Philadelphia 76ers: 4 takeaways from J.J. Redick – Jimmy Butler podcast

Brown’s coaching

Butler pointed out not one, but two areas where he questioned Brown’s coaching. The first came in the film room and he had this to say about the experience.

"“‘And we are all sitting in there and nothing got accomplished at all. So I was like, and I told you this when I walked out, ‘JJ why would I ever go back in there again? Nothing is getting accomplished, nobody is saying nothing to anybody and we just sitting in here watching film’ and you can literally hear the thing just clicking and we are all just looking around…Click, click. ‘Alright guys let’s go practice.’ Why did we just go through this? That’s literally what’s going on in my head. So I come to you, I say ‘JJ why would I go back in there again? We didn’t do nothing, nothing got accomplished.’”"

It’s discouraging that during that film session that there was no dialogue. The point of any film session is to cause discussion about what areas need to improve upon. Brown can’t just show film and expect that to be enough. He has to also encourage dialogue with it. It’s hard to blame Butler for feeling the way he did after that.

The second issue came in the playoffs and when it came to who initiated the offense. Butler offers a unique perspective on how the offense was run when Redick asked about if Butler’s relationship with Brown improved in the playoff once the offense was running through him more.

"“‘I would say it was professional, but to this day I don’t think that was fair to switch over like that. Even though we played great basketball like that, I don’t think it was fair because the entire year, Ben had the ball. The entire year, Ben had the ball. So you mean to tell me that in one playoff series you just switch it up like that? I would be — like he was — I would feel a type of way. I would feel a type of way, I would think it’s [explitive] up to play one way the entire year and then be like you know what, boom, this is how we’re going to do it….And I used to tell Brett, I was like Brett, I think we should mix in me handling the ball a little bit. ‘No, we do A-to-B, we do this.’ Cool! But I would be pissed, and I’m not going to complain about it, but I don’t think that was the best way of doing it, in my opinion.'”"

From a strategy standpoint, Brown made the right adjustment and even Butler admitted that the team played well as a result. However, his issue was that Brown didn’t introduce that idea until the postseason. If Brown had Butler as the de facto point guard with Simmons in the game during the regular season, it probably would have helped the team come playoff time. He also made it clear that it wasn’t fair to Simmons and that the point guard wasn’t happy about the change.

Butler brought to light concerns about Brown’s ability to coach this team. While Brown’s coaching hasn’t been perfect in the past, this perspective from Butler doesn’t do the head coach any favors in improving those views.