Q&A with Sixers assistant Doug West on coaching all levels, reuniting with Nick Nurse, and more

Doug West offered a slight warning to his colleagues before beginning their first season together on the 76ers’ coaching staff.

“Why are people yelling all the time?” West recalled being asked. “I’m like, ‘This is Philly. This is what it is. You’ve got to go out and play your tails off. And as long as you play and you’re doing what’s right, they’ll appreciate it.’”

West takes pride in understanding this city’s pulse. The Pennsylvania native is a Big Five Hall of Famer, after a standout career at Villanova that puts him fifth on the storied program’s all-time scoring list. Following an NBA playing career from 1989-2001, he has coached at all levels of basketball, from local high schools and club teams up to the professional ranks. That included a stint with the G League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers, under now-Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, but also years entrenched in Philly.

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Now, West is in the final stretch of his first season as a Sixers assistant, an experience he said has been “probably more than I expected.” He recently chatted with The Inquirer about his career journey, navigating the Sixers’ “roller-coaster” without reigning MVP Joel Embiid, and how the NBA has changed since he was a player.

(Note: This conversation, which took place last week, has been slightly edited for length and clarity)

After a challenging couple months with Embiid’s injury, how would you describe the coaching staff’s mindset heading into the postseason?

The staff has gone through a few different mind-sets. This season, you start out, everything is rolling smoothly. Injuries are going to happen, but you get a blow like you got with Jo, and then it was, “All right, we have to really adjust on the fly here and we need to try to stay afloat.” You’re going through a stretch where you’re losing four out of five games, but you’re trying to keep everyone positive and together — staff, travel [party], players, everyone. It’s been a roller-coaster. It’s definitely been an experience. I don’t think I’ve ever had this many injuries in my 12 years playing as we had in this one season, so it was interesting to see the dynamics.

How would you describe your role within this staff?

I came in having worked with Coach [Nurse] in the past as the defensive coordinator on our team. That was 10 years ago, so when he brought me in, he wanted me to stay focused on the defensive part of the game. A lot of the stuff that we did at RGV 10 years ago, it’s pretty much the same. Maybe there’s some tweaks and the terminology has changed.

I try to make sure that guys are locked in on the defensive end. I’m trying to keep in tune with Coach [Bryan] Gates, who really is our defensive coordinator. Just trying to make sure we’re all on the same page, that the players are understanding what we’re doing, what we’re trying to accomplish. Because some of it is a little different for them. Coach is more on the aggressive side of the basketball. Some guys are more laid back. No, we want to set the tone and we want to make sure that we’re doing what we want to do to take [the opponent] out of their sets. That’s basically my role.

Besides your history with Nick, what intrigued you about the opportunity to join this staff?

To be 100 percent honest, I was pretty much done with my NBA road, in my mind, probably four years ago. When [Nurse] was in Toronto, there was an opportunity for me to go up, and it didn’t happen. He and I have been in touch. I coached locally at different levels. High schools, mostly girls. I still ran a lot of the stuff that we run now, with high-school kids.

It was really interesting. The Raptors played here [last season, and before] the game, in his news conference, [Nurse] was talking about it was time to move on. I remember texting him and saying, “Is everything OK?” He was just like, “Sometimes, you’ve got to move on and do other things. I might take a year off and coach the Canadian Olympic team.” The Sixers were rolling at this point, on this playoff run. It starts getting tough, and I know the relationship that Coach and Daryl [Morey] have. The Sixers end up losing, and I was like, “There’s no way he would end up in Philadelphia.” I’m saying this to myself, " … And I’m here. This is crazy.” I remember I reached out to him and said, “I know you’re up for a few jobs, and I would love to be a part of your staff and go wherever.”

My birthday is May 27. It’s Memorial Day weekend — I think it was that Monday — all of a sudden, he got the job [with the Sixers], and I was like, “Wow, this is really crazy. Could this possibly be a birthday present to myself?” A few weeks later, we talked, and he mentioned it’s a possibility. Having been around Daryl, I was fortunate to get the position. I think the most exciting part for me was it was here, in Philly.

What’s been the most gratifying part of being on this staff, in this city?

Especially early on — and hopefully it’s coming back — just the way we’ve gone out and played. It’s been a different style of basketball [compared to] what the people have seen the past years, where it was basically pass the ball [to Embiid] and everybody stand there. There’s been more movement, cutting. I think the maturation of Tyrese [Maxey] and the development of his game has been something that’s been really, really positive and really exciting for the future of the franchise. You looked at Tyrese, he was just off the ball [before]. James [Harden] handled the ball and it was a two-man game. Now, to see what [Maxey] is able to do. I didn’t realize from afar how good Joel is. I didn’t realize, not just how good Tyrese is, but the kind of young man he is. He’s genuine. And then just the players, in general, getting to know them.

