The Philadelphia 76ers finally ended their coaching search today by officially naming current NBA analyst, Doug Collins, their head coach.Doug Collins has been an NBA analyst for better part of the decade, after last coaching the Washington Wizards in 2002-2003. Collins has coached 8 seasons, coaching the Bulls, Pistons, and Wizards and compiling a 332-287 overall record. Collins does have some Philadelphia ties, as he was the #1 overall draft pick in the 1973 draft.
It's hard to say whether Collins is the right guy for this job. It's even harder to say why Collins would want this job. Collins clearly has a very good basketball mind, and is a guy who knows the game well, and is extremely intelligent. It isn't so clear if he will be able to succeed with this group of players. The Sixers, last time I checked are not a very good team, and have a bunch of bad contracts, which doesn't allow them to go after any players, and makes it harder to unload the current bad contracts. This probably means that the Sixers will not be very good for a few years, even with a solid young guy in Jrue Holiday, and the #2 overall pick this year.
Collins always had success where he went, but always also seemed to slightly underachieve. Collins was the Chicago Bulls coach from the middle to the late 80s, and consistently made the playoffs with Michael Jordan leading the team, but the Bulls never took off until Collins was replaced with Phil Jackson. Collins took some time off, and then coached the Pistons in the mid to late 90s, and which point he was fired from that job. He then took some more time off and coached the Washington Wizards for a couple seasons, and was fired again. In between all the coaching jobs, Collins worked as an analyst for NBA games for TNT, and is considered one of the better analysts.
Doug Collins name has surfaced for multiple coaching positions after his final coaching job with the Wizards, but he has never been hired until now. Like I said, I do respect Doug Collins' knowledge for the game, and think he knows his stuff, I am just not sure he is the guy to be the long term coach of the 76ers. The 76ers will not be good for a few years, and Doug Collins tendencies are to get sort of burned out after coaching for a few years. If the Sixers continue to be a bad team for the next few years, I hope that Collins stays motivated to coach the team, and does not bail after a couple of poor seasons.
This Sixers coaching job is not a very good one right now. Due to all the bad contracts, it is not easy to bring in players, and the team is basically handicapped and stuck with the guys who are currently on the team. However, in a couple years, when the Sixers do have some wiggle room, this could a very good coaching job to have. We will just have to see if Doug Collins sticks around long enough, and is able to keep the team motivated, which in today's NBA, is not an easy thing to do.
1 comment:
Yeah, I hope Doug doesn't get burned out with this crappy bunch. Doug's background with the Sixers may have been the only compelling reason for him to accept this thankless job -- can't imagine there'd be any other viable candidate out there who'd come within 500 miles of this sorry-assed organization. And, please, Eddie S., don't overthink the #2 pick or suddenly fantasize that you're a skilled wheeler-dealer -- just take Evan Turner and be done with it!! Evan and Jrue will provide Doug some genuine talent he needs on the floor, and these two have the potential to form a strong nucleus to build around. It will take time given the atrocious multi-year deals Eddie handed out to 2nd tier talent and outright garbage, but at least there seems to be a faint, barely discernible light finally appearing at the end of this endless tunnel.
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