Deconstructing the 76ers
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Deconstructing the 76ers
Eddie Jordan is no longer the head coach of the 76ers.
At this point, if you follow this team, we've dissected everything that went wrong with Jordan and the Sixers this season: an ill-suited offense, bad rotations, player confusion, lack of discipline, lack of leadership.
If you followed the team, you watched the end product: a 27-55 record.
Now, that chapter of the book is closed.
Listening to President and General Manager Ed Stefanski's press conference this morning at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine was an interesting experience because of his tenuous grip on his own job.
Let's address the next step of this equation, the step before the question of exactly who will replace Jordan as Sixers head coach. The next step is: Should Stefanski be allowed to select this franchise's next head coach? Will Stefanski be allowed to? Or is he only a couple of weeks from joining Jordan?
As of this moment, according to a source close to Stefanski, he is operating in his same capacity as GM and, right now, he will begin this coaching search with the same authority he had a year ago. That could change.
This morning, Stefanski very quickly admitted Jordan's hiring was a mistake. Very early in the press conference he said the following: "Obviously what I thought would happen did not occur and the decision was not a right one and that’s why I made the choice to go now in a different direction to get someone here to get us on that right path."
I think the main frustration Sixers' fans have with Jordan's hiring was that they, quite easily and early, saw the inherent flaws in the logic of hiring Jordan. You can't bring in an offensive coach to coach a team known for running and defense. You can't bring in the Princeton Offense with a group of players who rely more on one-on-one and pick-and-rolls than thinking the game. You can't bring in a coach with a losing record if you want the fans of this city to be excited about the future. Those were the complaints, from the beginning, from the first second Jordan's name surfaced as an option. And I'm certain there are thousands of fans who feel that if they could predict the problems with Jordan's hiring, then the General Manager of their team certainly should have seen these problems as well.
If he couldn't, then what's the point?
Here's what Stefanski said about the failed attempt: "Obviously it didn’t work. We went through in the interview process all the personnel and what we had and the coach felt it would work. As I said earlier, we were looking, because of the last two years in the playoffs, we were looking for that balance. And I felt it was efficiency in the half court."
First, Stefanski clearly said "the coach felt it would work," which felt a little like a shifting of blame, almost as if separating himself from the disaster of his own coaching decision. It was only about 8 months ago that Stefanski was selling the Princeton Offense hardcore, explaining how Thaddeus Young and Marreese Speights would be wheeling and dealing. That was only 8 months ago.
Second, I think some Sixers fans are frustrated because Stefanski made the same mistake, twice. The Sixers were excelling by scrapping, clawing, playing tough defense, getting steals, getting early dunks, running up and down, dunking over people. And then Stefanski signed Elton Brand with the logic that all of those aforementioned qualities would somehow, magically, be unaffected by Brand's more plodding, forceful, slow, halfcourt presence. He signed Brand under the logic that Brand would only add a different dimension -- the half-court game -- but somehow wouldn't affect the other dimension -- the up in your face defense and fastbreaking. It didn't work. Very quickly, it became clear that Brand's presence was slowing the team down. There were times his scoring in the halfcourt helped, but it was always like trading one for the other, never having that magical blending of both. It was oil and water. Stefanski's next big decision (the Andre Iguodala contract is overpriced, but people around the league are willing to take that contract; he's an asset) was hiring Jordan. Again, Stefanski employed the same logic: he said his team excelled in fastbreaking and defense, so he brought in a guru of a half-court offense, Jordan, and assumed that his team would somehow continue to excel at fastbreaking and defense despite spending 75 percent of its practice time learning an intricate half-court offense. Again, the Sixers sacrificed one dimension, a dimension in which they are talented, for the sake of improving another dimension.
Same mistake. Twice. In two years.
The results are a 27-55 season and a contract to Elton Brand that's going to haunt them for some time. Twice, it seemed, Stefanski passed on an opportunity to press the gas on the Sixers' ability to run and instead saddled them with an anchor. It's not that the thought process doesn't, on paper, make sense: Sixers are weak in the half-court, get a half-court player. I think the frustration comes down to seeing it play out, in back-to-back situations.
Of course, no one is saying this stuff isn't complicated. Obviously, Stefanski is trying to make the best decisions possible and it's easy to sit here and deconstruct why it didn't work. But that's our job and his is to make the right decisions, not every time, but at least a little more than half of the time.
