Sixers assistant Rico Hines shares secret behind his summer runs and development of young talent

Nick Nurse is about to begin his first season as the 76ers’ coach. But he will not be the only new face on the team’s bench.

Over the next few weeks, The Inquirer will roll out introductory Q&As with the assistants on Nurse’s staff, which will cover their roles, coaching styles, backgrounds, and reasons they chose to come to Philly.

First up is Rico Hines, who spent last season working alongside Nurse with the Toronto Raptors after stints with the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, and the G League’s Stockton Kings. Hines is best known, however, for the “Rico Hines runs,” the summer pickup games at UCLA that have become incredibly popular with the NBA’s best players.

» READ MORE: Jaden Springer makes his case for Sixers’ rotation

How does that summer work — and the relationships built with players — translate to an NBA bench? Which Sixer stood out in that environment this past summer? And how will the Sixers build out their player-development program?

This interview has been edited for length and clarity, and was conducted before the start of training camp.

A: For me, there’s never an offseason, you know what I mean? The good thing about being together all summer like we’ve been is, once we get to [the start of camp], it won’t be like the first day of school. We’ve been together pretty much all summer, since June. Now it’s just business as usual. It’s just keep going.

As far as getting acclimated, it’s gym, food, home, back to the gym again. I haven’t had a chance to really explore the city or anything like that. It’s all hoop for me. I love doing it. I’m extremely grateful that I get a chance to do it every day, so I try to take advantage of it.

A: Obviously, the players on the team. The organization. I think we’re built to win now. I really admire Coach. I think he’s a really, really big-time coach, and I think he’s in the business of coaching coaches, as well. You look at his track record, like Coach [Adrian Griffin, now the Milwaukee Bucks’ head coach] and Chris Finch [Minnesota Timberwolves head coach].

He’s just a great dude, man, and I love his style. I love his basketball imagination. And I’ve known him for a while. Even when I wasn’t on his staff, I’ve always spent time with those guys in the summer, even when I was with different teams. Just having the chance to continue to grow as a coach and learn under him and, at the same time, have a chance to compete for an NBA championship with the roster and talent that they have, I think that was most appealing to me. It was a happy marriage.

A: First of all, I think it’s a very unique staff, which is really, really good. You don’t want the same people. You want to have a unique toolbox when you’re putting together a staff. You want to put out and solve any problem that may come, or have guys with unique skill sets that can do a lot of different things and not just be one-dimensional. I think we have that. We have four or five guys on our staff that played in the NBA, with Bobby Jackson, Coby Karl, Doug West, Toure’ Murry, and Terrel Harris. That’s a big number. And everybody has their own unique relationship with Coach.

As far as my role, being an assistant coach but, at the same time‚ my expertise has always been in development. Just being that “head coach” of development that [Nurse] likes to call it, but at the same time, leading and motivating and teaching and continuing to grow as a coach myself. And the relationship side of it, as well. I’ve had an opportunity to be doing this a long time, and spent a lot of time with a lot of these different guys — and a lot of different guys around the league — all summer.

» READ MORE: New coach Nick Nurse begins his task with the Sixers: ‘You are paid to work through some things’

A: It’s a collaborative thing. Coach is very involved in it. At the same time, the front office is very involved in it. We all come together and try to make a great plan and make a great blueprint for the guys and try to help them continue to develop their game and get better. The thing about this place, you don’t really have a lot of young guys. They’re kind of built to win now. But we did get lucky with getting some undrafted guys who I think are very, very good that could have been first-round talents, like Terquavion [Smith] and Ricky [Council IV]. And at the same time, having Jaden [Springer], who is very young, 21 years old, going into his third year. And Paul [Reed] and Tyrese [Maxey], those guys are still young players. So it’s still about the development of those guys.

Coach [Doc] Rivers and his staff did a great job with those young guys, putting them in the right positions, because they’re workers. So it’s up to us to continue to elevate their game with what the other staff had already started, because they’re in the right place. We’re always speaking with the front office and what they see, and obviously from Coach’s vision and what he sees. After that, it’s my job to execute it with my player-development staff and get the best out of the guys who are in that particular program. It’s a lot of communication. It’s a lot of text messages. It’s a lot of early mornings before practice. It’s a lot of after practice. And then, it’s a lot of coming back at night. Coach is really big on development. He’s always been big on development, and he had a good track record in Toronto with those guys. Even when I wasn’t a part of their staff, I was still helping them out, because I just believe in it.

A: That’s a great question, because I talk about it a lot. There’s a lot of guys that are in skill development around the country, and I’ve been doing it so long I’ve always tried to help younger coaches and younger skill development people. I always tell them that the game changes so much. Unless you’re sitting on an NBA bench, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. You can watch all the film you want, but if you’re not in it day-to-day, it’s hard. Because lingo changes, new things happen, new teams with new strategies and new coaches. It’s a great thing to watch and be a part of. I always tell them to just try to keep up with it as best they can.

For me, from a relationship standpoint, it’s amazing, because I think guys can feel the pureness that I have for them. I want them to accomplish their goals and dreams when they’re inside my gym. I want them to get a little bit better each and every day. And that’s all what it’s about, just getting better. And [the UCLA pickup games have] been around a long time, way before me. So I just want to carry on that tradition that’s been there for such a long time, and help guys accomplish their goals and dreams and get better. At the same time, it helps me keep my chops tight, as well. I get a chance to coach every day in there. It ain’t just pickup and roll the basketball out there and whatever. I get a chance to be a head coach in that space. It helps me develop as a coach and keep my voice. Because one of the biggest things about being a coach is having a voice. So it allows me to do that, and I get a chance to work on my game every day as well, if that makes sense.

A: Terquavion Smith had a great summer. I think he has a world of talent, and I think the sky’s the limit for him to continue to grow and get better. He’s a kid that had first-round talent if he would have come out, probably, a year ago. But whatever the case may be, he fell to us and we’re lucky to have him. For us, it’s just continuing to coach him and getting him better. But I thought he raised a lot of eyebrows in there from veteran guys saying, “Man, who is this kid?” Because they didn’t know him.

I remember seeing that with Pascal [Siakam] a long time ago. I remember Chris Paul and Russell [Westbrook] and it was like, “Who is that kid?” He had just gotten drafted, but they could see something in him. They said it again this summer, “Who is this kid?” Just seeing [Smith] running up and down and score and play with that enthusiasm, that competitive spirit, I thought was great. Whenever you get your peers talking and asking about you at a young age, I think that’s really good.