Nick Nurse and Jameer Nelson | Summer League Part 2

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Hi, guys, how you doing spectacular? How are you doing?

Doing good?

And doing good?

Coach? We were just.

Bragging about the presence of your entire front of bench for the regular season at every single one of these games in Utah in Vegas. Just to start us off, how important is this opportunity not just for the players out on the floor, but the coaches that are getting opportunity on the bench tonight.

Yeah, it's it's it's important obviously in their development. I mean, Matt's been a head coach before, but giving him an another stage to work on it kind of one of the reasons I chose Matt is because he had some head coaching experience, and I knew how I had a super busy free agency period and wasn't going to be able to prep too much for the Summer League this year, And.

We're going to ask you about it just to be clear.

Yeah, that's okay, and everybody else kind of bumps up. We're giving some of our player development guys chances to run the offense, defense, do the scouts, all those kind of things, and we're also experimenting a little bit. As you can see some of the things we're doing out there in Summer League.

It was cool to Obviously, you've talked a ton about the way that you utilize the eighty two games of the regular season to try things, throw some things away, put others into your playoff toolkit. Matt Brosey talked about using this the exact same way, throw things away and then put some things into the regular season toolkit. How much collaboration are you guys doing during these late nights and early mornings that people might not realize they're going on at a summer leak like this.

Well, you can obviously see we're playing a lot of zone, right, We're playing a good, good chunk of zone most of the games, right, and we're that's taking us Well, we got kind of what we thought we'd start with, and we're constantly tweaking and making adjustments on that, learning what other teams are trying to run, adjusting back to that again.

Matt Murphy and Lauren Rosen joined by seventy six ers head coach Nick Nurse, speaking of the zone, something that coach Matt Browsi, your assistant coach, and the sixer Summer League coach talked about was some of the personnel within it. Justin Edwards, David Jones, two of the rookies in the

Yeah, so listen, I was really happy after draft night that we were able to convince him to come on the two way was a was a somebody we studied a lot and watched a lot. I think it's gonna be a good year for him. Love love his length, and you know, he does a lot of different stuff. He can shoot it a bit, He's got the length. On defense, he can drive.

It a bit.

Uh. Good kid, good hard worker, you know, like like that's important, you know, if you're going to develop and get better this year. So so liked him, you know a lot, And I'm pretty happy with a lot of these guys here in the Summer League. How they played, all shown some good things that they can do.

Oddly enough, both left handed as well DJ and Justin Edwards.

Yeah, Yeah, DJ's got a real nose for the ball, right He's really put together a real athletic but he really does have a knack for just coming up with loose balls, coming up with rebounds, can put his head down and kind of bounce you with his body and finish.

At the rim.

So again, I think they're good. They're certainly talented, young and both certainly have some work to.

Do, but we like them and the rookie classes headlined by number sixteen pick Jared McCain. When it comes to him and Tyrese MAXI, how can Tyrese help Jared both when they're on the floor together and just in general in Jared's rookie year.

Well, first of all, Jared, one of my favorite things about him is he's got a real great feel for the game, right, He really like plays the game like he knows what's going on out there, and that is, I mean, that's super valuable, you guys. I mean, we know he's got the deep shooting, and he's got lower body strength. He can bounce people and get to the

When Tyrese joined us for the first game in Vegas on this broadcast at this exact time two games ago, he talked about what it's been like to have young players reaching out to him as a veteran and seeking guidance. Obviously he's still young in his career, but he's entering this new phase. And I say all this to ask about the experience of the Tyrese Maxi Museum that you guys put together to honor him as he heads into this next phase of his career. I know you played

Yeah, no, it was.

It was.

First of all, it's unbelievable, right, And they did a really amazing job, a great, great team by by everybody there to to put that together. And you know, like I got I go there, and and you obviously got a relationship with Tyree's but you don't know everything.

You know, you're watching film of him as.

A little kid and seeing all his little awards and rebounding, Yeah, you want you want.

A rebounding award.

I was like, come on, Tyree's what what is this? What is this man? But anyway, it was it was really cool, you know what a special special for him, special for his family.

It was.

It was it was great to you know, always just learn a little bit more about him. Obviously it meant a lot to him. You saw his reaction to it all, and and uh, Sixers Nation should be really proud that that guy's going to be around for a long time.

Elsewhere in free agency, Paul George, you've talked about how he slots in or how his fit is very good with Joel Embiid and Tyreese MAXI. What are some things that do intrigue you about Paul George the basketball player with your existing and now almost fully formed roster.

Yeah, I mean just just his versatility, right, I mean, he's a he's a big wing, plays both ways, can handle the pass, can obviously score, you can post a little.

Bit really good in the mid fold.

