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tiger0330

Legend
It was time for a change after 7 years and that sweep yesterday.

The Philadelphia 76ers have parted ways with head coach Brett Brown, according to multiple league sources. The news was first reported by ESPN.
Brown, a first-time head coach hired by the Sixers in August 2013, compiled a 221-334 in his seven years with the Sixers. His 555 games as the Sixers’ head coach is the second-most in franchise history, behind only Billy Cunningham.
Brown was 12-14 in three playoff appearances, all of which came in the final three years of his tenure.
According to our Shams Charania, who first reported on Monday morning that the team would part ways with Brown, candidates to keep an eye on include current Sixers’ assistant Ime Udoka, along with Jay Wright (Villanova), Dave Joerger (formerly head coach of the Kings and Grizzlies) and Ty Lue (now an assistant with the Clippers, formerly the head coach of the Cavs).
[h=3]Brown in Philadelphia[/h]The first three years of Brown’s time with the Sixers under general manager Sam Hinkie yielded a 47-199 record, as the team embarked on a controversial rebuilding plan designed to put the franchise in position to grab superstar talent, even if it came at the expense of winning games in the present. Brown’s job during that time was primarily to develop young talent, establish habits and keep the locker room together.
That shifted once Joel Embiid, taken with the third overall pick in the 2014 draft, was finally able to take the court. The Sixers were 17-28 during Embiid’s rookie season in 2016-17 before he went down with a torn meniscus in late January 2017, then went 52-30, 51-31 and 43-30 over the next three years, when Embiid was joined by star point guard Ben Simmons, selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft.
Brown briefly took the reins of the Sixers’ basketball operations in June 2018, when former general manager Bryan Colangelo and the Sixers parted ways in the wake of the controversy surrounding burner twitter accounts connected to Colangelo’s family. The accounts disparaged star player Embiid and discussed sensitive medical information publicly.
Brown shepherded the organization through the 2018 draft and free agency period before the Sixers promoted Elton Brand to general manager later that fall, keeping the rest of Colangelo’s front office staff intact. The Sixers claimed at the time that they were “star hunting,” a process that ended with the in-season trades for Jimmy Butler in November 2018 and Tobias Harris in February 2019.
That star-studded team featuring Embiid, Simmons, Butler, Harris and Redick struggled initially, with frustration building up between Butler and Brown and a lackadaisical end to the regular season where they lost six of their last 10 games before heading into the playoffs. Before their opening-round series against the Brooklyn Nets got underway, managing owner Joshua Harris was non-committal on Brown’s future with the club.
“We’re glad that he is leading us into the playoffs, and we’re focused on the Nets,” Harris said when asked about Brown’s stats. “We’re focused on winning (this) series and that’s what we’re here to talk about today.
They eventually found their footing in the playoffs, sending the Brooklyn Nets home in convincing fashion in five games, then taking the eventual champion Toronto Raptors to seven games, with Toronto winning on an improbable jumper from Kawhi Leonard as time expired. Despite a report out of the NY Times that Brown would be let go if the Sixers failed to advance beyond the second round, that performance seemed to be enough to buy Brown another year at the helm.
That wasn’t the first time Brown’s job was in jeopardy. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, when Jerry Colangelo and the 76ers hired Mike D’Antoni as the associate head coach back in December 2015, the hope was that he would one day become the Sixers’ head coach. D’Antoni was later hired by the Houston Rockets, the Sixers turned a corner and Brown’s job was secured — despite the fact that he was now working for a front office that didn’t hire him.
After committing $180 million to Tobias Harris and $109 million to Al Horford last July, the Sixers had their sights set on a trip to the NBA Finals, raising the pressure on Brown and his staff to deliver results. The fit never materialized, as they missed JJ Redick’s shooting and off-ball gravity, Jimmy Butler’s dribble-drive shot creation, and Horford was never truly comfortable playing power forward alongside Joel Embiid.
Horford was eventually benched three times — in February for Furkan Korkmaz, at the start of the bubble for Shake Milton (before Simmons went down with an injury), and finally for Game 2 of the series against the Celtics, where he was briefly replaced by rookie Matisse Thybulle.
“The thing that I found the most challenging as the season played out (is) space became an enormous issue,” Brown said after the Sixers lost Game 4 to the Celtics. “Trying to help the team, trying to coach the team, conquer that problem I felt was a challenge. From a spatial issue, from a team sort of design, that was an area that we needed to get done, and I don’t believe I did that great of a job coaching that.”
[h=3]Reaction to the change[/h]The 76ers came in with sky-high expectations this season, and fell significantly short of them. That kind of underachieving season tends to result in change, and the coaching staff is often first on the chopping block.
