Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy Sixers Podcast Network
Speaker 1: search seventy sixers podcast wherever you get your pods. This
Speaker 1: is the Summer Sixers miniseries from the seventy Sixers Podcast Network.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Murphy and on this episode, I go one
Speaker 1: on one with seventy Sixers assistant coach Brian Adams, the
Speaker 1: head coach for this year's Summer League team. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get started, Coach. With your previous experience as a
Speaker 1: Summer League head coach with the Clippers as recently as
Speaker 1: two years ago, what did you learn then that you
Speaker 1: bring into the same role with this year's Sixers. Summer
Speaker 1: League is all about balancing kind of Everyone always thinks
Speaker 1: when you're playing basketball it's about winning, and at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, it is, but there's priorities. You know,
Speaker 1: you have guys fighting for opportunities that have been with
Speaker 1: the team all year, and then you have guys that
Speaker 1: you've just drafted that are going to be with the team,
Speaker 1: and then you've got guys trying to make it. So
Speaker 1: you know, the priority is more about putting people in
Speaker 1: the right positions to succeed, and especially the guys that
Speaker 1: we know, and we're really like, you know, you think
Speaker 1: of a guy like Isaiah Joe or Tyrese Maxie or
Speaker 1: Paul Reid, like, these are guys that we've had for
Speaker 1: a year, and how can we create an opportunity for
Speaker 1: them to be in the best position going forward? And
Speaker 1: and yeah, as a coach, you know, your pride jumps
Speaker 1: in as far as I want to win every game,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, the priorities are more about
Speaker 1: putting the guys in their best opportunities for them as
Speaker 1: them as a whole. In the Sixers as an organization,
Speaker 1: that balance of winning and development, it relates directly to
Speaker 1: the G League in a lot of ways. And you've
Speaker 1: been a G League head coach in your career, So
Speaker 1: how does your G League experience help with balancing the
Speaker 1: goal of winning versus the goal of player development? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I mean, the G League is an amazing league, but
Speaker 1: it isn't always about winning, and you know, it's about
Speaker 1: it's about development as far as and the biggest thing,
Speaker 1: it's about development. When you think of development, you think
Speaker 1: of development as far as this drill, that drill, But
Speaker 1: a lot of development for these guys is getting the
Speaker 1: reps in game reps and the live play. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of the biggest thing, is how can we kind
Speaker 1: of create a little shell of what Doc's doing with
Speaker 1: the big team, make it so it's simple because we
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of time to put it in,
Speaker 1: and then put these guys in that shell so then
Speaker 1: they can get the live game reps. And that's essentially
Speaker 1: the g League right there, too, is just creating a
Speaker 1: mini version of what Doc's doing so that these guys
Speaker 1: can get the live reps. And that's the development playing live.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the roster a little bit. I know
Speaker 1: it's early, but on paper and in the early stages
Speaker 1: of getting the group together, what are some of the
Speaker 1: strengths of this twenty twenty one six or summer league roster.
Speaker 1: It starts with the guys we have coming back, Isaiah,
Speaker 1: Joe Tyrese, Maxie, Paul Reid, Rayjon Tucker. Those guys have
Speaker 1: been with us for a year and I've kind of
Speaker 1: expressed to them that it's important for them to set
Speaker 1: the tone. So all those guys, at some point in
Speaker 1: their careers so far have proven they can play in
Speaker 1: the NBA. They've all done it. Now it's about consistently
Speaker 1: kind of putting themselves in an opera in a position
Speaker 1: to maybe make a rotation or maybe help the team,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, it's about how
Speaker 1: can they impact winning? And so I'd say they're they're
Speaker 1: a strength right off the bat. Anytime you have that
Speaker 1: many guys that have played a bit in the NBA
Speaker 1: and have done a year, uh that that's that's a
Speaker 1: good strength. Then you have the rookie Jaden, you know,
Speaker 1: and Jaden's trying to learn everything, but he's a young kid.
Speaker 1: He's talented. Um, so he enters the mix. I think
Speaker 1: anytime that you're a first round draft pick, obviously you
Speaker 1: still have to perform and first round is just a label.
Speaker 1: But you can tell he's a young kid that has
Speaker 1: a good feel for basketball, and you know, he adds
Speaker 1: a lot of talent. Uh. From the big man position,
Speaker 1: we have Charles Bassie. He's a rim protecting role in
Speaker 1: five that is very raw. So he's going to give
Speaker 1: you a dynamic both at the rim offensively and defensively.
Speaker 1: That's going to be big Philip. He just got to us.
