Philadelphia 76ers: GM Sam Hinkie Is Brett Brown’s Excuse To Lose

After the conclusion of the 2013-14 season, six different head coaches were either fired or failed to have their contract renewed. None of which were Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown, although, Brown led his team to the second worst record in the NBA and tied an NBA record with 26 straight losses.

The same will likely be the case for next season and this time around, the Sixers are the favorites to boast one of the worst records in the history of the league.

Will Brown be fired after that?

No. After what could be around only 35 wins in his first two seasons, Brown will be back for the third and fourth years of his contract because he has Sixers’ general manager Sam Hinkie on his side.

From day one, Hinkie has made it very clear that his intentions aren’t to even be competitive during his first few years in charge. Rather, he’s looking to keep the Sixers among the league’s bottom-feeders and gather enough early lottery picks and available salary space until he feels he has enough assets to and young talent to transform his Sixers into a championship caliber team overnight.

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Who knows how long that could be and with Hinkie understanding how fortunate he is to have brought on the former San Antonio Spurs assistant and player development specialist in Brown, it simply wouldn’t be logical to toss him aside when Hinkie has practically set Brown up for failure during his first two seasons with a roster that simply cannot compete at a high level.

How has Hinkie set Brown up for failure you might ask?

Well first of all, keep in mind this failure is only short term and the efforts of Brown will pay off once the entire team can be seen on the court together, which I will elaborate on shortly.

But look back on the Sixers’ draft night in late June, when Hinkie’s club walked away with an extremely high upside center that will likely miss the entire season in Joel Embiid, along with a small forward who has inked himself to at least two more seasons with his squad in Croatia in Dario Saric.

Just like that, a draft that was supposed to change that landscape on basketball in the City of Brotherly Love resulted in two first round picks that won’t even see the hardwood of the Wells Fargo Center in the foreseeable future.

In a nutshell, Brown will have to work with the post-Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes Sixers who are now without their leader and most valuable asset, Thaddeus Young, while only gaining a handful of rookies and trade bait role players. With a roster littered with guys who would struggle to find meaningful minutes on nearly every competitive team, the responsibility falls on the shoulders on Hinkie and the guys he allows Brown to coach.

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As for what Brown can do with what little he does have…well, we all got to see the glimpses of how far he has brought Nerlens Noel’s offensive game from what we last saw during his only season at Kentucky. With such a great mind for development, this is only the tip of the iceberg as to what he will do with Noel, Michael Carter-Williams, Embiid and whomever else Hinkie decides to fill the roster out with.

There’s a saying among the 76ers community that states “In Hinkie We Trust” and every Sixers’ fan and observer should know that Brown is going to be around for a while. Hinkie knows what he’s doing and has taken the blame for what losing seasons are coming in Philly and surprisingly has the city of Philadelphia in his corner.

At least for the next two or three seasons, nobody, including Hinkie expects much from the Sixers in the win column. But once Hinkie compiled all of his assets on early first round picks into one roster in Philly, that’s when the clock will start and the pressure for Brown to perform will actually become real.