Speaker 1: The sun is up, the sky is blue, the mountains
Speaker 1: are visible, and at the time that we fire up
Speaker 1: the old podcast machine at around seven thirty local time
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas Friday morning, the expected high temperature today
Speaker 1: is only supposed to be one hundred eleven degrees, with
Speaker 1: the thermostat reaching triple digits by ten am Pacific time.
Speaker 1: With that, greetings from the Strip. Brian Seltzer from Sixers
Speaker 1: dot Com, welcome you back for another Summer League edition
Speaker 1: of the podcast. Our guest on this episode of the
Speaker 1: Pot is Kevin Young. He is going to be the
Speaker 1: head coach of the Summer Sixers this year as they
Speaker 1: begin their quest for the MGM Resorts NBA Summer League Championship. Now,
Speaker 1: this time of year is all about, of course development,
Speaker 1: an opportunity to give guys who the seventy six Ers
Speaker 1: have either drafted, have interested in, undrafted free agents already
Speaker 1: had on their roster, might be property of the Sixers,
Speaker 1: the draft rights of guys they own, the opportunity to
Speaker 1: give them reps, get them further introduced with the seventy
Speaker 1: Sixers system. And you know what, of course, these guys,
Speaker 1: it's a competitive setting. They want to win games. The
Speaker 1: primary objective is familiarity development, and if you win some
Speaker 1: games along the way, great excellent. That's ion on the cake.
Speaker 1: Really exciting that in addition to first round picks from
Speaker 1: this past year's Ayre Smith and Landry Shammitt, if you
Speaker 1: got guys like fir Con Corkmas, Jonah Bolden, Demetrius Jackson
Speaker 1: on the roster, guys who have solid professional playing experience,
Speaker 1: you could throw Askia Booker, Chris McCullough, Cam Oliver into
Speaker 1: that category as well Devondric Walker too. So it seems
Speaker 1: like the Sixers they'll have a really nice balance of
Speaker 1: youth and experience on their summer league roster as they
Speaker 1: get ready for game number one on Friday against the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. Seven thirty Before we start the conversation with
Speaker 1: coach a Young, reminder that to subscribe to the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can go to a couple places. You can head
Speaker 1: to iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or SoundCloud. Type in Sixers
Speaker 1: Podcast Network that will take you to our feed and
Speaker 1: you can subscribe right then and there. We hope you do.
Speaker 1: Kevin Young has been a part of the seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: development program and coaching staff for the last couple of
Speaker 1: seasons now. He was the head coach of Delaware in
Speaker 1: the G League from twenty fourteenth or two thousand sixteen,
Speaker 1: and he's been on Brett Brown's bench the last two years.
Speaker 1: This past season in particular, he was one of the
Speaker 1: guys who really headed up these Sixers Special team's efforts.
Speaker 1: So all the high efficiency production the Sixers got on
Speaker 1: aftertime out plays on end line and sideline out of
Speaker 1: bounds plays, Coach Young was heavily involved in that mix.
Speaker 1: Coach Young, what's going on? What's the pulse of the squad? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the thing I've been I say, we've been
Speaker 1: impressed with this group is how quickly they've been able
Speaker 1: to pick things up that we've been throwing at them,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to get a lot in obviously in
Speaker 1: a short amount of time. So happy with the intellect
Speaker 1: of the group, and hopefully it shows how do you
Speaker 1: structure the days that you're spending with the guys, Especially
Speaker 1: when you look back on many camp there four days
Speaker 1: of practice sessions, but it seems like there's always a
Speaker 1: charter bus coming to and fro from Camden. So how
Speaker 1: do you guys format each day to get the most
Speaker 1: out of it. Yeah, well, we tried to break it
Speaker 1: down where we really try to use the coaches that
Speaker 1: we have strategically and get the most out of the
Speaker 1: guys while they're here where we're doing a lot of
Speaker 1: different station work, so we can kind of hit a
Speaker 1: lot of different things in a short amount of time.
Speaker 1: And then as coaches sometimes we get a little over zealous.
Speaker 1: Have been working with the sports science crew quite a
Speaker 1: bit to make sure that we are keeping these guys
Speaker 1: healthy and making sure we're ready for what Vegas has
Speaker 1: for us. For you about how much time passes before
Speaker 1: you're ready to get back in a gym, because this
Speaker 1: year was different Unlike the last couple of seasons when
Speaker 1: you were on the staff, the sixers, they were done
Speaker 1: in the middle of April, and this year an extra
Speaker 1: month for me. It's like things just happened so quick.
Speaker 1: It was like a week and a half and then
Speaker 1: it was draft prep and workouts and here we are.
