A: Physicality. Size. Strength. Everything you can imagine. It's a big difference. The speed of the game might be the biggest, though. Any type of level you go from, from high school to college is big, but college to pro is a big jump.
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Q: Now that you have played two years in the NBA, what do you think are your strengths/weaknesses?
A: For me, you have to figure out what your role is in the NBA I guess. I could criticize myself a lot. I'm very hard on myself. The biggest strength for me is scoring the ball, getting my shot off. Weaknesses is being able to get it off quicker. The mental part. Always being focused. Always being locked in on every single play. I need to mature and get better at that. Always working on my defense. I struggled with that my first year. This year my defense was better. Having my body ready to go each and every night.
Q: How about the travel in the NBA?
A: It's a long season, 82 games. It's almost three college seasons put together. You play basically every other night. It feels like you're on a plane a lot. I love to travel. I think it's pretty cool going to big cities. But it can be a lot. What people might not know is you play a game and you might be in Texas playing Dallas or Houston and you fly back right after the game. You get back 3, 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. You see the sunshine coming up when you land. It's tough. That's just the maturity and taking care of your body, getting rest and eating the right things.
Q: Did you feel more comfortable as this season went on?
A: Most definitely. I missed 16 games because I had a shoulder injury this past year. So it was a slow start coming back from that. Toward the middle of the season is when I started picking it up. A few good games in a row boosted me up a little bit, got my confidence going. Toward the end of the season, I started playing really well. I started playing a lot of minutes. We ended up making a playoff run and that was great. Played pretty well in the playoffs. Had a good run there. Wasn't the ending we wanted, but it was a good way to end the season.
Q: Did you ever think this year when you were watching Duke on TV that you would have been a senior there this year if you hadn’t left after two years?
A: I remember talking to people a lot about that this year. Obviously Duke had some great talent, great players. They were on every time they played. I loved Duke. Loved every minute I was there.
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