Me: Let me ask you about your team this year. I thought you guys would get a ton of deflections and runouts and lob and dunk on people. What are you seeing?

LB: I think one of our problems is we’ve got too many guys that like to pound the basketball. We do get deflections, we do get steals, but we don’t get a lot of fast break points. That’s where I thought we would get out and get, I was hoping for like 15 a game, maybe a little bit more. We’re not getting that. I always wanted to score between 103 and 105 points. The disappointing thing is on the defensive end. Giving up George Hill and letting (Ian) Mahinmi go, two of our better defenders, I knew we were going to struggle a little bit, but we’ve struggled more than I anticipated. And that’s hurt us. We’re not consistent. But we’ve got a nice little team and if we play well and we play together, we’ll win our share of the games. But we’re always going to be inconsistent, because of the fact that we don’t defend as well as I thought, and we’ve got too many guys that just want to dribble the basketball. That kills your offense. But they’re all good guys and they enjoy each, and Paul, since he came back from the injuries, has been phenomenal for us. I worry, too, that we depend too much on him. The guys sort of give in a little bit and go to him too much. But, when he’s got it going, you’ve got to ride him.

Me: He’s really good.

LB: Well, the thing is, he defends every night. He’s a better defender than he is a scorer. But, in saying that, the one thing is that every night, he’ll guard you. A lot of guys, they don’t do that. But he will guard you. But he’s good. He’s a good player.

Me: I don’t know how you could have projected that when he was in college, because they didn’t play anybody. How do you know if he’s going to be any good?

LB: Well, I didn’t either, when I played. The thing I do with these guys is, he’s long, and he’s athletic. If you watched him in college, He’d come down and hit a beautfiful fadeaway shot, then airball his next 3-pointer. He turns it over at a high rate. But he went to the free throw line, he shot 88 percent. You knew it was there, the shooting. The only thing you had to worry about was, was he going to work? And Paul’s always been a good worker. And it’ll all come together, Defensively, if you watched him in college, he was going for steals all the time. He was always in the passing lane. But he worked on his game, and h’s gotten better in all areas. Defensively, he’s gotten a lot better; he knows what he can get away with. Offensively, he can hit the three now. He can post up. He’s not a real post-up guy, but he’s a midrange post-up guy. His handle’s a lot better than it used to be. But nobody knew he was going to be the defender he’s become. That’s what makes him, because he can play both sides of the ball. He’s still a streaky shooter. He’ll go, like last year, for about four months here, he was shooting 39, 40 percent. But he’s a player. He’s a gamer.

Me: Well, I thank you for your time.

LB: If I can remember your name, I’ll say hi to you the next time you’re here.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Getting paid twice a month ON TIME, instead of once a month and sometimes not knowing when it's coming is AMAZING 😂😂😂 — malcolm delaney (@foe23) December 16, 2016

Atlanta Hawks guard Malcolm Delaney (@foe23), Thursday, 9:17 pm, presumably after Direct Deposit -- everyone’s friend -- kicked into action earlier in the day. Before signing with Atlanta last summer, Delaney had played overseas in France, Ukraine, Germany and Russia during the past five seasons. No word which on -- if it was only one -- of his former teams didn’t come promptly with the coin.

THEY SAID IT

"If things don't go so well and it hurts everywhere, it could be that 2017 will be the end. Actually, my plan is to complete the 20 years and play for Dallas until 2018. But just because I have signed a two-year contract doesn't automatically mean that I will play for two years. It could happen next year."

-- Dirk Nowitzki, in an interview with the German sport magazine Bild, on whether he’ll be able to play through the end of his two-year deal with the Mavericks, that will pay him $40 million if he completes the contract.

"I think I'm too good to be playing eight minutes. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. We need to figure this (bleep) out."

-- Nerlens Noel, to local reporters Friday, decrying his limited playing time against the Lakers. Noel has been unhappy all year with his role in Philly, which has carved out a starting role for Joel Embiid in the middle and is still trying to work Jahlil Okafor into the mix. Noel just returned from surgery on his left knee.

“If he would have given me a move, I would have let him have the layup. But he laid it up in my face. I just can’t let him do that…he just tried to say, basically, ‘I’m your brother; let me have it.’ And I would have let him have it. But he put it right in my face. I can’t not just not block the shot.”

-- Wizards forward Markieff Morris, on why he committed twin-on-twin crime Friday by capping his twin brother Marcus’ drive to the hoop during Washington’s win over Detroit.

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Longtime NBA reporter, columnist and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer David Aldridge is an analyst for TNT. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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