Brown and his staff were certainly far from perfect this season, and it would be tough to rate their performance as anything better than below average. The Sixers finished with a 43-30 record, good for just sixth in the Eastern Conference, and finished with the league’s 13th-ranked offense and eighth-ranked defense.
Some of the Sixers’ offensive problems were understandable, given the unorthodox personnel they went into the season with this season. From the lack of floor spacing, to the insufficient ballhandling, and a general lack of creativity and decisiveness among key personnel outside of Simmons, the Sixers are a tough collection of pieces to make work in a modern NBA that prioritizes perimeter play.
The defensive side of the court, on the other hand, was more troubling.
Coming into the season many expected the Sixers, led by defensive standouts Embiid, Simmons and Richardson, to challenge for the league’s best defense, and that would help buoy the questionable offensive attack. But the defense was only good, never dominant, and never consistent enough to make the Sixers a dependable team day in and day out.
Part of that disappointing defensive play came down to injuries, with all of Simmons, Embiid and Richardson missing considerable time. Part of that also came down to the Sixers’ ineffective offensive attack, as negative defenders were eventually worked into the rotation to try to provide an offensive spark.
Part of that could be attributed to the Sixers’ scheme, specifically in the way Horford was used in pick-and-rolls when he was at center, and the Sixers were slow to alter their pick-and-roll coverage against the Celtics in their first-round playoff series.
Part of the Sixers’ regular-season struggles on defense could be attributed to an inconsistent effort level, which is perhaps the most difficult with which to come to grips.
Perhaps the most compelling reason for the Sixers to make a coaching change is to get a different voice in the locker room.
The Sixers have a tricky offensive starting point, with a post-up center in Embiid and a non-shooting point guard in Simmons as a base. The unorthodox nature of their two stars has led many to speculate whether they can complement each other enough to compete at a championship level. There have also been various questions about a lack of progress in Simmons and Embiid, specifically Simmons’ reluctance to shoot to Embiid’s conditioning and body language.
Perhaps a new head coach can figure out the buttons to push to get Simmons past his fear of failure, and finally consistently taking the open jumpers that teams so willingly give him. Perhaps a coach with a different disposition would be more at ease getting through to his star players, raising the accountability of the program and helping to expedite Embiid and Simmons’ growth into the vocal leaders the team has lacked in recent years. And perhaps another offensive system can better cater to Embiid’s unique strengths in the post, create a more cohesive offensive system around a play style that the NBA has made easier to defend, and find a better way to hide Simmons’ weaknesses from being exploited against the league’s best defenses.
Nobody can pretend to be certain of the answers to any of those questions, one way or the other, because we’ve never seen Embiid and Simmons under another coach’s guidance. Changing the coach, and the voice in the locker room, is the easiest lever to pull. Regardless of whether or not such a change would wind up revealing the root of the problem, it makes sense to go that route before reaching conclusions to any of the above critical questions that have ailed the Sixers in recent years.
But it would be a mistake to think that changing the coach, and the coach alone, is going to turn the Sixers into a well-oiled machine capable of beating the NBA’s best. The tricky starting point mentioned above means that extra care and attention has to be put into the supporting pieces around Embiid and Simmons, and that has not happened over the last few years. Skill sets that are key to success in the modern NBA have been ignored. The fit needed to make the collection of parts into one cohesive group has been miscalculated. The talent level of the players, quite frankly, has been overrated, leading to a litany of mistakes that have put the Sixers in a compromised position.
Brown and the coaching staff may not have gotten this iteration of the Sixers to reach their highest level. But it’s also true that this iteration of the team simply wasn’t good enough, and that a team relying on Alec Burks, Harris and Richardson to be primary perimeter scoring options wasn’t going to form the nucleus of an NBA Finals team, with or without Simmons.
Changing the head coach might be a logical step to take, but it is but one step of what needs to be an exhaustive, multi-step plan to get the team back on the path to true title contention. Simplifying the Sixers’ problems down and placing all of the blame on Brown and his staff would be dangerously reductive, overlooking the glaring flaws of the roster which fit neither the team’s two star players, the coaches’ system nor the modern NBA at large, and providing undeserved cover for the people in charge of putting the roster together in the first place.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Brett Brown has been fired.

