Can the Sixers Continue to Improve Under Doug Collins?
by Jordan Sams on May 22, 2011 12:01 PM PDT
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PrintDoug Collins success as a first year as head coach has been well-documented. Prior to this this season, he had taken over three teams during his career: the '86 Bulls, '95 Pistons and '01 Wizards. Each team Collins inherited finished dead last in defensive efficiency the previous season, and averaged around 26 total wins. During Collins' first season each team improved significantly, to a tune of 15 wins and 13 spots in overall defensive efficiency.
The trend continued in 2010, when Collins took over the Philadelphia 76ers – a team coming off a 27-win season, where they ranked 26th in overall defensive efficiency. Under his tutelage the Sixers managed 14 more wins, an improvement from 26th to seventh in defense, and a playoff birth to boot.
Unfortunately Collins has also developed a reputation of "being too intense" and eventually "wearing out his welcome". Both accusations may or may not be true, but it's worth noting that Collins has never lasted longer than three seasons with one franchise. He has previously stated that he's wiser now, learning from his mistakes, and prepared for the long haul in Philadelphia. Whether he's a changed man remains to be seen since it's still fairly early in the Collins era. The bigger question is – we all know about the improvements from Collins-led teams in year one but – have Collins' teams continued to improve in year two? Regressed? Remained the same?
In his second season with Chicago the Bulls improved from 40 wins to 50, and 11th in defense to third. In his second season with Detroit the Pistons improved from 46 wins to 54, but regressed from seventh to 11th in defense. And in his second season in Washington the Wizards they duplicated their previous 37-win mark and improved marginally in defense, moving up from 21st to 19th.
Despite the probability that the Sixers overachieved in year one under Collins, history suggests they won't regress in 2011-2012. It also doesn't hurt that six of the eight Sixers who played the most minutes this past season are 24 years old or younger – most of whose stock is on the rise.
Of course a lot of the Sixers' record in '11-'12 will depend on what happens with Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young this summer. Then again, I never thought the Sixers would be +14 in the win column and +19 in defense despite losing their defensive anchor in Sam Dalembert, but Collins made it happen.
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This is what I was afraid of. He’s only been known as an instant improvement type coach. Will the team keep growing? I actually think that he’s a strong reason why the team exploded this year but I don’t see the team getting that much better next year. But, like you said, this is a very young team who is naturally (work hard during the offseason) getting better. In the end, it all matters at the roster moves, and if the reputation of being too intense and wearing out his welcome is true to see if the team will improve.
I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok---Shaquille O'Neal
Remember who coached the year before. Anyone and I mean anyone(Lequan included) would have done better than Eddie Jordan. We’re back to where we were two years ago, .500 team, 1st round exit, and no plan for the future. Collins did a good job , but even Moses and I don’t mean Malone can lead this franchise to the promised land.
by pumper on May 22, 2011 1:52 PM PDT reply actions 2 recs
But none of that is on the coach. I do think Collins will get the most out of whatever talent he’s given. The front office will do what the front office does. And I’m sure we will never really know what that was, because if, say, Minnesota trades #2 to Indiana for Granger, it doesn’t mean Thorn didn’t call and offer Iguodala (who I think is a way better fit in Minny, because of his distribution and defense). It means that The Wrath of Kahn didn’t accept the offer.
If I had to try to guess the future (which I don’t, but since I’m here, I might as well…), I would guess that there won’t be a major move made (“major move” defined as “trading Iguodala” or “trading Brand,” most likely…trading Brackins to get a different end-of-bench player is not a major move) to bring in name talent or a big package of picks and high-potential young talent. There might be another Willie Green-style deal in the works, picking around the edges. I’m sure the new CBA and its attendant uncertainty will be invoked as the reason, and there will be some validity to that, but I’m sure we’ll hear the Rod Thorn variant of the famous Stefanski saying…“There wasn’t a deal out there that made ‘basketball sense.’”
And that may well also be true. Unlike others, I don’t advocate trading Iguodala just for the purpose of trading Iguodala. He’s a quality player, and he should bring back a quality package in return.
I expect that the big move of the summer will be re-signing Thad Young for $9M/yr.
While I agree to an extent if you look at the teams before Eddie Jordan they were a lot different than the current one. For one, Andre Miller and Sam Dalembert were the second and third best players. As good as Jrue’s been thus far, he’s nowhere near as consistent as Miller was. And Dalembert was the anchor of the D.
nnooo
i told you before DOUG COLLINS is overrated, we can’t improve under him.
1st year : first round playoffs “lose” / 2nd year : first round playoffs “lose” /
3rd year : no playoffs / 4th year : remaied the same and fired
i don’t trust in collins, with him as head coach we ain’t going nowhere, we need a coach like RICK ADELMAN or a new generation of coach like MONTY WILLIAMS, THIBODEAU etc…
Can the Sixers under Doug Collins improve on last years win/loss total. Probably. They could even reach 50 wins. And still be bundled out of the first round of the playoffs.
