The Philadelphia 76ers are finished. An overall disappointing season ended in a way that it could only end as they were swept in Round 1 by the Boston Celtics on Sunday.
Now, comes the reaction. The Sixers were built to go deep into the playoffs even with the injury to Ben Simmons, it was not supposed to end this way. Coach Brett Brown now faces a lot of scrutiny and he faces the likelihood of losing his job, but if he does keep his job, Josh Richardson would like to see a change in his style.
“He’s a good guy. He’s a good man,” said Richardson. “He means well. I just think going forward, he’s got to have some more accountability. I don’t think there was much accountability this season and I think that was part of our problem.”
Richardson has been a little outspoken about the lack of accountability on the team’s roster before and he was the one guy on the bench on Sunday trying to get into his guys again and get them going when the Celtics made a run. He comes from a culture with the Miami Heat that is built on hard work and that self-awareness to be better when the time calls for it so he has experience with this type of issue.
“It just has to start,” Richardson added. “It’s always got to be from day one. It’s got to start from scratch, it isn’t going to be easy. People aren’t going to be comfortable, but that’s what championship teams do. Guys not doing their job on or off the court, there’s got to be some sort of, not consequence, but you got to be able to talk to each other and listen., actually here. It’s a hard lesson to learn for some people, but in order for us to make this playoff run that we all want, it’s got to start.”
The Sixers will have a lot of questions to answer in the coming days and weeks, but this is one aspect that has come up a lot with the team. They don’t have that leader that is going to expect and demand more out of his guys and this is what Richardson means.
This is going to be a long offseason for the Sixers moving forward. [lawrence-related id=37109,37102,37099]