The Indispensable Larry Brown

The word on the street is that Larry Brown's return to the Sixers in one capacity or another is a foregone conclusion now that his Hornets have been summarily eliminated from the playoffs.

The conventional wisdom seems to be that Brown is the pre-eminent turnaround artist. He is the man who knows exactly what buttons to press to turn a loser into a winner. Perhaps.

Over his 35 year career, coach Brown has certainly achieved noteworthy successes including an NCAA championship at Kansas and NBA championship at Detroit. But he has also left at least three franchises in shambles - New Jersey, Indiana and New York - two more if you count Philadelphia and Detroit. He also seriously underachieved with the U.S. basketball squad at the 2004 Olympics. And he certainly didn't perform any magic with the Charlotte Hornets - making the playoffs in the mediocre Eastern Conference and getting swept in the first round are not going to inspire a remake of "Hoosiers".

Moreover, Brown has a history of unreliability, having left teams with seemingly no warning and inadequate explanation. We are now told that the coach really loves Charlotte and Michael Jordan but he would really like to be with his family in the Delaware Valley. Would Jordan have gone out of his way to recruit Brown if he knew this was in the back of the coach's mind all along?

Larry Brown had one tour of duty in Philadelphia and that was enough. It's time for the Sixers to start fresh with a relatively young crew in the front office and on the bench and start building a team brick by brick. But the indispensable one, coach Brown, wants to be closer to his family so naturally he will be returning to Philly, until he is struck by another whim - like coaching the Ukrainian national team.

THE SIXERS: A CASE STUDY IN MISMANAGEMENT

If the Harvard Business School were to offer a course in sports franchise mismanagement, the current Sixers' regime should be a prominent case study. In the spring of 2008, the team galloped into the post-season, threw a scare into the Detroit Pistons, and appeared to be a team on the make. Last year was disappointing, but it still was a .500 team that made the playoffs. But in this just-concluded campaign, the Sixers finished almost 30 games under .500 and in the last few months appeared to be in complete disarray. Eddie "Princeton Offense" Jordan has already been asked to walk the plank and others are bound to follow.

So how did management allow this to happen? Let's count the ways.

1. THE COACHING MERRY-GO-ROUND. Mo Cheeks was fired after only 23 games of the 08-09 season, a most bizarre move. Removing a coach early in a campaign should be done only under the most extreme circumstances. None such existed. Even more bizarre, Cheeks was replaced by Tony DiLeo from the front office who hadn't coached in 10 years. And while everyone insisted DiLeo was not an interim coach, he turned out to be just that. And then DiLeo was replaced by Jordan, an NBA lifer with a system profoundly unsuited for the Sixers' personnel.

The key point is not the competence of Cheeks, DiLeo, or Jordan but the lack of continuity. The Sixer organization should emulate the enduring success of coaches like Jerry Sloan or Greg Popovich who have had time to establish a culture over time.

2. THE POORLY CONCEIVED ACQUISITION OF ELTON BRAND. The Sixers of 07-08 had established a nice chemistry with a special affinity for the running game. It's hard to see how Brand could fit into that scheme even if he were at the height of his skills. Actually, since Brand labored for so long in the obscurity that surrounds the Los Angeles Clippers, one wonders if anyone actually ever saw him play since he left Duke.

3. THE FAILURE TO RE-SIGN ANDRE MILLER. If there was any doubt before, it now crystal clear that Miller was the most important player in the Sixer offense. Of course he had some liabilities, but he was and is one of the elite point guards in the league, someone who can run the fast break and create in the half court as well.

Now it may be that Miller could not have been persuaded to stay at any price, but it does not appear the front office made a concerted effort to retain him. And this leads to #4.

4. THE MISPLACED NOTION THAT LOU WILLIAMS COULD REPLACE MILLER. Williams is one of the team's most valuable assets, a potent scoring guard coveted around the NBA. Point guard skills are not that easily acquired and they do not play into Williams' strengths. Jrue Holiday played well and may be the Sixers' point guard of the future but he too is a long way from replacing Andre Miller.

5. THE SIGNING OF ALLEN IVERSON. This was truly a side show and distraction. It probably significantly slowed the development of Holiday and Williams as it cut into their minutes. Sixer fans have to hope that Williams' confidence, which at times seems fragile, was not permanently damaged by this forgettable season.

To be sure, this team has other issues which have festered for years. But this list is directly attributable to management decisions made in the last two years. Ed Stefanski has a lot of explaining to do.

Ryan Howard's Extreme Makeover

Going into last season, Ryan Howard, for all his impressive power numbers, had two glaring weaknesses - his penchant for strikeouts and his all-to-frequent defensive lapses. He went a long way toward addressing the latter in 2009 and he continues to show improvement in the early going in 2010.

Regarding the K's, the jury is still out. But through 7 games this spring, in addition to hitting for power and average, he has only 4 strikeouts, about half his historical pace. It's way to early to conclude that there has been a sea change. There may well be a reversion to the mean as the season progresses. But Howard's unwillingness to rest on his laurels and his fat contract is impressive.