1) Chicago Bulls surprise head coaching targets: Brett Brown
Among former NBA head coaches, about the best that the Bulls could do (besides the older version of Phil Jackson that wasn’t a Knicks advisor) is the former Sixers head coach Brett Brown. The way that the coaching tenure for Brown rounded out in Philly largely cast a poor shadow compared to how he should be viewed for his entire body of work.
The poor fit between star point guard Ben Simmons and superstar center Joel Embiid over the course of the last two seasons isn’t completely the fault of Brown. There’s not much that a coach can do when players increasingly clash since the front office didn’t provide the right supporting cast around them.
If recently hired Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas (former Denver Nuggets general manager) is ready to improve the supporting cast for this team through and through, then Brown might be the right hire. He improved the Sixers record almost every single year he was their head coach, until the current season.
The career head coaching record for Brown in the NBA isn’t all that impressive, sitting at 221-344, but he was very patient during “The Process” in Philly. He made the playoffs with the Sixers in each of the last three seasons. If not for that Simmons injury and the lack of floor spacing in the Sixers rotation this year, this team might’ve gone further in the playoffs under the direction of Brown.