Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff annual review

The team roster is bursting with young talent, ready to be coached up to NBA superstars. But the key factor few discuss are the Philadelphia 76ers coaches. Can they deliver?

The Philadelphia 76ers have not won more games then they have lost in many years. It was a necessary evil to get to a point where the roster brims once more with young talented athletes. And through it all, the coaching staff meted out minutes, patched up holes in the lineup, worked to develop players in various roles and to be two-way standouts. That’s quite a burden for a coaching staff.

And nowhere in the past was there much room for scheming for wins. So can they?

That truly is the million dollar question.  You see, the team never loaded the roster to win. So the fallacy of coaching to win is somewhat of a moot point.  The coaches performed major miracles simply to keep players heads in the game.  After crushing defeats, these players went right back out to give spirited performances.  The team never quit.

Roster loaded with talent

The roster of 2017-2018 is not significantly different yet from that of 2016-2017 on paper, but the difference is night and day.  Dario Saric and a hopefully-healthy Joel Embiid were two sensational rookies last year, and will play better this season.  Projected starters Jerryd Bayless and Ben Simmons will return to the active roster this year healthy.

And the team has added another number one draft pick in Markelle Fultz.

With the influx of healthy players to pair with veterans who established themselves last season, this roster is capable of earning a playoff spot.  But now it is up to the coaching staff.  With so much depending on developing young players, it’s as good of a time as any to look at the current Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff.

HEAD COACH Brett Brown

If you are going to build an NBA championship team from young players out of the NBA Draft, then you had better clone head coach Brett Brown to develop them. He is one of the NBA’s best in terms of reaching and developing the young rookies entering the NBA now.

Air Alamo

Don’t take my word for it, examine the impact of players who land on a Brett Brown coached team, versus those who have moved on. Few players have achieved the same level of productivity and proficiency as when they play for Brown. Young or old, he knows how to maximize each individual’s skillsets.  Perhaps that is why so many players are beginning to speak up for Coach Brown. Others accept less money to play for him.

Brown has new tasks this year

Now, he has a roster bursting at the seams with talent. Can he work his magic?  Well, it will be an entirely new set of skills required this season.  In the past, Brown has been the positive flow of energy, that guy in the lockerroom with motivational speeches, tough love mentoring, and lifting players up from a tough night on the basketball court.

The Philadelphia 76ers will find success this year, perhaps more than Coach Brown will be comfortable with.  He mastered finding healthy players on the battered roster last year.  Will he be equally adept to meting out quality minutes to what may very well be two entire lineups of players who deserve 20 plus minutes per game.  How does his sit Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot after the April 2017 flashed the brilliance of the young rookie?

This season will be a huge test for Brown.  If he passes this with flying colors, the sky is the limit.

ASSISTANT COACH Jim O’Brien

While Coach Brown is relatively new to the Philadelphia 76ers, assistant coach Jim O’Brien ties the coaching staff back to the roots of the franchise’s history. He served as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2004-2005, and led the team to a 43-39 record. His one year stay coincided with the team’s desire to hire former 76ers star Maurice Cheeks.

Daily Knicks

But his first year as assistant coach has been relatively quiet.  Unless you examine the team’s toughness, surge in 2017, and resilience. When you do that, you find O’Brien’s fingerprints all over this team.

O’Brien loves veterans

He is the seasoned NBA coach on the staff, having served as the head coach to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Boston Celtics and the Indiana Pacers. O’Brien became the Celtics head coach on January 8, 2001, assuming the reigns at the dismissal of then head coach Rick Pitino.  During his tenure, he led the Celtics to a record of 139-119 , plus the bonus of appearing in the Eastern Conference finals and semifinals. Ironically, it was Danny Ainge‘s move to get younger which prompted O’Brien to part ways with the Celtics.

The Indiana Pacers went 121-169 under O’Brien in a three plus seasons.  In that stint, once more O’Brien refused to give significant minutes to young players.

Coach O’Brien favors seasoned players in games. And its that yin to Coach Brown’s yang which is a solid balance for the team going forward.

ASSISTANT COACH Lloyd Pierce

Lloyd Pierce is a hand picked assistant to join the Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff with the arrival of head coach Brett Brown.

Pierce, like Brown, excels at player development. In fact, he interviewed for the head coaching position which Coach Brown filled.  Brown then added Pierce to the staff.

Plenty to develop

Why so much focus on coaches who can develop players? The team is banking the franchise future on developing young talent. In fact, the entire franchise is build on the premise of building a team via the NBA draft and from undrafted players.