He's made a number of good decisions: signing Lou Williams to a reasonable contract, drafting Jrue Holiday, (the jury is still out on Marreese Speights), trading for Meeks could turn out to be a nice little addition, and please feel free to toss in any others you can think of.
But these are like ground-ball singles in the third inning compared to Brand and Jordan, which were back-to-back strikeouts with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. (Baseball analogy!)
Holiday is very good, of course. We've been writing about him for some time, but all of a sudden it feels a little like Stefanski and Tony DiLeo are pinning a lot of their hopes on the 19-year-old. Feels like a tough situation for the kid. Stefanski said in his press conference that the team has found their "point guard of the future," and it felt like a reminder about the solid decision he made in drafting Holiday. And it was a solid decision.
But does Holiday's development justify allowing Andre Miller to sign elsewhere? To fill a locker room with a collection of non-leaders and then watch in amazement as they collapse under a lack of leadership?
This morning, Stefanski said: "I believe a head coach has to be a manager, a teacher, a motivater. Those are three qualities I would say I’d look for right away. When I got here with these players, where we’re built is we’re built to play on that defensive end and get out on the fast break. That’s basically who we’re made up to be."
So ... back to the question: Why should Sixers fans trust Stefanski to make this decision? I don't know if they do. And if some of them still do, then it's probably a case of trust and understanding more than logical thinking, which is what Stefanski needs at this point. He needs Sixers fans to have faith (believing in the unseen, right?).
Because so far, they haven't seen it.
--Kate
Typically excellent analysis, although you forgot to mention not signing any veterans to stablize the locker room, especially their leader Andre Miller.— Leegles
Not to worry, Kate. Stefanski will be fired once the Bobcats are ousted in the first round of the playoffs and Larry Brown becomes the next savior as head of basketball operations, swearing that he has always loved Mr. Snider and the Sixers and will positively, absolutely, no doubt about it, hand on the Bible, retire after this job ends. Then, three years from now, having traded all draft picks to the year 2025 for aging veterans who can defend and board and having traded many of the Sixers young players for other veterans, even bringing in Eric Snow, once again, to play the point instead of Holiday (too young), Brown will refute the rumors that he is interested in purchasing the Los Angeles Clippers, and then will, in fact, buy the Clippers and swear that he has always loved the Clippers since the time he coached them and that positively, absolutely, no doubt about it, hand on the Bible, he will retire in Los Angeles and never sell the Clippers. We have been there before with Brown, time to look elsewhere after Stefanski gets what he so richly deserves: a pink slip.— chuckw- This is a good analysis. The problem that i see is with the underlying logic that Stefanski should have accentuated the fast-break style instead of shoring up he half-court. He fact is, running teams don't go far in the playoffs. The best example in recent memory, the Suns of a couple years ago, didn't even get to the Finals in their best years. Teams that do well in the playoffs have tough D and can execute in he half court. So Stefanski was not making a mistake to boost the halfcourt offense. If he made a mistake, it was to sign a coach who badly de-emphasized the D.— FKD215
- The Elton Brand signing is a killer. Achilles tendon injuries are very difficult to come back from and Stefanski should have known it. Brand was a slow low post player before the injury for a horrible team where he took advantage of being the best player on it. If Stefanski would have got an offer sheet signed from Josh Smith, it would not have mattered if the Hawks had matched. Stefanski could have said that Smith was a better fit and that Brand didn't fit what they were trying to do. They could have saved a ton of money. Compound that mistake with Eddie Jordan and you have serious questions about Stefanski. Unless a miracle happens, the Brand mistake is going to hurt this team for years.— syddan26
- If Larry Brown came here, he would trade Holiday for Chauncey Billups right away...they should offer Jay Wright a billion dollars and maybe he can use his recruiting skills to persuade a former Cat or two (Stokes and Yarou??) and rebuild..trade everyone but JH and TY.
