The Sixer Sense
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Brett Brown Sees Philadelphia 76ers Future In Olympics

By Bret Stuter

Mar 18, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown reacts in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Wells Fargo Center. The Oklahoma City Thunder won 111-97.Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 18, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown reacts in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Wells Fargo Center. The Oklahoma City Thunder won 111-97.Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /
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Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown sees the future of the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2016 Olympic games, and he’s very happy.

First and foremost, Brett Brown loves to see a pass in basketball. In fact, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown’s eyes seem to twinkle when he talks about the passing of an NBA player.  With the direction of the new roster moves, Brown must be downright giddy over this new season.

A nice article appeared recently at Philly.com from the pen of Mike Sielski.  He had a curious perspective which I found to be quite entertaining.

But there was an aspect of the article which has resonated with some assertions I have made recently – namely that the Philadelphia 76ers will emerge as Pace Space and Pass legends.
In Sielski’s article, he narrated the the reaction of Brown’s viewing of future players in their respective Olympics games, and wrote just how much

“he was enjoying watching Dario Saric and Sergio Rodriguez – two Sixers players he hasn’t had the chance to coach yet – in the Rio Olympics. Both of them, he said, “thought the game” very well. They anticipated plays. They were unselfish. (Saric and Rodriguez) reminded him of players he had coached on some great San Antonio Spurs teams. And they weren’t the only Sixers who played this way.”

"“This is where this thing spins off,” Brown said. “This was my Spurs world. If you take Ben Simmons and you take Dario and you take Joel Embiid and you take Sergio, those are world-class elite passers. The pass is king. That’s what makes the world go round when you talk about offense: Do you share? Those four we have, they pass.”"

This pretty much confirms what I had suggested previously in my own article:

"PassThe final piece to this Brown blueprint is the pass. In short, it’s the ball movement that involves more than one player. Ultimately, ball distribution moves the ball from the point to the shooter for a score, and generates an assist. In the 2015-2016 season, the Philadelphia 76ers were twelfth in the league (out of 30 teams) in assist percentage.While not earth-shattering, it’s impressive in that it happened with a rather loosely constructed roster. But can the team improve upon that?They can and will.Last season, the team was led on assist percentage by T.J. McConnell with 37.1 assists per 100 possessions. While it’s not uncommon for a point guard to lead the team, the starting guard, Ish Smith, came in at nearly 10 assists less with 27.3 assists per 100.The epitome of ball movement is the Golden State Warriors. On their roster, the team has three players with better than 30 assists per 100: power forward Draymond Green, point guard Shaun Livingston, small forward Andre Iguodala, and center Andrew Bogut fell just short with 29.7 assists.This year, the Philadelphia 76ers will likely have Joel Embiid/ Nerlens Noel at center, Dario Saric at power forward, Ben Simmons at small forward, and Sergio Rodriguez at point guard. While they may not all match the Warriors, you can bet they’ll do well on the statistic."

It’s almost as though Brown had read my article.  Liking it, he repeated the conclusions as his own opinion.  Brett Brown has been in basketball for a very long time. Consequently, it’s reassuring to discover that we’ve been on the right track.

Next: 2017 Bold Predictions: Jerami Grant Will be DPOY Candidate

I don’t believe Brett Brown was ever this happy before.  In each year, there were holes to fill in the roster up until game day.  This season, he has 15 healthy players to choose to march into the season.   This ought to be fun.