Written by Bob Cooney & Marcus Hayes at Philly.com
AS THE PROCESSORS basked in the afterglow of six wins in eight games (two against possible playoff teams), Daily News staffers Bob Cooney and Marcus Hayes sat down for a point-counterpoint on the club. They avoided directly addressing the situations of cornerstone players Joel “The Process” Embiid and tantalizing Ben Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft. No worry: There were other relevant questions. All aboard, everybody . . .
Brett Brown is an improving coach, and needed to improve.
BC: The thought that Brett Brown is improving as a coach goes directly to his team improving its talent. Joel Embiid is better – by far – than anyone thought he would or could have been at this point of his career. Hell, he’s better than many thought he might ever be. In Embiid, Brown now has a centerpiece to build around, go to at the end of games and thwart opponents’ forays into the lane that used to result in an endless layup line on most nights. In Ersan Ilyasova, the coach has a player who is best paired with Embiid, who can stretch the floor, who can make big three-pointers, who knows what it takes to win an NBA game.
Go down the list on the roster and it’s just so much better – either by improvement or experience – than at any time in Brown’s tenure. I’ve seen him in all kinds of basketball settings: games, practices, coaching clinics, one-on-one with players. I’ve talked basketball endlessly with him and rarely have I walked away not learning something about the game, whether it be situational or otherwise. We all know that disciples of great coaches – Brown being one of Gregg Popovich’s – don’t always pan out as head coaches. But there is something to be said for a guy who was around five Finals teams. I’ve always said we had to wait and see with Brown’s coaching, until he had real NBA talent. He’s getting it now and showing he knows what to do with it.
MH: To say Brown got better implies that he was not competent, much less good. It ignores both his accomplishments as an international head coach and the fact that he has had neither a competent starting point guard and, until recently, no palatable veteran players. Not only does it assume that Brown had room for growth, it assumes that he had the tools he needed for success. No, he didn’t get any better. He always was very good. Brown is a man who suffers fools with patience, but he bristles when asked whether the team’s recent success results from changes in method:
“No,” he said. “We really haven’t done anything differently. We’ve just stayed the course.”
That means he has molded serviceable point guards; that he uses Ilyasova, the team’s most polished player, to perfectly complement his star, Embiid; and that Embiid, breathtakingly talented but still painfully raw, has, as part of a process, become more efficient in the final minutes of games. Brown’s coaching always has been outstanding. His players have not.
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