Following Sam Hinkie's resignation, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Brett Brown's job was safe going into the Bryan Colangelo era. That may not end up being the case, according to Tom Moore of Calkins Media, who hears from a reputable source that Brown's return as Sixers head coach is more of a 50-50 possibility than a sure thing.
"I don't think anybody survives, (except) maybe some low-level analytics people," the source said. "I'm not sure the scouts make it."
The source called it "50-50" that Brown is the head coach to start the 2016-17 campaign, but believes there's only a 20 percent chance Brown finishes next season in that capacity.
The source expects associate head coach Mike D'Antoni, who was hired by ex-Sixers chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo in December, to succeed Brown.
This comes as a little bit of a surprise, despite the addition of Bryan Colangelo. Brown inked a two-year extension with the team in December and was endorsed by Bryan's father, Jerry. Bryan appeared on Comcast Sportsnet earlier this week and reiterated Brown's future with the Sixers.
“I told the ownership Brett Brown is the coach of this basketball team going forward. I left no question [to that],” Colangelo told the Breakfast on Broad team. “Brett Brown deserves the opportunity. He toed the company line for the last three years, he’s done everything this organization needs him to do, he’s been in the community, coaching clinics, coaching kids. He’s a lifer. He’s a basketball guy." [Phillymag.com]
In addition to that, two days prior to Sam Hinkie stepping down, Brown had a 1-on-1 meeting with ownership and felt very good about his future with the team.
"The ongoing communication we've had now for four or five months on the direction of the club, the direction of the program, my role in all of this and the extension that they provided me just gets me so excited and motivated to jump into next year, which I think is going to be extremely different, given our mindset of free agents, given our mindset of being far more aggressive on how we try to grow this," Brown said. "We feel like we've paid our dues these previous three years. As a staff, as an organization, we're excited to turn this around."
It remains to be seen how many changes Bryan Colangelo makes to the Sixers front office in the coming months, but it doesn't seem like anyone, including Brown, is safe, despite what's being said. The Sixers wrapped up their 2015-16 season on Wednesday night in Chicago with a 115-105 loss.
