The Philadelphia 76ers’ season hasn’t been perfect, but it could be a lot worse. Brett Brown has been a big part of keeping things stable.
Evaluating coaches in the NBA can be difficult. It’s hard to draw the line between what belongs on the players’ shoulders versus the coach’s. Sometimes the shot doesn’t go in, no matter how good the set was to get the player open. Other times, a coach subs a guy in who shouldn’t be getting tick. In general, Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown hasn’t done much wrong this season.
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Roster turnover has been a staple of his tenure in Philly and the beginning of this season was no different. The Sixers let Jimmy Butler and J.J. Redick walk, adding Josh Richardson and Al Horford to replace them.
The latter two are smart players, but it still takes a lot of work to integrate two starters. Add in the change in Tobias Harris‘ role and Brown and the gang had a ton of work to do before the season even started.
Like the majority of Sixers’ happenings, Brown has handled these well. The team is 20-7 despite the starting five seeing minimal time together. Harris is having a career year, Joel Embiid had arguably the best game of his life against Boston on Thursday, Horford’s integration has been relatively painless and Brown has gone all-in on wanting Simmons to shoot.
He’s been on the hot seat since he was hired, but it should be cooling down with each passing game.