TOM's Talks | Kevin Young

since you got to Orlando. Yeah, you know, it's a little strange to get down here first, you know, just seeing everybody with the mask and then the face shields on top of the masks. But I think for me just coming down here, it was kind of expect the unexpected and just kind of be ready to sort of go with the flow and how things are going down here. But we're being told to be in our rooms for

the first thirty six hours. So we've got our We had our first test upon arrival and they kind of walked us through a lot of the protocols and we got to our room and had to do get a couple of different apps to log our health information and temperature and things of that. Nature. But you know, so far, so good. The NBA has always done such a great job staging events, whether it's the Finals, the NBA All Star Game, but this is a completely different challenge. Their

expertise must be pretty impressive once inside the bubble. It really is impressive when you talk about all the different logistics that I've had to go into planning this, with keeping everybody's health in the safety, you know, paramount. So you got to have to take your hat off to the NBA for getting innovative, for getting creative, but at the same time again keeping everybody or trying to keep

everybody as as safe as possible. And then obviously kudos to you know, all the teams and players that are down here taking a part in it. Coach. During this four months, it must have been, on the one hand, a great time to be with your family, little bit unprecedented at that point in the year. But on the other hand, now you have to prep your young family to an extended period of being away. That had to

be a tough thing. Yeah, it was. You know. My you know, I have three kids, my and my oldest turns seven and eleven days, so I'll miss his birthday five year old and a two year old, So the two little ones, they didn't really quite get it. My older one, he you know, he was he was starting to get pretty bummed as as he got closer for the time for me to leave. But you know, my wife's actually gonna go out to her parents' place and spend time with grandma and grandpa. So they got a

lot of fun things to look forward to. But you know, anymore, with the way, you know, face time and every other thing, you have to stay in touch with the family. You know, we we've made it a point to make sure we do that on a daily basis. So, you know, just like a lot of things with this virus and sort of this quote unquote new normal, you just have to find ways to make things work. And that's kind of the attitude we're taking on this that it's a great attitude.

So during the hiatus, Coach Brown wasted no time. You guys had regular meetings with the coaching staff going over everything. How helpful was it to go back and reevaluate everything

the team had gone through up until this point. Yeah, And I was helpful because you know, we've we've had a lot of different things happened throughout the course of the season prior to the stoppage and play with you know, different guys being out of the lineup, we never really got we started to actually get to a point where we were, you know, doing some different things and making some adjustments, and we really didn't get a chance to

fully see all that through. So to be able to go back in and revisit why we thought some of those things would be a good idea looking at some of our marquee games against some of the better opponents when we did have our full lineup and looking at different things in an environment where we've got time on our side, we've got you know, a lot less stress, and so to be able to look at it from that lens, I think was very helpful and and allowed us to really kind of trim the fat and be

ready to hit the ground running we once we start practice. Prior to the All Star break, you guys had run some tight pick and roll action with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid before Ben got hurt. How can you build on some of those actions moving forward? Yeah, I mean that that was really successful against the Clippers at home in particular. You know, so we've broken that film down quite a bit, you know, the irony and that actions.

It's it's action that we've actually used kind of incrementally throughout the last couple of seasons, and we've just found a way sort of in transition to highlight it a little bit more. It's good for a lot of different reasons. You've got, you know, two of your better players in action that's really close to the basket. With their size,

it's extremely difficult to guard. And those two guys got into a little rhythm with it in that particular game, and I think that's something that we're gonna see more as we move forward. Speaking of personnel and the hiatus, Simmons was able to get fully healthy, Al Horford and Joel and b two. To have this unprecedented break benefits the group and for now the Sixers are very healthy,

and that should be beneficial. It definitely should be. I mean, you look at again, as I mentioned before, we were starting to make a couple of tweaks and then which we were really excited about, and then you know, we've fell into some injuries and so we were again never able to really see all those things through, and so you got to tip your hat to our medical staff that have have helped to get these guys to a point where coming into camp, everybody, you know, everybody's got

the green light, and you know, again you mentioned it. All teams obviously want to come into a playoff situation with full health and strength, but being that the alternative would have been us prior to the hiatus probably not being able to do that, it certainly gives us a kind of a new life and we're really excited about that. Speaking of excitement as coaches, to finally have your group out there together, all of you as a unit, that must be pretty exciting in the most simplest of ways. Yeah,

it is. I mean, I think with the way that things have gotten disrupted, I think being able to see familiar faces and build on some of the things that we had going on prior to the break, and everybody getting back into the gym and being able to do what they love with the intent in the forefront of our mind what's at stake. I think it's a really exciting you know, for everybody, and everybody seems to be chopping at the bit to kind of get back after it.

I'm sure there are different levels of fitness when you're talking about individual players and what they were able to

do or weren't able to do during the break. As coaches, you're going to learn early on what the fitness base is, as Brett Brown likes to say, And these next two weeks are going to tell a lot about where your team is, won't they they are, you know, and when you look at it, when you compare what we're getting ready to do in terms of a you know, kind of a training camp, kind of preseason type type of thing, when you compare it to what we've done in the past,

excuse me, we actually have a little bit more time this go around than we have in the past in terms of practice, numbers of practice and things like that.

