WEBVTT - The BroadCast: 4/6/2018 ~ Reflections on Helping Build a Playoff Team, with Asst. Billy Lange 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.760 It's time to talk Sixers. Simmons off balance in an 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:08.960 incredible bank shot is good here on the broadcast the 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:13.119 official podcast of Sixers dot Com. If drive dom he 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.079 goes in that slabs and oh man, what a play 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:22.560 by it being. Now here's today's episode. What an awesome 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.479 run during a breakout season it has been for the 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:31.280 seventy Sixers. Brian Seltzer welcoming you back into another edition 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.760 of the podcast. Could be back and putting out a 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:38.640 new episode after a mini hiatus, but that is what 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:43.159 fresh fatherhood will do to you. So at your patience 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.720 during the last couple of weeks when the podcast episodes 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:51.559 have not been quite as frequent, very much appreciated. So yes, 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.600 the Sixers as of the recording date of this podcast, 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:59.400 just tearing things up. Twelve consecutive wins, the longest winning 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.840 streak active in the NBA. And what great timing it 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:06.679 is that the Cleveland Cavaliers are coming to town in 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.840 a battle for third place in the Eastern Conference standings 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.639 heading into the final weekend of play in the regular season. 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.399 To talk about where the Sixers are now, where the 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.280 team enfranchise has come from. We're gonna sit down with 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.360 assistant coach Billy Lange. He's been on Brett Brown's staff 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.520 since day one, and that chat will come your way 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:26.760 in just a matter of moments. If you have not 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.520 listened to the podcast before, or perhaps more relevantly, if 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:32.880 you not yet subscribe to our feed, you can do 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:37.120 so in a couple of ways. You can head to iTunes, SoundCloud, 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:41.280 or Stitcher or Google Play, type in Sixers podcast Network 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:43.440 and that should take you to where you need to go. 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.760 Just thinking about everything going on with the Sixers right now, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.919 it is truly amazing to think of where the team 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.960 was and what it's on the cusp of achieving what 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.160 it's already achieved a playoff berth forty eight wins, its 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.440 highest total since two thousand and two two thousand and 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.960 three at this late stage of the season, tremendous amount 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.480 of credit all the way around, from the players, the 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.280 coaching staff, to the front office. And to give us 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.000 a little insights on what the build up has been 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.880 like for the seventy Sixers over the last five years, 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.360 we're going to welcome in seventy Sixers assistant coach Billy 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:21.440 Lang and as we sit here now in the bowels 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.760 of the center, Billy Court has been laid down. Seventy 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.400 sixers have a huge game against the Cleveland Cavaliers later 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.600 on on Friday night, April to sixth. This has got 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:33.200 to be what it's all about. I know you guys, 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.239 as coaches and much the players do. You take it 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.560 one game at a time, but the next game up 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:39.840 is a vital one for you guys, and just thinking 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.800 back over the last now almost five seasons, for you 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:44.359 to get to a point like this has got to 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:49.000 be pretty fantastic. Wells, it is, and you appreciate it 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:53.360 having been what we've been through, you know, building. I 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:55.600 will tell you this, and this is not coach speak, 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.360 and I'm not saying this to bring credence to the 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.040 four years prior to this moment tonight to play Cleveland 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:05.120 for third place in the East, but for coaches, for leaders, 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.320 for people that like to build, for people that are 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.560 passionate about what we do. There are many moments in 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.639 those four years, some scene, some unseen that we were 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.079 just as passionate and excited about those days, in those 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.639 minutes and those moments as we are in anticipation for 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.520 what is going to be an amazing atmosphere here tonight 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.200 with Cleveland and Lebron And I mean, that's what you 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.120 get to this point. Now everyone else gets to see it, 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.600 and now you feel that energy off of everyone else. 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.520 But I think, and I'd not even think the humility 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:36.200 that Brett approaches every day with. And part of it 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.800 is because what we've been through. But remember, Brian, we 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.120 all accepted what we were going through. No one signed 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:44.280 up for this in twenty thirteen without an idea of 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:46.120 what it was going to be. We might not have 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.080 known the depths of it, but we understood what we 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:52.320 were undertaking. But it's left a real sense of humility, 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.120 and you get to this point and you actually feel 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.680 like you build it to come to this. So we're 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.000 excited about it and we'll approach this day no differ. