FanPost

The Curious Case of Brett Brown

As some one who stanned hard for Hinkie back in his day, Ill be the first to admit the team is on the upswing and has potential to win it all if everything goes right. Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid are cornerstones and if Fultz can figure it out I don't see a more fearsome trio in the entire league.

I get it, the team is super fun. 52 wins and a playoff series victory was incredible. Although there has been one thing that has been really bugging me, well this and Colangelo having a burner twitter.

Which is the fact that Brett Brown is still the coach of this team. I know a lot of you will jump on me for such an outlandish opinion, thinking that I don't know what Im talking about, but stay with me.

Firstly, Id like to point out the obvious. His record sucks. Sure, last year he had some success, but his body of work shows that he just doesn't get the job done. I mean, 10 wins in one year? That is just inexcusable. Id love to cast a blind eye, but I just cant. The one credence I give is that Brett could sell ice to eskimos, he really makes you believe losing all those games isn't a big deal.

Even though he has the charisma to talk to the media, it doesn't offset his other flaws.

One of Philly's staples is the blue collarness of the fans. They don't just sit back and watch losers. In recent memory both Chip Kelly and Sam Hinkie got slammed and eventually had to leave town. This city doesn't accept losers. Yet, the people here have a total love affair with Brett Brown. It is incredible, for whatever reason they are going against everything they've done. I don't get it.

The short answer is that Brett was brought in here during the tank years. Everybody knew it was going to get ugly. There were no expectations, the team was built to lose. Brown was head of player development in San Antonio. Brown was brought in knowing he wouldn't win, and just to focus on developing the players.

So basically, Brown was brought in to babysit for a couple of years to try and develop the players. There was an understanding the team wouldn't win and that would be okay.

Brown definitely did not disappoint, he led the team to one of the worst 3 year stretches in the history of basketball. I mean, this place was losing it when we won 28 games the following season. Think about that, people were ecstatic that the team finished with ONLY the fifth worst record in the NBA. That's not even factoring in some of the drubbings in between. Such as the worst start to a season(twice!) or the longest NBA losing streak.

Who can forget the Mavs massacre.

Or the San Antonio slaughter...

I know a common argument is that "oh well look at his roster how could he win with that roster." Well, lets look at the players he has had to work with. I will excluded this latest team just to be fair.

Luc Mbah Mhoute

Evan Turner

Thad Young

Spencer Hawes

Danny Granger

Andrei Kirenlinko

Javale Mcgee

Robert Covington

Dario Saric

Gerald Henderson

Sergio Rodrizguez

Jordan McRae

Jerrd Bayless


I know some of you will jump down my throat about how these aren't all stars, Ill concede that. BUT these are NBA players that Brown showed he had zero idea how to utilize. For the cases like Dario and Covington it was only until they had a 6'10 point guard to make them look good. Not Brett.

Even having NBA talent Brett showed that he was simply incapable of turning those guys into winners. It would be one thing if the team was just a normal mediocre team, and you could blame the lack of talent, but the team sustained historical suckyness for an extended period of time.

Lets look at 4 different coaches and how they fared in their first 5 seasons in the NBA.

Coach A: 167-233

Coach B: 237-173

Coach C: 127-283

Coach D: 183-230

Coach A is Byron Scott

Coach B is Doug Collins

Coach C is Brett Brown

Coach D is Jason Kidd

Somehow all these Brown lovers will look at this and still try to stir up some reason as why this makes Brett Brown a good coach, when the facts and numbers clearly point to the opposite. While at the same time openly admitting the other coaches are terrible, and justifiably so.

You will likely point to the fact that the team was not built to win, and that it is unfair to expect Brown to have some tremendous record during that time frame. The problem with that line of thinking is that Brown was not the first coach of a rebuild, there have been tons of rebuilds before Brown, yet he managed to have the worst 3 year stretch in the history of the league. Historical suckyness.

Here’s the second short story. Brown was a victim of Hinkie's shadow.

Hinkie was a savior, no doubt. He came in, filled the cupboards full of assets again and gave the Sixers some marquee talent and laid out a future for the team to get even more. That is great. No denying that. The problem some of you have still hitched your wagon to him and wont accept that he made any mistakes. Brown was historically awful yet people still cling to him because they see Hinkie in him and don't want to admit he made a mistake hiring him.

What other coach could come in, and lose and lose and lose but still have the fan base love him? It is unprecedented how much love people are giving to Brett considering he has accomplished nothing. The dude has lost and lost and lost, but people hitch their wagons to him without hesitation. How can I take you guys seriously thinking that a coach is who is a perpetual loser is actually good and we should keep him around?

The craziest thing is that isn't just Sixers fans who suck off Brown. Whenever teams play against us, somebody will likely comment on how great Brown is. This is just so asinine. Do they not see Brown's track record? It is not exactly that flattering. I wonder what dirt Brown has on Popovich that has made everybody suck up to him and treat him like he is some coaching god.

Any argument being pro-Brett loses steam after this latest season. He was gifted two incredible players who were the best two man duo in the entire NBA in net-rating. Nobody needs a primer about how good Embiid and Simmons are. Everybody knows it. They are special players. It was on full display at the end of the season where Simmons was getting triple doubles left and right (thanks to his ambidexterity) and then you had Embiid come back on top of that.

Could the Sixers been gifted a better matchup in the second round than the depleted and injured Celtics? It was hard to find anybody that didn't already pencil the Sixers into the conference finals. I mean, the Celtics could hardly get past the dysfunctional Bucks.

Have no fear! Brett executed a truly awful game plan and the Sixers got kicked to the curb in a swift 5 games. He had no idea how to stop Al Horford, (ha) Terry Rozier, (lol) and Baynes. (lmao) How you people think he is some type of stable genius is beyond me. That was the nail in the coffin for me. Couldn't even ride the coattails of Embiid and Simmons properly.

Yet, everybody here will not let anybody speak a single bad word about their beloved Brett. One piece of constructive criticism and the whole site lashes out insults on you. People here act like he is one of the greatest coaches of all time, when the facts show he is incredibly underwhelming. If he didn't coach for Popovich and get hired by Hinkie you all would likely have a way different, and more correct, opinion on how good of a coach Brown is.

Ultimately, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Brown can turn it around a little and show he isn't straight trash. The thing is that I can admit there is a middle ground. You guys must have gold altars in your house of Brett worshiping him as the coaching God. You probably would take offense to him being top 5, GOAT or nothing (smh). I'm just asking you guys look at things more honestly.

If you're wondering what made me write this, I'm actually a novelist. A novelist who happens to love basketball and the Sixers. I've been on LB for a while and love the community, for the most part. I just got tired of the group think and decided to put my foot down and call out the fact that maybe Brett Brown isn't the greatest coach of all time.

Trust the Process, go Sixers.


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