Coat Check | Meet the New Bubble Correspondent!

so already. More interviews straight from the G League Bubble coming on Tuesdays all season long. Coming up on this episode, I introduce you to our new Bubble correspondent, our Bluecoats Bubble correspondent, who will be joining me each week throughout the season to catch you up on all the latest here in Florida and added perspective to my own on top of any other interviews that I conduct with players

and staff this season. Really looking forward to that. But before we get there, let's hear from two of the twenty twenty one Bluecoats players. Seventy six ers two way contract player Paul Reid aka b ball Paul as well as Jamario Jones. Let's start with Jones and you'll know why, and then we'll follow up with Reid on their three must pack items for the Bubble my PlayStation. Um my body was but they had some here. Yeah, you're two Bridge. I feel like you need him for shure. I'm gonna

tell you the thief things I needed the most. Back into the Bible had the brain. The Bible had the brain one of these books that I'm reading, and then I had the brain. The P five had too. Can leave it quite the answers there from Jamario Jones, great personality from him, and many of these Bluecoats players can't wait to continue hearing from them, interviewing them, just speaking with them in a variety of ways during this twenty

twenty one G League season. Also excited to introduce our Bluecoats Bubble correspondent, who will be teaming up with myself for the season that's coming right up. But first, Christiana Care. As doctors, nurses, and caregivers, and as neighbors and friends. Christiana cares a partner in everyone's journey to greater health and well being. Why do they do it for the love of health? Visit Christianacare dot org. The moment that all of our Coach check listeners, subscribers, anybody who follows

the show has been waiting for. Maybe I teased it a little bit on last week's episode with Bluecoats head coach Connor Johnson, And if you're looking for a thorough preview of the season, a little bit of x's and o's, that type of thing, go back and check out that

episode once you're done listening to this. But I teased a Bubble correspondent while we're here in the NBA G League bubble in Florida at Disney World, and it's time to reveal that person, and it's Bluecoats assistant coach, former NBA player, G League player, former sixer for that matter, Xavier Silas. He will be joining forces with myself and giving all of you a deeper look inside the NBA G League Bubble inside the twenty twenty one NBAG League season. So,

Coach Silas, it's great to have you on board. I think you're perfect for this role. Between the two of us, I don't think we should miss anything that's going on around the team on and off the court. It's going to be a great couple of I shouldn't say a couple a great few weeks around this team, and I think people are gonna want to follow along. So thanks for being here. I appreciate for having me. I'm looking forward to diving in and letting everyone know what's going

on outside of the bubble. I think a big plus of this is your experience as a player, a player at the highest level. You actually shared something on your Instagram about less than forty five hundred people something like that can say they've played in the NBA, So you know where these guys are trying to go and what it takes to get there. So I really value your

opinion as someone who's been there. And that's something that's so exciting about this G League season is, like I keep saying, it the suit of a dream, and these guys are all trying to get to the NBA, and many of the players on this Bluecoats team have been there, So I think your perspective in that sense is going to be huge for us. Yeah, I think it's really important.

And what I was talking to Michael Fraser about today is even just the important sustain mentally Ready, you know, we're in the bubble we can be in the gym for a lot of hours if we really want to. But what are you doing off the court mentally to stay strong and get ready for that next level? And I think it's just so many things that we can do, and I think the guys are realizing that, you know,

it's a little bit more about the physical. In terms of the level of play, it seems like every roster has a lot of great players this year because there's a smaller number of teams. What are your expectations for the level of play in the G League this season? Because it also kind of has the feel of an AU tournament, like a Giant AU tournament, And you saw and watch the NBA bubble, So what do you think it's going to be like when the lights come on?

We're recording this the week of the first game, and it's real games that count. What do you think those are going to be like? I think they're gonna be fast. I think they're gonna be intense. You know, everyone knows that the season is shortened, so they're gonna be given it all they've got, even more so than a regular season, and so I think that it's going to be really intense and guys are going to be competing on another level that we haven't seen in a while in the

G League. A quick message from our friends at Nemours. Nomore's Sports Medicine believes that highly personalized one on one physical therapy for young athletes is paramount to a speedy and complete recovery. Learn more at Nemour's data Org slash PT. What has your routine? I know you're in a coaching role now it's your second season with the Bluecoats. What's your routine been like so far? In this single site

for the G League season? It just seems like, you know, we're all locked in on getting better in every aspect, and so there's more film, there's more meetings, there's more of everything because we're here twenty four to seven and so, like I said, it's gonna be really competitive and everything's gonna be amplified because we're all here the all day, every day and everyone wants the same thing, and that's to win. And from what I've gathered, you are the

offensive coordinator for this Bluecoats team. I am offensive coordinator, so you know, making sure that we we score, you know, and score efficiently, and so you know, We're we're gonna play fast, We're gonna share the ball. That's Connor's big on that, and so we're trending. Camp on the offensive side has been a lot about that, sharing the ball, playing fast and making plays for ourselves and each other. How about some strength of the roster following training camp?

