Try hard to sum up now, but when you see Joel just just in tears, walking off the court, what goes through your mind that it's gonna be a life memory that as painful as it feels now, it'll it'll help him.

It'll help shape his Korea.

It'll help give him greater clarity off with this time of the year represents the all the stuff that has to accrue over many months that that will equal the ability to one day.

Be a champion.

It's hard.

It's hard to be the last man standing and to to see him, uh, have the emotion that that he has.

And he's He's one of many in that locker room.

It is painful for all of us.

But to your question with Joel, he'll look in the rearview mirror.

And remember this.

He will come out better and smarter and stronger and more aware of really what it takes to, ah to play longer than we've been able to play.

David Letterman, ESPN in front of you here.

What do you think you guys accomplished over the last two rounds of the playoffs?

And how should that be considered moving forward as this team looks to the future?

I mean the I think the group incrementally as I said it, Thea, in the beginning before we played has has slowly come together.

Somebody asked me if it was a game that, you know, sort of defined us.

And I believe my answer was a bunch of instances that added up that you felt like we were pointing in the right direction.

I think our starting group is is as talented as any in the n b a in our bench, you know, we try to uncover some things with James that I think gave a serviceable minutes.

I'm such a fan of Mike Scott.

His toughness, etcetera.

We experimented with different five men from a meat of Boban to Greg trying to figure that out.

Um, but I think moving forward, you know, you try to hold on to as much of it as you can, and it's not my area.

Elton will be great at this, and I'm sure Ah, a large portion off off the challenge and the in the, um, planning is going to be How do you you know just sort of grow the bench and hold on to as much of that as you can.

This started as you can coach So Pandev from The New York Times.

Two questions, the first of which is that you essentially had three over here.

Sorry, you essentially had three different versions of the team this year.

Do you think that if you had more time with that final version, the results might have been different?

And secondly, there's been a lot of speculation about your future.

I wonder if you've in the last couple weeks had any conversations.

Has anyone told you anything about what your future might look like with the organization?

Uh, stuff is stuff like that.

We we've talked internally a lot.

Uh, you know, the club can respond to that as it relates to what was the first party question I thought.

I thought they were great.

I thought that they ended the season, um, playing good basketball.

I thought that they came together from a chemistry standpoint in a real sort of expedited way.

Um, that surprised me because there's some firepower there.

I think that they coexisted well.

There were sacrifices made all over the place.

You know, Ben, as an example, we ended up really playing a lot of middle.

Pick and roll with Jimmy as one example, and I was proud of the way the guys came together.

I'm Britain now that the syriza's finished.

Don't want to just ask about Ben and what you saw from him, this syriza going up against Guan for seven games And we saw in the first half assed why was jacking up all these shots?

Finn was in his back pocket and contesting.

Can you just speak about the growth of him over these past seven games and especially the lessons he will take about battling someone like I mean, it's a little bit of a similar answer that I will give that I gave with Joel and be, um you know what, 22 years old?

I think that we've seen growth in Ben in the course of these these two playoff rounds.

To have the responsibility to go have to defend Kwai landed especially in the mood in the mindset that quiet was in.

He took you know, what was a 39 39 shots?

Wow.

And, uh and we give him credit.

You know, in some of the shots that the Kwai made you shake his hand.

Other bitch, You you were schematically.

We were a little bit better.

But I think Ben's defensive effort, uh, and commitment to trying to guard Kwai lended will serve him well.

It, too, will be a memory certain that Will will help better shape his his his his approach.

You know, his understanding of playoff basketball.

That's Sarah Todd Philadelphia Inquirer.

I know that there's probably some larger viewpoints that matter more right now.

But if you look a granule early, just this game, how disappointing was that They outrebounded you, especially on the offensive end tonight.

Yeah, I mean, the the two things that the two things that that will, you know, you think about all summers.

That's one of them.

And, uh, you know, we'll go back and look at it where we could have done better on that.

