Get to know new Sixers guard Patrick Beverley from a reporter who covered him with the Clippers

Other than the still-hovering James Harden trade speculation, the 76ers’ offseason has slowed down.

They lost sharpshooter Georges Niang, reserve guard Shake Milton, and rangy wing Jalen McDaniels in free agency. But they matched the Utah Jazz’ offer to retain restricted free agent Paul Reed, signed 2021 draft-and-stash big man Petrušev to a standard contract, and surprisingly agreed to re-sign reserve center Montrezl Harrell.

The Sixers’ newcomers, meanwhile, are relentless veteran guard Patrick Beverley and defensive center Mo Bamba. Both players were introduced in Philly last week, but for further insight, The Inquirer reached out to beat writers who covered Beverley and Bamba at their previous stops.

First up is the Los Angeles Times’ Andrew Greif, who covered Beverley during his time with the Clippers.

A: The Clippers-era version of Beverley worked because he was pretty malleable and stayed on the court because he made the team better on both ends. Playing hard on defense and making shots will get you opportunities to play just about anywhere, and he made 39.5% of his three-pointers over 177 games with the Clippers on 3.9 attempts per game. The key is what he can still bring offensively. He’s averaging about the same number of attempts in the two seasons since he left, but his accuracy has dipped to 33.9%.

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A: One former assistant coach called Pat the 2018-19 team’s “heartbeat” and he, along with Lou Williams, molded that between-eras time after Lob City but before the arrival of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, in his image. He did it there by being an open book for young guys — just ask Terance Mann, Ivica Zubac, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander how influential he was on them early in their careers — an accountability check on the older guys and the tone-setter of the roster. “He’s going to be inclusive and he’s going to try to bring everybody into that team concept, and if you’re outside of that circle, you’re the enemy,” is how J.P. Clark, a current 76ers staffer who worked with Beverley in Los Angeles, told me for a 2019 story, and I think that still applies.

With that comes strong convictions about how things should be run — early in that same season Doc Rivers had to meet with him because Pat wasn’t yet bought in, in Rivers’ words then — and how authority in the locker room should be earned. He can be accepting and abrasive, all in the same night. The arrival of Leonard and George required a long and somewhat bumpy transition to assigning the locker room’s new hierarchy. Remember, they were not very vocal and coming into what in many respects was the very vocal Beverley’s locker room. But I think it speaks to his influence that when George got married last summer, Beverley attended, and he still has so many who will go to the mat for him within the organization.

A: He could drive coaches mad in trouble at times for freelancing outside of the Clippers’ system because he had so much belief in his defensive skills. But to generalize a little, what he provided that was most valuable was his teammates’ confidence, when he was on the floor, that they were going to figure it out defensively, whatever the system was.

A: Pat will always have his floater game and what’s also realistic is to expect him to still be among the best rebounders for his position, which gives him value contributing extra possessions even when his shooting is off.

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A: It’s been jarring only because of the degree to which he became a foundational part of the Clippers’ entire philosophy during his time there. He played hard-nosed and gritty — the front office took pains to describe both characteristics as part of their “DNA.” He once declared that he played for “the people in the back” of the highest reaches of the stands, and by the next season, the Clippers were offering discounted upper-deck tickets and asking Pat to be the face of the campaign. He did have the same effect in Minnesota, helping mold a directionless group of young players into a playoff team, so it wasn’t just a moment he had with the Clippers. I think his style should play well in Philadelphia. The Sixers will undoubtedly be getting someone determined to show they still belong. Rivers once told me for a story that “Pat takes everything personal,” and I would imagine bouncing around the last couple of seasons would heighten that.

A: Well, I won’t forget the time I wore glasses — unusual for me, a contacts-wearer — to a media availability once and he said he approved the “Clark Kent thing going on.”

The funnier story is when the Clippers played in Chicago during the “polar vortex” winter storm in January 2019. The first bus of players and staffers to leave their downtown hotel arrived at United Center without issues. But the second and third buses were caught in absolute storm-related gridlock, stuck for about 1 hour, 40 minutes, and only arrived at the arena about 30 minutes before tipoff. Beverley was on one of the buses that was stuck and, being the Chicago native that he is, was pleading — insisting — with the driver to please take a different route that could save time. He was trying to be a human Google Maps, but the driver wouldn’t take his advice, never listening.

Waving off Pat Bev? Few coaches are so brave. If memory serves, I recall Pat carrying that fire into the game that night; he hit a floater with 37 seconds left to push the Clippers’ slim lead to three points and preserve a win.

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