Here are more quotes from Adams’ media session.
On the season so far: “I believe our roster is talented. We should be a team that is competing and in the playoffs. I’ve said that since the summer. I truly believe that. And, in saying that … when you have a young roster, you’re going to have mistakes. We have a new coach that’s putting in certain types of intricacies into the system. We’re 26 games in. So, that’s why I said in the beginning, I’m not happy with where we’re at, but we’re not going to panic. We’re not going to overreact. We’re not going to make a kneejerk decision or a reactionary trade that sets you back. We have to look at things that we think are going to improve our team, we’ll act on it.”
On making changes to the roster: “Well, you’re always evaluating. I mean, you’re always looking at every possible scenario to improve your team. I think I’ve been pretty consistent with how I’ve said to you guys that nothing should be off the table. We should be in on every conversation, which we are, and evaluating, ‘Is there ways to help your team improve?’ And if there are, then we’ll attack it.
“I mean, you look at, I think just philosophically, how I set out to build this franchise, you have to draft and you have to develop well and we’re in that process. Development sometimes means some rough times. … But I truly believe if you draft well, you develop well, you work through some of the growing pains and you can get a team in a good spot with the people that you’ve kind of brought up in your system, it gives you an advantage. And then you round it out.”
On Lindy Ruff’s effect on the team: “‘Accountability’ is such a hard word to frame for you guys, because you don’t see it behind the scenes. You don’t see the subtle meetings or you don’t know about a late-night phone call that Lindy has with a player after a game. Those are just impactful. His experience, when to maybe not practice versus practice. Just all those types of things. I think there’s been a huge impact.
“To win in this league and really win in this league, you have to be defensively sound. You have to play with structure. You have to be able to play and find ways to get points when you maybe don’t have your energy or you’re A-game, so to speak. So, those are all things I think Lindy’s done a really good job of. But, like I said, it is a process. The coaches are working through that right now with our players. There’s a little bit of a learning curve that I think our team’s going through, but I think they would all stand up here and say that we need to take a step, for sure.”
On Owen Power’s season: “Of course, he's a work in progress. I would tell you that that Owen played just under 30 minutes last night and I thought he competed hard last night and did a lot of good things. And you could see him looking to engage physically. When we drafted Owen Power, we knew he was not bringing Scott Stevens (physicality) – like, that's not his style. But do we want him to become more physically imposing and harder to play against? Yes, and I think there's a daily work that's going in right now with the coaches and Owen to do that. And he wants to do that. He wants to get better. And that's, to me – I've said this to you guys before – I want players that show up every day and want to get better and find ways, and he is that guy. And in terms of his contract, look, I mean, there would be 31 other teams who would be lining up to have him on their team, I promise you that.”
On Jack Quinn’s season: “Think he admittedly would say that he's hard on himself. He's not performing to the level that he expects, that we expect, but it's not going to be because he doesn't put the work in. Like I said, I think sometimes, especially with younger players, not that Jack’s young per se anymore, but still finding his way in the league, you have ups and downs, but you have to work with them. You have to just help them find ways to improve. I think the coaches have done some extra things through video, get him in the weight room and just stuff like that, but, but I believe in him, and we're going to help him.”