And, you know, there was some dry possessions at the end that we put Jimmy in the middle.

Pick and roll.

We did some things.

JJ had that big bucket that three prior, but there was probably two for Shore three.

If I remember correctly that, you know, you needed to get a shot and I give Toronto credit.

They were They were switching a lot.

They were able to keep us in front of them.

But those two areas to me Sarah What?

What?

I'll be curious to go back and look at the tape and remember, as I sit here, you know, 15 minutes after the game has ended, Brett Lewis Atzmon, Raptors Republic.

We might be burying the lead here, but that last shot was on the rim for maybe a lifetime.

You remember anything you were thinking?

Well, that was in the air.

I really felt when it hit the rim that it was gonna end up going in.

It didn't surprise me that it went in.

You know, when it when it hits at that angle and goes kind to straight up, you feel like there is a chance it's actually going to go in.

And when it went up, not to four pretend like you could forecast anything.

It didn't surprise me that it ends up falling in.

It did seem like he was up there for a while, but with the with the way he missed in the bounce of the ball and the fact that it did go straight up and not, you know, go to the right of the left.

It's a tough way to lose on.

That's a hell of a win.

That's a tough shot.

And, uh, what a tremendous Siri's Could you just elaborate a little bit more on where you see the reasons for promise in the trajectory of this team that you were talking about?

I mean, if you just go back this follow a time in Philadelphia when we won 10 games, we've been through a handful of general managers.

We've been through a different Ping Pong balls and draft picks, and now you fast forward.

We've won back to back 50 game seasons.

You know, we came to a Game seven.

I think the large majority of this room, you know, didn't really give us a chance, and I'm not thrown that back at you.

It's just the way it works, like we really weren't given too much of a chance against Toronto.

There's lots to be proud of.

We got two all stars.

The are very young.

I think that the culture, the foundation of how we try to work and do things is on point.

I'm proud of what we've built.

And so now to to take that next step.

That is the mission.

That is the challenge.

But I feel like, Ah, and even with the disappointment that I sit here with, you know, I know all the stuff in the background that has gone on, and, uh and I'm proud of it.

Marcus Bread, Um, as you think about what happened in the fourth quarter and how the game began, Is there anything that you would have done differently?

Any.

Any things that you would have changed as faras match ups or whatever, Um, as a city.

And I don't think so.

You know, it's I really don't you know, one of the drive possessions.

Could you have posted, Joel?

Maybe, you know, they were coming at him.

I thought Joel in the first half did a really good job off just inviting the double teams and and we went to Joe really not thinking he was going to score.

We went to Joe so that he could try to pick apart the rotations they came on.

They came after him a lot of times on the catch.

And so, like, maybe, you know, you could have got Joe the ball and baited that double team again.

I wanted to play with the spread court, but really markets when I look at it, you know, Did you have the right people on the floor?

Did you have the right matchups?

Might you have, like, tried to stalk y down more and double team?

You know, maybe, maybe, maybe, But the fact is is is it took that shot to to end our season.

Um, and, uh, you know, I think when I look, go back and look at it as we will.

I could give you a lot better answer, but on first glance, I don't think so.

A coach Ryan McNeil, Ison filter after jihad.

And one with 3.5 minutes left.

You only had one major vehicle from Republicans.

Say that was JFK, Jihad, And one with 3.5 minutes left.

You had one made field goal.

Why don't you meet Butler?

Yeah, I know.

What?

For five years.

What did you see?

Controls defense Those last four.

So minutes.

Tenacious.

Tough switching one through five was was a switch group, you know, with hard time turning the corner.

I thought we could have that.

We passed up a few shots that we could could have shot, and the clock evaporated.

I thought we tried toe, you know, maybe get a little bit too greedy.

But I do give Toronto credit.

And it was either two or three possessions that I mentioned a moment ago that that I look forward to seeing again.

But I give Toronto credit for, Ah, for a tenacious switching defense, and we had a hard time turning the corner once they did switch.