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:01.400 And then we did when we were just trying to 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.640 win our game two seasons ago. We're gonna want to win. Well, 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.080 that's the craziest part. Going into the game against Detroit 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.280 on Wednesday, you guys had a shot to become just 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.280 I think it was the fourth NBA team ever to 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.280 win ten straight games by ten points or more. And 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.360 then you think, yeah, it was only two years ago 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.240 that there were just ten wins total on this season, 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.080 and it's remarkable, and I agree with you. It's it's 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.360 not just the coach speak that we're talking about that, oh, 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.600 we came in positive and excited to work every day. 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.080 I mean you guys, the enthusiasm for those of us 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.280 that were lucky enough to observe practices and sit in 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.440 and watch it was the truth. It was like the 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.880 results didn't matter. And when I think back on it, 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.360 and I just kind of wonder, like, how does that happen? 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:41.920 How were you guys? Can you give a little bit 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.760 more insight as to how you were actually able to 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.800 let mine prevail over matter? You know, the word that 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.640 is so popular right now in sports and in businesses 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.000 and anything that involves a group of people is culture. 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.880 And it's become like this mythological world word, like how 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.040 do you find it? Do you pull it out of 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.440 a bottle? And it isn't. It's two things. It's one people, 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.040 you have to have people that represent the vision of 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.800 what you want. And then two you've got to bring 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.680 You've got to build in systems that like force you 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:16.039 to function day to day. Right, So if you have 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:19.320 positive people and then you're building in systems like our 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:22.360 approach towards player development was a big one. The way 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.800 that we make the guys learn about each other through 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.279 some of the off court things that we do, the 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.000 way we meet and how collaborative our meetings. I mean, 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:32.040 these are things that we've Some of it's grown as 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.479 we've gotten here, as Brett has expanded his leadership knowledge 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.640 and our staff has gotten more familiar with each other. 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.880 But a lot of this stuff was day one. And 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:42.680 we have positive people And doesn't mean we didn't have 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.599 dark days. That doesn't mean they were in some drives 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:46.760 home and some flights where you're thirty thousand feet above 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.480 sea level just wondering if your existence is even worth it. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.320 But by and large, ninety nine point nine percent of 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.599 the time, this is a positive group of people. And 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.080 it starts with bread and it seems like it's gotten 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.240 across through all the years, the five years that you 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.960 guys have been here, the players as well, like they 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.440 have had the buying and that can't be an easy tasking. 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.039 And when you guys have a couple more years on 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.920 players and people of that vintage, so there may be 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.440 some perspective where you can see not only things in 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:14.920 the short term, but the long term. But I gotta 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.520 think for some guys, you know, this is maybe they're 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.400 only shot, or maybe it's a chance to if there's 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.480 the availability of minutes to do more, show themselves more. 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.919 Yet through it all, there's been a steady line of 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.559 buying through just about everyone that's come through here. Again, 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.040 when you have positive people and you have a vision, 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.440 and that vision has a daily commitment towards it, one 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.440 of the things that makes the vision become a reality. 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:45.200 As relationships and people, oftentimes we don't give credit enough 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.120 to players. They're very smart and a lot of these guys, man, 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.360 I mean, they have been coddled, enabled, cond whatever word 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.240 you want to throw that's negative from the time that 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.479 they people knew they were going to be good to 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.200 the time they get to the NBA. And they can 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.240 sense when someone really cares about who they are and 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:03.000 whether or not it's about you as a coach or 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.080 about them as a person. And we have made it 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.600 about them. So when we were losing, it would have 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.200 been easy for Brett and the staff to look inward 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.960 and think about how we looked. Instead, we'd put our 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:19.080 energies into helping these guys because truth be told, they 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.080 might not have had some of these situations had we 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.000 not been going through our process. Right now, I don't 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:26.160 know if I need to trademark Joe on the process though, 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.920 But we just developed them, and we developed them as people, 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.960 and Todd Wright and Jesse Wright in the sports science world, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.040 and all the coaches on the court and Brett coming 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.080 at them with the analytics and the data just show 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.960 incremental improvements. It just built in energy. It doesn't make 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.040 it any easier, and it didn't make what we did 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.960 any better. Sometimes. What it did is it made it manageable, 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:49.920 and it gave a focus on a purpose to each 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:51.640 day while we were going through some of those dark 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.920 times Outside of things on the court, What were some 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.200 other stuff that you guys built into the cultural aspect 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.840 that kept things fresh, that kept play is mine and 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.840 maybe not just players, but the entire staff basketball operation 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.200 kept everyone engaged in their minds into it through some 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.360 of the tougher time. But yeah, I would answer that 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.400 in two ways. I think let's just talk about the 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.880 staff part first, because I think that's the easiest part. 