Five reasons the 76ers extending Brett Brown was a good move
Five reasons why the Philadelphia 76ers extending head coach Brett Brown was the right move
The Philadelphia 76ers are a complete dumpster fire in the 2015-16 NBA season. Actually, it’s not just the 2015-16 season, but rather a self-inflicted trend for the Sixers over the past few seasons thanks to the infamous “Process” brought about by general manager Sam Hinkie. However, the Sixers actually made at least one positive move this season on Friday.
On Friday, Philadelphia announced that they had signed head coach Brett Brown to a two-year contract extension. That might seem like a surprising move considering the struggles of the 76ers since Brown took over as head coach prior to the 2013-14 season. In his two full seasons and the start of this year, Brown has only a 38-148 record as a head coach.
Most head coaches in the NBA would be fired long before their overall coaching record with one team reached that mark, much less be given a two-year extension. However, things are different when it comes to Brown and the Sixers because, well, that’s the way they wanted things to be.
The simple fact is that the Sixers aren’t supposed to be a good basketball team. The crux of Hinkie’s “Process” is to be historically bad to increase the team’s chances of winning the draft-lottery and ultimately grabbing high-end prospects and, hopefully, at least one franchise-altering player through the draft. The question has always been when that process is going to start yielding results because, as their 1-21 record this season would suggest, that hasn’t started happening yet.
However, Brown has been almost like a victim of this carnage in Philadelphia, a coach handed a clipboard and given an impossible task of coaching a basketball team that is constructed to be bad. Not to make too many obscure late 80s movie references, but he’s basically asked to be Lou Brown from the original Major League.
Yet he’s persevered through all of this and Brown, more than possibly any fan and anyone not named Sam Hinkie, has remained faithful and diligent in trusting the process and letting it continue with this team. And, when you really get down to it, he fully deserved to be extended, which is definitely the first time that has ever been said regarding a coach with a .204 winning percentage.
Who knows what the trajectory for the Sixers is going beyond this season, but Brett Brown is going to be there after this extension. Here are five reasons why that’s a good idea.
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