From Vladivostok to the Vipers: RGV ties, winding journeys at core of Sixers 

Patrick Beverley’s seen plenty of the planet during his 15 years playing professional basketball.

The always-candid, perpetually locked-in guard has seen a lot of Sixers head coach Nick Nurse, too.

“He was still the same motherf---er he is now,” Beverley said to describe Nurse, punctuating the tale of his three-game run as a Rio Grande Valley Viper.

Nurse’s current roster and coaching staff are full of RGV connections. 

Beverley's stories may be especially colorful, but he's not the only Sixer glad to pick things back up with fellow former Vipers and remember fun, strange, formative times. 

Vast journey, small world 

After Beverley decided to leave Spartak Saint Petersburg and sign with the Houston Rockets, he still had an odyssey ahead of him.

“I fly in from Vladivostok,” Beverley told NBC Sports Philadelphia. “It’s in Russia, near Japan. It’s like a 10-hour flight from Saint Petersburg. We play there. I just found out on the way there that I’m going to the NBA, right? I still play in the game. Ten hours there, 10 hours back. I get to Saint Pete, pack up all my s---.

“I fly from Saint Pete to Chicago, from Chicago to Houston. I get to Houston, the team was on the road, they meet me — boom, boom, boom. I don’t know who’s on the team, I don’t know anything. I practice with the (Rockets) — boom, boom, boom, boom. They send me to RGV, just to get my legs up under me. Mind you, I’m still on Russian time.

“I get to RGV and I meet Nick Nurse. Mind you, I know Nick Nurse. When I got (suspended from) school, he was the first coach that I met, (recruiting me) to the D-League. … I meet the assistant, Dougie Fresh — Dougie West. We go to play in Reno, the (D-League Showcase). So my first game, I play well. Then we leave there and we go to South Dakota. 

“I’ve never been to South Dakota in my life. I’m coming from Russia, so South Dakota’s a little different. Cold as a motherf---er. I ain’t even got the clothes for it, you feel me? But whatever. I’m catching a vibe, though. … So that was my RGV experience. I played well, I hit a ton of threes. I was trying to run the offense every time and Nick Nurse came to me and said, ‘You know you can shoot the ball anytime you want to.’” 

What did West, a former Villanova star and NBA veteran, make of Beverley? 

“I just remember he came in with all this passion and all this energy,” West said. “And I thought to myself, ‘This guy is crazy. He’s really crazy. What he’s doing on the sidelines, is he going to do that during the game?’ 

“And he did. And God bless him, he’s been playing for (12) years in the league now. He’s been able to have his identity and stay in the NBA throughout this whole time.”

West served as Nurse’s defensive coordinator with Rio Grande. Matt Brase, who also joined the Sixers this offseason, was the Vipers’ offensive coordinator. 

By the time Sixers wing Daniel House Jr. came through RGV in 2017, Brase was the head coach. 

“Cool, calm, collected,” House said of Brase, who Nurse called “Ice” in an interview. “He knows a lot about the game.”

Robert Covington and Marcus Morris Sr. are among House’s teammates who know all about the Vipers. House and De’Anthony Melton were Rockets summer league standouts five years ago. 

Most of the intersecting threads and winding paths trace back to 2011, when Nurse decided to leave the defending D-League champions.

From home to Hidalgo 

Nurse’s Iowa Energy beat the Chris Finch-led Vipers in the 2011 D-League Finals. 

Finch got a promotion to the Rockets’ staff and Daryl Morey — then Houston’s general manager, now the Sixers’ president of basketball operations — recognized that Iowa’s bespectacled, well-traveled coach would be a strong replacement. 

“Damn Iowa. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Morey said to NBC Sports Philadelphia with a laugh. 

Morey's unique operation swayed Nurse to leave his home turf.

“I’d coached in a lot of places and now found myself in the D-League,” Nurse said. “All I really was interested in was getting better each year as a coach. Rio Grande and the Houston Rockets were kind of at the forefront … of the Moneyball, analytics stuff. And I was intrigued by it. I was reading every article I could about it, I was trying to get every book I could find about it. When the job came open, I was like, ‘Geez, I might as well go down there and jump with both feet in, see what I can learn firsthand.’ So that’s really why I wanted to go there, was just to try to get better as a coach. 

