Sixers fire Brown as coach, putting pressure on GM on next move
Elton Brand is about to make the most important hire of his tenure as general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers.
On Aug. 24, Brand fired coach Brett Brown, the unsurprising dismissal coming just a day after the Sixers were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
With All-Stars
Joel
Embiid and Ben Simmons, the Sixers have two franchise players, but the team regressed this season. Someone had to pay the price, and that first someone was Brown.
Brown was 221-344 in his seven seasons with Philadelphia, but that includes the lean rebuilding years in which the Sixers won 19, 18, 10 and 28 games in four consecutive seasons. Brown guided the Sixers through a difficult process and emerged with a playoff team that was 146-91 over the last three seasons.
Only Boston’s Brad Stevens, Dallas’ Rick Carlisle, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers, Portland’s Terry Stotts, and San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich have been with their current teams longer.
The next coach – Clippers assistant and former Cleveland head coach Ty Lue is a hot name in coaching circles – will have talent but not an easy job. Expectations will be considerable from Day 1, and that person will have to find a way to maximize Embiid and Simmons individually and together.
While Brand may have assumed the mistakes of previous front offices, he is not off the hook for his roster decisions, including Tobias Harris’ five-year, $180 million contract and Al Horford’s four-year, $109 million contract.
For years, the Sixers have tried to build toward a championship. With Embiid and Simmons, they thought they were making progress. But considerable roster turnover, front office mistakes both recent and years ago and on-court identity issues prevented them from developing into a championship team.