The 76ers parted ways with Doc Rivers after three seasons last month, and the coach has some thoughts about his time with the team, along with the players he had an opportunity to coach in Philadelphia. During an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Rivers reflected on working with reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid, and shared his opinion on what Embiid can do to take the next step as a leader, and in turn help the Sixers reach their ultimate goal of winning a championship.
"Number one, he has to be healthy," Rivers said of Embiid. "In the playoffs and this was the healthiest, but he still wasn't 100%. Then number two for Jo, is he's got to make all his players better in the playoffs and Jo, his numbers are unfair.. If you look at his numbers in the last three years in the playoffs compared to his regular season numbers, they're not very good. But a lot of that is due [to injuries]. The first year I had him he hurts his knee. The next year, he hits his face and tears ligaments in his hand, and then this year he has a knee injury and he was never the same once he came back this year. So health is number one.
"Then the second thing is Jo, and he has the ability, I stayed on him daily. He has the ability to make his teammates better and when he does it, if you look at our games this year when he did that and dominated, [it's] hard to go away from Joel Embiid. It really is. He's just got to do that on a consistent basis. Not just on the court, but also off the court. Just be around the guys and spend time with your guys and let them know that you love them because they love you."
Rivers is correct in his critique here. The health issue with Embiid is obvious, as the big man has had to deal with injury issues in each of the past three postseasons, as Rivers chronicled. Playoff basketball is tough enough at full health, and having to miss time and deal with injuries during the postseason just makes it that much more difficult.
Rivers also has a point when it comes to Embiid making his teammates better. Embiid has improved as a playmaker over the course of his career, and he has gotten better at leveraging the attention he draws in order to create open opportunities for others, he just needs to be more consistent in doing so. He still has too many possessions where he has tunnel-vision on the rim, or seems determined to force his will on the game, rather than just taking what the defense gives him and letting things flow naturally. Freshly-minted NBA champion and Finals MVP Nikola Jokic is a master at this, and Embiid could certainly take a page out of Jokic's book when it comes to elevating the guys around him.
In addition to Embiid, Rivers also spoke about what it was like to coach James Harden, who the Sixers landed in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets last February. Harden had to alter the way he played under Rivers in order to mesh well with Embiid, and while Harden did a commendable job of transitioning into the role of a primary facilitator and secondary scorer in Philly, it wasn't always something he was completely comfortable with. As a result, it wasn't always smooth sailing in the locker room.
"It was challenging, more because we were fighting two things," Rivers said of coaching Harden. "James is so good at playing one way, and the way I believe you have to play to win in some ways is different, because it's a lot of giving up the ball, moving the ball, coming back to the ball.
"I would have loved to have had him younger when that was easier for him because giving up the ball and getting back the ball is hard, it's physical and it's exhausting," Rivers added. "It would have been interesting if I would have had him younger and he could have done that more, coming off of dribble handoffs coming down the hill."
Rivers also addressed what went wrong for Philadelphia in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Celtics. The Sixers entered that game with a 3-2 lead in the series, but ended up losing the series in seven games.
"Basketball-wise, we got to get the ball to Joel more," Rivers said of Game 6. "And trust me, we came out and [had] plays where it should have gone there, and it just didn't arrive there, and those are big plays. Now listen, Joel was not having a great game, but neither was [Jayson] Tatum, and my belief is so what? You still go through your guy and you keep letting him save the day for you. I thought we went away from that."
Embiid went nearly the final four minutes of that Game 6 without a field goal attempt, and that was certainly a big part of the reason why the Sixers were unable to pull out the win. Had they been victorious, Rivers would likely still be the coach of the team. Instead, Nick Nurse will now be tasked with trying to lead the Sixers to their first championship since 1983, while it looks like Rivers will be heading into an NBA season without a head coaching gig for the first time since 1998.