“I mean, I was leaving my home state … but I just felt like I’d done about all I could do there and needed to take a step forward in some fashion in my coaching development. … I was excited that they had this develop players, use the thing as a lab and then win games for the community mentality as their priorities.

“I had some discussions with Daryl: ‘Here’s what this should look like. Do you have a way of making basketball fit into this?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s go try it.’ So it was really interesting.” 

The essence of Morey’s preferred style was a rapid tempo and an unabashedly high volume of three-point shots. Nurse’s RGV teams checked those boxes very well, leading the league in both pace and attempted threes each of his two seasons. 

Morey welcomed a ton beyond those essentials, though.

“The fun part is we had these innovative coaches and they were willing to be a partner,” he said. “People always say that Houston was telling them what to do, but that was never it. It was always like, ‘Hey, let’s work together and come up with some different things. What are some things you’ve always wanted to try, but (you felt) the pressure of the European owner telling you that you’re fired if you lose the next game?’

“Obviously, it’s much harder to try things in the NBA; every game has so much importance. So it was always like, let’s try things (in RGV). I do remember Nick being the one who pushed us the most with ideas. … It was a fun time.”

Off the court, Nurse was also a fan of Hidalgo, Texas, where the Vipers played through 2018. Hidalgo is along the Texas-Mexico border. 

“Very interesting place and I really liked it,” Nurse said. “It’s really got its own vibe — food-wise, music-wise, just the whole vibe — and I liked it.

“I’d spent some time in Europe, and it felt like I wasn’t in the U.S. … I thought the people were incredibly nice, incredibly behind the team. The weather was fantastic. It was a really good place to stop for a couple years.”

‘It really gave me some love back for the game’ 

As far as wins and losses, Nurse’s first Vipers season wasn’t a grand success. RGV went 24-26 and missed the playoffs. 

Individually, Morris has fond memories. With the rookie out of Houston's rotation early in the season, Morey sent him down to the D League.

“My biggest memory is that (Nurse) gave me the ball a ton, so I was averaging 30-something,” Morris said. “I liked his philosophy. I thought he was a really good coach; he was very detail-oriented. For that to be my first real time in (professional basketball), I really enjoyed it.”

The “30-something” recollection is a slight exaggeration, but Morris did star with RGV, posting 20.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game over 11 contests. 

He was a Rockets regular the next season. Now playing for his hometown Sixers, Morris is nearing his 800th career NBA game.  

“I was a lottery pick, so at first I took it as a demotion and I was kind of upset,” Morris said. “But when I went down there, I was able to play the game again, have fun and play without worry. It really gave me some love back for the game after being sent down there.”

Of course, learning Nurse’s system wasn’t smooth and natural for everyone. 

Players weren’t accustomed to having a coach so averse to mid-range jumpers and so tolerant of threes early in the shot clock. 

“There certainly was some resistance,” Nurse said, “and some of just, ‘What the hell are we doing here?’ But we tried to make the plan so precise that there wasn’t much room to get off the path that we were trying to be on. For example, we knew we wanted to shoot at the rim and we wanted to shoot threes. So every practice would start with tons of shots at the rim, tons of finishing drills. And we’d blow the whistle, and then boom, we’d be right back out to the corner three. Boom, back to the rim. We didn’t ever allow them to shoot a non-paint two in practice — ever. 

“Going through all that, there’s comments you’d hear from players like, ‘We’re going to shoot a lot of threes, huh, Coach?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, yeah. That’s the plan.’ And he’d be like, ‘Well, we better. We practice so many.’ … But still, you’d get to the games and there would be some default mode of playing like they’ve always played. Driving in, 14-footer. Driving in, step-back 17-footer. And we literally tried to just show ‘em on film: ‘We don’t take these shots. We don’t take these shots.’ … Every single one of ‘em. 