Speaker 1: I mean, but when does the itch really start to
Speaker 1: come back for you? Yeah, this year was unique, As
Speaker 1: you said, I mean, the year has passed like the
Speaker 1: draft kind of was our playoffs, so it was all
Speaker 1: eyes were geared on that and this year, you know,
Speaker 1: having the postseason run that we had gave us a
Speaker 1: little bit more basketball. So, you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was a specific amount of time, but after
Speaker 1: a while, you know that you can only annoy your
Speaker 1: wife so much before she wants you out of the house.
Speaker 1: So it was good to get back in the gym.
Speaker 1: True words. Well, put as far as the material that
Speaker 1: you're giving these guys, if you put it on a
Speaker 1: scale for what the NBA amount of material you guys
Speaker 1: asked the regular season team and roster to digest, how
Speaker 1: would you compare that to what you're introducing these guys too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, clearly you can't get nearly as in depth
Speaker 1: with the with the summer league group. I think what
Speaker 1: you can do, though, is you can instill the principles
Speaker 1: that your team stands for with the guys that you're
Speaker 1: trying to acclimate Zayre Smith, you know, Landry Sham and
Speaker 1: even Shake Mill and although he's not participating, still there.
Speaker 1: Really we've we've tried to focus on three things. And
Speaker 1: I told the guys this the other day, is in
Speaker 1: summer league, really it comes down to transition defense, pick
Speaker 1: and roll defense, and being organized offensively, and so those
Speaker 1: really are the things that we've tried to focus in
Speaker 1: on Darien Camp, and again, the guys have picked things
Speaker 1: up pretty well. And it's easy to say that having
Speaker 1: not played a game, but well, once we get going,
Speaker 1: hopefully it'll carry over. You've been coaching in the pros
Speaker 1: for over a decade now. During that time, if you've
Speaker 1: seen an evolution for how better prod guys are coming
Speaker 1: out of college into the pros as far as schemes
Speaker 1: that are being run at the NCAA level from where
Speaker 1: it is now to where it was let's say ten
Speaker 1: years ago. Yeah, I think the defense in the NBA
Speaker 1: to me is a little bit more multidimensional, a little
Speaker 1: bit deeper to grasp for some guys offensively, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot more pick and roll common knowledge I think
Speaker 1: is out there even today just watching guys come off
Speaker 1: pick and roll, looking for rollers, looking for lob passes
Speaker 1: and things like that. Whereas years passed that with certain
Speaker 1: things you really have to kind of really coach guys
Speaker 1: up on. I mean, just for people out there who
Speaker 1: may be curious why you pick those three areas and
Speaker 1: why that is important in summer league, What makes what
Speaker 1: you were talking about transition, d pick and roll defense,
Speaker 1: those things. Why is that particular to summer league something
Speaker 1: that you look out for the games are just a
Speaker 1: little bit more ratty in terms of you know, as
Speaker 1: I said, being organized is something we tried to do. Oftentimes,
Speaker 1: it's hard for teams to get organized, so it ends
Speaker 1: up being a lot of transition basketball, a lot of
Speaker 1: just broken plays that end up in picking rolls, and
Speaker 1: so that's what that's why we wanted to focus and
Speaker 1: on that. And then again for us trying to avoid
Speaker 1: solely just being a broken play team, we try to
Speaker 1: get him organized with you know what we do here
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. We'd have to think that having a season
Speaker 1: point guard or something like that could help with the
Speaker 1: organization as we start to look at some of the
Speaker 1: guys and the roster, Demetris Jackson, is he one of
Speaker 1: the people that you're leaning on, someone who's had two
Speaker 1: years worth a summer league experience in a handful of
Speaker 1: NBA games under his belt. Yes, all those things. And
Speaker 1: then and then obviously with him being with us for
Speaker 1: the season, has a has an understanding of what we
Speaker 1: you know, what we do, and so the combination of
Speaker 1: him having summer leagues under his belt, you know, him
Speaker 1: understanding the concepts that we want to play. When I
Speaker 1: was told he was going to be our point guard,
Speaker 1: I was I was pretty excited about that. And he's
Speaker 1: been He's been great. He's been great for the coaches.
Speaker 1: He's really helped Zayre Smith and Landry make their kind
Speaker 1: of transition. And you know, you could see it when
Speaker 1: they were on you know, some of those team in
Speaker 1: practice and then they get on Dmitris's team. That kind
Speaker 1: of studies the ship and that's what we're looking for
Speaker 1: out of him from an outside perspective, whether you're a
Speaker 1: member of the media, guilty he's charged, or a fan.
