Coat Check | Connor Johnson Previews the Bubble

it for the of health? Visit Christianaicare dot org. I'm Matt Murphy. Thanks for tuning in to Coach Check. If you want to get all of our interviews from right here in the G League Bubble in your podcast rotation, please subscribe to the seventy Sixers Podcast Network a great mix of different seventy sixers shows on there. Tuesdays are still the day for us moving forward, and we will go every Tuesday. Also, be on the lookout for a new segment of coach Check with a recurring guest from

here in the Bubble. That surprise is coming on the very next episode. On this episode, a really insightful conversation with the coach running the show in the twenty twenty one season, third year Bluecoats head coach Connor Johnson. We won't waste any more time. Here is Coach Johnson. Please to be joined by Bluecoats head coach Connor Johnson. Welcome back to coach check. Coach. What have you been up to the last few weeks prior to the NBAG League bubble?

I know it's been some quarantine time, so how have you been keeping yourself busy? Yeah, we've had a lot of time to prepare and get ready for our first week of practice down here. So the coaching staff has been doing communicating in a lot of different ways, our staff here in Delaware and also working with the sixer coaches and kind of making sure that we're still aligned

and kind of in tune with what they're doing. So the communication has been useful and helpful and it allows us to kind of lay the groundwork for what we want with the G League. There's often talk up goals for the season, and maybe they're magnified in a shortened bubble season. What are some of your goals the goals of your staff for the team This season. Well, our overall goal has always been and remains even with the shortened season, to help helped develop future seventy six ers.

And so the most obvious example are the two ways we have on our team now Paul and Jeon Tucker, Paul Reid and Rajeon Tucker, and so in addition to the entire roster, helping those guys be able to step into the bigger roles at the professional at the NBA level and then when they go back up. So that's always been the goal. And then for us as a team, we want to be one of the best defensive teams we can be. We were, We made a lot of progress last season and we hope to kind of continue

to build on that with this new group. How about when it comes to training camp, So as we record this, it's coming off the first practice and people are obviously going to listen at different times, but the training camp period leading up to the first game, which is February eleventh, what are some of the goals with that? Yeah, I think this is a very unique circumstance because not only this are in season, but the guys are coming to their first practice not having played any basketball for at

least ten days, but even greater than that. Their last organized five on five game maybe many months ago. So one thing we keep in the back of our minds we go all through this is that we want to build them up in a smart way where we're not putting them at unnecessary risk, and yet we are improving their cardiovascular fitness their ability to play. So that's kind of the balance we have of we want to push them hard, we want to make sure that they're developing

within our system. We want to make sure that they're getting better and getting in shape. But it's a kind of fine line between too much and too little, and that coming off our first practice, I thought we did a nice job of balancing getting them as much as they need without being overly aggressive. And that's the case for all eighteen teams. Well, I guess if you exclude the G League Ignite team who's been playing together for

a few months now. But speaking of the schedule, they are on your schedule, but overall, it's in your third season a much different look. It's fifteen regular season games, five back to backs, obviously no travel involved, but some quick turnarounds, all at a single site campus. So how are you approaching this year's game schedule given how different it is, Yeah, I think I think you're right on the density of games is greater than it's ever been.

I think we're lucky to have a deep roster that allows us hopefully to be able to be our players to be fresh and ready to play the five games and seven days or whatever sort of numbers will have in the middle of our stretch. The smart ramp up, I think is still important and making sure that we head into our first back to back in eight days or whatever it is, that we are as the best

shape we can be without being over extended. And all that kind of comes together to say that this thing is a lot more a lot more similar to the Summer League, I think than a normal G League season, because in the summer league that there's not a lot of practice. There's there's five or six days of quality practices that you can have sometimes double sessions, which we've chosen not to do here in the bubble, and then you just play, and there's not a lot of time

to practice and make adjustments during practice. Most of it has to be done in between games or during the games, and so that's been I've been fortunate to be a part of the six or Summer League staff for a decent amount of years now, and that's another framework that I think it's been useful in planning for how we

want to attack our time here in the bubble. Yeah, going off that your experience as the Sixers Summer League head coach, what did you learn that you're going to bring into this bubble situation from that you mentioned two days versus not having them. Is there anything else that you learned during that time that you're bringing in now. Yeah.

I think we did a good job prioritizing certain aspects of our offense and defensive scheme and instead of trying to be fairly good at a lot of things, becoming really good at a few. And that's something we did in the Summer League. I think it paid off for

those players there. I think it gave them a sense of identity of how we want to play and what we're really going to value and instead of just choosing things left and right, we know these three things are things we're going to keep coming back to you and we're going to keep working on and keep getting better at. And we've embraced a similar philosophy here where we have three parts to our offense that are going to be critical, and we got three things on defense we got to

do every time. And even from our first day and the meetings we've had with our players before, I think we've made some progress and that's starting to sync in and it simplifies their mind where now they're talented players who can go out and play more on the way. But first, a quick message from our friends at Nemour's. Nomore's Sports Medicine believes that highly personalized one on one physical therapy for young athletes is paramount a speedy and

complete recovery. Learn more at Nemore's data Org slash PT. Let's talk about the roster a little bit before closing with a question that I really want to know the answer too. But before we get to that, this roster for the Bluecoats in the twenty twenty one G League season a lot of NBA experience. Nine of twelve have played in the NBA. Two of those that haven't our rookies, So it's pretty much the whole roster with NBA experience trying to get back. And that's something that you've talked

about in the preseason and others. What are some of the things that you talk to these guys about that are traits that transfer over to the next level that you're going to be looking for, Right I think the kind of hit it on the head right there. What we're doing is trying to give them reinforce the values that are then attractive to the teams that look at them.