“And I would say it went pretty fast. About the fifth game of the season, when somebody would take one of those shots, all four guys on the court would look at him and say, ‘What are you doing? We don’t do that.’ And all of a sudden, they were kind of self-policing it.”

‘Don’t let the arrows hit you in the back’ 

Like Morris, West enjoyed having a more prominent position with Rio Grande. He took the RGV job after a stint as a Villanova assistant. 

“It was a situation where I was really given my first chance to be on the court and have my voice really heard as a coach,” West said. “In college, you coach a little bit, but the head coach really takes over the majority of everything. … So I had the defense, Matt had the offense, and we went with it.”

The personalities meshed effectively. 

“It was a good combination,” Nurse said. “(Myself) and Doug, I’d say we coach pretty hard. (Brase) was very organized, but the players would maybe see a chance to bounce more things off him. 

“I remember being at half court and I’d look down at one end, and the players would be like, ‘Oh boy, we’ve got to go down to Doug’s station.’ If they got to choose, they’d go down to Matt’s station. Who wouldn’t, offense vs. defense? But in all seriousness, it ended up being this perfect blend of coaches.” 

Brase agreed with Nurse’s characterization of the trio. 

“I’m myself always,” he said. “A looser person and outgoing, that’s how I am. So that’s what I brought to the table, and we just had good chemistry between the three of us. 

“Back then, G League staffs were small. It was Nick, Doug and I, and it was great. We spent a lot of time together and the synergy between the three of us was awesome.”

Schematically, Nurse recalled that West absorbed his core defensive principles and then went right to work. 

“I remember when I brought him in, I spent about two days putting all the philosophies up and all the drills up, explaining, ‘This is how we’re going to do it.’ He looked at it and said, ‘I understand it, I love it, I’ll get it done.’ And he walked out of the office and took control of the defense,” Nurse said. “He coached ‘em hard and he got it done. 

“He understood exactly what we wanted and he executed it in a very disciplined way. To be a defensive coach, you’ve got to be able to get people to get down and get after it a little bit, and he could do it.” 

Given the constant turnover and inherently unpredictable nature of the D-League, Nurse aimed to teach clear, simple points. 

A motto or two didn’t hurt. 

“If I’m not mistaken, there were seven bullet points on the front,” West said. “The one that sticks out in my mind is, ‘Don’t let the arrows hit you in the back.’ That was basically our get-back defense. Get back, make sure you’re turning and being able to see what’s coming at you. 

“And also knowing that he wanted to play physical defense. ... We were actually able to incorporate some of the stuff (from Villanova) with that RGV team when we put the defensive playbook together. … It was an exciting chance, that I could really come to him with some of my thoughts.

“He already knew what he wanted, but you had to be able to put some drills within that. So it was fun. It was interesting, having to get guys to buy in to doing something different. But those guys at that level, they’re looking to make it: ‘Whatever I can do to be on the floor.’ So it was a great experience.”

Trying a little hockey 

Nurse fined-tuned his coaching fundamentals with RGV. 

And yes, he was happy to experiment and challenge entrenched norms. For instance, Nurse tested hockey-style, five-at-a-time substitutions. 

Morey saw the logic of the concept. 

“The only one I’d seen sort of do that was Hubie Brown — did it for a little bit with Memphis,” Morey said. “But yeah, (Nurse) actually did, and I think it made some sense because there’s such limited time; it’s harder to get cohesion. And in the G League, the talent level’s a little flatter, too. There’s generally not a Joel (Embiid) who’s leaps and bounds better than the fourth-best player on a team. It’s a little bit more compressed, so you can experiment a little more with these kind of hockey subs. 

“I want the NBA to do live hockey subs, where you can put people in and out (during the action), which I think would be fun. I’m sure everyone will tell me why that’s a terrible idea, but it definitely could work. … Honestly, hockey is chaotic and it works fine. You’d have to have some structure around how it worked, but I think it could work.”

As for the unit-swapping allowed under present-day rules, Nurse felt the idea aligned with a couple of his primary goals. 

“It’s just, as a coach, what are you trying to do? I got really interested in trying to figure out how to build chemistry and how to get guys to play harder,” he said. “So the hockey-style subs thing … if guys could play shorter stints, could we get ‘em to just go all-out for three minutes? And then the chemistry part was keeping the same five guys together.

