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
Kate is the most intelligent writer on this digital rag.— maximus- I like Tom Thibodeau as a possible replacement. He's a defensive minded coach that should be a good fit with the team's current strengths. Thibodeau has also been living in Doc Rivers' shadow for too long and is probably ready to be a head coach. Instead of trying another former NBA head coach with a losing record why not take a chance with an assistant with a proven track record and a ring?— Freeway Ricky
- Freeway Ricky: word in Boston is that Doc Rivers is leaving to be with his family in Atlanta. Almost certainly, Thibodeau would be named to replace him.— chuckw
- They had nobody who could shoot from outside last year, so they get the guy with the best 3 point % and bench him all year. The 6'ers need to play defense, run every chance they can, and if they have to do a half court set, have somebody out there that can put up the long ball to either stretch the defense out and open driving lanes, OR actually give him the ball and let him shoot.— Bleue
- No, Ed Stefanski should not make any more decisions. He should join Ed J. on the street for the chaos he has caused. He has run out of chances. Period. Case closed.— TheSage
- All they needed to do was to tweek the half court offense so we saw some improvement there. The running game and D was in place. Stefanski's moves negated the latter two aspects of their game and we were left with a shell. And one last thing, please say no to Mr. Brown. Great coach, but he's not the answer here.— Trifecta
Just some food for thought. Fast break basketball is fun to watch, but doesn't win titles. The Sixers have ruined any chance to be a running team buy investing in Brand, who has to play, and is untradeable. This leads me to conclude that efforts to do anything but build the offense around Brand are going to be futile. So, with the current roster, they need to go bigger so the forward playing opposite Brand can be primarily a rebounder. This might mean starting Smith or Speights along with Dalembert, and playing Iggy at guard. Hopefully, the center from Kansas lasts until the Sixers picks so he can be groomed to replace Sammy.- great Article Kate. As you mentioned, Ed Stefanski inherited a running team that sacrificed early season losses before opening up to run in the second half. He wrongfully took the credit for the second half of the 2007/2008 season. (second half of the season the team ran and went to the playoffs and challenged Detroit). The proof is the team ran in the second half of each season that Cheeks was coach. By his own comments, Stefanski aknowleged that he inherited a developing team with a young core. The development and the plan was visible (sacrifice to learn fundamentals and run later) this served to keep players motivated and improving and provided a glimpse of hope for the fans. Furthermore, it was already taking place before he arrived. Stefanski is a fraud who should never have been hired.— getpure
- Cant they offer guaranteed contracts in the NBA to management? Well why dont they ? This league needs a lockdown, it has to be losing a lot $ !— marcards
- There are only 4 current NBA coaches with rings, Jackson, Larry Brown, Pop and Doc Rivers. If you want to compete for a ring, hire a coach that has taken a team deep into the playoffs before or an assistant of someone who has done so, ala Mike Brown who studied under Pop. I would actually go one further and grab an assistant Gm from a winning franchise tree, ala Danny Ferry who also came from San Antonio. We chose guys from the NJ Nets tree but they only got to the finals because of J Kidd, not because they had a great organization. I would add the Orlando tree and the OK City tree. In fact, you might get someone cheaper from the OK City tree as they are just now entering into the ranks of successful, well built teams. Don't hire a GM from a loosing tree and don't hire a coach with a losing career record.— fuller11
The only worse decision the sixers could make other than keeping stefanski on board would be to bring in larry brown as his replacement. they need a winning couch with a proven track record, who also has a strong voice and ability to cultivate the younger players, as opposed to larry brown's approach of benching or trading them. neither jeff van gundy nor avery johnson are perfect, but they would both be huge improvements.— CosmoK- this is one of the better articles concerning the postmortem analysis of the sixers. unfortunately, in the NBA there are no easy fixes, and we might see similar articles for a few years to come, unless the sixers get lucky with some ping pong balls, or they get a management team that knows how to use the talent on the roster.— dlivesay
- Excellent column, Kate, for the primary reason that you have exposed Stefanski as the problem. A couple very telling remarks by him - I'm a leadership/teams scholar by trade - betray that he has the wrong criteria in his decision making. Rather than find a coach (or free agent) who fits the players, he looks at the pros and cons of the roster and finds someone opposite, thinking that individual can provide the biggest marginal gain. Instead, new players and coaches need to be found who incrementally build upon the team's capabilities in concert with the team as it is, and not presenting an oil-and-water mix. You would think that an NBA GM would at least intuitively understand that.— Bobby G
- I could not figure out why they hired Jordan in the first place! He was just fired in D.C.. Why didn't the sixers resign Miller, that was the first big mistake. And no hiring Larry Brown, he never finishes anything. I think Avery Johnson would be a good hire. He had the mavs playing defense, and got a raw deal in Dallas. Dump lou will!!!— ryle57
- Ed Stefanski should also go. He only got into the NBA because of his relationship with the Nash family (John in particular, when he was GM of the Nets). He's a fan who doesn't know any more than me as far as basketball talent is concerned. Go back into the Insurance field Eddie !— Mike Camilli
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.
