When a team is struggling, everybody wants to come after somebody. It’s easy to point fingers rather than trying to dive deeper into different issues.
So with three bad losses to begin a road trip, the calls for Brett Brown’s job have been flying from the outside world. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith blamed Brown for the Sixers’ struggles and Brown himself even expressed concern about the team’s spirit after the loss to the Heat. The biggest thing that normally falls on a coach is a team’s competitive spirit and getting the most out of his roster.
Brown hears the criticism and he understands it, but he is here to do his job and that is how he will conduct business.
“I do. I understand that, but you’d be better off asking them (the players) I walk in, I know and I’m not naïve enough to understand why you ask, but I answered it the way I answered it and I’ll look forward to coaching them,” said Brown. “When it gets to an epidemic stage, I’ll admit that. I don’t at all right now.”
It does not exactly look good for Brown after a video went viral in Monday’s loss to the Miami Heat.
At Sixers game in Miami, Brett Brown trying to get his team going #Sixers pic.twitter.com/mzAzDsDaMG
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) February 4, 2020
Joel Embiid wanted to squash all of that as he believes the players have a job to do and it isn’t the coach’s job to go out and make shots.
“We haven’t been winning, our offense has not been good,” he explained. “I always say, coaches are not out there to make shots for us. They don’t make plays, they can do a better job of setting everything up, but at the end of the day, we make the plays.”
Ultimately, Embiid has a point. The coach can only do so much. It is up to the players on the floor to go out and execute and make the plays they need to. As a group. they understand that.
“We’ve got a great group of guys,” the big man added. “We all love each other and I think we all care for each other. It’s still that thing of finding a balance and figuring it out, but I think it’s basketball. It’s our job. We can’t complain about it.”
The Sixers will look to bounce back on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks. [lawrence-related id=25002,24992,24982]