McCaffery: Sixers’ GM Elton Brand stops short of giving Brett Brown firm commitment
Jack McCaffery
PHILADELPHIA – For a second consecutive year, even if from a different but similarly authoritative voice, Brett Brown Friday received something far less than a firm declaration of job security.Almost a year after 76ers managing partner Josh Harris refused to commit to Brown for more than one playoff round, general manager Elton Brand hesitated even […]
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PHILADELPHIA – For a second consecutive year, even if from a different but similarly authoritative voice, Brett Brown Friday received something far less than a firm declaration of job security.

Almost a year after 76ers managing partner Josh Harris refused to commit to Brown for more than one playoff round, general manager Elton Brand hesitated even to go that far. After announcing, somewhat surprisingly, that the Sixers’ organizational structure had changed and that he had become responsible for approving the head coach, Brand made anything but a long-term commitment to Brown.

Asked directly if Brown would be the Sixers’ coach “for the rest of the year,” Brand hedged.

“That decision, I’m not going to play ‘what if,'” Brand said. “He’s our coach. I am supporting Brett Brown. He’s our leader.”

The Sixers were about to play the Memphis Grizzlies on a court on which they were 22-2. They were on pace for 49 wins, had survived multiple injury situations, and, a day earlier, had acquired two veteran scorers able to help, even if neither had yet to report to the team. Yet the Sixers had just come off an 0-4 road swing in which they seldom played impressively, and had been under heavy criticism, both locally and nationally.

With that, the atmosphere was right for questioning about the head coach. And when Brand hesitated to offer security for the rest of the season, there was the Sixers’ coach, back to where he was late last year. That’s when Harris declared it would be “problematic” were his team to not make significant penetration in the postseason tournament.

In a pre-game conversation with the media, Brown was made to bob and weave past any number of verbal challenges about why a team said to be built to contend for a championship was in sixth place in the NBA East. At one point, he even sounded as if he were making a campaign stump speech.

“I think that we’re all, all of us, are trying to be what we’ve advertised this team to be, with an edge, with a heart,” Brown said. “Look at our defensive success. What are we, third in the NBA? It’s third, it’s fourth, but it’s royalty. It’s not 27th. And so that’s got to count for something. And so maybe life isn’t as vicious as it might appear at this moment.”

It was a reasonable position, and Brand’s actions at the trade deadline Thursday would make it clear he agreed. Not that there were necessarily opportunities to splinter the core unit he had approved and paid, but Brand resisted a major shakeup and instead made only helpful improvements around the edges. That he did by shipping junky second-round picks to Golden State for proven scorers Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks, by shedding the hopeless Jonah Bolden and re-committing to potentially special Norvel Pelle, by offloading underperforming James Ennis to Orlando and by cutting enigmatic Trey Burke. Suddenly, the Sixers were deeper on the bench and, if necessary, complete enough to make significant changes to the starting lineup.

“It’s all on the table,” Brown said, when asked if Al Horford might be better employed as a reserve.

Brown said he wouldn’t make those changes immediately, indicating that he would go into hiding during the All-Star break and do some deep thinking about his lineup and rotation for the final third of the season. Given all that he had been through in a seven-year Sixers’ coaching career that began with a cockamamie front-office approach to win through losing, he had no reason to be fighting for his job.

Brand, who’d played for and continues to enjoy a deep relationship with Brown, was outwardly supportive of his head coach, yet only to that point where he was pushed to commit to him for the rest of the season.

“Brett’s our head coach,” Brand said. “I believe in his ability to lead this team. And I talk to Brett directly. I will be responsible for that decision when it comes.”

With that, Brand revealed a change in the Sixers’ organizational structure. When he hired Brand as general manager just before last season, Harris made it clear that the head coach would report directly to ownership. Brand, it was outlined, would be responsible for constructing the roster that the Harris-approved coach would oversee.

Brand explained that ownership came to him after last season and enacted the structure change. With that, Harris quietly had been removed from the risk of making any more commitments, lukewarm or otherwise, to his head coach.

“I believe in Brett to lead this team,” Brand said. “That’s what I am standing by. And I truly believe that. He’s the leader of this team. And I will support him as I can support him, if that is dealing with whatever issues can arise.”

Brand gave no particular indication that Brown was in danger of losing his job. At the minimum, he is going to give him time to coach the newer roster nicely put together at the deadline.

If it doesn’t work, and there is the chance it won’t, then Brand, not Harris, will decide if the coach is to blame.

“It’s all of us,” Brand said. “It’s all of us. I constructed this roster. It’s all of us. We have to figure it out. And I believe we will get it figured out.”

As for how long he will give his head coach to find some answers, that remains just as vague as it was last year.

Originally Published: February 8, 2020 at 6:45 a.m.