The Philadelphia 76ers will begin searching for a new head coach after firing Brett Brown after seven seasons as head coach. The news came via Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and was confirmed by Kyle Neubeck of Philly Voice.
The Philadelphia 76ers fired coach Brett Brown, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 24, 2020
The Sixers have fired Brett Brown, a team source confirmed to PhillyVoice. On his tenure and what went wrong: https://t.co/WrnnrzFk7Y
— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) August 24, 2020
Brown guided Philly through the extremely lean Process years before making the leap to a perennial playoff team (overall a 221-344 record), but one that never capitalized fully on the promise of its young stars. Brown issued a statement through the Sixers thanking the team for the seven years there and all 102 (!) players he coached.
Statement from Brett Brown, per the @sixers … pic.twitter.com/LBNicU57zL
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) August 24, 2020
The final straw was a rather humiliating playoff sweep in the Orlando Bubble at the hands of the rival Boston Celtics, in which Philadelphia’s roster outside of Joel Embiid underperformed and the team struggled to find consistency on either end of the floor — even moreso than was to be expected without Ben Simmons. The question in Philly is whether this is just the beginning of organizational changes for the Sixers, because their issues are far from just the fault of the coach.
While Brown’s questionable lineups and rotations played a role — and there are grumblings of his influence in personnel decisions like moving on from Jimmy Butler — there is plenty of blame to go around in Philadelphia’s front office for constructing a roster that lacks balance. If those problems aren’t addressed this offseason as well, whoever comes in to coach the Sixers next will have their hands full trying to figure out the right combinations to try and unlock the potential of the Simmons-Embiid combo, without having the desired personnel to do so.
Even with a roster that has clear flaws in its construction and a pair of highly paid players in Al Horford and Tobias Harris who didn’t come close to living up to their contracts this season, the presence of Embiid and Simmons figures to make the Sixers coaching job a highly coveted one. The question is what kind of coach Philadelphia will be looking for, with my money on them seeking out a coach with an offensive track record in hopes of unlocking something more on that end — in expectation of them still being a quality defensive team given their pieces.