Speaker 1: There's always so much interest, natural interest during summer League
Speaker 1: about new guys, new talent brought into the organization. And
Speaker 1: in terms of whom the Sixers picked up on draft night,
Speaker 1: we're looking at Zaire Smith, Landry Shammitt. As you said,
Speaker 1: Shake Milton not available to play in summer League. What
Speaker 1: are the early impressions of Smith and Shammut that you
Speaker 1: got from at mini camp. So Shammitt start with him
Speaker 1: because I thought he played well really to start camp,
Speaker 1: and then and then Zayre had had some really good
Speaker 1: days after that. But so with Landry, just his ability
Speaker 1: to play without the ball, move cut and make shots,
Speaker 1: just to kind of a well rounded offensive player, which
Speaker 1: is what we saw when we looked at him on
Speaker 1: the film and he got here and that's what he
Speaker 1: did with Zaire. For me person, I've been really happy
Speaker 1: with what he's been able to do offensively was just
Speaker 1: more to his game than I than I saw in
Speaker 1: the film or maybe gave him credit for. So he's
Speaker 1: been able to attack the rim, which I thought he
Speaker 1: would be able to do, but his ability to kind
Speaker 1: of get into the paint and elevate over guys and
Speaker 1: make shots has been impressive. I thought he shot the
Speaker 1: three well on top of that. And then you know, defensively,
Speaker 1: his ability to just get in guys is something that
Speaker 1: will obviously help us in Summer League, but will clearly
Speaker 1: help him as he you know, tries to get on
Speaker 1: the court for us in the season. Just having a
Speaker 1: guy that you can throw at all these unbelievable players
Speaker 1: you have to guard in the NBA. Like you said,
Speaker 1: there's certain things you can pick up on tape, but
Speaker 1: to see Zaire leap his first leap in person for
Speaker 1: the first couple of times. It's pretty outrageous, it is.
Speaker 1: And he's the thing I like about him too, is
Speaker 1: he's he's real, even healed, you know, for a young
Speaker 1: guy that's impressive so far hasn't been able or has
Speaker 1: not been rattled much. It's kind of the same guy
Speaker 1: every day, every possession, which has been been you know,
Speaker 1: good to see. But in terms of his just not
Speaker 1: only his athleticism, but his body's got long arms, He's strong,
Speaker 1: you know for a nineteen year old kid. Uh, it's impressive.
Speaker 1: He seems like a yes sir, no sir kind of guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a no nonsense guy. So far, he's been incredibly
Speaker 1: easy to coach, eager to learn, but at the same
Speaker 1: time has a competitive spirit that you that you really like.
Speaker 1: People have talked about his shot trajectory, his shot development.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming does that start as early as right now.
Speaker 1: How do you introduce someone like that who clearly the
Speaker 1: organization has high hopes for at this early stage, for
Speaker 1: the really the first foreign two professional hoops. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: even before we started our mini camp, coach Monie Williams
Speaker 1: was able to kind of get his hands on him
Speaker 1: and give him some some different workouts and so forth,
Speaker 1: and I think that helped him, give him a nice foundation.
Speaker 1: And then for us what we've tried to do on
Speaker 1: the team side with this mini camps indoctrinate him with
Speaker 1: our terminology, our philosophies, just the things that are just
Speaker 1: totally different, probably than than where he's come from, because
Speaker 1: there is quite a few terms. Coach Brown has a
Speaker 1: term for everything, so and you know what obviously helps
Speaker 1: us be organized. So we're just trying to get him
Speaker 1: up to speed with all that. You've only had him
Speaker 1: in front of you for a couple of days now.
Speaker 1: But with Smith, how much of what he's able to
Speaker 1: do defensively comes from ability skill, how much of it
Speaker 1: comes from determination, mindset, that sort of thing. And I
Speaker 1: think with any good defender you have to have a
Speaker 1: combination of all the things you just listed. But the
Speaker 1: most important thing is that desire and that competitiveness. And
Speaker 1: I've seen that in him. You know, Coach Billy Lang
Speaker 1: has been on the floor and also has noticed that,
Speaker 1: which again, the physical stuff is one thing, but the
Speaker 1: mental makeup and the ability to want to stop somebody
Speaker 1: as another thing. And you know we've seen that so far.