And I think a lot of these guys have kind of been right on the line between NBA long term NBA success and then coming back to the Julie, And in the way that this is set up, there's gonna be a lot of eyes on our games more so than than normal. It's not like we're going to be in some gym somewhere across the country. Every NBA team is going to be sending scouts here down to watch.

And with the current status of the NBA, I think that there's a higher likelihood of anyone in this bubble getting called up, And so for us, it's the get. There's not going to be a tremendous amount of change in their games in this next two months, especially with the experience these guys had, but we just want to kind of refine them a bit and have them play in a way that is something that NBA teams want for the guy that's going to come in for a ten day contract or kind of at the end of

their roster and be able to work that up. And that's that's kind of getting more detailed about how hard we want them to play, what that means, and how they can show that each time. And then part of it is we got to get this group to play together, because no one he's gonna look no one's gonna play well, no one's gonna really look good to the scouts and the world that they're trying to impress if they're all doing it on their own. And that's been a theme

that we've really hit with these guys. Yeah, and to your point about more eyeballs being on it, I think a lot of players wanted to be here and realize that as well. So it seems like the competition is going to be very high and I want to get to that next. But if people wanted the true G League bubble experience, that was my fault. Somebody was rolling something on a cart outside of my hotel room in

the background. But the two way players for the Sixers quickly for our Sixers fans that are listening Ray Jean Tucker most recently, and Paul Reid as well, what excites you about their games and getting to coach them. Yeah,

I mean to start with Paul. I think Paul's made a lot of progress in the last couple of months working with coach Dwayne Jones down with the Sixers and his development of coming in and then getting kind of thrown to the fire fairly early in a Denver Nuggets game when the Sixers didn't have a lot of players. I think was a really good opportunity for him to kind of see where he was and see what it needs to work on. He's a long, athletic big that

can make plays in a lot of different ways. I think we got to really work with him on just continuing to understand how he can play within the Sixers system, something that we'll be running down here and I think will be easy for him to kind of find his groove in that respect. And then Rayjeon Tucker, who the Sixers have signed more recently, we're familiar with in the GI League. We played him last year as he came in as a G League player before his NBA career started.

And what team what team did he play for? Again, he played for the Wisconsin her as did many current Bluecoats, and joining Frank Mason and Jamario Jones as well. I just thought that was funny having been coached by a former member of your staff, Chase Buford. Last season they had a lot of success in Rajeon was a big part of that early in the season. Yeah, and he's built like looks like he could be a linebacker any day now, but strong and physical athletic. Showed that he

could really shoot it last season. And for him, he's kind of bounced around a few MBA programs already, and the goals, as we talk about fairly directly with him, as we wanted to stick. We wanted to get to on these places and become a long term member of a team, and the Sixers could be a great fit for that because the way that coach Rivers values defense and what he can bring from his offensive versatility as a score who can play off the ball and shoot

and make good decisions. So I talked about competition. When these competitive games arrive in what will be not very long from now, what can fans out there expect in terms of the Bluecoat style of play with this roster well, As I said, we'll try to be as similar to the Sixers as we can, and so hopefully they see the Sixers have had so much success to start their season. If they can see any semblance of that, I'm going to consider it a real success. But we're gonna the

defense is gonna be our priority. We have a lot of talented offensive players, and to tie it together by getting stops being able to play in transition, play with an advantage because of our defense will be helpful. And we're going to play in a system where all five guys are have a responsibility each possession, and that will be kind of the key to our success. One more coach, and it's a question I've been dying to know the answer too. I should have asked a follow up. Matt

Lily was on the last episode. He talked about how you guys have been playing chess during quarantine on your phones. Who usually comes out victorious between you and Blue Coach general manager Matt Lily in your games of chess, It's great you know some things. Nothing's really sacred, I guess when you start to get on our podcast. Just happy to share anything you know. We have a lot of with it. It's been it's been great for us as something to do and keep our minds stimulated about stuff

outside basketball. We look forward to playing as opposed to playing in our houses back in Philadelphia and Delaware. Out here on the they got the little Alligator Lake thing that maybe that'll be a nicer backdrop for a live game. But I'd say it's fairly even. I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to go too far in one direction because neither of you has a right now because you get upset and keep your rankings. I mean, we got like pretty pretty strong statistics. But yeah, it's pretty fair.

It's pretty close. Glad to know that's a that's something that comes up more than one. It's great, good stuff, good stuff. Um, thanks a lot, coach, Thanks for the time. We'll be following along all season in the G League bubble and good luck to you in the team. Great thank you. Thanks again to Bluecoats head coach Connor Johnson Matt Murphy. Until next time, take it or leave it at the coach check