If DeMarcus Cousins gives you a nickname, it means he likes you. So what if he gives you two nicknames? Cousins calls John Welch both “Welchy” and “Johnny Workouts.” They’re definitely terms of endearment. Cousins, a 6-foot-10, 270-pound former All-American at Kentucky, top-five draft pick and four-time NBA All-Star, is quite literally Welch’s biggest fan. Cousins’ worlds collided last week when his college coach, John Calipari, hired the best player development specialist he’s ever worked with to be the Wildcats’ newest assistant.

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“Welchy, that’s my guy,” Cousins says. “He’s going to be the hardest worker in the gym — and that’s players included. His training programs are incredible. The season I had with him was one of my better seasons in the NBA. I developed really well that year because of the one-on-one training with him every day, in between games and even on game days. He’s a top-notch guy, loved throughout the basketball community. Plenty of other vets could speak on his behalf, and you’d hear high praises. He’s an incredible basketball mind.”

Working with Welch in his sixth NBA season in 2015-16, Cousins averaged a career-high 26.9 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.3 blocks. He was named second-team All-NBA and gave a surprising amount of credit for that to the now 60-year-old Welch, a 5-foot-11 former Nevada and UNLV guard who played a little pro ball in Europe a very long time ago. When he works players out, though, Welch comes at them with the confidence of Kobe Bryant.

“Welchy is so damn competitive that we would be playing one-on-one before games, in a full sweat, talking crap, but just having the best time,” Cousins said. “It was like it was just me and him in the gym. That’s how we bonded over that season, both having that competitive nature and just loving basketball and wanting to outdo each other. He was super professional, nothing over the top, but just good basketball talk: I’m better than you. You’re not scoring on me.

“I wouldn’t say he’s a trash-talker so much as an agitator to the point where it’s like, ‘All right, let’s get in the gym then.’ He makes you mad enough to work.”

That sounds a lot like something Kentucky lost — and never truly replaced — when beloved assistant coach Kenny Payne left the staff in the summer of 2020 to join the New York Knicks (and later become head coach at Louisville). That same offseason, longtime Calipari assistant John Robic, the program’s scouting and game-planning guru, was also quietly phased out of the staff. The three seasons since have been the worst of the Calipari era, with a combined 57-36 record and one postseason win.

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To hear Welch’s former players and colleagues tell it, the nearly 20-year NBA coaching veteran might help fill both those sizable holes on Calipari’s staff with a hybrid of Payne’s and Robic’s skill sets.

“He did our game preps and scouts,” former NBA head coach Lionel Hollins says. Hollins and Welch were colleagues in Memphis, and Welch was Hollins’ assistant in Brooklyn. “He would set up breakdown scenarios in our offense, and we’d work on it in 3-on-3 or 4-on-4, where we were only looking at a couple things in terms of reads. We’re in a pick-and-roll and the roller rolls and the defender does X or Y, what do we do? What are the point guard’s options? He would take scenarios from our offense into individual player development and then into smaller groups in our practices and then to the full team concept. Drilling those scenarios that way is so helpful to have players know beforehand where the next move is. And everybody doesn’t work that way; most people are working 5-on-5 all the time.”

For the sometimes-stubborn Calipari to welcome such a person onto his staff suggests at least a willingness to hear a few fresh ideas. (Welch is the father of former UK walk-on Riley Welch, who just finished a two-year stint as a Wildcats graduate assistant). Welch’s new job, as described in Kentucky’s announcement of the hiring, includes “serving as a vital part of Calipari’s offensive strategy, while being a primary contributor to UK’s scouting and game-planning.”

#BBN, welcome our new assistant coach John Welch!

📝

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) May 22, 2023

Welch played and worked under Jerry Tarkanian in college, then served as an assistant in the NBA under Sidney Lowe and Hubie Brown (Memphis), George Karl (Denver and Sacramento), Jason Kidd and Hollins (Brooklyn) and Doc Rivers (L.A. Clippers). Perhaps most notably, Welch is a disciple of Tim Grgurich, who is widely considered the godfather of player development in the NBA. Welch and Grgurich were together at UNLV and on Karl’s Denver staff.

Clearly, Welch picked up some things.

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“He has detailed plans for players not only to get better individually but to get better to help the team,” Hollins said. “A lot of player development people work with guys on how to get themselves a bucket. He does some of that, which is always necessary, but a bigger part of player development is how you teach guys to play with their teammates, the 5-on-5 concept. John is very good at that.”

That will be especially important for Kentucky next season, considering the roster right now is made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores. Welch’s credentials might be a selling point for potential transfers and, Calipari hopes, an incentive for Oscar Tshiebwe, Chris Livingston and Antonio Reeves to pull out of the 2023 NBA Draft ahead of the deadline at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.

Regardless of those decisions, though, he will play a major role in the (ideally rapid) development of the five incoming freshmen, four of them McDonald’s All-Americans, who make up the No. 1-ranked recruiting class in the country. It’s an old-school Calipari haul that he needs to produce old-school results, like the first six years of his Kentucky tenure that delivered five Elite Eights, four Final Fours and a national title. Cousins was part of that first No. 1 class and said he believes Welch is exactly what a bunch of elite young players need.

“This was an incredible hire. I think it’s a perfect mix,” Cousins said. “The fact that he can set that foundation for these young guys, help them fall in love with being gym rats and wanting to work hard — and not just be in there by themselves but have a partner in crime to be right there with you in Welchy — he’s going to push these guys to the next level.”

“John will show them what it takes to be a pro,” Hollins said. “… Lots of young guys are physically gifted but their basketball IQ is limited because they’ve always been the biggest or best on their team, so all those things need to be taught. And I think Cal just hired a great teacher.”

(Photo of Riley and John Welch: Courtesy of UK Athletics)