Philadelphia 76ers: Despite Doc Rivers hiring, Sixers are still a sinking ship

The Philadelphia 76ers may have found a head coach in Doc Rivers, but the manner in which they did should highlight Philly’s plethora of existing problems.

Following the Philadelphia 76ers’ recent playoff ousting, desperate pleas for an impending Brett Brown exodus quickly followed after that. For the most faithful Philly sports fanatics, however, those prayers were coming in droves for upwards of a year now. How many more times could Brown subject the basketball public to yet another failed attempt in pulling the most out of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons? In the eyes of many, that answer was zero.

The Sixers finally gave us their thoughts on the matter no more than 24 hours following their first-round sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics. After seven tenuous seasons, Philadelphia wisely decided to ax Brett Brown to pursue other avenues of leadership. Fortunately for the wounded organization, the catalog of possible replacements seemingly continued to grow with each passing day. With former head coaches like Mike D’Antoni, Tyronn Lue, Billy Donovan, Kenny Atkinson, David Fizdale, Nate McMillan, and even Jeff Van Gundy on the market, the Philadelphia 76ers had their pick of the litter.

At first, the Sixers appeared poised to make LA Clippers assistant, Tyronn Lue, their future commanding officer. Those once surefire Lue-to-Philly rumors softly circulated for weeks. That is, of course, until the Los Angeles Lakers swiftly eviscerated D’Antoni’s Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals. With D’Antoni’s eventual Houston resignation bound to play out, the 76ers began to focus one eye on a newer, hipper, sexier target.

But when the Clippers unexpectedly opted to relieve Doc Rivers of his duties following an all-time collapse against the Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia’s front office quickly experienced yet another change in vision. Only this time, both of their eyes were firmly fixated.

The Philadelphia 76ers pounced on Doc immediately following his dismissal, and despite Rivers’ shortcomings as well as the potential hiring of either Lue or D’Antoni—both of which were rumored to have been on the table as recently as one week ago—Philly’s decision was finalized. Doc was their guy.

Regardless of how Doc Rivers’ tenure in Los Angeles ended, it is easy to understand why the Sixers hastily made him their coach. First and foremost, Doc is an unimpeachable upgrade over Brett Brown. That much is not up for debate. To go multiple steps further, Doc Rivers—despite his consistent postseason woes—was one of the best coaching free agents the NBA has seen this decade.

If Philadelphia’s front office failed to jump on this opportunity, any number of teams would have swooped Doc up in a similarly speedy fashion. For the Sixers, this hiring had to happen as soon as possible.

Yet having said that, are we perhaps overlooking the oddities of Philadelphia’s—no pun intended—process? Sure, the Sixers grabbed the most reputable coach on the market. They are also pairing said coach with two of the top-20 players in the NBA. But even with that being the case, does anybody necessarily feel good about how the situation played out? The number of recent coaching rumors surrounding the Philadelphia 76ers could have been enough to make even Adrian Wojnarowski’s head spin, so why is it that many were so quick to usher a sigh of relief following one of the fastest coaching courtships in my lifetime?

Though the Sixers’ organization found ‘common ground,’ it is the second-to-last statement that should stand out the most:

"“There’s been many different opinions throughout this search.”"

Philadelphia might have happily landed on Doc, but if we read between the lines on the above tweet and take a proverbial time machine back to before Rivers’ hiring, the Sixers begin to feel more like a ticking time bomb than anything else.

The Philadelphia 76ers had to make a move, but was this the move?

With some executives preferring Mike D’Antoni and other executives preferring Tyronn Lue—two guys with wildly different personalities and entirely opposing coaching philosophies—there seems to be an evident lack of trust amongst Philly’s executives. It is genuinely impossible to avoid the thought that, just one short week ago, multiple Philadelphia 76ers’ staffers were bickering between themselves as they discussed the simplest, most existential question any organization must hold the answer to if they hope to find any semblance of success:

“What the hell are we doing?”

If one executive zigs when another zags, what can the organization possibly hope to accomplish? For Sixers fans, this reality has been a recurring theme for years. Because of this habitual ineptitude, the hiring of a well-respected, championship-winning coach appears to be a step in the right direction. However, it is when you pull back the curtains that you see the actuality of the situation.

While many are understandably excited about the Doc Rivers appointment, the process behind his hiring should point to the palpable dissent within the Sixers’ front office. It should illuminate the multitude of other disasters they have created for themselves in recent memory—keeping Brett Brown for so long, letting Jimmy Butler walk, and signing Al Horford and Tobias Harris to two of the worst contracts in the NBA.

It should also spotlight the many obstacles brought upon by their own doing that will need ironing out in their immediate future—the Simmons vs. Embiid chasm, how they choose to round out a tapped roster, and how Doc will fit with a frustrating, unmotivated team.

Who knows, maybe the Doc Rivers hiring is a positive blip on the radar of future things to come in Philly. But sadly for Rivers, the previously ignored blips on that radar gouged holes so large that stopping the Sixers’ ship from sinking seems downright impossible.

As the newly appointed captain of that ship, Doc better be prepared to go down with it.