The Philadelphia 76ers are searching for a new coach, but who is best to lead?
Brett Brown is gone. The Philadelphia 76ers are in somewhat unfamiliar territory, given that he was the coach for the last seven years and shepherded this vast collection of players through an arduous rebuild, famously called “The Process”.
That era of the Sixers seems to be over though, as Brown was fired by GM Elton Brand in a move that some considered to be inevitable throughout this season’s dysfunction, and its end at the hands of a 4-0 sweep by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
However it ended, Brown’s legacy is emphasized by how he was able to swim through a sea of three GMs without getting fired. He waded into the deep end as a rookie head coach in 2013 and managed to guide the Sixers through those tumultuous years. The Sixers at that point expected to lose 85% of their games as Sam Hinkie, the first GM, was only focused on gathering an arsenal of draft capital in an effort to be extremely competitive years into the future, instead of in the present.
Now that he’s gone, the Sixers are once again struggling to find their identity after switching up the core of the roster outside of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons (for the third time in as many years). They are currently looking for a new head coach, but probably will do their research as the playoffs continue to move on without them, and then zero in on a coach nearer to the end once they can interview all their prospective candidates.
What I wanted to do was take a deep look into each candidate, figure out why they would be a good fit, and why they wouldn’t and try to figure out who makes the most sense as the next coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. So let’s get into it!
Jay Wright, Villanova
Jay Wright has been the coach at Villanova University for nearly 20 years now, and has 2 national championships to his name. He is an All Star in the world of college coaches, and he has shown almost zero willingness to budge from his comfy perch of the college basketball elite coaches thus far.
After all, why would he? Nova pays him $4.4 million a year to mold elite shooters, a task that he regularly exceeds at, and to run deep in the NCAA Tournament, which he also accomplishes on a regular basis. On the surface, there’s no real reason for him to make the jump to the NBA, where he has never coached before.
However, many analysts and basketball people in the know suggest that Wright would not only survive such a move, but would thrive in the high pressure atmosphere of the NBA. As already stated, he regularly runs deep in the NCAA Tournament, a high stakes, one and done situation that you have to be regularly elite in to advance, and he has been molding young players how to shoot well from the perimeter for years. There’s every sign that he could succeed at the next level.
Tyronn Lue, Clippers Assistant Coach
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Lue is the top choice for Philadelphia. I would guess that this is mainly due to Lue’s experience working with LeBron James and having a ton of postseason experience doing it, as well as being known as a coach that doesn’t take a lot of guff from anyone, even LeBron. That kind of toughness is obviously coveted by Sixers brass, given that Brown was more of a player’s coach who some would say coddled Simmons and Embiid during the early stages of their careers.
Lue is a proven winner who comes with a lot of titles and medals and experience, but a big knock on him is that during his coaching career, he only won when paired with James, and having that big of a talent on your team makes winning a title substantially easier, and he hasn’t really proven himself otherwise.
It is also worth noting that Lue has drown considerable interest from the Brooklyn Nets as well, and knowing that both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are both there, as well as other stud role players, is certainly a tempting opportunity for Lue. Even though the Sixers have an expressed interest, will they lose out on their supposed top target to a rival East team?
Ime Udoka, Sixers Assistant Coach
It is definitely a possibility that the replacement for Brett Brown could come from inside the building. Udoka hails from the same coaching tree as Brown did, of Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, and recently came over to the Sixers organization a little over a year ago.
With Udoka, the team’s top assistant and defensive coordinator this past season, the Sixers would essentially be betting on Udoka to be the next Nick Nurse, who took over the Toronto Raptors from the fired Dwayne Casey and promptly went on to coach them to a title in his second season (while beating the Sixers on the heartbreaking buzzer beater, by the way) with Kawhi Leonard leading the way. Even without Kawhi this season, Nurse has admirably led the Raptors to being a top 5 NBA team.
The argument against Udoka is simple: he has no head coaching experience. It would seem a little risky to go and hire him knowing this fact when the team is in a prime championship window, one that is rapidly shortening. The team may also want to move on from the memory of Brett Brown, and this would go against that by hiring his direct disciple.
Stan Van Gundy, NBA Analyst
Most recently the head coach and president of basketball operations for the Detroit Pistons from 2014-2018, Van Gundy has a ton of experience running deep into the postseason. Not only that, he has a type: teams that are centered around a dominant big man, such as our own Joel Embiid. Note that SVG was the coach behind the Dwight Howard-led Orlando Magic team that almost went all the way in 2009.
SVG was a hater of The Process, but that period is admittedly over now. It’s now a “post-Process” era, and I think that Van Gundy would excel as the coach of this team. He is an admirer of Simmons, saying publicly that Simmons should have been DPOY this year, and is known for holding his players accountable for themselves.
SVG’s style of coaching did not come without its issues though, and he was basically run out of Orlando after his and Howard’s relationship took a downwards turn, due to his aggressive style of coaching. Overall though, most players who played for him said he was a good, smart coach who knew what he wanted out of his players and for the most part was able to get the most out of them.
Kenny Atkinson, former Brooklyn Nets’ coach
Atkinson definitely got a raw deal from the Nets, having been fired reportedly due to Kyrie Irving and the incoming Kevin Durant wanting to hand-pick their own coach, and Atkinson not wanting to start DeAndre Jordan over Jarrett Allen. Atkinson is the real deal, though. In the 2018-19 season, he waded through player injuries and not much expectation to a 42 win season and a playoff berth, where the Nets ironically lost to the 76ers, helping Atkinson finish fifth in the Coach of the Year voting.
Atkinson will catch a lot of flak for his total record (118-190 overall) but he is known for creating a great basketball culture on his teams and having a very creative approach to his style of play. The Nets were a very up-tempo team that shot a ton of threes and penetrated to the rim very often. This type of style could work in Philly, there just needs to be an infusion of three-point shooting added to the mix.
In a league basically run by stars, though, Atkinson’s refusal to bow to his stars’ demands may have been his downfall. While I do think accountability is desperately needed for this Sixers team that has been rocked like a baby for way too long, it could blow up in spectacular fashion for any coach that comes down too hard on them.
At the end of the day, I do think that this will end up coming down to either Lue, the presumptive favorite right now, and Udoka. My third choice would be Atkinson, mostly because he’s the only other actual current NBA coach right now. My guess is that Tyronn Lue would come out of this group due to his history having worked directly with LeBron for multiple years, and would be able to untangle this roster and move around the pieces that will make it work.