Can O’Brien and Brown Coach These Philadelphia 76ers?

In adding Jim O’Brien as an assistant coach, the Philadelphia 76ers have reassembled the coaching staff to lead the team this season? But can this duo do it?

We know head coach Brett Brown, or after three years of motivating a young, inexperienced team, we should. But assistant head coach Jim O’Brien is a new variable, an unknown. That creates some debate as to the coaching acumen of the Philadelphia 76ers this season.

That’s where we step in as guides.

To develop a strong coaching staff, a team needs to compliment the weaknesses of one coach with the strengths of another. So which strengths will you find in the two top coaches of the Philadelphia 76ers?

In head coach Brett Brown, the Philadelphia 76ers have a coach who is from Gregg Popovich’s coaching tree, and as such Brown has incorporated much of Popovich’s philosophy and scheme. Before I am corrected incessantly in the comments section, I understand that Gregg Popovich has no “system” per se. He develops a scheme to suit his players, and uses that “built to fit” scheme to optimize the strengths of each lineup.

Brett Brown is very gifted at developing players.  But he is also very good at player subsititutions. Remember the night where the Philadelphia 76ers nearly upset the Golden State Warriors?  But the results of Jim O’Brien in developing players has not been graded very highly, at least not when he was the coach of the Indianapolis Pacers.

Next: Pop's Magic

Pop’s Magic

San Antonion head coach Gregg Popovich does four things extremely well.

Develop his players.
Choose the best strategies for his players.
Choose the best tactics for the situation.
Get his players to execute his strategy and tactics.

And so, the Philadelphia 76ers have been coached with the same basic principals in mind. Build from within. Develop his players- the success of undrafted T.J. McConnell, of both Jerami Grant and Jahlil Okafor, and of Nerlens Noel indicates that the team is on track there.

For all of the strategic and tactical decisions that go into basketball, the most important skill for a coach is the ability to motivate, direct, and communicate with his players. Even in a league filled with some of the best in the world at this, Popovich stands out. Brown is a close second.

But its not just doing things the right way, but the durability of Popovich’s methods.  The key to that is his lack of rigidity.  He designs a scheme to fit his players, but he can draw up a play on a time out to equal effectiveness.

He understands his limits, and that of his players.  It’s that understanding which gives his legacy so many accolades.

Next: Oh Brien

Oh Brien!

The strength of Jim O’Brien is in another area of coaching expertise. If Brown is the guy packing the car and filling the gas take, O’Brien is the one who plans the route.

O’Brien has been involved in rebuilds before, as worked to rebuild the struggling Celtics and led them twice to the playoffs in just three seasons from 2001-2005. During the 2003–04 NBA season, however, O’Brien disagreed with Celtics’ general manager Danny Ainge over Ainge’s plans to blow up the roster and rebuild.   To do so, Ainge traded Eric Williams and Tony Battie, two hardworking players, in December 2003. Seeing that Ainge had taken two of the better players out of the roster, O’Brien resigned in January 2004.

He didn’t remain unemployed for long, and was hired by the Philadelphia 76ers heading into the 2004-2005 season, a year the 76ers made the playoffs. With the release of coach Maurice Cheeks from the Portland Trailblazers, the Philadelphia 76ers terminated O’Brien to open the head coaching spot for Cheeks, who they immediately hired. He was hired as head coach of the Indiana Pacers in 2007, but after three plus seasons of failing to get that team to the playoffs, general manager Larry Byrd fired O’Brien.

O’Brien, in his NBA experience, micro-managed defense. He was a stickler for it, and it showed in his team’s performance as well as in his speech when interviewed:

"“I don’t feel the need to move the defense back and forth when we have the ball,” he said. “I’ll take the first good, open shot that we can get. I’m not adverse to that. I just believe we’ll work so hard on defense that the players will feel confident with their ability to create on offense.” – Jim O’Brien"

To be honest, the Philadelphia 76ers were nowhere prepared for the likes of a defensive minded coach in previous seasons. The team barely managed to have enough healthy bodies, and the intensity of a defensive-oriented coach would have left player and coach very frustrated by mid-season. This season, however, the team is healthy, has enough defensive minded players in each position, and is in a position to challenge for some wins.

