Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy Sixers podcast network
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Speaker 1: week's edition of Tom's Talks features seventy Sixers assistant coach
Speaker 1: Kevin Yuh. One of the top assistant coaches in all
Speaker 1: of the NBA, Young has played a pivotal role in
Speaker 1: the ball club's success in recent years. Here's coach Kevin Young. Coach,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for doing this. What's it been like
Speaker 1: since you got to Orlando. Yeah, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: little strange to get down here first, you know, just
Speaker 1: seeing everybody with the mask and then the face shields
Speaker 1: on top of the masks. But I think for me
Speaker 1: just coming down here, it was kind of expect the
Speaker 1: unexpected and just kind of be ready to sort of
Speaker 1: go with the flow and how things are going down here.
Speaker 1: But we're being told to be in our rooms for
Speaker 1: the first thirty six hours. So we've got our We
Speaker 1: had our first test upon arrival and they kind of
Speaker 1: walked us through a lot of the protocols and we
Speaker 1: got to our room and had to do get a
Speaker 1: couple of different apps to log our health information and
Speaker 1: temperature and things of that. Nature. But you know, so far,
Speaker 1: so good. The NBA has always done such a great
Speaker 1: job staging events, whether it's the Finals, the NBA All
Speaker 1: Star Game, but this is a completely different challenge. Their
Speaker 1: expertise must be pretty impressive once inside the bubble. It
Speaker 1: really is impressive when you talk about all the different
Speaker 1: logistics that I've had to go into planning this, with
Speaker 1: keeping everybody's health in the safety, you know, paramount. So
Speaker 1: you got to have to take your hat off to
Speaker 1: the NBA for getting innovative, for getting creative, but at
Speaker 1: the same time again keeping everybody or trying to keep
Speaker 1: everybody as as safe as possible. And then obviously kudos
Speaker 1: to you know, all the teams and players that are
Speaker 1: down here taking a part in it. Coach. During this
Speaker 1: four months, it must have been, on the one hand,
Speaker 1: a great time to be with your family, little bit
Speaker 1: unprecedented at that point in the year. But on the
Speaker 1: other hand, now you have to prep your young family
Speaker 1: to an extended period of being away. That had to
Speaker 1: be a tough thing. Yeah, it was. You know. My
Speaker 1: you know, I have three kids, my and my oldest
Speaker 1: turns seven and eleven days, so I'll miss his birthday
Speaker 1: five year old and a two year old, So the
Speaker 1: two little ones, they didn't really quite get it. My
Speaker 1: older one, he you know, he was he was starting
Speaker 1: to get pretty bummed as as he got closer for
Speaker 1: the time for me to leave. But you know, my
Speaker 1: wife's actually gonna go out to her parents' place and
Speaker 1: spend time with grandma and grandpa. So they got a
Speaker 1: lot of fun things to look forward to. But you know, anymore,
Speaker 1: with the way, you know, face time and every other thing,
Speaker 1: you have to stay in touch with the family. You know,
Speaker 1: we we've made it a point to make sure we
Speaker 1: do that on a daily basis. So, you know, just
Speaker 1: like a lot of things with this virus and sort
Speaker 1: of this quote unquote new normal, you just have to
Speaker 1: find ways to make things work. And that's kind of
Speaker 1: the attitude we're taking on this that it's a great attitude.
Speaker 1: So during the hiatus, Coach Brown wasted no time. You
Speaker 1: guys had regular meetings with the coaching staff going over everything.
Speaker 1: How helpful was it to go back and reevaluate everything
Speaker 1: the team had gone through up until this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was helpful because you know, we've we've had
Speaker 1: a lot of different things happened throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the season prior to the stoppage and play with you know,
Speaker 1: different guys being out of the lineup, we never really
Speaker 1: got we started to actually get to a point where
Speaker 1: we were, you know, doing some different things and making
Speaker 1: some adjustments, and we really didn't get a chance to
Speaker 1: fully see all that through. So to be able to
Speaker 1: go back in and revisit why we thought some of
Speaker 1: those things would be a good idea looking at some
Speaker 1: of our marquee games against some of the better opponents
Speaker 1: when we did have our full lineup and looking at
Speaker 1: different things in an environment where we've got time on
Speaker 1: our side, we've got you know, a lot less stress,
Speaker 1: and so to be able to look at it from
Speaker 1: that lens, I think was very helpful and and allowed
Speaker 1: us to really kind of trim the fat and be
Speaker 1: ready to hit the ground running we once we start practice.
Speaker 1: Prior to the All Star break, you guys had run
Speaker 1: some tight pick and roll action with Ben Simmons and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid before Ben got hurt. How can you build
Speaker 1: on some of those actions moving forward? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that that was really successful against the Clippers at home
Speaker 1: in particular. You know, so we've broken that film down
Speaker 1: quite a bit, you know, the irony and that actions.
Speaker 1: It's it's action that we've actually used kind of incrementally
Speaker 1: throughout the last couple of seasons, and we've just found
Speaker 1: a way sort of in transition to highlight it a
Speaker 1: little bit more. It's good for a lot of different reasons.