- FKD215: you are correct IMHO that running teams do not perform well in the playoffs, but also correct that Jordan was the wrong man to incorporate both styles and one could add that different personnel was necessary if the emphasis was to be on half court offense and overall defense as opposed to running. Stefanski did not make those changes.— chuckw
- They need a good defensive coach, get rid of Brand he doesn't fit. Play good defense, get a scorer who can get his shot and hit it in the clutch. The problem with the Sixers is they don't have a go to guy.— jss31
Jordan never seemed to get anyone on the team to play whatever it was he was trying to do. I am not sure even Jordan really knew, all the tinkering looked like indecision to me. There are some good players on the roster. If they get a good young player in the draft and a coach who can use his players more efectively, there is no reason they can't be back in the playoffs next season.- Two brutal decisions that have set this team back: firing Mo Cheeks and not re-signing Andre Miller. This team played hard for Cheeks and actually respected him. Miller was the glue that kept things together. Now the ship is at the bottom of the sea, SUNK, and it's very depressing as a longtime Sixers' fan.— wondo40
- What ever happened to Billy Cunningham after he left the Miami Heat? Can we bring him back to coach? I know he's 67 years old, but Larry Brown is 70. His coaching philosophy back in the day was defense breeds offense. That's what the team was last season before Mr. Jordan took this team two giant steps backwards. Coach Cunningham, where are you?— bewilderize
- In addition to the ill-conceived Jordan hiring and the Brand signing, don't forget the weak Reggie Evans for Kampano trade. Things big and small all went wrong. At this point I would like to see a proven winning coach (Brown, but there are others) get this team at least back to being competitive. I would like to see a coach that could bring the lost art of defense back to Philadelphia.— JohnFC
- The reconstruction of this team is going to have to come in phases. Phase 1: Draft Evan Turner. This may require a trade up,which is always hard to do in the NBA. I would include any of our young players except Holiday to do so. Assume our draft position remains at 6 or 7. I think including Speights (my preference) or Young plus our pick to move up to # 2 (where Turner is projected) is doable. A backcourt of Holiday and Turner is young but immensely talented. Keep Iggy for his veteran presence. He's still young enough that he won't be a liability in a few years when the backcourt matures. Brand and Dalembert remain because of contractual problems. There's your starting five for next year. Phase 2: Allow Dalembert, Kapono and Green to leave when their contracts expire after next year. Replace with reasonably priced free agents. Draft a "big" to replace Sammy D. Phase 3: Sign one big free agent at a front court position to get into at least the second round of the playoffs. Phase 4: When Brand becomes tradeable (maybe with 2 years remaining on his contract, but definitely in its expiration year) do it to add a needed piece to go further in the playoffs. To sum up: One more year of losing. Another year of mediocrity/modest success and then competiveness in year 3. Sign me as GM. Just kidding.— Rick Wise Guy
- Chuckw: agreed -- Stefanski didn't make those changes, and needed to. I'm not really an apologist for Stefanski -- I'm not even convinced he's the right guy to re-shape this team. I was only saying that his thinking about the necessity to be able to execute in the halfcourt was not a mistake, but was in fact correct. He didn't get the roster he needed to do it, and that's his fault, but the direction of his thinking in this regard was right on. I think this teams needs a top to bottom overhaul. Even if we completely play to the strengths and athleticism of this roster, our ceiling is right about where the Hawks are, i.e. a playoff team but not a contender.— FKD215
Comment removed.- I dont hre anybody blaming the people who is really at fault in my eyes! THE PLAYERS! I dont care who the coach is, when your best player (iggy) cant average over 20 pts per game, you are not going to win many games. should have traded him and dalember when they had the chance, to start the rebuilding process earlier. I guess that was ed stefanski too huh!— dribbler
John Mitchell is in his second year covering the 76ers for the Inquirer after joining the paper in November 2011. He covered the Washington Wizards for the Washington Times from 1998 to 2008. He's also worked at the Philadelphia Tribune, the Wilmington News Journal, Courier-Post, Trenton Times and Elmira Star-Gazette.Born and raised in West Philadelphia - not too far from Will Smith - he graduated from Overbrook High School the same year the 76ers won their last championship. He's a proud graduate of Howard University and the proud father of two sons, Jared and Jordan.
ABOUT MARC NARDUCCI
Marc Narducci has served in a variety of roles with the Inquirer since beginning in 1983. He has covered the 76ers as a backup and a beat writer. In addition, Narducci has covered everything from the Super Bowl to the World Series and a lot in between. Narducci also has a true passion for South Jersey scholastic sports, which he has covered for many years.