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:16.560 It's not about us one. We do what we do 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.840 because we love it and we do what we do 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:21.600 because we're passionate about it. One of the things that 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.800 I feel I was either fortunate or unfortunate, depending on 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:26.760 how you looked at it, is I had been through 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.920 some rebuilding things when I was the head coach at 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.560 the Naval Academy and then when I went with Jay 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.960 to Villanova in two thousand and one, and a little 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.360 bit when I went back in thirteen, and those situations, 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:39.880 there was always light at the end of the tunnel, 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:41.959 and we always reached. You know, we got better at Navy. 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:43.880 We had a nineteen win season in our fifth year. 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:46.760 Nova is what they are. You know, you ended up 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:48.760 getting Kyle Awry and Randy four Like you know, it 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.520 turns so faith is the evidence of things unseen. But 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.120 I was fortunate enough to see those things. So for 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.640 me personally, that was easy to come in to do that. 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.280 I think what Brett did for the staff as he 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.600 made aid an environment of curiosity. So we were always 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.720 looking for ways to get better, whether it was watching 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.319 a close game that you know Miami had against Minnesota 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.280 and like what would we have done in that situation. 0:09:12.360 --> 0:09:14.520 We were getting ahead of the storm before the storms 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:16.680 even came in and you just come in fired up 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.240 because you love the game with the players, you know, 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.800 besides the encourt things which you were privileged to. Um. 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.319 You know, it's again, it's relationships, man, it's it's a 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.240 it's a brotherhood. We did team dinners, you know, and 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:31.440 I'm sure other NBA teams do it, but maybe we 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:33.760 did it a little bit more. Um, the way we 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.520 did our film sessions, you know, the collaboration making a 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.640 player be the coach of the day and lead the 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.160 film session as opposed to just sitting there and listening 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.880 to us all the time. The team breakfasts that we 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.800 do where players have to present a topic in front 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.240 of their teammates. You know, we've had people do things 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.040 such as like our UFOs real and shit, college athletes 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.640 be paid and some of the you know, social injustice 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.839 events that have happened through our time. It was Nix 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.000 Stauskis and it was awesome. It was really really good. 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.280 So you know, you have to build those things in 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.240 And let me tell you something, we're doing the same 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:09.800 things even right now as we're on the cusp of 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:11.840 fifty wins, and it just gives you a level of 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.080 humility it's bigger than just basketball. And who's to say 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.960 that those things that we're doing back then have not 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.160 led to these fifty wins because we keep doing them 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:21.840 and you just keep seeing the joy these guys have 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.280 just to kind of crystallize and bring it all together. 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.760 Then it sounds like the intent was always to get 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.040 to this point and this day that we're at right now, 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.480 where the franchise is, even if the results might not 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.240 have been there to indicate at what point of the 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:37.280 journey you guys are along. Well, I would say where 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.240 we're at right now is definitely still not where we 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:43.160 want to be, okay, And that's number one. Two. No 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.360 one came here to do anything ordinary, No one, And 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:48.560 you got you know, I tell my kids all the time, 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.839 don't settle for what you already know you can do. 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.960 You know, you can't have excellence and ordinary existing in 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.559 the same vision, in the same sentence all the time. 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.400 My kids are probably tired of hearing that, but it's 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.240 really what we brought. And you got to remember that 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.280 our head coach came from the pinnacle. You know. He 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:10.760 came from not only a championship winning organization where the world, 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.160 the external world sees what they're doing. But all the 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.200 things that happen behind the scenes that are internal the 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.960 culture building, he knows it, and he has not relented 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:19.400 for one day. And we're blessed to have him as 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.680 our leader. When we look at the last three weeks 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.240 of what's been going on with the Sixers, give me 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.600 some insight. I mean, how did this all come together. 