This past week the Philadelphia 76ers fired their head coach Eddie Jordan after just one season at the helm.
Jordan joins a long list of coaches that have had a short tenure with the club. Since Larry Brown left the organization in 2003, the 76ers have had 8 different coaches in 10 years.
The news came when the Sixers General Manager Ed Stefanski held a press conference Thursday afternoon, April 15, to tell the media of his decision to let his coach go. Stefanski was the one who hired coach Jordan this past off-season and he came to the realization that he made a mistake.
“The decision was not a right one. That’s why I made the choice to go in a different direction to get someone in here to get us on the right path,” Stefanski said.
Jordan was brought into the organization to coach a team that had gone to the playoffs two straight seasons and had a lot of hope for this year. He was supposed to help turn a team that was a fast-break team into a more half-court team that could actually compete in the playoffs.
Jordan coaches the Princeton offense, which is a confusing offense based on high basketball IQ and involves a lot of passing and back door cuts. The team was never able to grasp the Princeton offense and the season ended in complete disappointment.
The hire of coach Jordan by Stenfanski was never the right decision. The Sixers simply don’t have the player personnel to run such an offense. The Sixers have young, athletic players who need to run and get into the open court to be successful.
Stefanski’s own job security is very questionable too. Every decision that he’s made since taking over for Billy King has pretty much been a bad decision. He signed free agent Elton Brand two years ago to a very lucrative 5-year deal after Brand was coming off a season in which he suffered major injuries.
Before Brand came to Philly he averaged around 20 points and 10 rebounds a game; this season he averaged just 13.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. He also overpaid to re-sign the Sixers best player Andre Igoudala, who has underachieved and obviously Stefanski made a mistake by hiring coach Jordan.
Besides Stefanski the players are unsure of their future too. After a season in which they finished 27-55, which was tied for the 6th worst record in the NBA, it seems like everyone is expendable.
The only untouchable player is probably the team’s 2009 1st round draft pick, Jrue Holiday. The up and coming point guard was the youngest player in the NBA this past season. He started 51 games averaged 8 points and 4 assists a game, while playing solid defense.
Many fans have already accepted the fact that the team is in a rebuilding mode and it’s going to be years before this team is a serious contender again. The 76ers’ roster is littered with bad contracts and under achieving players. The team has pretty much no salary cap space for the upcoming season so the Sixers will be quiet in free agency this year.
One thing that fans can be optimistic about it the 2010 draft.
With the Sixers being the 6th worst team in the NBA, they’ll most likely end up with a pretty solid draft pick. In the NBA, all the teams who don’t make the playoffs are put into a lottery to see what order they will pick in the draft.
The worst team in the NBA, the NJ Nets will have the best chance to land to first overall pick at 25 percent. The Sixers will have a 5 percent chance at the first pick. However, in the past five seasons the worst team in the NBA has not won the first pick in the draft.
In 2005 and 2007, the Bucks and Blazers had the same probability as the Sixers and they won the first overall pick. Even in the Sixers don’t land the first overall pick, the draft is pretty deep with players such as John Wall, Demarcus Cousins and Evan Turner.
