Philadelphia 76ers Position Analysis Under Brett Brown: Part I Center

Fresh And Fearless

Jahlil Okafor is a young man at age 19, and his early experiences in the NBA found him in conflict with fans of other teams- particularly the fans of the Boston Celtics. As a result of the fracas, and the unveiling of additional events that called Okafor’s off-court judgement into question, Okafor was suspended for two games by the team.  It was that series of events that may have laid the groundwork for the hiring of Jerry Colangelo, the trade for Ish Smith, and the subsequent hiring of Mike D’Antoni as assistant head coach of the team.  But the crux of the events was the display of tough love by the head coach for his players.

As he has brought the two young centers through the awkwardness of playing together and seperately, Brown has done a remarkable job of measuring his comments in such a way that nothing is left to misinterpretation.  He doesn’t use social media or the press to conduct his business with his players.  He uses straight talk, and face to face, to do so.

Brown also sets his starting roster based upon his opponent. That keeps players fresh and the team unpredictable.  But the byproduct of the ever changing starting roster is the flexibility of the players to show up in any given game.  Despite the risk of players competing against one another, Brown’s methods have teammates focused on the team success.  Here’s the perfect example, comments from Jahlil Okafor sitting on the bench in a double overtime loss.

"“I’ve always been about the team. I’ve been around some really great organizations and it’s all about winning. That’s what we’re trying to do here and it was a great game. My teammates had it rolling. They were playing phenomenal.” – Jahlil Okafor on watching his teammates lose in double overtime"

And so, the team is depending upon head coach Brett Brown to navigate the perils of losing to get them to the point where they are winning. So far he’s done just that. From a center position of veterans who had plateaued to a stable of young talented prostpects with huge upsides, the Philadelphia 76ers appear to be much improved at the five spot. As the team develops the players, the front office is itself learning from veteran NBA executives.

Next: Can Philadelphia 76ers Fans Find Hope?

With a goal of building a championship team, the center position is solid enough to do just that.