Speaker 1: You've got, you know, two of your better players in
Speaker 1: action that's really close to the basket. With their size,
Speaker 1: it's extremely difficult to guard. And those two guys got
Speaker 1: into a little rhythm with it in that particular game,
Speaker 1: and I think that's something that we're gonna see more
Speaker 1: as we move forward. Speaking of personnel and the hiatus,
Speaker 1: Simmons was able to get fully healthy, Al Horford and
Speaker 1: Joel and b two. To have this unprecedented break benefits
Speaker 1: the group and for now the Sixers are very healthy,
Speaker 1: and that should be beneficial. It definitely should be. I mean,
Speaker 1: you look at again, as I mentioned before, we were
Speaker 1: starting to make a couple of tweaks and then which
Speaker 1: we were really excited about, and then you know, we've
Speaker 1: fell into some injuries and so we were again never
Speaker 1: able to really see all those things through, and so
Speaker 1: you got to tip your hat to our medical staff
Speaker 1: that have have helped to get these guys to a
Speaker 1: point where coming into camp, everybody, you know, everybody's got
Speaker 1: the green light, and you know, again you mentioned it.
Speaker 1: All teams obviously want to come into a playoff situation
Speaker 1: with full health and strength, but being that the alternative
Speaker 1: would have been us prior to the hiatus probably not
Speaker 1: being able to do that, it certainly gives us a
Speaker 1: kind of a new life and we're really excited about that.
Speaker 1: Speaking of excitement as coaches, to finally have your group
Speaker 1: out there together, all of you as a unit, that
Speaker 1: must be pretty exciting in the most simplest of ways. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is. I mean, I think with the way that
Speaker 1: things have gotten disrupted, I think being able to see
Speaker 1: familiar faces and build on some of the things that
Speaker 1: we had going on prior to the break, and everybody
Speaker 1: getting back into the gym and being able to do
Speaker 1: what they love with the intent in the forefront of
Speaker 1: our mind what's at stake. I think it's a really
Speaker 1: exciting you know, for everybody, and everybody seems to be
Speaker 1: chopping at the bit to kind of get back after it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are different levels of fitness when you're
Speaker 1: talking about individual players and what they were able to
Speaker 1: do or weren't able to do during the break. As coaches,
Speaker 1: you're going to learn early on what the fitness base is,
Speaker 1: as Brett Brown likes to say, And these next two
Speaker 1: weeks are going to tell a lot about where your
Speaker 1: team is, won't they they are, you know, and when
Speaker 1: you look at it, when you compare what we're getting
Speaker 1: ready to do in terms of a you know, kind
Speaker 1: of a training camp, kind of preseason type type of thing,
Speaker 1: when you compare it to what we've done in the past,
Speaker 1: excuse me, we actually have a little bit more time
Speaker 1: this go around than we have in the past in
Speaker 1: terms of practice, numbers of practice and things like that.
Speaker 1: But I think it is going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: really important, not only for ours team, but every team
Speaker 1: here to you know, gauge where guys are and not
Speaker 1: push too hard, no when to pull back, and things
Speaker 1: like that to ultimately deliver our our entire team not
Speaker 1: only to this regularly the seating games, but clearly for
Speaker 1: the playoffs where everybody is still at one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the seeding games, the league did a really
Speaker 1: good job of putting games on the schedule that you
Speaker 1: would have had if there hadn't been an interruption to
Speaker 1: the suspension of the season. You were supposed to play
Speaker 1: the Pacers the week the season went on hiatus, and
Speaker 1: here we go. Load behold up first August first, you
Speaker 1: guys and the Pacers, two teams tied in terms of record.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty big game, do you guys look at
Speaker 1: it that way? Yeah, I mean, not necessarily seeing out
Speaker 1: that particular game. But the reasons I like that game
Speaker 1: is because they play an extremely physical brand of basketball,
Speaker 1: and so I think that's going to be you know,
Speaker 1: as we geared towards the playoffs like we have in
Speaker 1: years past, you know, that's really been a highlighted point
Speaker 1: of emphasis as we've gotten ready for the playoffs in
Speaker 1: terms of how physical the playoffs are. And so when
Speaker 1: you play a team like Indiana who bring that level
Speaker 1: of physicality, I think it'll be a good, really kind
Speaker 1: of jumping off point for everything we're trying to do
Speaker 1: in the seeding games and leading into the playoffs. But
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of who we're playing and who
Speaker 1: we're not playing in the seeding games, I think you
Speaker 1: hit it the nail on the head. But we really
Speaker 1: are really really focused on what we do and how
Speaker 1: we can just be at our best, and we just
Speaker 1: want to make sure we're doing everything we can do
Speaker 1: to again be at our our best. Everyone has been
Speaker 1: talking for the players about playing with no fans. Norvelle
Speaker 1: pell was talking about being the most artic cheerleader on
Speaker 1: the bench. What's that going to be like, you guys
Speaker 1: trying to draw on the resources of every single person
Speaker 1: with the Sixers, trying to propel the team in the
Speaker 1: absence of actual fans. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. Honestly, I think it's going
Speaker 1: to be really an interesting thing to see how different
Speaker 1: guys can channel their their own competitiveness, their own internal
Speaker 1: drive where they don't necessarily have that coming from the fans.
