The Philadelphia 76ers had a tough 2019-20 season where they did not come anywhere close to the expectations the team had set out for themselves. When a team this talented has a tough season, everybody tries to figure out why they did not have the expected success.
Fingers do get pointed and there are always scapegoats in any situation. One of those scapegoats was former coach Brett Brown who was fired on August 24 and there were accusations of a lack of accountability on the team, led by Josh Richardson. Then, an Eastern Conference executive suggested that Brown let stars Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid off the hook a lot and it affected the team’s culture.
That is where new coach Doc Rivers comes in as a guy who brings a lot of credibility to the position as he looks to lead this talented team to the top. For that to happen, accountability will be a big thing for this team moving forward.
“Accountability is key,” explained Rivers. “It is on the players, but it has to start somewhere and it has to start with the coaching staff. It has to start upstairs in the front office. It has to start in the training room. Accountability has to be throughout your team and throughout every single player. It’s a big word. It’s a word that if you don’t do it, you’re not going to win. We have to be accountable to each other every single day. That’s the only way we’re going to be successful here.”
Rivers has had a lot of experience coaching players with the stature that Embiid and Simmons carry with them. He has coached future Hall of Famers Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen with the Boston Celtics before coaching the likes of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George with the Los Angeles Clippers as well as Tracy McGrady with the Orlando Magic.
Gaining Simmons and Embiid’s respect is going to be a big challenge to hold everybody accountable.
“They’re all different,” Rivers added. “They do have certain traits that are similar, work ethic is one, but you have to hold them accountable. The more accountable they will be with you, the more accountable you can hold the rest of the team and I think that’s one of the key things when you’re coaching stars.”
It does appear that Rivers has the right plan in place in order to get this team moving again, but it remains to be seen if he will be able to get capture the team’s attention long enough to see some real progress. [lawrence-related id=38142,38139,38136]