Philadelphia 76ers Late Game Struggles Raises Questions About Brett Brown

The Philadelphia 76ers once again drop a close one and people are starting to question Brett Brown.

The Philadelphia 76ers led almost the entire game against the Orlando Magic. They even honed an 18-point lead against the also winless-Magic. It seemed to be going great, that is until the fourth quarter struck. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the frustration of fourth quarter losses are starting to shift blame towards head coach Brett Brown.

Last season, Brown was absolved of all criticism due to a lack of talent. It’s that sentiment that has given them the long leash of coaching through this difficult rebuild. It’s the reasonable excuse that explains Brown’s historically bad record.

This season has added 3 losses in as many games for Brown. The Philadelphia 76ers blew two late leads, and a blowout to the Atlanta Hawks was sandwiched in between those two heartbreakers.

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In the first game, the excitement of Joel Embiid took over the Philadelphia 76ers. It was evident that Brown wanted the ball solely in Embiid’s hands in the late moments of the game. It’s unfair to blame Brown for giving fans what they wanted, a chance for Embiid to carry the lowly Sixers on his back. He was given somewhat of a pass.

Two games later, the Philadelphia 76ers are up huge on the Magic. The last 10 minutes of the game were a mixture of bad shot selection and turnovers. It was created by poor talent and even worse offensive schemes.

The offensive was stagnant, and the defensive rotations faltered. The Philadelphia 76ers shot 3-15 from the field in the last 10-minutes of the game, turning the ball over 4 times. Two of those turnovers came from Embiid. The first came on a walk in a post up move. The second one splits the blame between Embiid and Brett Brown. Embiid, instead of posting up, was assigned to set a screen for Sergio Rodriguez near the three-point line.

Embiid missed the screen, trapping his own teammate between his defender and Rodriguez’s. The pass to Embiid was broken up, leading to the game changing moment. The inexperience is an excuse, but here’s where Brett Brown must pull something out of the playbook to get the ball to Embiid in the post or Saric on the wing.

I’ve vouched for Brett Brown’s inbound play-ingenuity, but he has failed to show it thus far this season. In the waning moments of the opening game against the Oklahoma City Thunder where Russell Westbrook took over, Brown flopped on the final inbound play that led to an unwarranted Gerald Henderson drive.

This after time-out inconsistency isn’t going unnoticed.

Brown’s inconsistency is a huge contributor to the Philadelphia 76ers’ late game meltdowns. In those two close losses, the team has shot a combined 8-33 (24.24%) from the field in the last ten minutes. They have also shot 1-8 from the outside in those two games in the same time frame.

Brett Brown should be proving his worth in these situations. Not that he should always pull out a win, but he should at least be drawing up one of those brilliant inbound plays that landed him this job in the first place. Brown has put his faith in his team’s talent, rather than try to set up his team’s talent for success late in games.

Brown isn’t on a hot seat, despite his 3-1 odds to be the next NBA head coach to be fired. He is, deservingly, going to get questioned more often about his team’s late game struggles with a lead.  No one expects Brown to pull out 30 wins. Or even 20. But the expectations are that Brown will draw up a play that will give his team the best shot to win, and inexperience will most likely show through.

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It is Brown’s inexperience in winning late game situations that’s coming being brought to the forefront. These situations are Brett Brown’s auditions to going from a stepping stool coach to becoming the leader of the future competitive Philadelphia 76ers. He’ll have to alter his late game ideology to stay the long-term.