Doc Rivers says James Harden was ‘challenging’ to coach, Joel Embiid must make teammates better, and ‘The Process’ is still hurting the Sixers

It’s been almost a month since the 76ers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs — again in the second round — and the team subsequently fired veteran head coach Doc Rivers. And in that month, regular-season MVP Joel Embiid watched the player who beat him out for that award each of the past two seasons, Nikola Jokic, lead the Nuggets to their first NBA title, while Rivers watched all the coaching vacancies around the league get filled.

Without a head coaching job for the first time in over two decades, Rivers should have plenty of time to make the rounds in the media, and that started on Tuesday with his appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, where the former Sixers, Clippers, Celtics, and Magic coach offered up his thoughts on the Nuggets winning the NBA Finals, some stories from his coaching past, and, most relevant here, some analysis of his time in Philly, what went wrong, and the players he coached.

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While at times the conversation sounded a bit like the “We’re all trying to find the guy who did this” sketch from “I Think You Should Leave,” with Rivers pointing to the shortcomings of both Embiid and Harden — and even the ghosts of “The Process,” Rivers did not come off as bitter. And because of that — not to mention his years of head coaching experience — you have to at least hear him out.

Here are some highlights of his time with Simmons ...

Doc Rivers: “No. 1, he has to be healthy in the playoffs. And this is the healthiest [he’s been], but he still wasn’t 100%. Then No. 2 for Jo is, he’s got to make all his players better, in the playoffs. Now, Jo, his numbers are unfair. Because 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 — the first year I had him, he hurts his knee; the next year, he gets hit in the 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 No. 1.

“Then the second thing is Jo — and he has the ability, Bill — he has the ability to make his teammates better. And when he does that, and if you look at our games when he did that and dominated, [it’s] hard to go away from Joel Embiid. It really is. He just has to do that on a consistent basis. Not just on the court, but also off the court. Just be around your guys, and spend time with your guys, and let them know you love them — because they love you.

“And so I thought that Jo, in the three years, you can see the growth there. And so I think we forget how young he is. We also forget his first two years he didn’t play. And, Bill, I’m telling you, that sets a tone. When you miss two years and you’re sitting there all the time and you get used to not playing in games, that sets a tone. Ben Simmons went through the same thing — he missed the first year. And so fighting that early on when I first got there was huge. ‘Jo, you need to play tonight. Jo, you can play tonight.’ Now he’s up in games, and so he’s doing it. He’s crossed that barrier. The next one will be making his teammates better. When he does that, it’s going to be hard to stop. I think he will do it, I just think we forget his age and we forget how he started in this league.”

Doc Rivers: “Yeah, yeah. You can feel it all through the organization. Elton [Brand], when he brought me in, that’s what he told me. Like, ‘Hey, this is not just about coaching this team, we’re bringing you in here to change the culture.’ And he meant everywhere. And he allowed me to come in and we looked through the whole organization — I’m talking about trainers, equipment managers, everybody — and if you’re not on board, if you’re not trying to win, if that’s not what you’re breathing every day, for me, it’s time to go. And I meant that with everybody in the organization. And overall, I thought we were starting to get it done. You could see the change in the culture. So, I think the growth of that is there.

“I think they still have some growth in that department as well. Very ‘media-alert’ is the word I’m using — and sometimes you can’t worry about that. You’ve just got to do your job; you’ve got to worry about the basketball part of it and not the reactions to everything that happens. But their culture has definitely gotten better. I had a big part in that. And now the growth from there, it still has to get better. And if that happens, then they have a chance. If it doesn’t happen, they’re not going to win. It has to keep growing.”

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Doc Rivers: “Probably a little bit of both when I look back on that game — because that was the decider, right? Basketball-wise, we’ve got to get the ball to Joel more. And trust me, we came out in plays where it should have gone there and it just didn’t arrive there. So those are big plays. Now, listen, Joel was not having a great game, but neither was Tatum. And my belief is, ‘so what?’ You still go through your guy and you keep letting him save the day for you, and I thought we went away from that.

“And then the second part is the fluky part.”

Doc Rivers: “I don’t think anything is missing, Bill. What makes James great is that he’s one of the best individual players to ever play the game — ballhandling, handles the ball, dribbles the ball, attacks. But that also allows you to attack — you know where he’s at, and you know where the ball is at.

“And so, in the playoffs, when teams are game-planning against you each game, double-teaming, taking the ball out of your hand, making it harder, it’s easier to do that to James compared to taking — how do you take Steph [Curry] out of the game? He’s running around, he’s moving, it’s hard, you know. … It was the movement and the inability to find where you can trap them that made it so hard. And I think that’s James’ Kryptonite right now. I don’t believe the whole thing that he quits and that stuff. I just think teams make him struggle because they know where he’s at and it’s easier to find him.”

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Doc Rivers: “It was challenging, more because we were fighting two things — and not like visually fighting. It was that 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 him younger, when that was easier for him, because giving up the ball and getting back the ball is hard. It’s physical, it’s exhausting. So, it would have been interesting if I would have had him younger where he could have done that more. Coming off of dribble handoffs, going down the hill. He didn’t finish as well as he finished [in the past] because he’s older, and that happens.

“So, yeah, at times, to get him to move it and get him to play the way I needed him to play — I thought the first half of the year, I thought we were the best team in the game. I thought James was playing perfect basketball. He was the point guard of the team. He was still scoring, but he was doing more playmaking and scoring. Then in the second half, he started scoring more, trying to score more, and I thought we got stagnant at times. I thought we changed.”