Speaker 1: For someone like for Con cork Mose, who is just
Speaker 1: overseason Europe had a tremendous run in the World qualifiers
Speaker 1: for FIBA, What are the expectations, what's on the to
Speaker 1: do list for someone like that. Oh, for me, it's
Speaker 1: to look at his passport and see where he's where
Speaker 1: he's coming from yet guys all over the place. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, he'll be he'll be coming in with
Speaker 1: confidence based on how well he's done in that tournament. Again,
Speaker 1: with him, he already knows what we're doing. I think
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of him getting there and getting
Speaker 1: real quickly acclimated with the guys that we have, and
Speaker 1: and then just just playing. I think he needs to
Speaker 1: play play at a high level and you know, obviously
Speaker 1: wants to see the ball go in. We want to
Speaker 1: see that for him and just kind of get confidence.
Speaker 1: And that's what some league is so good for. You know,
Speaker 1: guys that may not be able to get the run
Speaker 1: that they want during the season, they're able to play
Speaker 1: in that setting and get you know, get reps, get
Speaker 1: confidence and kind of get a little swagger, which he
Speaker 1: certainly does not lack. Even as fur Con had to
Speaker 1: sit out a bit last season with injury. What do
Speaker 1: you think he was able to take away from his
Speaker 1: first season around an NBA team. I think just the
Speaker 1: big picture of how the whole thing works. You know,
Speaker 1: the travel, the schedules, you know, playing with older guys,
Speaker 1: playing with superstars, being in a big market, all those
Speaker 1: things that you know, for a guy coming in not
Speaker 1: only as a rookie, but as a European rookie, you know,
Speaker 1: it's all new to him, and so I think having
Speaker 1: had that experience and having all that stuff under his
Speaker 1: about sets him up well to kind of hit the
Speaker 1: ground run and moving forward. This probably happens in the
Speaker 1: preseason and regular season two. But as someone who's in
Speaker 1: a position to evaluate talent and you're coaching it obviously
Speaker 1: with the Sixers, but when you're in these games, is
Speaker 1: it almost impossible to ignore someone who jumps out on
Speaker 1: the other side and file that name of someone away
Speaker 1: in the back of your mind because who knows what
Speaker 1: shakes out after Summer League's done. Absolutely. I mean for me,
Speaker 1: especially with my background coming up through the minor leagues,
Speaker 1: it was, you know, Summer League was kind of one
Speaker 1: of the marquis scouting events, and so you know, you're
Speaker 1: coaching games during the day and writing scouting reports at night,
Speaker 1: and so I just kind of have that background. So certainly,
Speaker 1: you know, take middle notes to different guys. And you know,
Speaker 1: the other thing too, is when you go through a
Speaker 1: draft class, you know, you get curious about all the
Speaker 1: guys that you studied, and so when you're able to
Speaker 1: get a chance to see him play in person, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of fun to just say, oh, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I thought he'd be here. You know,
Speaker 1: that guy really surprised me. And so I'm sure as
Speaker 1: an organization we will We'll have eyes on a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys. The pre draft period, it seemed like
Speaker 1: the theme was very much all hands on deck for
Speaker 1: the organization. Were you guys, as coaches, as assistants given
Speaker 1: more of an opportunity to do certain things what you
Speaker 1: were asked of? Was that any different this time around
Speaker 1: with Brett Brown leading the ship. Yeah, you know, certainly
Speaker 1: from last season, you know, where we weren't nearly as
Speaker 1: involved with it, and then this around with coach Brown
Speaker 1: you know taking things over. It was you know, he
Speaker 1: asked us to, he gave us specific projects and there
Speaker 1: were specific groups of players that we that we looked at,
Speaker 1: two of which we drafted, which was fun. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I enjoy that side of it. Sometimes it becomes hard
Speaker 1: to do that with how much other stuff you have
Speaker 1: on the plate, with the actual coaching side, but I
Speaker 1: enjoyed being able to kind of get my hands on
Speaker 1: that side of it. And while Summer League might give
Speaker 1: off much like Spring training, let's say, a more loose,
Speaker 1: relaxed vibe, I gotta think this is precious and valuable
Speaker 1: time for someone like yourself too, and the assistance that
Speaker 1: are going to be on the summer league coaching staff,
Speaker 1: because here's a great chance to work with guys coming
Speaker 1: up through the ranks, some real elite level talent, and
Speaker 1: you get to get raps. Sure right, yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: mean again, like with my background in the minor leagues,
Speaker 1: haven't been a head coach in that league, and then
Speaker 1: now I've been here for a couple of years. You know,
Speaker 1: you he almost forget a little bit about of everything
Speaker 1: you have to do as a head coach. So it's
