Alpha Web site Grantland.com has recently weighed in with both a podcast and column, by the readable Zach Lowe no less, puncturing needles through the dried out skin of Philadelphia 76er coach Doug Collins. It’s year three for Collins in Philly, it is gleefully announced, and Collins is burned out again.
Look, I know all about Doug Collins burn out. I was a fan of the Collins-coached Detroit Pistons, from 95-98. And allow me to conclude that Lowe, et. al are over thinking things: The Sixers are 23-35 because they were a .500 team last year whose best player is injured this year. That’s all.
I’m here logged into word press and writing this so some further analysis is briefly in order. Philly finished 35-31 in last year’s lock out shortened season. They started 20-9 and then the league, quickly, figured out how to play them. They got the last seed in the playoffs and were destined for post season roadkill until Derrick Rose tore his ACL and Joakim Noah got injured. Even with the Bulls best offensive and best defensive player, respectively, not playing, Philly still struggled to put away Chicago, needing some heroics from Andre Iguadola. Iguadola proved to be the best Sixer during the team’s playoff jog/light run. Just as Iguadola was the best Sixer during the team’s regular season. Just as Iguadola was the best Sixer during the franchise’s entire post-Allen Iverson era.
Philly traded Iguadola this summer because they got a 24 year-old all-star center in return, in Andrew Bynum. And Bynum has been out all year. Also, in order to financially make the Bynum deal work, Philly dumped valuable role players, like Elton Brand, for shaky role players, like Nick Young.
The only reason people were interested in Philly this year was because they were interested in seeing how good Bynum could be carrying his own team. To iterate, for the third time, Bynum has not played all year. Put yet another way, if you were told on, say, Halloween that Bynum would not play a game all year and then asked to guess the Sixers record after 58 games (a not completely random excercise as it is 2/3 into the season), 23-35 would seem like a totally reasonable guess. Some things have gone worse than expected, including, yes, the confusing front court rotation that could have been handled better by Collins. Some things have gone better than expected, including the exciting development of Jrue Holiday into an all-star point guard under the tutoring of former NBA guard Doug Collins.
Does this blog post have a larger, more interesting point? No, not really, other than the fact that I would probably hire Collins if I were an NBA GM just like I would hire Scott Skiles if I were an NBA GM. Both these coaches have a track record of making a reasonably certain positive difference on teams for 2 years. That, I think, makes them more attractive coaches than the average coaching candidate.