Summer Sixers | One-on-One with Brian Adams

let's get started, Coach. With your previous experience as a Summer League head coach with the Clippers as recently as two years ago, what did you learn then that you bring into the same role with this year's Sixers. Summer League is all about balancing kind of Everyone always thinks when you're playing basketball it's about winning, and at the

end of the day, it is, but there's priorities. You know, you have guys fighting for opportunities that have been with the team all year, and then you have guys that you've just drafted that are going to be with the team,

and then you've got guys trying to make it. So you know, the priority is more about putting people in the right positions to succeed, and especially the guys that we know, and we're really like, you know, you think of a guy like Isaiah Joe or Tyrese Maxie or Paul Reid, like, these are guys that we've had for a year, and how can we create an opportunity for

them to be in the best position going forward? And and yeah, as a coach, you know, your pride jumps in as far as I want to win every game, but at the same time, the priorities are more about putting the guys in their best opportunities for them as them as a whole. In the Sixers as an organization, that balance of winning and development, it relates directly to

the G League in a lot of ways. And you've been a G League head coach in your career, So how does your G League experience help with balancing the goal of winning versus the goal of player development? Yeah? No, I mean, the G League is an amazing league, but it isn't always about winning, and you know, it's about it's about development as far as and the biggest thing,

it's about development. When you think of development, you think of development as far as this drill, that drill, But a lot of development for these guys is getting the reps in game reps and the live play. So that's kind of the biggest thing, is how can we kind of create a little shell of what Doc's doing with the big team, make it so it's simple because we don't have a lot of time to put it in, and then put these guys in that shell so then

they can get the live game reps. And that's essentially the g League right there, too, is just creating a mini version of what Doc's doing so that these guys can get the live reps. And that's the development playing live. Let's talk about the roster a little bit. I know it's early, but on paper and in the early stages of getting the group together, what are some of the strengths of this twenty twenty one six or summer league roster. It starts with the guys we have coming back, Isaiah,

Joe Tyrese, Maxie, Paul Reid, Rayjon Tucker. Those guys have been with us for a year and I've kind of expressed to them that it's important for them to set the tone. So all those guys, at some point in their careers so far have proven they can play in the NBA. They've all done it. Now it's about consistently kind of putting themselves in an opera in a position to maybe make a rotation or maybe help the team, because at the end of the day, it's about how

can they impact winning? And so I'd say they're they're a strength right off the bat. Anytime you have that many guys that have played a bit in the NBA and have done a year, uh that that's that's a good strength. Then you have the rookie Jaden, you know, and Jaden's trying to learn everything, but he's a young kid. He's talented. Um, so he enters the mix. I think anytime that you're a first round draft pick, obviously you still have to perform and first round is just a label.

But you can tell he's a young kid that has a good feel for basketball, and you know, he adds a lot of talent. Uh. From the big man position, we have Charles Bassie. He's a rim protecting role in five that is very raw. So he's going to give you a dynamic both at the rim offensively and defensively. That's going to be big Philip. He just got to us. But he has the ability to stretch the floor at

the five spots. So that's good. And I think we've got a lot of hungry role players behind him that know what it takes to to kind of chip away and make it this league. And I think guys like Frank Nation, they'll they'll really contribute to this thing. You mentioned Tyrese, Maxie, how would you describe the experience four players like Tyrese who come in with some pretty important NBA minutes already under their belt in summer league. No,

it's huge, it's huge. And for Tyrese, he showed signs of being really consistent rotation player, but then at times obviously certain things would happen and whether whether his performance led him maybe to not be in the rotation or not. For him, it's all about establishing a way of plan

that consistently can put him in the rotation. And for him, that's you know, Kenny run a team at the point guard position, you know, understanding our s. That's Kenny hound the ball defensively and know our defensive schemes, and so you know, he's proven he can do it. Now it's about adding to his repertoire so he can consistently do it. You spoke after the first practice about areas of focus for some of the other returning sixers outside of Maxi,

so specifically Isaiah, Joe Paul Reid, and Rayjon Tucker. Can you dive into what those areas are for those three players? Yeah, for sure. So we'll start with Isaiah. Isaiah has proven he's a shooter. With any shooter, they have to prove

that they can hit shots in games. And I think for him, he was thrusting in the rotation at different times, whether it be COVID, whether it be trying to try try another lookout when we're down guys and stuff, and you know, when you're thrown in it's it's a way different feeling than say, doing it with consistent playing time, So making shots when it matters. So now he'll have opportunity to be making shots because he's proven he's a shot maker, but can he do it in the situation

like this? And he will be able to defensively, he showed that he's a sneaky good defender. You don't think of him maybe as a lockdown super athlete, but he can defend so consistently defending. So you look at a guy like him, you want him to be able to make plays because of his shooting on offense and then defensively be able to guard perimeter solid, you know, And that's he can do all that. It's about, you know, getting him to do it at a consistent level and