Unless there is a major personal move in the right direction, the roster will still be the same as the season just finished, just add a mediocre rookie.
If we’re lucky, Elton Brand will produce at the same level next seaon, even though he’ll be a year older. Hawes will find his game on a consistant basis. If Iguodala is still here, hopefully he’ll have an injury free campaigne, play a few less minutes and stop taking ill advised jumpers. Holiday, Turner and Meeks is where we would expect the most improvement to come from, if thier games develop as we all hope they do, then we’ll all be happy as, and still bemoan the fact that we have no interior presence and praise the kids performances as we’re knocked out by the Hawks in the first round. Collins must keep on Williams and Young to play under controll and within themselves, otherwise they’ll shoot us out of a couple of games. I’ve given up hope that Speights gets his head into gear and learns to rebound and play defense, never mind shooting 20 foot jumpers. Maybe Brackins can workout what Speights can’t. The rest of the current squad are just fillers.
Collins can teach a young team how to win. But i don't know if he can teach a good team how to be champions.
|TENNESSEE TITANS|PHILADELPHIA 76ERS|
Larry Brown
The same (valid) criticisms were thrown at Larry Brown. Can’t win a championship. Only improves losing teams to an extent. Overworks his players, and throws them under the bus in front of the media. Well, Doug doesn’t do that last one. And then he won a championship in Detroit, when they finally amassed enough talent to get it done.
It’s all about talent in the NBA. Coaching is frequently overrated. You gonna tell me the Heat are in the ECF because of Spoelstra? Or the Mavericks because of Rick Carlisle? Come on.
It’s not as important as in the NFL, or NHL. But it’s still important. The right coach can make a pretty big impact in the NBA. It’s just trickier due to guaranteed contracts and inflated ego’s. The NBA is also a sport where the one or two best players in the league often win the title. So, yeah coaching isn’t as big as those other sports, but it can be huge.
As long as thy keep the same group of players, or at least the primary ones, the team will continue to improve marginally. To get good enough to compete with and beat Miami is another story.
I think it’s clear that the Sixers have to add talent, and probably will have to subtract some of the talent they already have before they get there. I’m optimistic that Doug will get the team to play even better, and the growth of Holliday, Young and Turner will make them a 50-win team.
The Sixers are still searching for a quality big man, the hardest thing to find in the NBA. Someone too big and strong for Bosh to deal with, or for LeBron to be able to bother much. They find a guy like that, they have a shot, but until then they’re not going to win a championship.
Just for the record, I jumped on the band wago when the Sixers were sh!t.
I don’t know if I can handle all this enthusiams about the possibility of the Sixers rising above mediocrity.
timberwolves, bobcats, and raptors are calling your name.
"I admire his competitiveness. As much as I admire it, I thought that he was trying too hard."- Eddie Jordan
Tell you what. Spend a season following each of those teams and then come back and tell me which one is worth following.
Collins is living up to his m.o., in my opinion. I find him both equally impressive and frustrating at the same time. The postseason performance by our coaching staff was subpar. But, this team had a half court offense (provided only effective in the 1st quarter), accountability on defense, and several players developed, so I give Collins the pass this year.
Next year, I judge much more harshly. I could have coached that team to 41 wins, and I ain’t no NBA coach. I don’t think I would have had as much success as Collins did for laying a groundwork for future success. This team could take what Collins installed, make a few tweaks, and become a pretty good team capable of 50 wins.
I agree
I think collins is great for setting a winning culture for a team, but I am not always sure he understands the offensive end. He may be able to win it all if he had a team of defensive stoppers, but he doesn’t, and he tries to compensate by having his “shooters” go one on one. And when i say shooters I mean guys who can’t hit a jumper ie iggy and lou. If doug could create some kind of offense where it isn’t just iggy or lou going one-on-two, putting a little more faith in turner and jrue, and adding more movement meaning cuts and curls then we have a chance of contending. I do think we need to get rid of the boss and spence though before we can contend because we need a defensive minded center even one that might be a head case like sammy. Those centers are hard to find and with a strong support system and coach staff those head cases can be coached up.
I pretty much agree with all of that. I’ll point out that Thad had too many ISO’s too…..although they were probably mostly in less important parts of the game whereas
sometimes it felt like Lou was obligated to ISO and take a contested pull-up at the end of every quarter, and Iguodala at the end of every game.
Probably the most consistently effective ISO player on the team is Turner. That’s not me saying it should be done all game, or that he’s a 25ppg go-to talent. But while I wanted fewer ISO’s from everyone else, he should have had more of them. Especially coming off the bench. Due to his defensive versatility, it is often possible to get him in a one-on-one matchup he can exploit where he has a size advantage and create offense either for himself or others. I wouldn’t want him dribbling all over the court all game long like he did his last year in College, but there’s definitely a middle ground between what Collins ideally tried to get him to do offensively and what he did as College player of the year.
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