Patrick Beverley Quotes

In high school, I figured I'd get a few extra baskets by getting steals. I would just pressure up the ball.

I was a guy that had a lot of tools and could do a lot of other things, but my main thing was controlling the defensive end of the court.

My shot-blocking ability, it's really second to none.

Most of basketball is in the mind. But it helps to have big hands.

I've always loved blocking shots.

I wasn't a bad basketball player, but I was far from the world's greatest. Good defense, no offense - that was me.

When I was young, I had to learn the fundamentals of basketball. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you still have to know the fundamentals.

I was a roving guard on the Lowell Hebrew Community Center's girls' basketball team all through high school. My specialty was stealing the ball, but my only shot was a lay-up.

Charles Barkley taught me a lot when I played against him. How he would use his body or use his dribble to get people in there and all that stuff.

I developed my game a lot and learned how to score off the dribble. I learned how to play team defense and one-on-one defense.

Being a presence on the defensive end, I know that's important to me, I have to establish that.

Being able to guard the pick and roll makes you a high asset in the NBA.

You look at Kawhi Leonard, Tony Allen, Draymond Green: they are great on ball, and they are great team defenders as well. You want to be both of them, not just one.

I'm not the fastest player, but you can't really play up on me because my handles are good enough where I can get around you. But you can't play off of me, because I can shoot. And if smaller guys try to defend me, I'll back them down. I'm a good post player.

I think my wingspan helps me out on defense, because I can cover a little more ground and block a few more shots.

I try to use my athleticism and my strength to be able to guard bigger guys, and being able to guard bigger guys is going to get me more minutes on the floor.

You can't be a great player without playing both ends of the floor. And that's what I do - I really focus in, and my athletic ability helps me.

My goal is to protect the basket. Most of the time, I won't block the shot but I'm going to affect the shot or I'm going to affect the way they think.

I was a great help-side defender in college, but as far as really wanting to lock somebody up, that was never really my focus.

I really wasn't a good defensive player at all.

The thing in basketball is you always want to be free. I don't want to be hugged up to my guy. When we're body to body, I want to control you.

With all the talk of the 3-point line, it's still most important to build your defense inside to out.

I need to improve on a lot of different areas. I need to improve on my timing on my shot-blocking, when to go, and when not to go. And there's definitely always room for improvement on my shooting.

I look at like this: Any player I guard, long twos or shots like that, if they make them I still think that's good defense. You can't make those shots at a high percentage the whole game. It's just hard to make long two-pointers, step-backs, fadeaways, off-the-dribble crossovers.

My father really put that in my head that defense is one of the key things in basketball.