But I think it is going to be, you know, really important, not only for ours team, but every team here to you know, gauge where guys are and not push too hard, no when to pull back, and things like that to ultimately deliver our our entire team not only to this regularly the seating games, but clearly for the playoffs where everybody is still at one hundred percent.

Speaking of the seeding games, the league did a really good job of putting games on the schedule that you would have had if there hadn't been an interruption to the suspension of the season. You were supposed to play the Pacers the week the season went on hiatus, and here we go. Load behold up first August first, you guys and the Pacers, two teams tied in terms of record. That's a pretty big game, do you guys look at it that way? Yeah, I mean, not necessarily seeing out

that particular game. But the reasons I like that game is because they play an extremely physical brand of basketball, and so I think that's going to be you know, as we geared towards the playoffs like we have in years past, you know, that's really been a highlighted point of emphasis as we've gotten ready for the playoffs in

terms of how physical the playoffs are. And so when you play a team like Indiana who bring that level of physicality, I think it'll be a good, really kind of jumping off point for everything we're trying to do in the seeding games and leading into the playoffs. But you know, in terms of who we're playing and who we're not playing in the seeding games, I think you

hit it the nail on the head. But we really are really really focused on what we do and how we can just be at our best, and we just want to make sure we're doing everything we can do to again be at our our best. Everyone has been talking for the players about playing with no fans. Norvelle pell was talking about being the most artic cheerleader on

the bench. What's that going to be like, you guys trying to draw on the resources of every single person with the Sixers, trying to propel the team in the absence of actual fans. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's you know, I don't know. Honestly, I think it's going to be really an interesting thing to see how different guys can channel their their own competitiveness, their own internal drive where they don't necessarily have that coming from the fans. You know, it almost strips it down for just the

love of basketball and the love of competing. So from that standpoint, that's really exciting. You mentioned Norvelle. We've got a lot of, you know, great enthusiastic guys on the bench. Kylo Quinn's one of the best guys I've ever been around that brings positive energy on every single day, whether he's playing or not playing. And so we'll have to you know what I do think it does. It actually just draws your team even even closer together than you know,

if there were going to be fans. So it's gonna be a real testament of kind of the brotherhood of the team and trying to, you know, have that be the thing that drives, you know, that extra push that that the fans would normally give. Speaking to the bench, You've got a lot of options there. Shake Milton has really come on, Furkon Corkmos had career moments this year. Mattie Steibel has proven to be an incredible rookie, especially on the defensive end. You've added Burkes and Glenn Rabbinson

the third. The rotation is going to be interesting to see how this all sorts out. Coach Brown always says that Jim will speak to him touch on that if you would. Yeah, it is. It is going to be interesting to see see what happens. I mean, there's a lot of talented guys that any one of them could, as coach would say, you know, put their hand up and say hey it's me. And and again it's I think it's gonna just play itself out, you know, you've got guys young, guys that are that are kind of

have presented a case to say, hey, I'm ready. You know, you got again guys like Alec that you've mentioned, who who are on the veteran side. You know, Mike Scott could come in and hit six threes in the game and win you a game. So you know, we'll see

how it plays out. The one thing I will say is you never know, right, you get into one series and this particular skill set might be of value, and then you get into another series and then somebody else's skill set maybe coming in at maybe a higher value based on how how the game is being played. And so you know, it speaks to having every guy stay ready, having every coach help keep every guy ready, and it goes back to that team. You know, this is the

ultimate team experience. And from that standpoint, you know, again you get excited because we do have options. Coach stepping back for a second of life in the bubble when you get back from practice and they're no longer in quarantine. The Sixers, you know, you're in the same hotel as some of the other teams. Now I know they're spread out a little bit, so even though there's competition and everybody's kind of in it together. How do you stay

on task though with the with the business at hand. Yeah, I mean, you know that's where you got to give the NBA credit. They have as many things as they can kind of lined up to or team activities and different things. But yeah, I mean, look, it's like when you're at home, you're not running into you know, whoever, You're not running into Kimball Walker at you know, the local wah war or whatever. You know, like you might

be down here. But you know, again, the interesting thing about this is every team's going through it kind of in the same way, right, And so there's no there's no, I don't think, real advantage to it. It's just gonna be a real test of I think guys, you know, mental strength, and you know, we'll see what happens. I don't you know. It's it's fascinating. Some people say that given how the season will finish, there's gonna be an asterisk.

Well it should be maybe an asterisk meaning that whomever wins the championship going through through all of this is gonna be a special ball club. It's gonna be interesting in that realm right there absolutely should and should be an asterisk next to it. I mean, I think you can make an argument that this might this might be,

you know, the hardest championship arguably in the history of sport. Honestly, like when you when you're really factor and everything that is going on, you factor in the you know, not seeing your family for so long. I mean, you could go down the list and do talk about all the different things that guys have to go through. And when I say guys, I'm talking players, staff, you know, front office.

You know, Elton's down here as well with us in the trenches, and so yeah, man, it's uh, it's unprecedented, and you know, obviously hats off to whoever's going to be the last man standing. But coach, we wish you the best. Thank you so much, enjoy your time down there, stay safe and good luck. All right, Tom, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Tom's talks with me Tom McGinnis on the seventy six ers podcast network. Check for new episodes every weekend.