This team is ready for James Francis Xavier O’Brien.

Next: Good coach Bad Coach

Good Coach Bad Coach

The most noticeable element absent from the Philadelphia 76ers last season was the role of disciplinarian. It was most evident when news leaked of Jahlil Okafor’s skirmish outside of a Boston club in the wee hours of the morning. In the end, the team clearly had not anticipated that rookies on the team may test the boundaries, break curfew, and challenge the sanctioned regiment of staying in and keeping their noses clean.

The team had build an infrastructure to promote positives, but had done nothing to create barriers for less than positive behavior.

That could change this year.  While the statistics of successful head coaches are clearly in favor of the motivator, some players need to be reminded of consequences of their actions in order to listen to positive motivation.  A very good expose of the coaching effectiveness was written by Ian Levy back in April 2010.  This is the same Ian Levy who wrote a very good article about the Philadelphia 76ers off-season review recently, and he was kind enough to allow me to respond to some very intriguing questions about the future of the 76ers.

But that future remains as a path to be blazed.  To do so, each player must fully understand their role, their strengths, their limits, their teammates, and their responsibilities. Part of that maturation is the durability through tough times together.  For the past three years, head coach Brett Brown has been the right guy to keep the team motivated, positive, and emerging stronger

But if the #TrustTheProcess planning is accurate, the team should begin to see significant progress this year.  No, not in the framework of a playoff appearance, but winning games.  As the team does this, the players own perceptions of the work required to improve runs the risk of waning.

Enter Jim O’Brien, the more “taskmaster” style of coaching.  While Brown helps to pick players up from the floor, O’Brien is skilled and keeping their feet on the ground.  It’s that “reality check” quality that forces teams to show how good they are on the basketball court.  Winning is a positive feeling, but winning games is just a step in the right direction.

O’Brien refocuses a team towards that ultimate goal, and redirects the efforts towards getting there.  Until the team matures, experiences the heartbreaks of playoff losses, O’Brien is that system check coach who keeps players from getting too full of themselves.

Next: Will the Coaches Click?

Will The Coaches Click?

From the moment Jerry Colangelo convinced Mike D’Antoni to come aboard the Philadelphia 76ers as the assistant head coach, there was not a single person in Philadelphia who believed D’Antoni would remain with the team for the long term. D’Antoni was a long time head coach, enjoyed coaching, and saw an opportunity to return to the NBA radar for the next wave of coaching hires. Brown was a student of D’Antoni’s offensive scheme, and found the chance to talk to the coach who engineered innovations in the NBA a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It worked for both.

But with the arrival of Jim O’Brien, that “coaches chemistry” question needs to be asked once more. Will it work?

I think it will. Brett Brown is more than motivator, he is a politician. He steered new President Bryan Colangelo away from rapid wholesale changes to the team and despite being the head coach hired by Sam Hinkie, has seemed to have succeeded.  Brown has been the face of the franchise, not because he loves the spotlight, but because nobody else in the organization stepped up to communicate.

Even now, under Bryan Colangelo, the authentic information seems to emerge from the interviews with Brown.

Jim O’Brien is the doer.  He has been burned by his outspokenness in the past, and is apt to view this opportunity with the Philadelphia 76ers as a chance to get back into the thrill of building a champion without the politics that goes with it.

EDITORS NOTE: COACHING STAFF UPDATES RELEASED August 4, 2016

While changes are a part of the natural off-season routine, this is a very important group moving forward, as they will ultimately be responsible, and accountable, for the development of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Dario Saric.

Next: Does T.J. McConnell Fit Into This Sixers Roster?

When the season starts, all speculation will vanish and the team will either play well, or run into another round of questioning what it will take to do so.  If the team finds the success sought for these past three years, the coaching staff is set to keep them on track.  This is just the beginning.