GM Brand backs Brown but makes no guarantees
PHILADELPHIA — One day after the NBA trade deadline, Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand held a news conference addressing the state of the team. Brand said he believed in the team’s roster construction and stood behind coach Brett Brown but expressed discontent with the Sixers’ road record.
“Brett is our head coach,” Brand said before Friday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies. “I believe in Brett’s ability to lead this team. I will be responsible for that decision when it comes. I speak to Brett and we work every day to get this problem fixed. We’re not happy with it.”
Brand stopped short of guaranteeing Brown would be the Sixers’ coach for the rest of the 2019-20 season, saying, “I’m not going to play what-ifs.”
Brand went on to reiterate that he supported Brown and called the 58-year-old coach the team’s “leader.” Brown, in his seventh season with the 76ers, signed a three-year extension in May 2018.
The Sixers ended a four-game losing streak with a 119-107 win against the Grizzlies. They improved to a league-best 22-2 at home, which has helped keep them afloat as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference considering their record on the road is 9-19.
“I know we are more of a team than what we’ve seen recently,” Brand said. “Make no mistake, we are disappointed in how we’ve played recently.
“The players understand how they have to do better. The whole organization has to do better.”
The Sixers were better at home on Friday night against Memphis.
Center Joel Embiid was limited to 16 minutes because of a stiff neck, but Furkan Korkmaz stepped up for Philadelphia, scoring 34 points — including shooting 7-of-9 from 3. Ben Simmons had 22 points for Philadelphia.
“We do love playing at home,” Brown said after the game. “We’ve always got great memories coming back here and we are sort of used to winning at home. We love playing in front of our crowd and we feel a responsibility to perform in front of that crowd. Just after our losing on the road, it does feel good to come back and win.”
But winning at home has not been the Sixers’ problem this season. Philadelphia has two more games — both in Wells Fargo Center — before the All-Star break. Tobias Harris said the key for the Sixers to translate their home-court success into road wins is bringing the same “energy and focus” that they do at home.
“We want to be ready on the road,” Harris said. “We want to figure out, going into the break, kind of having the confidence and being ready to come back and put things together and make a good run.”