Never Had It This Good
Head Coach Brett Brown is a patient and upbeat guy, but the past three years have taken a terrible toll on his outlook.
Sir Charles In Charge
Fortunately, the dawn has arrived. If you don’t think this season is completely different than last season, let’s recap what the season opener looked like from the head coach’s perspective. The team had no identifiable point guard. The center position was a mess, as Brown had to sort through a returning veteran Noel and a rookie arrival in Jahlil Okafor, the roster was filled with holes as the team did not have the services of power forward Carl Landry (wrist), guard Tony Wroten and Kendall Marshall (ACLs), center Joel Embiid (foot), shooting guard Nik Stauskas (muscle strain) and small forward Robert Covington was injured on the last game of pre-season and would miss the first three weeks.
No point guard translated into Isaiah Canaan trying to fill the role. Too many centers in Okafor and Noel translated into Okafor playing center and Noel playing power forward, and then Noel playing center and Okafor at power forward, and then just Noel playing center. The injury list translated into players returning to the active roster as late into the season as January 2016, only to have the top scorer shut down in late February 2016.
But this year, the only variables will be, for the most part, who will start.
That’s huge for head coach Brett Brown. Last year, he frantically exclaimed, even as the season started, that he needed another month to sort out who should play where. Now, the only question is who to send onto the floor first.
Next: Brown Can FInally Coach