“We were doing all kinds of experiments. One team would play man-to-man and the next team would play zone. We literally practiced like that and were trying to build some stuff like that. But that was the idea behind it.”

What other experiments jump out to Nurse from that era? 

“There were tons of ‘em,” he said. “Shoot a three on every (out-of-bounds play) underneath and every side OB; every play was designed to shoot a three. We did a bunch of free throw experiments. Those guys, they shot a lot of free throws. We were trying to have every guy take a visual (shot) without the ball. Shoot it, pretend you make it, and then you’d get the ball and shoot. They’d have to do, like, 150 of those a day. It’d take a long time, and we were trying to collect all the data. All kinds of stuff, man.”

Morey mentioned ultra-aggressive offensive rebounding approaches; confusion-causing and shot clock-draining defenses; and “full leak-out fly-bys,” where a defender would make a closeout and then keep on sprinting down the floor.

The Vipers’ defense forced all players to their left hand as well. 

RGV’s innovations didn’t have a pristine track record — Nurse frequently acknowledges that he’ll crumple up and toss away any failed plans — but Morey appreciated his ingenuity.

Now, with the Sixers looking to break through the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2001, Morey knows his head coach also loves to seek undiscovered, unconventional edges. 

“We’re still pushing the envelope,” Morey said. “I was actually talking to one of our data guys (recently), and he was like, ‘Hey, I’ve got this idea and I think we could do it.’ I (said), ‘Yeah, we should do it.’ 

“And he was like, ‘Yeah, but I think it only will maybe impact one game out of 82’ or whatever. I was like, ‘These are the kind of advantages we’re trying to get now.’ 

“There’s no real low-hanging fruit anymore where you can get multiple-win advantages from some scheme ideas. We’re trying to eke out a win or two on the margins, so that’s just how it is. The easy stuff has gone away, but there’s still a lot of things you can improve — and each one’s a little bit less impactful.”

A player development duo 

The 2012-13 Vipers earned Nurse’s second D-League title in three years. Counting the playoffs, they won 16 consecutive games to conclude the season.

After a recent practice at the Sixers’ training facility in Camden, New Jersey, Nurse was able to point toward the floor at a key player from that team. Toure’ Murry was then a rookie guard and is now a Sixers player development coach. 

“Teams that win it always have some special traits to them, and that team certainly did,” Nurse said. “Whenever there was something to figure out, they figured it out. Example: We lost Andrew Goudelock, who was the league MVP, in the first round. (Goudelock re-signed with the Lakers.) And (Murry) became our point guard.

“It didn’t stop him from still picking up 94 feet every possession, every game, playing hard, getting the ball up the floor and getting us organized. … They were just competitive guys that wanted to figure out how to win.”

Although Murry played in a team-high 46 games, the Wichita State product’s role fluctuated. 

“Being undrafted, I had a chip on my shoulder from the beginning. … I didn’t start, was inactive for some games that year,” Murry said. “I learned so much about professionalism, waiting your turn and being ready when your number is called. Being able to have that year, win a championship, get a triple-double in (Game 1 of the Finals), it was a great feeling for me.”

Murry ultimately played until 2022, appearing in 56 NBA games and making several stops in Europe. 

He’s joined by a familiar face on the Sixers’ player development crew in Terrel Harris, who had multiple RGV stints from 2010 through 2013 and picked up an NBA title with the 2011-12 Miami Heat. 

“Very similar characteristics,” Nurse said of Harris and Murry. “Very competitive; team players; super coachable; hard workers; basketball junkies. Throw a basketball junkie with a competitive nature out there — who’s also 6-5 and long, and wants to play defense and can score the ball a little bit — you’ve got two pretty good guys there. 

“Great to see them mature and play good careers overseas ... and both get to the NBA and have a sense of what that’s like. They just haven’t changed at all in the way they approach basketball as younger men to who they are now. They’re both awesome, man.”

All the Vipers in the building have eased the pair’s transition to NBA coaching.

