Brown wins with talented teams
Gauging the potential success of a team coached by Brett Brown prior to this season was next to impossible. Not due to the lack of effort by the team, nor the quality of the coach. The team simply had too many injuries and insufficient talent to make a valid judgement. But judgements happened anyway. Often.
In fact, the call for firing Coach Brown after each loss became so predictable, that it became a running joke among Philadelphia 76ers fans. “Fire Brett Brown” became synonomous with “The Philadelphia 76ers lost”.
Play the hand you are dealt
But Brown simply played the best roster dealt to him. The only way to develop raw young talent is to play them in game situations. So that is what he did. Keep in mind that neither Marco Belinelli nor Ersan Ilyasova were on the roster for much of the season. For that matter, both Markelle Fultz and Furkan Korkmaz were injured for much of the season as well.
Brown still had to send a starting lineup onto the court. Some lineups had three-point shooters. Others did not. But when the team landed Belinelli and Ilyasova, Brown had enough fire power. Subsequently, the team won 16 consecutive games to close out the regular season, and are 4-1 in their first playoffs series.