Coaching Change Coming In Philadelphia?

Brett Brown may be coaching his final game with the Sixers this afternoon, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. With Philadelphia trailing Boston, 3-0, in their first-round series, it appears doubtful Brown would survive such an early playoff exit.

The embattled coach opted not to hold practice Saturday, replacing it with film study and optional shooting. There was also no media session, but Brown addressed his future after his team saw Game 3 slip away.

“I understand the circumstance,” he said. “My job is to focus on what I really can do. My players deserve that. I’ve been in the city seven years and tonight’s loss is what’s most on my mind. My effort truly is to try to find a way to win, and keep this series alive. Do my job for my players.”

Brown still has two seasons and $10MM left on his contract, but that may not stop the Sixers from pulling the trigger. They have taken several personnel gambles over the past two seasons to try to build a championship contender, including trades for Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris and the signing of Al Horford — a coaching change may be the next step.

Brown has a 221-344 record in Philadelphia, but much of that is distorted because he oversaw the “Process” years when the team didn’t mind losing to acquire draft assets. He was hired in 2013 after spending nine seasons as an assistant with the Spurs, and Pompey notes that he was originally brought in to oversee player development with the expectation that someone else would take over when the team started to contend.

Brown led the Sixers to 52 and 51 wins the past two years, and saw last season end with a heart-breaking seventh game loss to the eventual champion Raptors in the conference semifinals. Multiple sources tell Pompey that Brown played a role in breaking up that team because he no longer wanted to deal with the outspoken Butler.

This year, Philadelphia’s playoff chances appeared doomed once Ben Simmons was lost for the year with knee surgery. That and the guaranteed money still owed to Brown could make management think twice about the move, but it may not be enough to save his job.

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