Examining Brett Brown's Future With the Philadelphia 76ers

Entering his fourth season as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, the 2016-17 season will surely be a telling year for Brett Brown.

Brett Brown isn’t exactly on thin ice this upcoming season, but he’s not completely off the frozen water either..

Before taking over as the Philadelphia 76ers’ head coach three seasons ago, Brown was never a head coach in the NBA. And over his first three seasons at the helm, the Sixers have been one of the least-winningest teams in NBA history (going 47-199 since the start of the 2013 season).

But the total number of wins and losses doesn’t tell the whole story for the former San Antonio Spurs assistant.

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You see, Brown was hired by former general manager Sam Hinkie to coach a rebuilding team that was not constructed to win games. The players knew it. The fans knew it. And Brown knew it.

Despite this fact, Brown managed to get the most out of his young players each night.

And this year, things will be different for Brown. This year, instead of putting a team on the floor that’s designed to develop undrafted and very young talent that other teams had overlooked, the Sixers will have a team comprised mainly of exciting, young talent (in Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor) with a few true veterans (Gerald Henderson and Jerryd Bayless).

They’ll also have some guys who were on last year’s team and are comfortable playing in the City of Brotherly Love (Robert Covington, Jerami Grant, T.J. McConnell, Richaun Holmes, Hollis Thompson). And most importantly, they will NOT have Dion Waiters on the roster (praise The Lord!).

Hmm. That sounds something like an actual basketball team.

It also sounds like something that Brown can work with to improve the Sixers’ win totals over the past three seasons.

Simply put, he’s a players coach who gets the best out his young talent and keeps them motivated throughout the season.

The fact that the Colangelos didn’t fire Brown after Hinkie resigned shows that they have at least some faith that he can be the coach of the future for this team.

But in order for Brown to solidify his spot as the coach beyond this upcoming season, the Sixers will need to show a marked level of improvement. Brown will have to prove now more than ever that he can be the head coach of a young, more-talented roster, and with with this team.

Conveniently for Brown, he learned under Gregg Popovich, who is one of the best NBA coaches of all time. Brown was an assistant for multiple championship teams in San Antonio and saw the way Popovich helped mold recently-retired Tim Duncan into a five-time NBA Champion.

You better believe Brown was taking mental notes the whole time.

There are no guarantees when it comes to keeping a job in the NBA (cough, Hinkie, cough), but if Brown wants to stick around as the head coach of this organization, he’ll most likely need to coach them to a much higher win-total than last year.

Next: Brett Brown Says Dario Saric is Like a Young Manu Ginobili

Even if he doesn’t, it’s still possible that the Sixers management will choose to keep him around for another year or two. It’s also possible that he won’t finish the year as the 76ers’ head coach.

Regardless of what happens, this upcoming season will be a telling one for Coach Brown.

Examining Brett Brown’s Future With the Philadelphia 76ers

By Kevin Kolodziej | Aug 11, 2016

Entering his fourth season as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, the 2016-17 season will surely be a telling year for Brett Brown.