Philadelphia 76ers: Brett Brown to blame for weak bench

The bench issue that is plaguing the Philadelphia 76ers this season goes back to the lack of vision of head coach Brett Brown last offseason.

The weak bench of the Philadelphia 76ers has become the central theme of the season. It’s an inescapable aspect of the team and some of it has to due with the injuries to Markelle Fultz, Zhaire Smith and Justin Patton. However, a lack of a big picture from head coach Brett Brown who served as the interim leader of the front office this past offseason after the Bryan Colangelo Twitter scandal is the main reason for the team’s current troubles.

Now one thing that Brown did do well was the draft. Granted no could have predicted the current issues that Smith is dealing with, the trade that landed him and the Miami Heat’s 2021 first round pick in exchange for Mikal Bridges could still end up being good for the Sixers over time. Walking away with Landry Shamet and Shake Milton at the end of the draft were high value picks.

Sadly, Brown didn’t do well in free agency at all. To start out with the Sixers were in a “…star hunting” mode. That in itself isn’t bad. The 76ers got a meeting with LeBron James‘ agent and were in the mix for Kawhi Leonard. However, it seemed that the team was so focused on getting a third star to put along side Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons that they forgot to fill out the bench.

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The Sixers began free agency by not resigning two key bench contributors in Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova. Belinelli signed with the San Antonio Spurs for $12 million over two season and Ilyasova signed with the Milawakuee Bucks for $21 million over three years. This season, both of their salaries are a little over a million more than Wilson Chandler‘s contract.

Theoretically The Sixers could have re-signed both and not bothered in trading for Chandler. That would have helped with bench production for sure. While re-signing both may have caused term cap issues, which could have been fixed down the road, it would have been a big positive to have both back this season.

Then Brown, along with the rest of the front office, failed to close the deal with Nemanja Bjelica. He had initially agreed to a deal with the Sixers,, but decided that he didn’t want to play in Philly and ended up signing with the Sacramento Kings. Bjelica would have been the ideal replacement for Ilyasova but for one reason or the other the Sixers couldn’t get Bjelica to sign.

Don’t be mistaken, flipping Justin Anderson and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, both of which were bad for offensive purposes, for a floor spacing big in Mike Muscala was a solid move. However, Brown failed to sign a veteran defensive wing that could fill the defensive role both served and Muscala wouldn’t be the first choice in replacing Ilyasova’s production.

In the past, I wrote about how re-signing Amir Johnson and trading Richaun Holmes away was a mistake. Getting essentially nothing for Holmes was probably the one of bigger blunders by Brown and the front office. While hindsight is 20-20, based on play, Holmes would have been a big upgrade over Johnson this season.

Bringing back J.J. Redick and signing 2017 second round pick Jonah Bolden to his rookie contract have been positives for the Philadelphia 76ers this season, but Brown failed in a major way when it comes to constructing a bench. Hopefully when the the injury bug leaves the franchise, it will help the Sixers current problems, but fixing all the bench problems is a tall order for current general manager Elton Brand to fill.