Deconstructing the 76ers
Eddie Jordan is no longer the head coach of the 76ers.
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
this team is fixable because it has a lot of pieces that are difficult to acquire. Legitimate pg who can defend (holiday). A skilled second fiddle who can score, defend, pass, all unselfishly (iguodala). A legitimate center with the rare combo of quickness and interior presence(dalembert...most of the time). And a handful of others who would be useful on a good team (young, carney, williams, kapono). Maybe we can get lucky/trade speights/young and move up enough to add a star scorer. Mix that with a respected coach and suddenly we could be a good team. Point is the sixers are easier to fix than most of the other broken teams because we already have some players that would fit well on a contender. Brand is a great example of a good player that doesn't fit well on a contender. If Stefanski goes...hope returns.- No one around the league is willing to take the Iguodala contract, thats nonsense. No GM made him an offer as a free agent. Teams win by having Bruce Bowens back in the day and similar cheap players around their superstars. Teams do not win by having an $80 mil Iguodala as their 3rd best player. People need to stop with that, Andre is not tradeable.— JonKap
- Murdock I agree with you. I feel confident that under a good coach a starting lineup of Dalembert, Brand, Iguodala, Kapono, and Holiday could be very competitive in the East. But Brand is getting old and Dalembert will not be around if we have another bad season so if we don't get the right coach this year, forget it.— CBent1
- PRAY FOR TOP 3 LOTTO PICK— PuPuMan
- I am with 76erfn. I am surprised at statements praising what a tough defensive team the Sixers were before Jordan. No, not really. They won by fast-breaking, slashing to the hoop, and clutch shots down the stretch by Andre Miller. They were awful on the perimeter and average inside, made tolerable by Reggie Evans, who at least was a banger. Remember, they only won 81 games in two seasons, hardly earth shattering, admittedly without Brand. Still they were a relatively enjoyable team to watch on the run, and with Brand healthy, everyone assumed they could step up a notch, but Miller and Evans were gone and they were asking Lou Williams to run the point. While this team under the right coach might be able to win 43 games, they really need some defensive help and a real, preferably 6:6 or taller, shooting guard who can defend the perimeter, along with Holiday. Williams will come off the bench, along with Meeks and Kapono. They must decide what to do with Speights and Young, as well as Iguodala, who must tone down his temptation to lead the break, overhandle the ball, and shoot threes. Dalembert is a tough call, as he boards and blocks shots, but is a week offensive player and not a bruising inside presence. The real issue boils down to this: should Stefanski be the architect of this squad? We know that Ed. Snider consults with Larry Brown, so much will depend on Brown, not Stefanski. By the way, if I am not mistaken, Stefanski turned down a trade of Iguodala and Dalembert for McGrady and his expiring contract, so is Iguodala really untradeable?— chuckw
Comment removed.- Chuck, we can only hope for the best. If Stefanski stays, he needs to change his tune about the talent of this team. This team barely made the playoffs with Andre Miller as their best player, and only won 81 games in 2 seasons, as you nicely pointed out. If Stefanski was so interested in growth last season, why was he so determined to dump Cheeks. If some guys were tuning him out, why not make a trade? Enough coaches had already been hired. Also, even though Elton Brand was a mistake, that doesn't mean Josh Smith was the solution. The guy tried to get Mike Woodson fired after resisting his coaching. Don't you think we have had ENOUGH guys like that on the 76ers? Sticking with Woodson, plus adding Bibby and Jamal Crawford, have been essential to the rise of the Hawks.— 76erfn
- chuckw....that trade was a rumor. Stefanski did not turn anything down. He would have driven Iguodala and Dalembert to the airport. That trade would have freed up cap space, excited the fans as the Sixers would have been a player for the biggest free agent class ever. That deal was all nonsense.— JonKap
The next coach should have a history of winning. AS A PLAYER AND A COACH! That eliminates Collins and van gundy. May place an exception to van gundy. But why waste time? When Avery and laimbeer are available. Laimbeer Mahorn as his assistant. 3 finals appearances 2 rings as players. 3 rings with the girls. Personality. will bring an identity to the squad. Will not allow the team to relax on D! Practices will be physical and tough. Minutes will be taken away and earned. Players will be benched they will not like it. My wish list Avery/Laimbeer. As far as stefanski I was on board with the Brand signing. But he drafted sp8ts and Holiday. Jordan was a MAJOR mistake and a waste of my time and any other sixer fan who watched EVERY GAME! I'd give him one last chance to select the right coach. I remember the headline leading up to the hiring of Jordan. STEFANSKI IS ABOUT TO BLOW IT! And he did bigtime. DON'T BLOW THIS ONE! The national unemployment exceeds 10%. You are next!— combocancer1975- I think Kate is the best writer that this site has -- perfectly broke down the entire situation in one easy to read piece— jakejake
- Stefanski hired a guy he knew really well to coach players he knew really well, and somehow was unable to recognize that the coach's system and the players' talents were not going to match up. That's all the reason the Sixers need to dump Stefanski. This guy shouldn't be trusted to run an AAU basketball program. The Sixers need a real basketball guy to come in and run the franchise. Maybe it's Larry Brown as the next GM, who picks the next coach, maybe it's somebody else. Remember when the Detroit Lions finally got rid of Matt Millen? That's what the Sixers need to do. Remember when the Miami Dolphins hired Bill Parcells? That's what the Sixers need to do.— syracusenats
- Comment removed.
- Sixers? At this point sadly, who cares...Go Phillies!— draper
- Any one who has played the game of Basketball knows that it starts at the defensive end first, if you want to win in any league. That's just the way it is.Me myself I would bring in Doug Collins to coach this team,fire Stefanski,bring in someone how to evaluate talent and go after the kid walls real hard. Walls is the kind of lalent that would instantly make everyone on the team better players. Without talent and direction you will always be watching the FINALS. Dougs a winner,he played the game the right way, played for Billy C,AND HE'S A REAL SIXER. So bring him home.— brockbb
- combocancer1975: I like Laimbeer, but would suggest the Sixers make a run for Joe Dumars as GM, given that the Pistons are up for sale, who would then hire Laimbeer. Stefanski, if he is not replaced by Larry Brown, will probably make a run for Jay Wright, in order to sell season tickets; of course, college coaches have a pretty bad record in the NBA and Villanova plays defense on the same level as the Sixers and, in any event, Wright would not leave. When he was conducting the now infamous "search" that resulted in Jordan being hired, Stefanski interviewed Tom Thibodeau, a defensive guru, but doubtless he will replace Doc Rivers, who is stepping down. Van Gundy probably is ticketed for the New Jersey Nets. Doug Collins would NOT be a good choice, although he seems to want it. Avery Johnson burned his bridge here when he apparently demanded to be named without an interview. The Sixers are in an awkward position; a no-name assistant will not sell season tickets, a name college coach like Wright can sell tickets, but will probably fail, and a top of the line NBA coach like Gregg Popovich, who sees the San Antonio dynasty coming to an end, would not want to come here except for the kind of money Ed. Snider would not wish to pay. Larry Brown still seems likely as head of basketball operations and coach, as it would be yet another "challenge" for him as he heads into his dotage.— chuckw
Keith Pompey has been an Inquirer reporter since September 2004. He takes over the Sixers beat after covering the Temple men’s basketball team for the past three years and Temple football the past two seasons. Pompey also previously covered the Penn and Drexel men’s basketball team and Villanova football team after initially focusing on high school sports.
Pompey is a native Philadelphian and a University of Pittsburgh. Follow him on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers or reach Keith at kpompey@phillynews.com.
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.