The team has found some NBA caliber talent on the path few other teams travel. But now the search is over.  Now its a matter of massaging all that talent into a team.  So far, the performance of Pierce has exceeded expectations.  The influence on younger players, their determination and grit, is not Brown’s alone.  Pierce is a positively charged mentor to the waves of young players. As such, his “to do” list never shortens.

Player Development

ASSISTANT COACH DIRECTOR, PLAYER DEVELOPMENT Billy Lange
PLAYER DEVELOPMENT COACH Alvin Williams
PLAYER DEVELOPMENT COACH John Bryant
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, PLAYER DEVELOPMENT Chris Babcock

Player development coaches have a tremendous responsibility on the Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff. They are the keys who work with young players in the summer league. Consider them the appetizer to a dinner of NBA play.

Summer league is more than summer scrimmage

Summer league coaching is a great time to expand coaching responsibilities.  And Billy Lange is getting his shot at driving the team over the summer league.  The Philadelphia 76ers use summer league to develop both coaches and players. It’s that progression of expertise, always growing, which gives the Philadelphia 76ers a solid foundation to the future.

Summer league is about building relationships between coaches and players.

ASSISTANT COACH Kevin Young

Assistant Coach Kevin Young has held a number of key positions within the Philadelphia 76ers organization. He remains one of the key coaches on this staff.  But you may not pick up on that initially.

Young has been a basketball coach for 11 years.  But the path of his career will not appear on ESPN anytime soon.  He coached the Shamrock Rovers, assisted with the Utah Flash, the Iowa Energy, assisted at the Delaware 87ers, promoted to player development there, and then to head coach of the Delaware 87ers.  In 2016, he was promoted to assistant coach of the Philadelphia 76ers

Clayton State first

Kevin Young is the first Clayton State alumni to reach the NBA, albeit the long way.

Catch him here at a shootaround.

Clayton State is proud as can be of her first NBA success story. As such, the school did an interview with Young which is definitely worth the time to read.

Strength and Conditioning

Now for the role coaches. These are the coaches who work with the players in the weight room, on stretching exercises, and in keeping the team in top shape. Nobody wants to see an injury in the NBA.

Sir Charles In Charge

So far, Philadelphia 76ers fans have witnessed their best players fall to an injury epidemic.

But don’t blame that on the coaches.  The Philadelphia 76ers play hard, thanks to the group of dedicated professionals.   On the staff, the team has

ASSISTANT COACH, HEAD OF STRENGTH & CONDITIONING Todd Wright.  ESPN has a video of the guy in the gym.
ASSISTANT STRENGTH & CONDITIONING COACH Todor Pandov
APPRENTICE STRENGTH & CONDITIONING COACH Cliff Spiller
HEAD ATHLETIC TRAINER Kevin Johnson

Proof in the pudding

You can bet they have their work cut out for them. But this is a group who is making headway. Kevin Johnson is the recipient of the NBA Trainer of the Year Award.  And he will be the first to acknowledge he works with a great team.  This is the team that has been working to get Jahlil Okafor slimmed down, and Joel Embiid bulked up. The Philadelphia 76ers have a state-of-the-art training facility. You can bet this group has earned the right to call it home.

Video and Analytics

Former Philadelphia 76ers Sam Hinkie knew that a journey heading into the unknown required new tools to navigate in the midst of NBA turmoil. So he invested heavily into basketball analytics. As the team incorporated that technology, the goal was simply to create efficiencies for the coaching staff.  Reinforce players weaknesses, leverage player strengths.

But a curious byproduct of analytics became obvious.  Analytics can guide any NBA team to compete for a championship game if the team is wise enough to understand how to get there. Not many teams can stomach the time required to get there. It’s a multi-year commitment and requires faith in the process, and sticking to the plan.  The Philadelphia 76ers were shaken enough to jettison Hinkie along the way.

Trust the process of analytics

Now the team’s future is in the hands of new team president Bryan Colangelo. But the route to a championship is still mapped by analytics, video analysis, and coaching up players shooting. For that, the team has:

VIDEO COORDINATOR Connor Johnson
SHOOTING COACH John Townsend

Much like strength and conditioning, results of the investment do not suddenly appear in the box score. It’s a gradual improvement, and over time raises the play of everyone on the team. If you want proof, look at players who played on the Philadelphia 76ers, and then played elsewhere. In recent years, their best production was in Philly.

Next: Before The Process: Top 10 Philadelphia 76ers of the 2000s

It’s a brand new season with brand new expectations. But you can’t just look at the roster and get a complete understanding of this team.  This is a well coached squad and the coaches have earned their moment in the spotlight too.  But the ultimate question is whether this coaching staff can get the team to the promised land.  They’ve managed to build optimism despite being outplayed and outmanned for three seasons.  Now that the talent level is surging, let’s discuss this over the playoffs.