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.
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.