Philadelphia 76ers: 5 options to replace Brett Brown as head coach

1. Kenny Atkinson

It’s baffling teams with vacancies like the Knicks and Bulls haven’t already swarmed Kenny Atkinson to get him to take the job. The Sixers should not make the same mistake, even though he isn’t mentioned among Charania’s list of candidates to keep an eye on for this gig.

Atkinson got a raw deal with the Brooklyn Nets as Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the other fresh faces wanted their own head coach, but no one should overlook the modern offense he installed or how much he helped players like Caris LeVert, D’Angelo Russell, Joe Harris, Jarrett Allen and so many others during his tenure there.

The Nets’ 118-190 record with him at the helm is misleading, since they underwent a full-scale rebuild from the ground up, but the team won 42 games last season and would’ve been a threat out East if both KD and Kyrie hadn’t been banged up all year. Remember, those two superstars don’t sign with the Nets last summer if not for the culture change he and general manager Sean Marks helped implement.

A team in desperate need of major offensive tweaks like the Sixers would be wise to embrace Atkinson’s love of the 3-pointer and up-tempo pace, since doing so would help open up the floor for Embiid. Whether Philly actually has the shooters to do so is another matter, but from a schematic perspective, Atkinson might be the best coach on the market right now.