Philadelphia 76ers: Is Brett Brown Coach of the Year?

Derek Fisher said Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown deserves the Coach of the Year award, but is that valid?

Brett Brown may be one of the most talked about coaches in the NBA, but not always for the best reason. A lot of fans don’t understand the role that the Philadelphia 76ers head coach plays with the team, but Derek Fisher clearly does.

Brown, when looking at the numbers, has not been a good coach. After all, a good coach leads his team to wins, right? Brown, over the past several seasons as the Sixers head coach (his only head coaching gig to date) has put up a record of just 42-165, not one that appeals to the eye.

Unfortunately, the eye test with Brown’s record is the only judgement sone fans use when talking about Brown. Shortly after the Nets fired their coach not too long ago this season, there were yet again cries in the Sixers world for, “why haven’t the Sixers fired their coach if their record is so bad?”

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The people asking these questions obviously fall into a few different fan categories. For one, they obviously don’t understand what Brown’s role is on the team, and that he’s been given a nearly impossible task, and two, they obviously have not watched a single Sixers game or Brett Brown interview yet this year.

Don’t get me wrong. I have written before on my frustration with Brett Brown previously. I still am having trouble deciphering his reasoning for a lot of his late-game lineups, and his decision to not play the on-fire Jahlil Okafor in the fourth quarter or either of the two overtime quarters against the New York Knicks was frustrating. But that doesn’t warrant firing him.

Look at it this way: When the Brooklyn Nets fired their coach Lionel Hollins, they were called out as having the worst future in the NBA. If the Sixers were to fire Brown now, they would have ditched their rebuilding efforts and the last few seasons would have been complete wastes. It would make the Sixers look awful, and it’s just an absurd consideration to bring up firing Brown now. Especially after the Sixers just extended his contract by two seasons.

Among the coaching world, Brown has often been highly praised by his fellow coaches in the NBA. He was formerly assistant to Greg Poppovich, who spoke highly of Brown saying that he personally could not do what Brown is tasked with.

None so far have been as bold as Knicks head coach Derek Fisher, though, who had very kind words after the two coaches faced off on Monday.

#Knicks Derek Fisher: 'Brett Brown, in my view, is the coach of the year already because of how he gets his guys to compete.' #Sixers
— Tom Moore (@TomMoorePhilly) January 18, 2016

It would certainly make sense for Fisher to say this. The Sixers were down by double digits in the third quarter, but fought back against the Knicks, taking them to double overtime before losing.

We’ve seen it time and time again. Even though a lot of these games don’t matter for the Sixers, and they might actually have a better future planned out if they lost most of them, Brown is vocal and on his feet until the ends of games. Where you would expect some coaches to say, “alright guys, let’s just take this last quarter easy,” Brett encourages his guys to play their hearts out no matter what the score on the board is.

But coach of the year? That’s a little far, isn’t it? We can’t think that Derek Fisher really believes that Brown deserves the award. Even if he is deserving of being commended for his hard work, there would be an outrage if he got the Coach of the Year award above some coaches who are doing everything they can to actually win games for their teams.

And of course, we have to think NBA commissioner Adam Silver, the same man who allegedly pushed for the Sixers to put a stop on their rebuilding plan by hiring Jerry Colangelo, would do everything in his power to stop Brett Brown for getting recognized leading this team to just five wins through half of the season.

Brett Brown has certainly done well with a seemingly impossible task, and he is one of the best coaches as far as getting players fired up and ready to compete. But that does not call the need for an award given to him when he has led the team to just five wins, and plenty of lost games–with a lot of them being lost in the fourth quarter–this season.

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Fisher’s gesture to Brown was nice, but no, Brown is not Coach of the Year. Perhaps it was more of a foreshadowing, saying that a few years down the road, Brown’s competitiveness and fire for coaching alongside some great talent will have him as a front-runner for the honor.