Sixers should extend coach Brett Brown

GIVEN HIS statements the last 2 days about focusing on winning next season, Sixers coach Brett Brown might seem a bit out of step with the vague time frames for winning offered by majority owner Josh Harris and general manager Sam Hinkie.

It is not a challenge, but it does point out the contrast between management's strategy of patient growth and the coach's concern about producing in the here and now.

It is simply a matter of being comfortable.

If you are Harris, your patience can be as limitless as your willingness to sit through the inevitable growing pains of a slow rebuilding project.

If you are Hinkie and you have convinced the owners that your visions of analytics, sports science and building with talent through high draft picks is the path to success, all you have to do is total the car into a ditch on these early trips out of the driveway.

If you are Brown, your 37-127 record is one of the worst ever to start an NBA coaching career. No matter how much management talks about patience, somebody ultimately will be held accountable for that kind of record.

The first in line at the chopping block is typically the coach.

For now, Harris acknowledged that he has confidence in Brown. During his end-of-the-season news conference about the state of the Sixers, he said the job Brown is doing has "exceeded expectations."

OK, if that is the case, Harris should put some action behind his words and offer Brown a 2-year contract extension. He has 2 years left on his original 4-year deal.

Do not misunderstand. This is not coming from Brown. He has not mentioned a new contract, and yesterday, when asked about an extension, he said he was grateful for the opportunity the Sixers have already afforded him.

I, however, say that Brown's case is one of extraordinary circumstance. It is hard to come up with another coach who has been so undermined by management's commitment to losing to accumulate high draft picks, hoping things will get remarkably better down the road.

Brown has been sent to battle with a team composed primarily of second-round draft picks and undrafted free agents whose skill sets have pushed the boundaries of minimum NBA quality.

Every time Brown and his staff managed to put something positive together, a revolving door of personnel changes seemed to go into motion, resetting things back to the beginning.

"The coaching staff, I feel, the program has shown that if we can have a group together for a while, we can move it forward," Brown said. "It's been during-the-year changes that have hurt us and stop us from moving in that direction.

"We take a few hits and move them forward again."

That is what Harris meant by exceeding expectations.

In a program rooted in player development at the cost of wins, Brown has been the ultimate team player, pushing his players to maximum effort, no matter how overwhelmed they were by talent.

Still, the record is what it is. It is a record that can quickly put a coach on a hot seat. The problem is that the extenuating circumstances concerning the Sixers' lack of talent make it difficult to evaluate Brown fairly.

After 2 years, it is impossible to say whether Brown can become a successful NBA coach, because he has yet to coach a legitimate NBA roster.

I used to joke that Brown should be offered a 1-year extension for each season management has wasted by tanking. Now I think it would only be fair.

Since the Sixers' new campaign for the 2015-16 season is "This Starts Now," they are kind of saying the last two seasons were mulligans. The quality of their previous two rosters has been the biggest mulligan of all.

Give those two seasons back to Brown in the form of an extension. Let him have a chance to prove what kind of coach he is, now that the shackles of a self-created limited roster apparently will be removed.

Sure, it could be a little bit risky, but not much more than using your highest lottery picks in consecutive seasons on players you knew would not play as rookies because of injuries.

"I think we're all kind of focused on the same thing, which is developing the team and the talent over the long run," Harris said when asked about an extension for Brown. "I'm very happy with what Brett is doing.

"We haven't started any of those dialogues, but it's certainly not out of the question, either."

Why not do it? Let Brown have the same level of comfort looking down the road that Harris and Hinkie seem to have.

Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood