Brett Brown is out as head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Who should replace him?
Following their first-round sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers officially fired head coach Brett Brown on Monday. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the move is a precursor to further restructuring within a freeform, chaotic front office whose ineptitude repeatedly put Brown and the Sixers in positions to fail.
Brown is not blameless in his team’s postseason collapses, however; his reported inability to command the locker room, his mismanaged rotations and his incapacity for putting Joel Embiid in positions to succeed largely held the Sixers back in the playoffs as Brad Stevens and Nick Nurse coached circles around him.
In any case, this latest disappointment — even with Ben Simmons sidelined by injury and general manager Elton Brand responsible for shelling out a combined $60.7 million to Al Horford and Tobias Harris this season — is the impetus for management to do some soul-searching.
With the bloated salaries of Horford, Harris and even Josh Richardson bogging down the cap sheet, rebuilding around Simmons and Embiid will be incredibly difficult. It’s almost tempting to hope some fresh blood in the coaching chair is the answer rather than a full-scale roster reload, which would almost certainly require attaching assets to shed unwanted salary and/or moving one of the team’s two superstars.
Though it’s uncertain which direction Philly will take with its roster reconfiguration, it’s never too early to examine the potential replacement candidates as the 76ers’ next head coach.
5. Ime Udoka
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Sixers assistant Ime Udoka is a name to keep an eye on for this position. It makes sense; Udoka is familiar with this roster given that he’s been the lead assistant in Philly for the last year. He also has experience with winning at the NBA level based on the seven years he spent as an assistant under Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs.
Udoka, who also spent seven seasons in the NBA playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings and Spurs, is rumored to be a frontrunner for the Chicago Bulls’ head coaching vacancy as well.
The lead assistant who replaced Monty Williams in Philly is a relatively newer addition, but it might be time for a true outside voice to take over this hectic situation. Still, Udoka is known for building strong relationships with players and for his player development background. Whether that’d be good for a locker room in desperate need of accountability is another matter.