It has been a case of so far so good between new Philadelphia coach Jim O'Brien and Allen Iverson, the pair forging an understanding early and building a foundation for a successful partnership.

"We basically talked about how we wanted to move this back to where we could be a legitimate contender for the Eastern Conference championship, what kind of leadership role he would need to have in order to do that, and what his expectations of me as his coach were," O'Brien said. "He, like everyone else, is extremely disappointed in the type of year they had. He believes, as I do, that we can have a very open and direct relationship. I think he welcomes that.

"He welcomes being able to sit down eyeball-to-eyeball on a regular basis and discussing the expectations of him as a leader, and what he can do to get this to a level that it deserves to be. I've never found good relationships based on anything but that. You have to be able to sit down and talk one-on-one, and to listen and be able to articulate what your desires are. From a standpoint of developing that relationship, the best way to do it is to listen."

O'Brien also talked about feeding off the player's positives rather than focusing on their negatives, and building a system which plays to the strengths of their personnel.

"We will attempt to hide whatever weaknesses they have, but everybody has to feel good that our staff knows what each guy does well. They'll hear more often out of our mouths what they do well," O'Brien said.