Section 215
Fansided

Sixers Rumors: ‘Friction’ Among Management, Coaches

By Tim Kelly

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The Sixers’ plan doesn’t sound to be going perfectly. 

Brian Geltzeiler, who writes for Sports Illustrated among other ventures, is a very good basketball reporter. I’ve interviewed him before and he’s a great guy.

He isn’t, however, a fan of the Sixers’ approach towards trying to return to national prominence. According to his latest report, certain within the organization are starting to lean towards his side.

Via the Cauldron

"According to multiple league sources, last season’s decision to trade point guard Michael Carter-Williams — Hinkie’s first draft pick with the franchise in 2013, and a second-year player coming off winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award — was Hinkie’s alone, and the move angered both head coach Brett Brown and team president Scott O’Neil, who were caught unaware. Although Brown previously had some dustups with Carter-Williams, he had no desire to take a competitive step backward and give up one of the team’s better players for a (potentially valuable) future first-round pick. O’Neil was miffed because he was planning to market the team around Carter-Williams and 2014 lottery pick Nerlens Noel."

In terms of O’Neil’s perspective, who really cares? I understand Brown being upset because trading Carter-Williams did mean taking a step back in terms of what the team was in the present and possibly even what they were this year, but Hinkie did so in an attempt to not eventually accept just being a decent or good team. And that, at best, was their ceiling with Carter-Williams at point guard.

Hinkie’s logic was sound is making the move.

"Per a league source, Hinkie did not like that Carter-Williams was a poor shooter, and thought that at 23 years old, Carter-Williams was too old to meaningfully improve in that area."

And Brown, who must have had the chance to watch the playoffs, must have come to the realization that many in Philadelphia did; Carter-Williams won the rookie of the year on a bad team that gave him a ton of touches and he had little upside to improve as a shooter or as a point-guard overall.

The report also suggests that Brown and organization have never been on the same page with Embiid and how his injuries and subsequent rehab have been handled. That’s not really news at this point, which is pointed out in the article, and unfortunately may not ever matter if Embiid continues to go down this same path with injuries.

I struggle to believe, like the article hints at, that anyone within the team is upset at Hinkie for taking Embiid. There wasn’t a real fall-back option.

The final nugget, besides just a pessimistic note about Dario Saric that isn’t worth reading into, is another one that I struggle to take too seriously.

"For all of the respect that Brown commands for his demeanor, patience, and Xs and Os acumen, he’s still a coach who has lost 130 games in his first two seasons. His San Antonio pedigree has always been considered a big plus, but maybe not as much as it once was. According to a league source, it’s not lost on Sixers ownership that more coaches off of Gregg Popovich’s coaching tree have struggled than succeeded, and Brown’s standing may not be as firm with the club as most people outside perceive it to be."

I’m not questioning the credibility of this report, but suggesting that the amount of games that Brown lost in two years was upsetting to the team just doesn’t make a ton of sense. They have been tanking. If the team doesn’t like how the players have progressed under Brown, then that’s a different story, though most experts on the team seem to think Brown has gotten the team to overachieve during his tenure, as hard as that may be to believe.

The reality of this whole thing is the Sixers have a very good general manager and a very talented young head coach and hopefully they can continue to co-exist. But if not, then so be it. This is a player’s league and Hinkie has laid out a plan that takes patience, but is acquiring talent and should only do so at a higher clip in the next 24 months given the amount of cap space and high draft picks they will have. The point is, with or without Brown, the team’s future is bright. It may just be even brighter if he remains the coach. Or, if you really buy this report, maybe not.

Next: Philadelphia Phillies 2015 Television Announcing Review

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