When did you know you wanted to transition to coaching following your playing career?

Probably my last two years in the league. I was always very in-tune with what was going on on the floor, as a shooting guard. My thought was that I have to know what everyone’s doing on the court, and I locked in then and started getting really involved in the coaching aspect. And then when I retired, I decided that I didn’t want to do it right away. I wanted to learn from the bottom up, so I went right to high schools. Started working with different people. And then going to Villanova for five years and a Final Four, going through a lot of success there, it just fed it even more. But you’re always uncertain.

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Then I went with Nick and, the first year and we were in RGV, one time he got kicked out of a game. Me and [fellow Sixers assistant Matt Brase], I remember standing up there like, “Oh, this is a lot different. I’m not ready for this yet.” After [Nurse] went to Toronto, I was offered the job at RGV, and I wasn’t ready. I don’t know what it was, at that point in my life. But fast forward, my father had passed away, and I ended up going back to Central PA to be with my mother. A Division III college job [Penn State Altoona] opened up and I got it, took that. And since that point, in 2015, just been rolling with it.

We are using a lot of the stuff we had put together in Texas. But, then again, it’s always different, because you’re not the head coach now. So how does [Nurse] want things run? How does he want things said? So you’re learning all over again. And then, for me, not being in it or around it as much as some other guys, learning the terminology again. I can remember those first few weeks, I was like, “There’s a lot of stuff being thrown around here.” Like, “Whew, OK. So does my brain still work? OK, it does.” Once we got into that, then it was how do we want scouting reports done? It was totally different. Once we got all that — we have a great staff, guys going out of their way to help you — we’ve all been on the same page.

How do you apply that variety of coaching experiences to this job?

All of it applies, and I think the biggest part is the different people I’ve been around. Not just the players. The guys I dealt with my EYBL Nike teams. Our staff. The players on the women’s side. One was in the Final Four [Connecticut’s Amari DeBerry]. One was a game away from the Final Four. One won ACC rookie of the year [Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo]. I was fortunate to have some very good players on the female side. Just seeing the different styles of players that come in [here]. You’ve got Buddy Hield, who’s out there shooting. Kelly Oubre with his passion. Being around different people, it allows you to be a chameleon sometimes. You’ve got to change when you’re talking to each player a different way. They can’t hear the same thing, but it has to be the same message.

What are the biggest differences in today’s NBA compared to when you were a player?

When I played, we didn’t have load management, rest, all of that stuff. From the outside, it was always like, “Ah, these guys are getting all these days off.” Now you’re in it every day, and you understand there’s a lot of wear and tear. The game has become faster. Players have become bigger, probably stronger.

The three-point line has definitely [changed the game]. I might have shot 100 threes in my 12-year career. Might have [He shot 194, per Basketball Reference]. And I was a guard. It wasn’t a big thing about shooting threes, whereas now, these guys come in and you’ve got to be able to shoot the basketball. You’ve got to be able to space the court.

The size of the big and the skill set of the big — and the forward, actually — is so much different. When I played, the guys that were our centers could not handle the ball like guys do now. They couldn’t pick and pop like some of the fours do now. Dirk [Nowitzki] was coming in, and I can remember sitting on the sideline being like, “What is this dude shooting all these jumpers for?” while he’s warming up. He wasn’t even playing that much that first year, and probably the next year, he put [what felt like] 50 on us and I was like, “Oh, OK, this is what we’ve got to look forward to.” And I played with Kevin Garnett, who was a freak in himself, but he just wasn’t as thick and as big as some of these guys. He was tall, but he was more a tall guy in a guard’s body. Where now you have Jo. You have [Nikola] Jokic. You have Anthony Davis. These big guys handling the ball, making plays for their teammates — not from the post.

I always listen to the older guys like myself that say the game is not as physical as when we played. We were allowed to hand check on the perimeter. But the way that these guys put their hands on each other in a wrestling match, the game is still physical. I think the game’s changed a lot, and I think it’s a good thing. I love the pace.

When you need to get away from basketball for a bit, what do you do?

Weather-permitting, I’m going to the golf course. I love to be outdoors and just love to be in a space where you can focus on something different, but in the back, you can still have the job at hand on your mind. I can play golf, but I still know that we’ve got games coming up and what needs to be done. But I love that part of it. Or I’ll go for a run, or do a little mountain biking. I used to live out in the Valley Forge area, so I used to go get muddy out there. Put the bike on the back of the truck, go out there, come back. And then people look at you like, “What were you doing?” I was getting muddy. I was being a kid.