At 8-44 on the surface, if you don't follow the Sixers, it is a pathetic showing of a team that doesn't belong in professional basketball. If you watch the Sixers, it's a different story, especially as of late. Though they lost to the 35-17 Clippers in overtime last night, their young core of players is gradually progressing and its thanks in large part to head coach Brett Brown and his dedication to the program and the Sixers plans for the future. His coaching has gotten rave reviews from others across the league, most recently Clippers coach Doc Rivers. Sixers coach Brett Brown is in his third season with the team and has posted record of 19-63, 18-64 and 8-44 thus far this year. Rivers, in the meantime, has only coached three teams that had under .500 records in his 17 year career, but he realizes the amazing work that Brown has done during his time in Philadelphia.
"He’s a terrific coach," Rivers said Monday before the Sixers' overtime loss to the Clippers. "I always say all the time, it’s a great example, I think people make mistakes when they judge you by your record sometimes." [CSNPhilly.com]
With only three players on the Sixers over the age of 25, one of Brown's biggest challenges is coaching a team full of youngsters. When Rivers coached the Magic in his first season, 1999-2000, CSNPhilly.com's column mentions there were two rookies, six second-year and five third-year players. The team finished .500, but endured an eight-game losing streak at one point during the season. This season, Brown has had the hard task of trying to get Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor to co-exist and the Sixers started the season 1-30. The pairing has shown mixed results, but has been better as of late.
"I don’t think people understand how hard it is to coach a bunch of young guys," Rivers said. "Not because they don’t know how to play, some do, none of them want to play together. I’ve always thought that. They all want to be ‘the guy,’ and so it’s very difficult to get a team to buy into roles when they’re competing against each other." [CSNPhilly.com]
When Rivers joined the Celtics in 2004, they went 45-37, but they worsened over the years and posted a record of 24-58 in 2006-07 before going 66-16 the next year. On the team that went 24-48, Rivers coached 10 players under the age of 25, four of which were rookies.
In addition to coaching a young team though, the Sixers have plenty of other headlines floating over them with the potential Embiid and Saric arrivals next season along with the numerous draft picks the team has in the upcoming draft.
"His teams play hard every night, yet every day they hear about them getting traded, about what the team’s not doing, about the draft the following year," Rivers said. "To get your guys to execute and play hard and want to play for your team is, to me, masterful. And he does it, I don’t know how he does it. It’s hard to do. It really is." [CSNPhilly.com]
The Sixers return to action on Wednesday night at home against DeMarcus Cousins and the Sacramento Kings. Tip-off is scheduled for 7PM.