Speaker 1: But he has the ability to stretch the floor at
Speaker 1: the five spots. So that's good. And I think we've
Speaker 1: got a lot of hungry role players behind him that
Speaker 1: know what it takes to to kind of chip away
Speaker 1: and make it this league. And I think guys like
Speaker 1: Frank Nation, they'll they'll really contribute to this thing. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Tyrese, Maxie, how would you describe the experience four
Speaker 1: players like Tyrese who come in with some pretty important
Speaker 1: NBA minutes already under their belt in summer league. No,
Speaker 1: it's huge, it's huge. And for Tyrese, he showed signs
Speaker 1: of being really consistent rotation player, but then at times
Speaker 1: obviously certain things would happen and whether whether his performance
Speaker 1: led him maybe to not be in the rotation or not.
Speaker 1: For him, it's all about establishing a way of plan
Speaker 1: that consistently can put him in the rotation. And for him,
Speaker 1: that's you know, Kenny run a team at the point
Speaker 1: guard position, you know, understanding our s. That's Kenny hound
Speaker 1: the ball defensively and know our defensive schemes, and so
Speaker 1: you know, he's proven he can do it. Now it's
Speaker 1: about adding to his repertoire so he can consistently do it.
Speaker 1: You spoke after the first practice about areas of focus
Speaker 1: for some of the other returning sixers outside of Maxi,
Speaker 1: so specifically Isaiah, Joe Paul Reid, and Rayjon Tucker. Can
Speaker 1: you dive into what those areas are for those three players? Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. So we'll start with Isaiah. Isaiah has proven
Speaker 1: he's a shooter. With any shooter, they have to prove
Speaker 1: that they can hit shots in games. And I think
Speaker 1: for him, he was thrusting in the rotation at different times,
Speaker 1: whether it be COVID, whether it be trying to try
Speaker 1: try another lookout when we're down guys and stuff, and
Speaker 1: you know, when you're thrown in it's it's a way
Speaker 1: different feeling than say, doing it with consistent playing time,
Speaker 1: So making shots when it matters. So now he'll have
Speaker 1: opportunity to be making shots because he's proven he's a
Speaker 1: shot maker, but can he do it in the situation
Speaker 1: like this? And he will be able to defensively, he
Speaker 1: showed that he's a sneaky good defender. You don't think
Speaker 1: of him maybe as a lockdown super athlete, but he
Speaker 1: can defend so consistently defending. So you look at a
Speaker 1: guy like him, you want him to be able to
Speaker 1: make plays because of his shooting on offense and then
Speaker 1: defensively be able to guard perimeter solid, you know, And
Speaker 1: that's he can do all that. It's about, you know,
Speaker 1: getting him to do it at a consistent level and
Speaker 1: making the next step. And so that's Isaiah Paul. Paul
Speaker 1: is a great opportunity. This is a great example of
Speaker 1: somebody with an opportunity to kind of work on. We've
Speaker 1: been preaching him his versatility. How versatile can he be?
Speaker 1: In the G League? He played a ton of five.
Speaker 1: Five's good. The NBA's gone small, small ball five will
Speaker 1: be there and he'll have an opportunity. But you look
Speaker 1: at Paul, he's around six to nine, he's a super athlete.
Speaker 1: Can he be versatile? Can he play the perimeter spot
Speaker 1: from an offensive standpoint? And then can he defend different
Speaker 1: positions both from a one on one inspective? But in
Speaker 1: the scheme it takes because the scheme at the five
Speaker 1: is different than the scheme on the perimeter, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's that talk. Is another one. Tuck is a pitball,
Speaker 1: blunt force, trauma in your face, attacking downhill player, and
Speaker 1: he's three and d. We need him to be able
Speaker 1: to consistently hit the three more and then play within
Speaker 1: the system at times, know our stuff, and then defensively
Speaker 1: sometimes his ability to play just freakish athletic defense. Still
Speaker 1: do that, but within our schemes. You've touched on some
Speaker 1: of the rookies individually, But what's some of the overarching
Speaker 1: messaging to the sixers rookies you now, you mean like
Speaker 1: Jaden and Charles, you mean the second year group, the
Speaker 1: group of true rookies. I know, it's the first summer
Speaker 1: league for a lot of you know what it is.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest thing for all rookies, and especially these guys.
Speaker 1: It's to kind of learn the NBA is much more.
