Verdict in: Philadelphia 76ers Coach Brett Brown can win

For years, NBA pundits did not know if Coach Brett Brown could win with the Philadelphia 76ers when talent arrived. Well the verdict is in. Coach Brett Brown wins the big games

The win loss record of Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown is a curious item for future trivial pursuit contests. After all, his career regular season record in the NBA is 127 wins and 283 losses for a winning percentage of 31 percent. But his playoff record so far is four wins to one loss, for a winning percentage of 80 percent.  How can this be?

Well strip away the previous four seasons of rebuild and the team played to a 52 win 30 loss season this year, good enough for fifth best in the NBA. Even more intriguing, the team ended the regular season with 16 consecutive wins.

Momentum and success combine

In short, the team is getting better and hotter with each contest. It’s not coincidence, nor is it a natural progression. It’s a plan incubated in the combined basketball plan of former executive Sam Hinkie and current head coach Brett Brown. Now, alone, it’s up to Coach Brown to forge a path to that goal sought and discussed years ago: an NBA Championship.

But forging that path is not blazing a new trail. When the team transitioned from Hinkie to Bryan Colangelo, the Philadelphia 76ers had already turned the corner on all fronts. A state-of-the-art training facilty had been constructed. The team had lowered the payroll to one of the lowest running salaries in the NBA.  Simultaneously, the team had stockpiled NBA Draft picks for the next five years.  In short, the team had everything necessary to build a winner. Now it simply fell upon the front office to sign the right players. Then, it fell to Coach Brett Brown and the coaching staff to forge a championship team from those players.