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Evaluating the Sixers' coaching candidates, name by name (by name by name by...)

Sixers coaching option Michael Curry. (Tony Dejak/AP)
Sixers coaching option Michael Curry. (Tony Dejak/AP)Read more

The names have been bantered about all summer, but it is becoming crunch time for the 76ers to name a head coach for the upcoming season, one that starts with training camp in late September/early October, a preseason game in Spain on October 6 and the regular-opener against the Miami Heat on October 30.

Let's take a look not only at the hot names to fill the Sixers' coaching vacancy, but reasons for or against their hire.

Michael Curry: He has dutifully been overseeing all the basketball operations since Doug Collins' departure on April 18. While coaching the organization's entry in the Orlando Pro Summer League, Curry certainly looked as if he was auditioning for the job as new general manager Sam Hinkie looked on. Curry has a year of coaching in the NBA on his resume (39-43 with Detroit in 2008-09) and is very familiar with the returning players as he was on Collins' staff for each of the three seasons.

Keeping Curry would most likely mean that Hinkie wasn't overwhelmed with any of the other prospects and that moving forward (if that's what you want to call what's going to happen this season) with the staff already under contract (including assistants Aaron McKie and Jeff Capel) is the way to go.

Brett Brown: The San Antonio assistant certainly would seem to be an enticing bet as he has learned under the best coach in the league in Gregg Popovich for many years, the past seven as an assistant. The 52-year-old also has a an international background, certainly something that would interest the Sixers, as he was the head coach for the Australian national team from 2009 to the 2012 Olympics in London. Popovich said of Brown to the Denver Post when Brown was a candidate for the Nuggets job: "We all know him as a lifer basketball guy who lives and breathes the game. He is an idea guy daily, just bubbling over and we all know that about him. But he's also a wonderful, humor-filled person who is filled with kindness."

I've said all along that if you're going to hire an assistant, there is no better place to pluck than San Antonio. If the Sixers do decide to go with Brown or another hot assistant, there will have to be an abundant amount of patience on both sides, as the turnaround is going to be a long process.

To get Bob Cooney's full analysis of the Sixers' coaching search visit PhillyDailyNews.com.

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