Speaker 1: You know, it almost strips it down for just the
Speaker 1: love of basketball and the love of competing. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, that's really exciting. You mentioned Norvelle. We've got
Speaker 1: a lot of, you know, great enthusiastic guys on the bench.
Speaker 1: Kylo Quinn's one of the best guys I've ever been
Speaker 1: around that brings positive energy on every single day, whether
Speaker 1: he's playing or not playing. And so we'll have to
Speaker 1: you know what I do think it does. It actually
Speaker 1: just draws your team even even closer together than you know,
Speaker 1: if there were going to be fans. So it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a real testament of kind of the brotherhood of
Speaker 1: the team and trying to, you know, have that be
Speaker 1: the thing that drives, you know, that extra push that
Speaker 1: that the fans would normally give. Speaking to the bench,
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of options there. Shake Milton has
Speaker 1: really come on, Furkon Corkmos had career moments this year.
Speaker 1: Mattie Steibel has proven to be an incredible rookie, especially
Speaker 1: on the defensive end. You've added Burkes and Glenn Rabbinson
Speaker 1: the third. The rotation is going to be interesting to
Speaker 1: see how this all sorts out. Coach Brown always says
Speaker 1: that Jim will speak to him touch on that if
Speaker 1: you would. Yeah, it is. It is going to be
Speaker 1: interesting to see see what happens. I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of talented guys that any one of them could,
Speaker 1: as coach would say, you know, put their hand up
Speaker 1: and say hey it's me. And and again it's I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna just play itself out, you know, you've
Speaker 1: got guys young, guys that are that are kind of
Speaker 1: have presented a case to say, hey, I'm ready. You know,
Speaker 1: you got again guys like Alec that you've mentioned, who
Speaker 1: who are on the veteran side. You know, Mike Scott
Speaker 1: could come in and hit six threes in the game
Speaker 1: and win you a game. So you know, we'll see
Speaker 1: how it plays out. The one thing I will say
Speaker 1: is you never know, right, you get into one series
Speaker 1: and this particular skill set might be of value, and
Speaker 1: then you get into another series and then somebody else's
Speaker 1: skill set maybe coming in at maybe a higher value
Speaker 1: based on how how the game is being played. And
Speaker 1: so you know, it speaks to having every guy stay ready,
Speaker 1: having every coach help keep every guy ready, and it
Speaker 1: goes back to that team. You know, this is the
Speaker 1: ultimate team experience. And from that standpoint, you know, again
Speaker 1: you get excited because we do have options. Coach stepping
Speaker 1: back for a second of life in the bubble when
Speaker 1: you get back from practice and they're no longer in quarantine.
Speaker 1: The Sixers, you know, you're in the same hotel as
Speaker 1: some of the other teams. Now I know they're spread
Speaker 1: out a little bit, so even though there's competition and
Speaker 1: everybody's kind of in it together. How do you stay
Speaker 1: on task though with the with the business at hand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know that's where you got to give
Speaker 1: the NBA credit. They have as many things as they
Speaker 1: can kind of lined up to or team activities and
Speaker 1: different things. But yeah, I mean, look, it's like when
Speaker 1: you're at home, you're not running into you know, whoever,
Speaker 1: You're not running into Kimball Walker at you know, the
Speaker 1: local wah war or whatever. You know, like you might
Speaker 1: be down here. But you know, again, the interesting thing
Speaker 1: about this is every team's going through it kind of
Speaker 1: in the same way, right, And so there's no there's no,
Speaker 1: I don't think, real advantage to it. It's just gonna
Speaker 1: be a real test of I think guys, you know,
Speaker 1: mental strength, and you know, we'll see what happens. I
Speaker 1: don't you know. It's it's fascinating. Some people say that
Speaker 1: given how the season will finish, there's gonna be an asterisk.
Speaker 1: Well it should be maybe an asterisk meaning that whomever
Speaker 1: wins the championship going through through all of this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a special ball club. It's gonna be interesting
Speaker 1: in that realm right there absolutely should and should be
Speaker 1: an asterisk next to it. I mean, I think you
Speaker 1: can make an argument that this might this might be,
Speaker 1: you know, the hardest championship arguably in the history of sport. Honestly,
Speaker 1: like when you when you're really factor and everything that
Speaker 1: is going on, you factor in the you know, not
Speaker 1: seeing your family for so long. I mean, you could
Speaker 1: go down the list and do talk about all the
Speaker 1: different things that guys have to go through. And when
Speaker 1: I say guys, I'm talking players, staff, you know, front office.
Speaker 1: You know, Elton's down here as well with us in
Speaker 1: the trenches, and so yeah, man, it's uh, it's unprecedented,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously hats off to whoever's going to
Speaker 1: be the last man standing. But coach, we wish you
Speaker 1: the best. Thank you so much, enjoy your time down there,
Speaker 1: stay safe and good luck. All right, Tom, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Tom's
Speaker 1: talks with me Tom McGinnis on the seventy six ers
Speaker 1: podcast network. Check for new episodes every weekend.