I mean I could go on and on. Right, He's one of those players that you you use offensively in every possible way somebody can be used offensively. You know, he handles the screen, roll set and a screen while he will post, he'll bring the ball up, he'll catch and shoot, He'll he'll beat you one on one, you know, all those things. So obviously a really good fit with our with our you know, Tyres and Joel kind of the bookends of one in five and and Paul fitting right in the middle.

The Minnesota G League team is the Iowa Wolves. You are a Carol, Iowa native. You've got Carol Prout the T shirt on Choose Carol.

I just stopped through Carol on the on the way out here, so he gave me a T shirt to wear, so I'm.

Wearing it today. I like it.

And you will have a preseason game you know, well, Lauren wants to know more about the T shirt, but we will have a preseason game in Des Moines at the Iowa wol Wolves Arena between the NBA Timberwolves and the Sixers. What do you think that will be like because of your history with with that place, Well, it's.

It's certainly going to be really special for me. You know, we spent a lot of time there. We we actually started that franchise from scratch.

They were the Iowa.

Energy back then when I was coaching them, and then the Timberwolves obviously purchased them, and now they're the Iowa Wolves. Chris Finch, the head coach of the Timberwolves, and I are very close friends, and he called me up said, hey, we got this game. We need an opponent that' said let me, let me, let me make a couple of

Friday, October eleventh, the seventy six Ers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in Des Moines for a preseason game. Right now, summer league game. Talking with Sixers head coach Nick Nurse. The timber Wolves are leading this one thirty one thirty. But how has your Summer League experience been so far this year? I know you're a Prince fan. How's your Vegas experience been?

It's been okay.

I don't get out and do too much, to be honest with you.

In Vegas, so that's my kind of vibe.

Yeah, I like the basketball for sure, certainly get a chance to see some people.

But I'm looking.

Forward to the next part of the summer because the next pot's.

Going to get fun.

Speaking of the next part of the summer, we're going to roll back through sort of these free agent acquisitions. We came into the Utah Summer League with a pretty thin main roster and we're going to close Vegas with as Matt had a nearly complete one.

I want to know.

How you're feeling about getting Kyle Lowry back this time for a training camp, a full season opportunity for continuity, obviously a massive mentorship presence for a guy like Jared McCain. What's it going to be like to have Kyle for a full year as a seventy six er.

Well, we certainly love his veteran presence. Kyle's all about winning. I know he's getting up there a little bit. We talk about that, kid him about that all the time, but you know, he really is a winner. He really plays hard, he really has a super high i Q. He's a leader, and we think that's you know, it's really important. I think, from especially from from my staff standpoint, like Kyle really knows what we want done and he helps get that done in the locker room and on

I thought we really needed.

Him continuing to bounce around the roster quickly. As we head into a timeout, Joel Embiid wearing the Team USA colors. What do you think that will do for him? You have international experience coaching Canada.

Yeah, I love it.

I always think it helps players when they play internationally in the summer, they almost always come back better in some fashion. I'm sure he's gonna play himself into some good shape and I'm sure he's gonna learn. He's playing with a lot of great players.

I'm it was going to learn.

Something from a gold medalist in Kyle Lowry to a gold medal hopeful in Joel mb So we'll see how it plays out. But a big part of that Team USA this year. Nick Nurse, thank you so much for joining us here at Summer League.

Good to see you guys. Than really appreciate it.

Thank you so much, coach, See you guys later.

Summer League action continues from Cox Pavilion at UNLV, the Summer Sixers facing the Timberwolves, tonight, This is seven to six Live Matt Murphy, Lauren Rosen with our next guest, the general manager of the Delaware Blue Coats and someone that everybody back home certainly knows in Jamiir Nelson. Jamiir, thank you for joining us at another Summer League. We

I'm good. That's just the natural point guard and leader in me. I think I always got to no time and score and situations, and obviously a bunch of players and teams and coaches do better. But this is why we do it. We have more games and practices to get these guys better and hit it in the right direction. You know. Overall, I think we've done a great job as a as a as a team, and the coaching staff.

What is the process like as two way contracts player Justin Edwards gets a transition dunk. What's the process like of building out the summer league roster.

It's interesting because the way I do it, and Eb and Darrow, they give me the space that it tiom me to kind of do it my way. I start getting some veteran guys before the draft, not knowing who was going to draft, but also knowing that the guys that are coming in from the draft are going to need help with experience and different things. So trying to bounce out the roster as much as I can is a huge part of how I look at things.

Last year was your first official year as the GM in Delaware as the with prosper Karanngwall, but he kind of handed over the reins to you. So what was last season like for the Blue Coats.

It was good, It was good. It was successful, not only on the floor, but also like guys, we had a lot of guys get call ups. We you know, obviously helped Ricky develop. I mean, most important thing about that is Ricky he developed himself by mentally being ready and doing everything that we asks and his progression has been unbelievable. He's unbelievable kid. You know, other guys as well, like Javonte Smart who had a European contract, Darius Baisley Junior.