Bret Brown would've still had his job if he had a strong say-so in management of what players in his 2018-19 rotation not to trade. Players like Saric, Covington, Reddick, and Fultz should have been on the 76ers roster in 2019-20 season.
Forwards Saric & Covington had great chemistry alongside Embiid, plus covered twice more ground on the court than Harris & Horford.
Ben Simmons average 35 minutes per game, and Reddick average 30 minutes per game, and the 2nd season Fultz should've been coming off the bench as Simmons & Reddick backup as the combo guard in the rotation throughout the 2018-19 season.
The Philly trade for Butler, then Harris in the 2018-19 season never should've went down, both players were FA at the end of the season.
 

mafra

Legend
I agree with KIYA... They let JJ leave, banked on T Harris and gutted their depth to get him and he?s obviously not even a 3rd Star on a championship team. Simmons gets hurt... what should Brown do?

If they traded Ben Simmons for Luka they still be playing.

Mavs were a 40:1 odd bet to wins this when things started up again. So enticing to throw 100 bucks... get to enjoy watching Doncic.... make money when the inevitable KP mock NYK run happens... all that jazz. Maybe a Covid curveball knocks out a top seed...

But, going into tomorrow nights game... I wouldn?t find it crazy if Luka pulls a Dirk and ousts PG3/KL.... especially since I didn?t make the bet and now I can imagine how I would?ve won 4K if I did.

(BTW... 1200 on Tesla stock purchased on 03/18/2020 is worth 6K tonight)


If Luka plays like this, and IF KP wakes up and has a hot run for 2 weeks, if the baby feels OK enough to play... I wouldn?t count Mavs out....

DAL V BOS

How?s that for a Finals to piss us off?

But, if LeBron and AD can?t win this... their reps will forever be tarnished. 2 of the top 10 best players on the planet... 1 maybe the GOAT. A sport where 1 guy can dominate the ball, take every shot, when only 5 are even playing....

Impossible to beat that in a pick up scenario, in a best of 7.

It?s one thing if a team is in a groove, played 82 games, then on a 6-week post season run... that builds up chemistry and depth and creates a machine.

Sitting for months then meeting at a gym without fans is tailor made for LeBron. If he doesn?t win this year, and he got Dirked? GOAT go right out the window.
 
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tiger0330

Legend
19 pt lead by the Clips over the Mavs end of the first. Porzingis out again with that sore knee. Doncic so far 9/2/2. It’s early but I’m going with the Clips tonight, PG has 9 pts.
 
What a difference a game makes. I thought Dallas might be contenders but KP can?t play and Clippers woke up and Dallas is getting killed and will be setup to get knocked out in game 6.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Nate McMillan fired by the Pacers after that Miami sweep. His record in 4 yrs. was 183-136 but this was the 2nd year in a row the Pacers were swept. D’Antoni the top candidate if the Rox don’t renew his contract, I think MD will be available if he doesn’t make it to the second round.
 
