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Golden State Warriors coach Mike Montgomery spoke with InsideHoops.com and other major media outlets in a teleconference. Here are the questions and answers:

Mike Montgomery's Opening Statement: Well it’s been up and down obviously. We’ve got a lot of little injuries that have slowed us down a little bit in terms of trying to put together a unit that we’re comfortable with and lack of time certainly for me being new to the league. The amount of time that you have -- we’ve had four games now really only in two weeks time -- that’s been a little bit new as well. But I think when we get everybody healthy, that we’ve got a team that can compete. We’ve got a lot of little things to work out. There’s been an adjustment on the players’ part to me but the transition has been smooth. It’s a good group of guys; I enjoy them. But I think there’s a couple things … there are some habits that I think I’m going to try and change that I think need to be changed, but that’s going to be a process. So, we’re encouraged and sometimes discouraged, but I’m sure that everyone feels the same way.

Q: Did you look at coaches from the past, who have made the transition from college to the NBA or did you talk to any of the coaches who have made the transition before you decided to take the job?

Mike Montgomery: Well, I didn’t need to look, it’s pretty well-chronicled; although Larry Brown was a college coach and he’s obviously done well. And I’ve talked to guys, Lon Kruger, Tim Floyd, John Calipari. I don’t think it has anything to do with college coaches. Guys who have been successful in college can coach the game of basketball. It’s a matter of a learning curve that you need to go through. I think it’s pretty apparent there are a lot of things here that are different here and, like anything else, if you’ve got good players and good management that will support the transition then you’re fine. If you don’t have good players you’re going to struggle to win in this league; there’s not many nights off.

Q: What do you like about Speedy Claxton?

Mike Montgomery: Well I think he can really change the tempo of a game with his speed and quickness. He has the ability to create the point of attack almost anytime he wants and break defenses down because he’s extremely quick with the ball and that’s a tremendous asset to have. He, defensively, can disrupt other teams, again, with his quickness. He defends one guy then gets back to his man; he gets hands on balls. So he’s gained some weight, he’s gotten stronger, hopefully that will keep him away from the injuries he’s kind of been plagued with. I think he’s really important for us running the break, creating for others and running the point.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about Matt Carroll and what you think his role is going to be?

Mike Montgomery: He gives u a little bit of toughness that we need. He’s a real competitive kid. He’ll get in a battle on the boards, he’s a little undersized at the post, but can play there. The other night he had a real good shooting night and everything kind of just opened up for him. So, if he can get his perimeter shooting down to where he’s a threat, he should be pretty valuable. But regardless, the intangibles that Matt brings to the table are great because he’s a very competitive kid. He can defend, and that’s something we really need.

Q: How much carryover is there going to be from what you did at Stanford and what you’ll be doing with the Warriors?

Mike Montgomery: Well, basketball is still basketball. The thing that the NBA does more is isolate two players, perhaps three players, which are typically their best players, and create situations with those two or three guys and then play off of that because of the 24-second clock. Running, making three, four or five passes makes that pretty difficult, so you typically put the ball in your best player’s hands and let him operate and try to create for others. We can do that some with what we have, but we have to be careful of the shot clock. Defensively, I think it’s quite a bit different for the very reason I just mentioned. You have to be able to handle a Kobe Bryant in an isolation that’s allowing him to make a play. If you don’t handle that, you don’t even have to worry about your weak side defense or secondary action because some thing is going to happen with him with the ball. So it’s very specific defensively in terms of the things that you need to work on. It’s about side pick-and-rolls, top pick-and-rolls. It’s very specific at to how they run their offenses.