Doug Collins, as it's become increasingly more evident, has both hands in personnel decisions. But not many people have given him credit for swinging the Andrew Bynum deal. It's a trade that most people would do in a heartbeat, but it's unlikely that Orlando and LA came to the Sixers with that exact deal on the table. It had to take some persuasion and bargaining and all that stuff we don't get to see.

Whether that was Collins or Rod Thorn or the summer intern is sort of beside the point, because Doug wanted this. And if Doug wanted this, then I have a lot more faith in Doug as a decision-maker.

That's not to say I want him having a limitless box of power -- far from it. He's not from the statistical side of the pendulum and I'd like someone with that knowledge base to be running the team. But there has still been quite a bit of Doug Collins hate going around and I don't really feel that it's deserved.

Yes, he wore on players last year. But it was a lockout-shortened season and everything was way compressed so you have to figure spending so much time around his players, they would tune out at some point. I'm positive he's not the only coach who pissed his players off. Yes, in the past, he hasn't been exemplary as a coach. I'm not saying he's going to be going forward. But he's certainly average. And most coaches are average until they have the talent on the roster to make them elite.

I don't love Doug. I think he has a number of flaws as a coach and I don't want him bullying ownership into doing everything he wants. But now that we've got a roster that could feasibly finish as high as second in the East, you could do a whole lot worse for a team that we now want to win games. And I don't really think you could do too much better.