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.480 It's such an important stage of the season where here 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:33.520 you guys are going in the Cavs game having won 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:39.160 twelve straight fortunate scheduling. Can't we can't ignore that, But 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:41.000 you guys have been really with all due respect the 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.079 other teams, I mean, these have been pretty convincing wins. 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.200 I mean, you guys have really seized control and left 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:49.199 little Dad about that, all right, So if you ask 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.000 me to put them in, like, you know, give me 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.880 specific things, I'd say we've, in our opinion, we've had 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:56.120 a fortunate schedule, and some of that fortunate schedule has 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.120 been able to play here at home, and playing here 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.480 at home is awesome. I got. It's funny when like 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.040 Brett will come in or someone else will come in 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:06.800 and say that was a playoff atmosphere. You know, my 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.040 wife and I's first date where the playoffs here in 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:10.880 two thousand and one, I think it was our second 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:13.679 and heard they tell them a real big spender and 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.160 I kill him. It's not even close. Like when you 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.760 see what these fans are like when there is nothing 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.360 else going on basketball wise, it's going to be insane. 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.640 Tonight could reflect that to a degree. So the fans 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.040 have been great. We've had a favorable schedule in terms 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.480 of the opponents a little bit. You know, are the 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.880 coaches really just you know, whether it's Lloyd Pierce or 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.000 Jim O'Brien or Brett Brown or myself, Like, we have 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.080 to get better, and I'm sure the players would like 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:40.839 you to take your foot off the pedal for a 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.520 little bit, but then when you don't take it off, 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:45.559 they want it. They want even more. So we have 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.760 found little areas we call it like zoom focus. We 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.080 zoom in on our particular area and we're gonna beat 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.160 it up until we see an improvement. We've got such 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.960 an amazing analytic crew behind us that they can show us, like, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.120 you know, how much better we've gotten from here to 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.079 there and where that would in the NBA had we 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.640 done it over a thirty game sample size, and we 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:05.480 just keep going at them with fresh things. You have 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.440 to in eighty two games keep things fresh for an 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.360 NBA player, and I think that's what we're doing. In 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:14.800 one of the areas Brianette were proud about, I think 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.160 we had nine straight games of thirty plus assists. You did, yes, 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.280 tut the last eleven. I would love it to be 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.600 eleven straight. And you know, the a game that we 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.800 didn't we had twenty eight. So you know, these guys 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:28.360 are finding a joy of playing with each other. That's 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.000 unheard of at this point that the ball was zipping 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:31.800 around and moving. So these guys are coming with great 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.520 energy every day. It's funny because if you hear and 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:35.920 I'm sure you guys don't listen to it, some of 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.000 the external outside noise and people are like, well, what 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:40.800 is the you know, the coaching staff done in this situation. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.800 It's like, well, it's essentially delivered upon everything that you 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.840 guys set out to do from day one in August 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.880 of twenty thirteen. It's the pace. It's building it through 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.920 a defensive lens. It's sharing the ball and passing, it's 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.480 developing players, embracing the three point line all that stuff, 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.920 and right now it's almost this if like the hard 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:03.359 work the system has now caught up to talent being 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.679 brought in and it's like these guys with how hard 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:07.600 they're playing, it's like and I'm kind of like a 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:09.640 little bit of a superhero nerd, like I watched the 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:11.600 Batman movies and all that, but it's like, you know 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.960 when a superhero is like discovering his powers or her 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.320 powers for the first time, and it's like, that's what 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.440 it almost seems like has happened with this team. And 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.360 it's like they don't want the games to stop coming. 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:23.720 It doesn't matter if you've got a home game against 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.040 Brooklyn and a road game the next day against Detroit. 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:27.840 It's like it's almost like you feel that energy of 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.040 wanting more games to come, to continue to trying to 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.000 prove well, you're hit on a lot of great things there. 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.400 You know. One, it's a talent league, right, this is 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.920 a joke time. It's a player's league. It is. You 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:41.240 better accept that as a coach, you're gonna X and 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.640 O all you want. The other coaches are really good, Okay, 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.120 everyone in this league that coaches a basketball game or 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.520 is on a staff is the best of the best 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.960 of the best, bottom line, So your system's going to 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.600 look a lot better when you're throwing out more talented players. Now, 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.320 we have some very talented guys and guys that really 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:00.960 are young and going to be better and better and 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:02.960 better as time goes on. And then we've got some 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:06.720 homegrown guys that we've developed that some people wouldn't mat 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:08.640 might not have wanted, you know, a few years ago. 