Philadelphia 76ers: 3 takeaways from Game 7 heartbreaker vs. Raptors
3. Has Brett Brown coached his last game with the Sixers?
A day before Game 7, the New York Times’ Marc Stein reported that Brett Brown was unlikely to remain the Sixers’ head coach should his team fail to advance past the second round of these playoffs.
Brown famously took over the head coaching duties just as Philly was beginning its infamous tank job prior to the 2013-14 campaign. He was at the helm when the team won an average of 18.7 games in four seasons but was as positive a spirit as one could be in such troubling times. It was, for this reason, Sixers fans were excited to see what he could do with a more competent roster that wasn’t built to lose games on purpose.
An assistant under Gregg Popovich for nearly a decade, Brown has been criticized at times for the lack of creativity his offensive sets usually exude. One could point to his simplistic play calls as a large reason for Philly’s demise despite the weapons he had at his disposal.
Philly having essentially 3 straight shot clock violations on their three biggest possessions of the season, the first one coming out of a timeout, is not exactly ideal for Brett Brown’s job security.
— nick wright (@getnickwright) May 13, 2019
More often than not, fired coaches rarely get a fair trial. Yes, it’s up to them to put players in positions to succeed, but at the end of the day, this Sixers’ roster is deeply flawed. Ben Simmons refuses to shoot from the outside and Joel Embiid can’t seem to stay healthy.
Who Philly’s higher-ups have in mind to replace the beloved coach would be anyone’s guess. Most of the good candidates have already been picked up by non-playoff teams. Fair or not, ownership expected big things in these playoffs after the two blockbuster deals to acquire Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris.
They didn’t get the ones they wanted and changes will likely be made. If history is any indication, that unfortunately means Brown could be hitting the open market any day now.