Philadelphia 76ers: In defense of Brett Brown

3. Doesn’t move the needle

To start the debate, let’s attack the most general gripe. Simply put, Brown has been pegged way below the best coaches in the league. But when going through, coach by coach, what does, say, Rick Carlisle do so much better than Brown?

To be clear, this is not an attack against good coaches. This is merely a comparison.

Carlisle is considered a great coach because he makes the most of what he has. His two Finals appearances (and one win) as the Dallas Mavericks head coach mostly weren’t his doing, at least on the court; both rosters were quite talented.

Erik Spoelstra is regarded highly for the same reasons. But again, his best success came with loaded rosters. His most recent work with the Miami Heat is impressive, but expectations are also lower.

Nate McMillan, while in charge of a star in Victor Oladipo, also had to figure out how to unleash him. It might seem obvious now, but making Oladipo the main ball-handler was bold at the time. No one gave the Indiana Pacers a puncher’s chance to make the playoffs last year, yet they won 49 games and forced seven games against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs. That wasn’t all because of Dipo, as evidenced by their sustained success without him this season.

Brown was thrust a situation that immediately flipped from losing intentionally to feast-or-famine. There was no in-between. Coaches’ most noticeable work on an individual level is with role players because, well, they’re less talented and need more work than, say, Joel Embiid.

It’s too bad Brown has never developed role players before. You just hate to see it.

Credit must also be given in his development of his stars. Brown and his staff certainly had an impact on Embiid, as they taught him the footwork, post moves and shooting mechanics he needed to take another step forward. Not to mention, Brown also gave Ben Simmons the keys to the offense. Akin to the idea of Dipo or James Harden running the show, that wasn’t obvious at first either.

An argument against Brown is that he can’t beat good teams. This is obviously a misconception, as the Sixers really just can’t beat the Boston Celtics.

Is it a concern? Yes. Did Brown get out-coached by Brad Stevens in last year’s playoff series? Absolutely. But let’s not act like he had the best roster on his hands (shoutout to Bryan Colangelo!). No one outside of Embiid could create his own shot, and the Celtics did an excellent job of exploiting that.

It helps when you’re gifted useful asset after useful asset as the benefactor of the most lopsided trade ever. The Celtics were better coached, but their roster was also easier to manipulate; the Sixers, meanwhile, had a bench led by Marco Belinelli and T.J. McConnell, and started two defensive liabilities in J.J. Redick and Dario Saric.

Brown does a lot more (with a lot less) than people are willing to give him credit for.