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:10.480 So when you take the talent and then you have 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.960 the familiarity of some guys within this defensive system and 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.520 the offensive system and coaches concepts of pace and pass, 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.240 these type of things can happen. You can get to 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.560 this point and you are right there. They enjoy it. 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:26.040 So we believe that we have an enjoyable basketball system, 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:27.920 and now they just want to keep playing and playing 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.800 and playing and almost test themselves every night when they 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.200 go out there. It really was interesting back in September, 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.600 I think it was this very first media availability going 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:38.640 into the first practice of training camp, Brett came out 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.560 and said, our goals to make the playoffs, and that 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.760 based on previous years is something that you did not 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.320 hear to that tone, is that something that you guys 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.200 spoke about internally in the weeks leading up to that 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.360 first practice, But how does its staff make the judgment 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.160 call that this is the time now where we have 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.320 a team that's capable of shouldering that type of comment 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.560 as a leader. Goal setting is a real slippery slope 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.800 because if you set something like we all have the desires, right, 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:09.080 but if they're unrealistic, it's delusional. Okay. So we talked 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:13.120 a lot about it, and I think the most important 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.320 thing that we wanted to is we wanted a paradigm shift, 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.640 which meant some of these mistakes, although we didn't like 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.000 them in the previous four years, we were able to 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.440 be more tolerant. Okay, coaches have to have some tolerance 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:26.960 because it's not perfect. We wanted to make a statement, 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:28.680 it's going to be less tolerant. Right We're gonna be 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:31.440 less tolerant of these mistakes right now. We wanted to tell. 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:33.840 We wanted to say we believe that if we're gonna 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.040 go out and make the commitment we made the JJ Reddick, 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:38.720 this is not for a circus. This is for like, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.120 we've got something real we want to do. We want 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.880 to put pressure on Joel and his preparation and tell 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.600 Ben that we're gonna hold you to a higher standard. 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.920 And you know, Brett's type A. We're all type A. 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.720 You know coach O'Brien's no nonsense, Lloyd, you've seen him 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.400 coach the defense. You know my background, Brian, Like, we're 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.360 type A. So it wasn't really hard. It was just 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.520 how we delivered it right, because it would have been 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:03.480 foolish for us to deliver it thinking that we were 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.200 going to reach that that early. Think about it. We 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.760 jumped out decent at the beginning and we went on 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.919 a real skid there in December, I believe it was. 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:12.679 But if we just said we're gonna be the third 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.560 seed and gain home court advantage, like at some point, 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.840 it might not have looked attainable. But we just kept 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.760 showing them visuals like we're in ninth, we're in eighth, 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:22.679 we're in seventh, we're two games out of six, and 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:24.439 now it's attainable. So now they want to learn more. 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.760 It's been masterful by Brett. You are responsible in part 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:32.240 for working with the Sixers offense, and there has definitely 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.000 been an infusion of talent there. But man, that part 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.840 of the team's game has taken such a great leap 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.280 over the course of this season. Brett said he wanted 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.000 it to be I think, and maybe it changed at 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.480 some point this year top fifteen offensive rating team and 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:46.560 you guys are thirteen heading into the final week of 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.720 the season. You had to salivate yourself seeing some of 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:51.479 the talent that was coming in. How did you go 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.040 about with the rest of the assistance in Brett, figuring 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.000 out what would make the best type of formula and 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.080 fit for the personnel that you have it. It's a 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.080 great question, you know, we have so many Like you said, 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.800 it's all the assistance. I mean, it's my main responsibility, 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:06.760 but I would be foolish to think that it's just me. 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.200 We've We've got a great development staff. You know, Kevin 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:11.800 Young has done a terrific job. He was our g 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:13.800 League head coach for a few years. And you can 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:15.880 get the wisdom of Jim O'Brien and everything he's seen. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:17.960 So a lot of people have dug into it, and 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.200 really a lot of what goes on behind the scenes 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.440 with our analytics crew, it's like NASA in our building. 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:26.280 Can you give me an example of that spilling any 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.119 trade secrets. I won't spill trade secrets because I do 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:33.400 like my job. What they're able to come with and 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:36.760 just say, hey, are you paying attention to this? Or 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.639