Q-and-A with Jordan Farmar

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Here are a few additional comments from Jordan Farmar that got left out of today's story on him, his role and his progress as the second unit's point guard. You can find the story on the Website. Or in print.

Question: Are you back to 100 percent (after having left knee surgery Dec. 24)?
Farmar: "Physically? Yeah, I think so. I felt 100 percent when I first came back. There's a difference between being 100 percent and actually playing. We don't actually practice that much, so you don't really get a chance to play."

Question: Were the expectations of the Bench Mob too high early in the season?
Farmar: "Our team was a little different at the start of the year. Vlade (Radmanovic) was starting, so both Luke (Walton) and Trevor (Ariza) were on the bench. Our bench was different. Putting Luke and Trevor back on the bench makes things different. We have two guys (Shannon Brown and Adam Morrison) who aren't playing. We've been in our offense at a championship caliber for a year. Those guys could play, but we don't get a chance to practice.

"The dynamic has changed. People want results, results, results, but there are reasons for it (a drop off in the level of play). It's a continuous work in progress, ever changing. It's not like we come in and say, 'OK, we're going to run a bunch of plays for Sasha (Vujacic) or a bunch of plays for Luke.' We come in and play and however it works out, it works out. There are other teams that run a lot of screen-and-roll. You have a guy like J.R. Smith (of the Denver Nuggets) who comes in and scores. Or like (San Antonio's Manu) Ginobili. You can say, 'Oh, they kicked our butts.' So the roles are just completely different.

"Looking at the big picture, it's a lot bigger (than individual performances). What have we lost, 14 games all year? We're still playing great basketball. It's just a matter of balancing and trying to find out what's going to continue to work."

Question: Is it difficult to balance aggressive play with the triangle offense?
Farmar: "I think that has a lot to do with it. Our system doesn't allow me to play aggressively the way I know how to play, coming out on screen-and-rolls and making decisions and making reads. So playing aggressive will be hard for me to do. Fish (Derek Fisher) will come out and play 35 minutes and he gets only two or three shots some games. That's just how it works out in the system."