Sideline chats with West or Brase are starting far from Square 1. Beverley is a peer. 

“It’s cool being able to be around guys that you know and you can trust,” Harris said. “In this business, that’s rare, I guess. I feel like we all have a relationship with Coach Nurse, so it makes us a little more comfortable. … (Myself) and Toure’ being first-time coaches in the NBA, I think knowing the coach and having played for him really helps us.”

Physically, Harris and Murry’s work is taxing. Players who are outside Nurse’s rotation, returning from injury or just itching for more reps scrimmage full court after every practice. The Murry-Harris duo are among the Sixers player development coaches in their mid-30s that play in the scrimmages. 

“We’re very involved,” Harris said. “That first month, I was struggling because my body wasn’t used to the workload. Just coaching young kids for a while — for the last seven, eight years — and then coming in here and going full-speed against Tyrese Maxey, at the time James (Harden), and all these guys, my body wasn’t used to that. So I had to adjust and get back to playing mode.”

They’re not Maxey’s age anymore, but the lessons Harris and Murry learned as players aren’t distant at all. 

“I’ve seen a lot of players go through what I’ve been through,” Murry said. “There’s times in my career that I’ve been at the top. I worked very hard to get to the NBA from the (D-League), and I think I was a success story within that realm. So coming back and working with Philly, I see myself helping a lot of players develop into great players.

“There’s a lot of underdogs in the NBA and G League, and I see myself in a lot of players. So I can be that guy that can bridge the gap … for guys trying to make it.”

Reunions galore 

When Covington came to the Vipers, Nurse was on the Raptors’ bench and Nevada Smith was leading Rio Grande. 

Relentless pace, three-point shooting and generally non-traditional basketball were still central. Covington excelled, winning the D-League’s 2013-14 Rookie of the Year and All-Star Game MVP awards. 

As Covington shined in the D-League, Sam Hinkie bitterly regretted that he'd let Morey sign the rangy forward at around 1 a.m. on draft night. 

“Robert is a mistake I rubbed my own nose in for over a year,” Hinkie wrote in his 2016 letter resigning as Sixers general manager.

Covington later established himself in the NBA with Hinkie’s Process-era Sixers. He then moved to Minnesota, Houston (where Morey and the Rockets had him play significant small-ball center minutes), Portland and Los Angeles. 

Following the Sixers-Clippers deal sending Harden to L.A., Covington's back in Philadelphia.

“It’s awesome having him back. I also find it very entertaining that Sam put it in his letter that that was his low point in Philly or something,” Morey said with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Man, Sam, pick a different low point. That one wasn’t that bad.’ But yeah, he was with us and Sam rectified it when we got squeezed on our roster. It happens, and he thrived here in Philly after. 

“I used to get asked by folks in Houston … quite a few players that we waived like Robert went on to do great things. I always was like, ‘Well, we could fix that. We could only bring in bad players. Then none of the ones we waived would do anything.’ So the reality is when you have a good pipeline of talent — which we had in Houston and we have here in Philly — you’re going to waive some good players here and there.”

Beverley stuck around with the Rockets for much longer than Covington. Houston called him up after Jeremy Lin sprained his left ankle and Beverley ended up starting 240 games for the franchise. 

He’s emphatic that Nurse is still Nurse. 

“He’s the same dude as when I met him in Chicago and he was coaching for the Iowa Energy,” Beverley said. “Same exact dude. It’s crazy. He sat at the end of the table, and me and my mom were like, ‘Yo, so what’s up? What you got for us?’ (He said), ‘You come to me, you’ll go to the NBA.’ I’m like, ‘Nah, I’ve got to go get some money.’ 

“So I went the overseas route. I then again met up with Nurse four years later. Same s---. And I then meet up with Nurse a decade later.”

It sure doesn’t sound like Beverley regrets where his decisions have taken him. 

“Everybody’s road is different,” he said. “Obviously (Nurse) had his road, I had mine. But we meet when the time is necessary, which is now. 

“We’ve got a good little thing going right now. But yeah, Nurse has been dope since I met him. He’s been a real one since I met him.”