Luol Deng Quotes

Every player needs a little time to adjust to new teammates and the mentality of the coach when you change clubs.

I understand when you have great players on losing teams who are tired of losing, struggling in the playoffs every year. You're the lone star. I've been in that position.

I think sometimes when trades are made the beginning of the season on paper, they look great. It just takes time. Sometimes the process by the media or outside influences or sources want it to be now. Sometimes it doesn't work that way.

When I was in the second unit, it just took me time to find my rhythm just playing with a lot of new guys. But once I got in the starting lineup, it kind of just opened up a little bit.

Before my last year at Arsenal, when we won the FA Cup, I was really up and down, never really consistent, and never really put my mark on the team. I understand that then there were question marks over my name.

A coach needs time to get to know the players, the environment, the fans and the culture of the club. You can't solve everything in one or two months.

You never know about team speed until you get out there. You don't know who is a slow learner. A kid may not be very bright or he may be real bright but he doesn't know football. You've got to find out all those nuances and how they learn.

If we played like that every week, we wouldn't be so inconsistent.

For me, it is important that your team is allowed to have ups and downs in form.

If you look at the teams that mix and match their starting lineup a great deal, that sort of inconsistency frequently leads to inconsistency in performance.

I didn't get a training camp in Chicago. I was behind a lot in the plays, in the team's chemistry. Everything in the organization was going in a different direction.

It's not always the fault of the manager when a player is not performing well, I can tell you.

I've seen really, really talented teams that don't care about each other and are average, maybe above average is about as good as you're going to get.

Every day is different. There's always, as we call it in the NBA, a 'drama,' a team's drama, there's always something.

Sometimes a new coach can find it not easy.

I've won midget championships, a junior-league title, two World Junior Championships and some other minor-hockey championships, but I don't think teams win because I'm on them.

A lot of these teams really forget that part of success comes with having veteran leadership. You see a lot of teams forget that and start letting go of these old veterans. They don't realize how important it is to have a veteran voice in your locker room or on the bench. It's important to have guys who have been there before.

I've definitely grown into the job after that difficult first Test against Pakistan. I'd been captain for the Sri Lanka one-dayers, which hadn't gone well, and all the talk was that I only had that one Test as captain.

A big player coming in can change the dynamics of the dressing room, upset the rhythm of the team and end up doing more harm than good.

It would be worse if I have players who are happy if they sit on the bench, because that doesn't mean that we develop our game.

I think that for a lot of young quarterbacks, sometimes it's difficult to get thrown into the fire quickly because from my experience, either you learn how to be a professional from the veteran players.

Every player settles into a new league in different ways.

It takes time; you look at what happened with LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. It took them a year or two to get their legs underneath them and figure things out, and even then, that run was relatively short.

You get a new coach; you do things a little differently.

During a season, you have different moments, up and down, but you have to hope in a good team to have good stability.