Philadelphia 76ers: Steve Nash’s hiring opens the door for Tyronn Lue
The Philadelphia 76ers’ coaching market is taking shape.
As of the time of this article’s publishing, Steve Nash is the head coach of an NBA team, while Brett Brown, Kenny Atkinson, and Nate McMillan are not. 2020 is a weird, weird year, Philadelphia 76ers fans.
On Thursday, September 3rd, Nash was named the 23rd head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, taking over for interim head coach Jacque Vaughn after the team’s four-game series sweep at the hands of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Bubble. While the move is fairly controversial, as Nash has never coached at any level outside of holding a ‘player development consultant‘ role with the Golden State Warriors, it’s hard to argue with Kevin Durant getting his guy to coach his team – even if it came at the expense of more tenured options.
But I don’t want to talk about that. No, despite Nash being a personal favorite of mine for his style of play – going so far as to suggest in an oddly prophetic article that I’d prefer the Hall of Fame point guard with the Sixers over Jason Kidd (seriously, read it here) – what I really want to talk about is what his signing mean for the Sixers.
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This is a Philadelphia sports blog, after all.
So, as any fan who’s felt personally victimized by the Harris-Blazer Group will eagerly attest, the Sixers’ vacant head coaching job is far from the cream of this year’s crop. Sure, the team has a pair of All-Stars in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, but they also have no cap space, a ton of money locked into bad-looking contracts, and only two players on rookie-scale contracts worthy of consideration for a postseason rotation.
The Nets, by contrast, also have two All-Star starters but also have a promising young wing in Caris LeVert, all of their first-round picks moving forward, and a ton of better fitting role players who can be extended due to Bird Rights. Unless you have a massive, Stan Van Gundy-sized man-crush on Simmons or Embiid, picking between the two organizations is far from challenging.
Why is this important? Well, because the Sixers and Nets were presumed by many to be vying for the same head coaching candidate: Tyronn Lue.
Lue, the player-turned-coach who was famously stepped over by Allen Iverson, is arguably the hottest name on the head coaching marketplace this season, and for good reason. A disciple of Doc Rivers with four years of experience coaching under the NBA champion in both Boston and Los Angeles, Lue rose to natural prominence as the head coach of the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers from 2015-18, where he took the team to three straight NBA Finals before being relieved of his duties six games into the 2018-19 season.
Now granted, some will argue that literally anyone could have coached a team with LeBron, Kevin Love, and, for a time, Kyrie Irving, to the NBA Finals in an at-the-time shoddy Eastern Conference playoff picture. Lue may not be nationally lauded as a statistician, a floor general, or the brightest mind in the game, but his 128-83 record is 21.6 percent better than Brett Brown‘s 39.1 win percentage and he’s one of only seven head coaches in the NBA right now with a championship to his name.
Hm… do you by chance know of an NBA team with championship aspirations and a win-now roster? The Philadelphia 76ers? You don’t say.
With Nash and the Nets out of the way, the 76ers have suddenly become the most attractive landing spot for a head coach with championship experience, easily edging out the Bulls, Pacers, and even the Pelicans due to their high-end talent, their strength of schedule, and front office willingness to pretty much blow things up as a new head coach sees fit to reshape Brown’s roster in their image. With Lue at the helm, the Sixers can reconstitute their starting five to better fit playing with a ball-dominant point forward and a three-level scoring big man, target capable role players with their five 2020 draft selections, and maybe even bring home a few familiar faces with experience in the clipboard holder’s scheme?
Al Horford for noted Lue fan Kevin Love anyone? How about bringing in a reclamation project like Reggie Jackson, who has played for Lue’s Clippers in the bubble? You know, Collin Sexton would look really good in a Sixers jersey. Maybe Lue can work some magic with his old bosses and flip the 21st overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and a player like Josh Richardson for the eighth overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft-turned-20 ppg combo guard? Probably not, right, but it’s clear Lue is a massive fan.
Next. Stop only blaming Brett Brown for Jimmy Butler’s exit. dark
In 2017, when Tyronn Lue praised Ben Simmons’ court vision, it felt like a rather insignificant platitude from one former NBA point guard to a brand new one. Now three years later, the two could be spending a whole lot more time together as Lue attempts to transform the positionless-wonder into the kind of All-NBA performer capable of playing alongside the NBA’s most dominant five-man. And to think, the Philadelphia 76ers are in deep talks with Lue once the Los Angeles Clippers exit the playoffs because the Brooklyn Nets extensively removed themselves from the conversation by hiring Steve Nash outright without so much as bringing Kyrie Irving’s former head coach in for a meeting. Like I said, 2020, weird year.