What you thought going in and what you got out of it? Yeah, I mean I thought that we were a really good team. I thought we would look way different because I thought we'd have Frank Mason, and when he got caught up, which was great, things started to look a little different. But we know Justin Robinson, he's a great point guard and he's been looking amazing. And training camp. We just signed Jordan Bone who was there yesterday for the first time, and he looked actually pretty

good for the first time being around the team. And when you go down the roster, you just have so many talented guys you can go and name them all. I think that we have the ability to score at a high rate. I think we have the ability to play defense really well. And so I'm excited to see this team and how they're gonna look when we get two, three, four games in. Well, the games are rapidly approaching, so we will have future shows to talk about what happened

on the court and why. I'm looking forward to that, and I think people should definitely tune in for your perspective on how the season is playing out from a basketball standpoint. But let's have a little fun are at the buzzer segment is just some extra questions that I want to get in. They can be about anything. So

the first thing is about your routine, but away from basketball. Here, what are some of the things you've been watching to kind of stay busy, maybe particularly during the quarantine period when you weren't allowed to read to leave the room. I know you're a guy who looks around for TV shows and movies. That is That's true. You know I've been doing Martin, you know, the old school funny show Martin. I started from season one and now I'm actually like

ending season two. So I'm doing that. And my wife and I are watching Peaky Blinders together, So we have a rule where we know we kind of turn it on at the same time and kind of watch it and it's it's a pretty good show. The other rule is that we can only watch shows that have multiple seasons. So all these news seasons on Netflix, I have one season. They just don't work because I just hate getting, you know, sucked into lacking a show and then it's over in

twelve episodes. I need a little bit more so. But it doesn't have to be finished entirely. It just has to be have to be finished entirely. Two is the Two is the minimum you have to have at least two. That's funny. They have a lot of good stuff on there. That's only one season right now, so I guess you haven't seen any of it. You know what season one season means that you're not proven yet. Now you gotta be proven. You gotta be You gotta have two seasons

at least three. Really sounds like the NBA and the G League for that matter, got to prove yourself this season. For some of the Blue Coats players. This is quite a random one. I just want to know how many threes I want to see. If you know the number twenty seventeen eighteen G League season, you were up near the top of the league and three pointers made. Can you guess how many threes you made in that season? I can't guess, and I don't want to say a

number that I'm way off, but I cannot remember. Game. Well, you took four, you took four, Here you go, you took four hundred and five. How many do you think you made in that season? I shot around forty, so I would say four hundred and five. I didn't mean to make five. If you made one ninety five, you would have led the league. You finished fourth. You made one hundred and fifty four and shot thirty eight percent.

But quite the impressive season from deep. And I know that because we had Jared brown Ridge on and he's actually the leading three point shooter in terms of makes over the last two G League seasons, and if you go back just a season or two more, you're right in the top five. So I thought that was pretty cool. What team were you on that year you played forty three games? Northern Arizona. I think that was Northern Arizona. Jared knows for sure that the only reason he has

that records because I haven't been playing. You can ask him about that. That would be a good question for him when he comes on. I actually brought that up to Matt Lily, the Blue coach GM, and he said that if you were open you were shooting it that year, so it's not surprising to him. Copper told me that Cody Tooppmer said if I if I can do this, to shoot it. So I had I had a green light. If you could get the arms up, you could shoot

it all right quickly. What's been your favorite part or some of your favorite parts of this experience so far in the Bubble. I think just the camaraderie that we've had with the staff and also with the players. You know, like last night we watched the super Bowl together and hung out, um, you know, a few nights before we all played Trivial Pursuit as a as a staff and

had a really good time. And we have all kinds of different conversations that you just don't get to have in a regular season because you're not around each other enough. So just getting together, but the guys getting to know everyone has been has been great. Well that's gonna do it for this, But there's more where this came from for anybody out there, Because you just met our Blue Coats Bubble correspondent who's going to be joining the show every week for the whole season here on Coach Check.

Blue Coats Assistant coach Xavier Silas. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to more. I can't wait. Thanks again to Bluecoats assistant coach Xavier Silas. We will be hearing from him more as we move along. I'm Matt Murphy. Until next time, take it or leave it at the coach check.