New Sixers Coach Brett Brown Asks for Patience


Brett Brown, the new head coach in Philly, wants the fans and media to be patient because the Sixers will be awful next season (and, perhaps, beyond). Good luck with that, coach. Per the Delaware News Herald: “Brett Brown knows what a championship team looks like, and the 76ers are most assuredly not that. He has four years to do something about it. The longtime San Antonio Spurs assistant was introduced as the Sixers’ eighth head coach in 10 years on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center, in no small part because of the commitment the organization made to pry him off the end of Gregg Popovich’s bench. Brown wouldn’t have been here otherwise. ‘I was not going to take the job without the four years [guaranteed],’ Brown said about his contract. ‘And I am extremely grateful to the owners where they took a step back, and I think it’s a tremendous reflection of what they truly think, too. It’s going to take time. They really do have a tolerance. There is a patience. And as much as it was security for myself, I felt like they made a statement to the marketplace that they’re for real. They really do see this being a long haul-type of position. But it was vital to my decision and I’m thrilled that they allowed me to have that duration.’ […] Brown said he knows what he’s getting into. He tossed around words like ‘painful’ in describing the rebuilding process. He spoke about process and analytics and taking calculated risks, embracing all the buzzwords and ideals Sam Hinkie has professed since being hired as the Sixers’ president and general manager in May. He spoke about accountability and playing tough defense, and about the unavoidable pain of rebuilding a franchise with cornerstones that include two rookie first-round draft picks in point guard Michael Carter-Wiliams and center Nerlens Noel, who isn’t expect to play until Christmas at the earliest because of a torn ACL. He called next season ‘an educated science project’ and discussed the importance of keeping the locker room together and an ‘eye on the prize,’ even if it takes the Hubble telescope to see the 76ers contending for an NBA championship from here. ‘It is such a long ways away, in my eyes,’ Brown said. ‘There is so much work that has to be done in order to even think about that. It’s fair to dream, it’s fair to think about it, but geez, there’s so much work and so much luck that we’re all going to have to have to get to that level. It’s a great place to think and aspire to get to, but it’s a long road.'”