Speaker 1: It's a different system than they've ever experienced, and every
Speaker 1: team around the league has a different system. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, the NBA game is way
Speaker 1: different than the college game, and you have to be
Speaker 1: able to adjust to offensive schemes, you know, a bigger
Speaker 1: playbook usually than college more kind of changing on the fly,
Speaker 1: a bigger defensive scheme playbook, and you've got to be
Speaker 1: able to do certain things versus certain offensive players. So
Speaker 1: understanding the way the NBA game is played, and then
Speaker 1: whether they were going to us or any team around
Speaker 1: the league. One of the biggest things learning our terminology
Speaker 1: and your career specifically. You've been around Doc Rivers for
Speaker 1: a long time, even with the two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: Celtics championship team. What are some of the things that
Speaker 1: you've learned from coach Rivers that you consider in your
Speaker 1: own approach. Since I've worked in the NBA, the only
Speaker 1: coach I've worked under is Doc, And you know Doc
Speaker 1: is Doc is huge as far as holding players accountable,
Speaker 1: and he's going to tell them what he wants and
Speaker 1: then when they don't do it, or if they do it,
Speaker 1: he's going to let them know and he's going to
Speaker 1: hold them to it in order to get them to
Speaker 1: do it the way it needs to be to win.
Speaker 1: And Doc's only about winning, and sometimes it's not what's
Speaker 1: best for you as an individual, it's what's best for
Speaker 1: the team. And Doc is great about meshing that together
Speaker 1: and getting everybody on board. And some people might not
Speaker 1: like it, but you have to understand it's about the team,
Speaker 1: and it's about the team over the individual, and Doc's
Speaker 1: huge on that. And one thing I've tried to use
Speaker 1: that here is that while all these guys have dreams,
Speaker 1: and they need to have these dreams. They need to
Speaker 1: be motivated by goals. At the same time, they have
Speaker 1: to get over themselves when they're playing a team sport.
Speaker 1: Doc always says, Basketball's not tennis, it's not swimming. It's
Speaker 1: a team sport. And so you know, getting them to
Speaker 1: understand that while they have individual goals, in order to
Speaker 1: reach those goals, you have to play within a team.
Speaker 1: To me, that's just Doc's messaging all over. Last one,
Speaker 1: pine Planes, New York. Tell us a little more about
Speaker 1: where you grew up and how your basketball journey began.
Speaker 1: Pine Planes, mid State, New York. I say mid state
Speaker 1: because it's not up there by Syracuse, small town, small town,
Speaker 1: Duchess County, New York. Not a lot of things going
Speaker 1: on in pine Planes growing up. I love sports. I
Speaker 1: love sports, and I love basketball because you didn't need
Speaker 1: anybody to play with. You could just have the ball,
Speaker 1: hoop and you could go. So I loved playing hoop
Speaker 1: when I was in high school. I wasn't the best player,
Speaker 1: but I was obsessed with the game and I had
Speaker 1: a great high school coach, and it was there that
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, man, I really liked the idea of coaching,
Speaker 1: between the teaching and the psychology of it. So I
Speaker 1: always knew pretty quickly that I wanted to do that.
Speaker 1: When I was in college, I went I was a
Speaker 1: good runner actually in high school, and so I was
Speaker 1: recruited run and I am going to University New Hampshire
Speaker 1: to run, and then transferred to Connecticut College, a small
Speaker 1: D three school, and at both places I helped out
Speaker 1: with the basketball team, but I was sadly more talented
Speaker 1: at the running, so I kind of I kind of
Speaker 1: used that as the skill I worked on while trying
Speaker 1: to be involved with basketball, and then I was able
Speaker 1: to get a basketball operations internship with the Knicks. From
Speaker 1: there video coordinating internship with the Celtics, and that's where
Speaker 1: I hooked on with Doc and it was with him
Speaker 1: all the way until I ended up going to Harvard
Speaker 1: to work with Tommy Amaker, which was awesome, amazing experience.
Speaker 1: One year at Maris College, oh yeah, I got a
Speaker 1: merits guy in the room. One year at Merris College
Speaker 1: under Jeff Bauer, and then it was able to relink
Speaker 1: with Doc out in LA as both video coordinator and
Speaker 1: coaching associate, and that kind of I grew from that
Speaker 1: to the G league's G League head coach, and then
Speaker 1: to this role now great stuff. He is seventy six
Speaker 1: Ers assistant coach, Brian Adams coach. Thanks the time, Thank you,
Speaker 1: thanks again to Brian Adams. And if you're wondering who's
Speaker 1: next in our Summer Sixers series, that would be Isaiah Joe.
Speaker 1: Be on the lookout for Lauren Rosen's interview with Isaiah,
Speaker 1: and also be sure to search for and follow the
Speaker 1: Scoop from the seventy six Ers podcast network for daily
Speaker 1: five minute updates on Summer League. Just search seventy six
Speaker 1: Ers Scoop. I'm Matt Murphy. Thanks for listening.