The 76ers dropped their sixth straight game last night, an embarrassing 14-point home loss to the 16-41 Magic, and Philadelphia's latest defeat was a breaking point for head coach Doug Collins. As John Schuhmann of NBA.com details, Collins' post-game performance was one for the ages, as the Sixers coach questioned whether his players came back from the All-Star break ready to play and stressed that there's nothing wrong with the team's off-court preparation.
"I don’t want you to feel like I’m up here blaming. I don’t want you to think I’m making excuses," Collins finally said about 10 minutes into the press conference, but the comments that preceded that certainly suggested a significant amount of frustration with his players.
Chris Mannix of SI.com wrote a month ago that Collins was "apopletic" after one particularly bad loss, and that many executives around the league were wondering if the coach was approaching his breaking point, so Collins' post-game speech wasn't entirely unexpected. Mannix added at the time that the Sixers job appears to be Collins' as long as he wants it, but as Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News points out (via Twitter), coaches often don't last long after that sort of performance, meaning it could just be a matter of time until Collins and the Sixers "part ways."
The Sixers exercised their 2013/14 option on Collins prior to this season, so the coach will still have a year remaining on his contract at season's end. But as Grantland's Bill Simmons and SBNation's Tom Ziller noted last night (Twitter links), in three previous head coaching stints, Collins has never lasted longer than three years. He's currently in his third season in Philadelphia, and I'd imagine Sixers management will want to talk to Collins about the future after last night's performance.
So what do you think? Will this "rock-bottom" moment for the Sixers lead to Collins and the team parting ways, or will the two sides push through a disappointing stretch and continue their relationship beyond this season?
Why would they fire him? He’s coaching a team in which arguably the best player is out because he wanted to bowl instead of preparing to play. Assuming the team hasn’t turned on him (which there’s no indication it has), what’s the benefit of firing him? Is there really a better coach out there who will come in and make this team a Championship contender?
I agree that he certainly shouldn’t bear all the blame for the Sixers’ disappointing season, but the team firing him isn’t the only possible outcome. When Scott Skiles indicated he wasn’t interested in coming back to Milwaukee beyond this season, he and the Bucks “parted ways” shortly thereafter. Based on last night’s comments, who knows how committed Collins is to this team/roster long-term.
— Luke
I took his comments to be more of a motivational tool for his young players. This team is incredibly young and pretty dang talented so telling them just how disappointed he is with them might get them back on track. Honestly though if I was a coach and Andrew Bynum pulled the garbage that he did I would be pretty upset at the organization for bringing him in.
collins brought him in. he makes the personnel decisions. if you don’t know that (not trying to be rude) then you don’t live in philly
I don’t live in Philly this is true (and I took no offense), but the bottom line is even if he wanted him and brought him in it’s Andrew Bynum’s fault for being a moron and bowling. Heck I’d be depressed too if the star player I brought in to be part of the already talented young core was so darn stupid to be bowling when he’s supposed to be recovering. This team is a contender if Bynum didn’t hurt himself, so yea of course Collins is depressed and with the play of his team since the all-star break I’d be even more depressed.
I can understand that argument, and you might be right, though I’m more inclined to agree with what SBNation’s Paul Flannery tweeted last night:
“I’ve seen Doc go much harsher on his team, calling them soft, etc. But that Collins bit felt like desperation not motivation.”
— Luke
collins needs to go for the simple fact that he won’t play rookies. he traded away Vuc and Harkless for bybum, and in the blowout last night, only let Moultrie play 5:30. he’s sabotaging the franchise. we might as well trade away our first rounder (if we still have one) because whoever it is will waste away on the bench
I watched that presser online, and while Collins didn’t appear particularly exasperated, I still found myself wondering which network he’ll be broadcasting games for next season. I get the impression he feels he’s run his course there.