Carlisle not optimistic that KP will play in game 6. Year 1 of 5 years 158 million. Just saying it again.

Maybe Mavs should push to boycott tomorrow too
 

tiger0330

Legend
Carlisle not optimistic that KP will play in game 6. Year 1 of 5 years 158 million. Just saying it again.

Maybe Mavs should push to boycott tomorrow too
Maybe the whole thing will be cancelled, after hearing many of the players can't wait to leave. This boycott may provide them the opportunity to do that but I think Silver and the owners would oppose any suggestion that the playoffs should be called off or postponed and I think important voices among the players like CP3 and Lebron will oppose it.

Kp has had 4 months off and after a few scrimmages and 3 playoff games he has sore knees. Some players are not built for the rigors of pro athletics, he seems like one of those.
 

tiger0330

Legend
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Lakers and Clippers vote to NOT play rest of season.
All the other teams voted to continue to play. Listening on TNT about there's a difference of opinion among the players with some saying they sacrificed a lot to be in Orlando already and want to finish it out, while others say this is bigger than bball and want to shut it down.

I think we'll get back to playing at some point but players that want to leave will be allowed to do so, we might get a championship decided because key players decided to leave rather than stay.
 

mafra

Legend
Amnesty International - 2019

As in previous years, the execution total does not include the estimated thousands of executions carried out in China, which treats data on the death penalty as a state secret.

NBA athletes "boycott" playing games in the ORL bubble, which they're only playing bc the league wants the post season billion dollars the TV networks pay for... but they had no issues running to China to play during their offseason, and even remained silent when China got angry bc an exec in HOU tweeted that he supported the Chinese protesters?

Odd.

Police brutality certainly an issue people need to address, and athletes, as well as all entertainers, have every right to use their platform to promote whatever they want... but when you ignore brutality on one side of the world, to 1/6 of the people of the planet, when you run and take the money.... well, hard to take your message seriously here...
 

tiger0330

Legend
Amnesty International - 2019

As in previous years, the execution total does not include the estimated thousands of executions carried out in China, which treats data on the death penalty as a state secret.

NBA athletes "boycott" playing games in the ORL bubble, which they're only playing bc the league wants the post season billion dollars the TV networks pay for... but they had no issues running to China to play during their offseason, and even remained silent when China got angry bc an exec in HOU tweeted that he supported the Chinese protesters?

Odd.

Police brutality certainly an issue people need to address, and athletes, as well as all entertainers, have every right to use their platform to promote whatever they want... but when you ignore brutality on one side of the world, to 1/6 of the people of the planet, when you run and take the money.... well, hard to take your message seriously here...
Police brutality here in America literally hits much closer to home than in China. The feeling expressed by many of the players that it could happen to any of them is true, look at the Sterling Brown incident, if he had resisted after being racially profiled and harassed he might be dead today.

Trump is a hypocrite himself, not even making a peep when the Saudi Prince executes a Saudi journalist and coddling a North Korean dictator that has killed thousands of his political opponents.
 
Porzingis with a torn meniscus in his right knee. Done for the playoffs. Year 1 of a 159 million dollar contract. Again, just saying.
 
Another huge game from Doncic as Mavericks get ousted from the 1st round of the playoffs. KP with 2 bad knees now.

Hey Cuban! You messed up dude. You got a guy who might be the best player in the league paired with a #2 who is going to spend the next 4 years of his 159 million dollar deal struggling to make it to the finish with his knees still working.

Dallas definitely could have done better than KP in free agency finding a star who wanted to play with Doncic.
 

mafra

Legend
The last pick NYK sent to DEN, in the Melo trade, was Jamal Murray. He scored a 50 burger tonight to force Game 7.
 
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