The Philadelphia 76ers are still looking for a new head coach after they parted ways with Brett Brown following a horrendous 2019/20 NBA season. With Billy Donovan taking the Chicago Bulls job, now the race to be the next Sixers head coach appears to be between Mike D’Antoni and Tyronn Lue. The team hasn’t announced anything official yet, but rumors suggest they have some plans after they hire D’Antoni as their new head coach.
It’s not like the deal is done now; in fact, Lue seems like the frontrunner to get the job. But, with D’Antoni’s name still floating around, the Sixers are trying to get ready to make some changes if the 69-year-old takes over. Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports reported that the Sixers are letting teams know they would be open to trade talks, as long as they get D’Antoni as their coach.
“Starting to hear a lot of buzz that the Philadelphia 76ers are letting teams know they are open to trade talks if they hire Mike D’Antoni to be their next head coach. Philadelphia realizes that current roster, with all the bigs, isn’t built to be a successful D’Antoni team.”
Starting to hear a lot of buzz that the Philadelphia 76ers are are letting teams know they are open to trade talks if they hire Mike D'Antoni to be their next head coach. Philadelphia realizes that current roster, with all the bigs, isn't built to be a successful D'Antoni team.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) September 23, 2020
Their current roster doesn’t fit Mike at all and some changes will need to be made in order to get him the right pieces to run his schemes. Tom West of Liberty Ballers explains they should get rid of Al Horford, who is easier to move than Tobias Harris and his big contract.
“The Sixers should have all the motivation they need to try moving on from this failed experiment. Horford can’t play alongside Simmons and Embiid together and the Sixers desperately need more perimeter creation in his place. Horford should also be somewhat easier to move than Harris, with only three years left on his cheaper (albeit still horribly expensive) contract, with $81 million remaining.”
He adds that the Sixers could be trading for Chris Paul, a player who revived his career this season with the Oklahoma City Thunder. CP3 would bring a lot of dynamism to the offense and would solve more than one problem in Philly. We still need to wait to see what route the team decides to take; they have been considered contenders for the past two or three years but things haven’t gone their way.
Philly fans hope that whoever lands in the Wells Fargo Center can take this team to be competitive once again, but that won’t come easy.