Ricky Counsel has talked about Tyrese Maxey as a mentor. Over the last year or so, we saw Tyrese come out and support this Summer League squad a couple of games ago, and Ricky said he wants to be for Jared McCain and for a dem Bona what Tyrese Maxi has been for him. What does that say about a guy like Tyrese at just twenty three years old, that he's already becoming this sort of generation to generation leader helping these young guys teach each other well, says a lot.

And and Tarese has obviously the credibility and also like the skill to do that. Like the next step for him is to continue the leading and become a better leader, Like he's a great leader now, but it's also steps he can take there. Just like in his basketball game, he's growing all around the board. So I think I think him it's you actually giving back to the game. Whether he knows it or not, it's a huge part of who he is uh and and who he will be going forward.

Jared McCain talked on his first day about trying to learn from Tyrese how to take being perhaps undersized in this league, but compensating for.

That with the work. Yes, is that something that you resonated with in your career a little bit?

My goal was to never let somebody outwork me. Yeah, I was always the underdog, and you know I was fine with that. You know, it's the cliche of like, oh, I'm going to show you what I can do. It's like, no, I'm gonna prove me right. That's me working in the gym, me putting one foot in front of the other, not worrying about what the nacare say, but also understanding that what my deficiencies were, it was mainly my height, but you couldn't deny how hard I played and how hard

Of that out of curiosity, who were those players for you when you were young in your career.

So it's funny now you say Tyresee is the twenty three year old vet. My vets were thirty three and thirty four. I had guys. I was very fortunate to have guys like Grant Hill, Pat Garretty, Stacey Augman, shoot Tony Pettitz, like the list goes on. All my guys were thirty and above. So they were like my uncles. They were my peers. There were my uncles, And it was harder for me to lead because of that going

Yeah, you talked about the point guard and you still manifesting itself in your current role. But when you were in your prime on the court, what was that like to have the ball in your hands, understanding that their future Hall of famers around that you're trying to distribute to that you want you have to literally lead on the floor. Understanding that they have this leadership, this gravity among the entire league.

How do you balance that?

Yeah, so you just go and be yourself and continue to grow and again they gave me the confidence to do that. They pushed me out of my comfort zone. Lead leading is not easy, especially when you're at the highest level with your peers, I guess. So you know, everybody needs to be led and everybody wants to be lid. You have to do it in the right way. You have to be conscious of how you lead for one person, one player, one coach to another. But I learned how to do that at an early age, you know, and

Sixty four fifty six the Summer Sixers leading the timber Wolves final couple minutes of the third quarter, Matt Murphy and Lauren Rosen joined by Jamie or Nelson from the seventy six ers in blue coats front office. Of course, the storied career at Saint Jose and in the NBA as well, you were honored this past season by the Orlando Magic. And when you were, you know, starting your front office career, you had considered other paths post playing.

Where?

How do you think you've gotten better over the past couple of years.

I just understand, uh, the business side a lot more. But I also understand because I'm dealing with a lot

You said it step your reaction to when the group landed Paul George in free agency.

I mean I was z ecstatic, just like the rest of us, because we put a lot of work, in a lot of long meetings, a lot of long discussions and things like that. But it was it was great, Like you know, we we we got the best available player. And that's that's not something that happens often, you know,

When you think back to all the sort of dominoes that had to fall to get to this point, the years that go into setting up the space needed to sign up Paul George, when you're forecasting that year's out in advanced Daryl Moray in the building tonight, as is Elton Brand. We know how much work your group had to put into making this even an option that you guys could capitalize on.

Can you give.

Us at all a peak behind the curtain of what that looks like? Because I understand now you have to be forecasting for a few years from now.

What does it look like to plan in the long term like that?

It's tough. You're trying to forecast, like you said, and project. The one thing you have to have when your side is looked and we we we were fortunately to have luck on our side this year, and we're happy. We're happy with we're do We've done so far, We're not done. We have some other things that we need to do. But uh PG is a big piece of uh He's a big piece of the puzzle. And you know, I like I like the guys that each around it, Joelle, uh next teason.

As we look into the sort of back end of the of the off season, what does your life look like after Summer league as as you start to prepare not only for the big team season, the G League season as well.

Still meetings, still still a lot of meetings, and still you know, being able to help the group, trying to help where I can, whether it's the players, the coaches, and also prepare for the GLEE. That's that's kind of what that when that starts maybe early mid August September, I have to start like generating some you know, some traction for the G League season as well.

Well.

We're looking forward to seeing what you both are able to do, of course with this G League season as you guys continue to be a dynamic duo with those Delaware Blue Coat jimior Nelson, thank you so much for your time that we appreciate you.

We love doing this.

This is our annual thing now, it's summarly, so we appreciate you being a repeat guy.

Thank you will we're gonna hold you to it. Thank you, Jamir, Thanks Jamir,