making the next step. And so that's Isaiah Paul. Paul is a great opportunity. This is a great example of somebody with an opportunity to kind of work on. We've been preaching him his versatility. How versatile can he be? In the G League? He played a ton of five. Five's good. The NBA's gone small, small ball five will be there and he'll have an opportunity. But you look at Paul, he's around six to nine, he's a super athlete. Can he be versatile? Can he play the perimeter spot

from an offensive standpoint? And then can he defend different positions both from a one on one inspective? But in the scheme it takes because the scheme at the five is different than the scheme on the perimeter, you know. So that's that talk. Is another one. Tuck is a pitball, blunt force, trauma in your face, attacking downhill player, and he's three and d. We need him to be able to consistently hit the three more and then play within the system at times, know our stuff, and then defensively

sometimes his ability to play just freakish athletic defense. Still do that, but within our schemes. You've touched on some of the rookies individually, But what's some of the overarching messaging to the sixers rookies you now, you mean like Jaden and Charles, you mean the second year group, the group of true rookies. I know, it's the first summer league for a lot of you know what it is. It's the biggest thing for all rookies, and especially these guys.

It's to kind of learn the NBA is much more. It's a different system than they've ever experienced, and every team around the league has a different system. But at the end of the day, the NBA game is way different than the college game, and you have to be able to adjust to offensive schemes, you know, a bigger playbook usually than college more kind of changing on the fly, a bigger defensive scheme playbook, and you've got to be

able to do certain things versus certain offensive players. So understanding the way the NBA game is played, and then whether they were going to us or any team around the league. One of the biggest things learning our terminology and your career specifically. You've been around Doc Rivers for a long time, even with the two thousand and eight Celtics championship team. What are some of the things that you've learned from coach Rivers that you consider in your

own approach. Since I've worked in the NBA, the only coach I've worked under is Doc, And you know Doc is Doc is huge as far as holding players accountable, and he's going to tell them what he wants and then when they don't do it, or if they do it, he's going to let them know and he's going to hold them to it in order to get them to do it the way it needs to be to win. And Doc's only about winning, and sometimes it's not what's best for you as an individual, it's what's best for

the team. And Doc is great about meshing that together and getting everybody on board. And some people might not like it, but you have to understand it's about the team, and it's about the team over the individual, and Doc's huge on that. And one thing I've tried to use that here is that while all these guys have dreams, and they need to have these dreams. They need to be motivated by goals. At the same time, they have to get over themselves when they're playing a team sport.

Doc always says, Basketball's not tennis, it's not swimming. It's a team sport. And so you know, getting them to understand that while they have individual goals, in order to reach those goals, you have to play within a team. To me, that's just Doc's messaging all over. Last one, pine Planes, New York. Tell us a little more about where you grew up and how your basketball journey began.

Pine Planes, mid State, New York. I say mid state because it's not up there by Syracuse, small town, small town, Duchess County, New York. Not a lot of things going on in pine Planes growing up. I love sports. I love sports, and I love basketball because you didn't need anybody to play with. You could just have the ball, hoop and you could go. So I loved playing hoop

when I was in high school. I wasn't the best player, but I was obsessed with the game and I had a great high school coach, and it was there that I remember thinking, man, I really liked the idea of coaching, between the teaching and the psychology of it. So I always knew pretty quickly that I wanted to do that.

When I was in college, I went I was a good runner actually in high school, and so I was recruited run and I am going to University New Hampshire to run, and then transferred to Connecticut College, a small D three school, and at both places I helped out with the basketball team, but I was sadly more talented at the running, so I kind of I kind of used that as the skill I worked on while trying to be involved with basketball, and then I was able

to get a basketball operations internship with the Knicks. From there video coordinating internship with the Celtics, and that's where I hooked on with Doc and it was with him all the way until I ended up going to Harvard to work with Tommy Amaker, which was awesome, amazing experience. One year at Maris College, oh yeah, I got a

merits guy in the room. One year at Merris College under Jeff Bauer, and then it was able to relink with Doc out in LA as both video coordinator and coaching associate, and that kind of I grew from that to the G league's G League head coach, and then to this role now great stuff. He is seventy six Ers assistant coach, Brian Adams coach. Thanks the time, Thank you, thanks again to Brian Adams. And if you're wondering who's next in our Summer Sixers series, that would be Isaiah Joe.

Be on the lookout for Lauren Rosen's interview with Isaiah, and also be sure to search for and follow the Scoop from the seventy six Ers podcast network for daily five minute updates on Summer League. Just search seventy six Ers Scoop. I'm Matt Murphy. Thanks for listening.