown of what was going to happen. No, immediately when I found out who was over here, I was coming here. I knew Corey, Jared Butler, obviously Jordan, EO is over here. PBJ, we're all agency, so that was really cool to know there's a lot of guys over here.
Q. Seems like you've laid a pretty good foundation as a three-point shooter at the NBA level. How do you build off that? Because obviously you were such an elite shooter in college.
ISAIAH LIVERS: Yeah, at times it's making the right play. Like I'm one of the guys where I play off the ball. You don't see me with the ball too much. Hey, if I'm open, you swing it, I'm going to knock it down. But if not. I'm not going to force nothing.
I want to get a great shot in the possession. I really value great possessions. And obviously no turnovers. That's one thing for me is turning the ball over, it kills me. Kind of just taking that right shot and get to the basket, be aggressive sometimes when I have to.
And I'm a good foul shooter, so get to the free-throw line too.
Q. I asked Monty Williams about what you can bring to the Wizards and he said your future is ahead of you and you'll be able to expand your game here in ways you weren't necessarily able to in Detroit. What do you think about that, and what do you think you can do here that you weren't able to do there?
ISAIAH LIVERS: Yeah, here, definitely probably have more opportunities to get the ball on the ground. In the Detroit they had a good amount of guys who could play make already so here no guys over here -- not saying no guys over here can play make, but it's just more opportunity to do that within this offense.
Coach Mont, great words from him. He obviously knows what I can do, and that's my next step. Obviously everybody knows me as a three-and-D guy. My next step is obviously putting the ball on the floor and play making and making plays for myself.
Q. What kind of opportunity is this for you?
ISAIAH LIVERS: Oh, it's a big one. It's my first time being traded. D.C., I already like what they have over here and what they're trying to build over here. It's perfect to come right in and just do the right thing, listen to Coach. Whatever he's got for me, suggestions, and listening to my vets, listening to Kuz -- actually Kuz is another one I knew from Michigan, Michigan kid. But listening to those guys and trying to fit in, and not just to float around but to try to make a difference over here.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports