New Sixers’ coach ready to get to work on, and off, court
Elton Brand formally introduced the new coach of the 76ers Monday, ducked away from the microphone and let Doc Rivers take it from there.
The symbolism, and the words that followed, made it clear: Get used to it.
A championship head coach with a fill-the-room personality, a former nononsense All-Star with an edge, a leader, once the NBA Coach of the Year ... Rivers is the last, best chance for the Sixers to return to contention.
So he is going to do it his way, not somebody else’s way.
Eventually, anyway. “I think Elton and I have a chance to form an amazing partnership together,” Rivers said, “and we’ll go from there.”
While the head coach as a partner with the general manager is not a breakthrough concept, it is not an industry standard, either. It’s a predetermined structure, understood by all. And it’s why the Sixers needed all of four days to hire Rivers, the most appealing candidate available, after he was dismissed by the Clippers. He was only going to a place where he was comfortable with the fit.
Monday, Rivers made it clear that he will have a role in building the basketball operation, that he wasn’t necessarily going to be ruled by a panel of sports scientists and, if necessary, would approve trading valuable assets for valuable assets.
“Oh, we’ll work together,” Rivers said, when asked if he will have a role in the Sixers’ basketball decisionmaking. “That’s one of the things that we so exciting about this job, to have that opportunity with Elton.
“I think we have a chance to build something great here, not just on the court. I think it actually starts off the court. And we have to get that part right.”
The headline on the official press release read, “Philadelphia 76ers name Doc Rivers head coach.” There would be no additional formal title. Yet the signal Monday was loud: He did not agree to his new position just so he could be handed a roster, told by the medical staff how to load-manage it, or have no input into personnel.
“It’s a fact: If we’re going to win, you just can’t keep doing what you’ve always done and think you are going to get different results,” he said. “You have to do something different. You have to give something to get something. It’s like putting a deposit in the bank so that at some point you can make a withdrawal. So that’s giving up something.
“Every single player is going to have to do that. We all have to.”
When he fired Brett Brown, Brand was firm that the next coach would be expected to win with the established nucleus, in particular Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Rivers is ready to give that a try and convinced that it can succeed. That’s Plan A, anyway. “I don’t get stuck on what you can’t do as a group,” Rivers said. “I spent a lot of time with Red Auerbach, who would tell me, who would drill it into my head: If they can’t do it, don’t do it. Stay away from it. Do something else. Create an action.
“If you are not a great shooting team, create more movement, increase your speed, play from different spots.”
Rivers believes the Sixers are a better shooting team than advertised. But he recognizes that they have a unique build for the modern NBA game, a center-first roster with Embiid, and in Simmons, an all-star who refuses to attempt outside shots.
“I look at how many points we score as a team,” he said. “I don’t care how we score. My teams have always been very good offensively, in the top five. We can score points. And we can score points in a lot of different ways. We have Ben. We have Joel. We have Tobias (Harris). We have Shake (Milton). We have Josh (Richardson). We have talent. We just have to figure out how to make it work the best.”
Rivers came with numbers Monday, insisting that when Embiid and Simmons play together, the Sixers play .650 basketball. It was a soothing offseason statistic, and for him, a starting point.
It was also an implication that the Sixers too often don’t play together, for, among other reasons, load over-management. During his seven years as head coach, Brown was terrified to stray from any scientific recommendations. Under Rivers, that likely will change.
“You pay attention to your staff, you pay attention to your players and then you just figure it out,” Rivers said. “Load management is so individual based. It’s not team based. Every individual has a limit. Right? And so we’ll figure that out. Ben, when healthy, seems to play more games. Joel seems to be gradually up-ticking, which is a good thing. It’s not just minutes. It’s practice time. It encompasses a lot of stuff. Every team deals with it. We’ll probably have to deal with it here. And we’ll probably figure it out.”
He’ll figure out when to play Embiid, when to play Simmons, and where to play them both.
“I don’t get lost in what position guys play,” he said. “I don’t.”
He’ll play who he wants, where he wants, and is convinced he can win with what Brand and the Sixers have supplied.
“When Elton called, it was easy for me to get on a plane and come and take a look,” Rivers said. “When you look at the players they have, and at the age they are, and the success that they have had, it was a job I couldn’t turn down. That’s why I’m here. That’s what I am excited about.”
He was in Camden Monday, ready to go to work.
“As we prepare for the coming season, I believe Doc can help us unlock our full potential,” Brand said, “on and off the court.”
Both.