Speaker 1: it's been a great refresher for me. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: have that experience, but more importantly, I'm excited for all
Speaker 1: of our young kind of our younger staff that that's
Speaker 1: been able to get a lot more responsibility. You know,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of people helped me grow as
Speaker 1: a as a young coach, and still him, you know,
Speaker 1: with Coach O'Brien, Coach Brown, Coach Monty, coach Billy, all
Speaker 1: these guys that have helped me, Coach Pierce, all these
Speaker 1: guys that have helped me, And now I kind of
Speaker 1: get to like pay it forward a little bit, which
Speaker 1: one makes me feel old a little bit, and then too,
Speaker 1: you know, just being able to help guys, you know,
Speaker 1: help Connor as he prepared Connor Johnson prepared to be
Speaker 1: the Blue Coats head coach, you know, help some of
Speaker 1: these guys that are moving up in our organization. And
Speaker 1: for me, that's been really fun. I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the more undersold storylines surrounding Brent is that, at
Speaker 1: least from this seat, it looks like he's a guy
Speaker 1: who places almost just as much effort and energies on
Speaker 1: developing his own coaches as he does guys out on
Speaker 1: the floor with like a fir con court master Tim
Speaker 1: Laile Cabra. I mean, he seems like he's genuinely invested
Speaker 1: in moving you guys along as well. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean I certainly wouldn't be here if it wasn't
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't for him. He's done a lot
Speaker 1: for me and my family, and he's given me an opportunity,
Speaker 1: opportunity to have a real responsibilities within the organization and
Speaker 1: really let me own certain areas that he's given me,
Speaker 1: and it's made me a much better coach. And it's
Speaker 1: given me, you know, like we talked about before with
Speaker 1: Firk on that confidence and even as a coach, you
Speaker 1: need the confidence. And that's what I've tried to help
Speaker 1: some of the younger coaches understand, is the confidence that
Speaker 1: you need as a coach, and there's no better way
Speaker 1: to get that than doing what they're doing right now,
Speaker 1: is coaching on the floor, all right? To put a
Speaker 1: bow on this, what would constitute a successful summer league
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas for the Philadelphia seventy six ers. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously everybody is competitive and everybody wants to win, but
Speaker 1: I think, going back to the three pillars that we
Speaker 1: kind of talked about, if we can really just try
Speaker 1: to be organized, that's the one thing I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that when we get out there are guys
Speaker 1: are organized, they know what they're doing, you know, be
Speaker 1: able to get back on defense and be able to
Speaker 1: guard pick and rolls, all the things that we've invested
Speaker 1: time in here and then ultimately have Landry and Zayre
Speaker 1: pick up all those things so that they kind of
Speaker 1: have a head start for the season. Great stuff, turfic
Speaker 1: insight from Kevin Young. He'll be leading the seventy sixers
Speaker 1: at the MGM Reserts Summer League in Las Vegas. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much man, Thanks Boo, And you figure that if
Speaker 1: you're throwing guys like Jonah Bolden, whom the seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: acquired in the second round of two thousand and seventeen
Speaker 1: and had a really solid season playing professionally overseason Israel
Speaker 1: this past year, plus Askia Booker, who has professional raps
Speaker 1: under his belt in the G League and internationally to
Speaker 1: the roster, that should only deepen the talent pool and
Speaker 1: help these seventy sixers. Cause this week, sorry, we didn't
Speaker 1: have a chance to touch upon Bolden or Booker on
Speaker 1: the roster in that interview. We actually sat down and
Speaker 1: taped that. Kevin and I did before the moves were
Speaker 1: official and announced. But gotta like those two are in
Speaker 1: the mix, and gotta like that tonight from Las Vegas
Speaker 1: seventy six Ers and the Boston Celtics yet again, this
Speaker 1: time in a Summer League setting. Who knows when the
Speaker 1: next episode of the podcast We've come in your way
Speaker 1: from out here in Sin City, only that we will
Speaker 1: effort more pods in the days ahead. You just don't
Speaker 1: know who you might come across or run into, so
Speaker 1: be sure to check your feed on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: A reminder that, in addition to the Summer League games
Speaker 1: being on TV, whether it's ESPN or NBA TV, the
Speaker 1: first three games will be audio screamed on Sixers dot
Speaker 1: Com and the Sixers mobile app with a great Tom
Speaker 1: mc ginnis out here. Plus, you can listen to tonight's
Speaker 1: Celtics game at seven thirty and Tomorrow's Lakers game at
Speaker 1: eleven thirty on Sixers flagship radio station at ninety seven
Speaker 1: five FM, The Fanatic. If you were in the Delaware
Speaker 1: Valley listening, errand cool, all right, so we'll talk to
Speaker 1: you next time, hopefully real soon. Here on the back,
Speaker 1: I can see