Do We Need to Start Holding Brett Brown More Accountable?

It might be time that the Philadelphia 76ers start holding head coach Brett Brown more accountable for shortcomings.

Head coach Brett Brown is one of the hardest working members of the Philadelphia 76ers, with quite possibly the hardest head coaching job in the NBA. Even though there’s no pressure to win, the stress that comes with his job is enormous.

Even one of the NBA’s all-time great coaches Gregg Poppovich (San Antonio Spurs) said that he would only last about a month having to coach the Sixers, developing these young players. And Poppovich is one of the best developmental coaches in the league, a face that Brown learned under.

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I admire Brown. His passion, even this far in the season, when the Sixers have still not won 10 games, is incredible. Lots of fans feel the same way. Earlier this season a group of fans from the Sixers Reddit page crowdfunded a project to send Brown a fruit basket to let him know that they appreciated him.

There is another crowd, though, one that asked for Brown to get fired when David Blatt was fired this season. This crowd is largely uneducated, it seems, about the duty of Brown, but some of their points about Brown failing in some areas could be seen as valid.

I’m starting to wonder, with some of the things we’ve seen Brown do in games or heard him say at practices, if Brown needs to be more accountable for why the Sixers are still at this low level. Yes, this roster was built to lose, and Brown has been given an impossible task — win with such a bad team. But you’d think any team would muscle out 10 games, especially given how close the Sixers have been in so many fourth quarters this season so far.

Brown is said to be a great developmental coach himself, and the goal is that we see him improve players value year to year, but we need to be evaluating him in the same year. Is he making smarter decisions late in games? Is he sitting players smartly?

One of the biggest issues with Brown is that he’s been given an impossible task in the frontcourt. He’s been asked to find a way to get Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor to fit well and play well together, a task that’s seemingly impossible. Their play styles clearly clash as they both do best right at the hoop. That was how it was at the beginning of the year, fans cringing with Noel trying to be a forward, and then getting upset because he kept coming back to his natural domicile — near the hoop.

It’s only been just recently that Brown has admitted that Okafor needs to be the forward, and it seems like he should have picked up on this indication a long time ago.

More than just the frontcourt has been hurt. Brown has compiled tons of different lineups throughout games, experimented endlessly to find the right combination. But it never seems like he has a good idea of who to play, and it always seems like the Sixers are outmatched on the floor because of the wrong players being in. It always seems like Brown is forgetting to take something into account, which is dangers.

The lineups have been particularly bad in the fourth quarter, as we’ve seen him leave Jahlil Okafor on the bench countless times in tight situations, even though he is the team’s most consistent scorer. Yes, you want players who can hit 3-pointers in those situations, but when that’s not available, it’s nice to have one player who is good for 2 points almost every possession.

Additionally, it seems as if his players go out onto the floor confused about what’s happening, and they look lost. It’s as if Brett Brown can’t explain to them the gameplan a lot of the time, and can’t get his point across about what he needs them to do to put them in a position to win. We’ve seen players foul when they shouldn’t, dribble the ball off of their foot when trying to get the play going. Perhaps that’s a player issue, but you’d think at least once the players would get the plan right if it was explained well to them.

Brown has had all year to fix these issues, yet they seem to be worsening as time goes on. We have seen the Sixers go on slumps — this recent one with no wins since the All-Star break ended is a notable one — with no good explanation from the coach about what’s happening, and no plan for the future about how to fix things.

I’m not calling for a firing of Brown. I simply believe he has a long way to go before he is at the point where he can be the coach leading the Sixers into their coming success.

These issues are often seen as non-issues by the Sixers fans because the Sixers aren’t expected to win anyway. Who cares if the coach isn’t leading the team to wins?

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Well, the thing is, we need to see progress. That’s what this rebuild is all about. Seeing progress in all areas. And maybe it’s just because we’re in the midst of an awful slump of basketball, but right now, I need to see more from Brett Brown.