76ers hired a coach with a plan for handling a tanking team

Thaddeus Young reportedly requested a trade from the 76ers. Though he later denied it, that’s the type of thing veterans on tanking teams do.

Evan Turner has been featured prominently in trade reports. That’s another thing that happens with veterans on a tanking team.

Good luck coaching all that, especially if you’re a first-year coach, the type of cheap option tanking teams tend to prefer.

But 76ers coach Brett Brown sounds like he has a plan for handling those potential distractions. Brown, via Keith Pompey of The (Philadelphia) Inquirer:

“The [camaraderie], that staying together, is one of the hardest things to deal with when you are dealing with trade rumors, when you are dealing with rebuilding, when you are dealing with losing,” Brown said.

“You have a recipe that’s built for disaster if you don’t have character people that don’t understand the pitfalls of what could happen among that turmoil,” Brown said. “I talk about that all the time.

“It needs to be admitted and worked on.”

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I have to believe Brown having a plan for handling a tanking team – which is different than a plan for how to tank – helped persuade the 76ers to hire him.

Few bad teams have an identity as strong as Philadelphia does. Heck, plenty of winning teams don’t, either.

But since Sam Hinkie took over, the 76ers have looked toward the future, this season be darned. From management to the coach, Philadelphia has embraced this plan. It’s almost a full-franchise effort.

Almost, because the veteran players might not be on board. But Brown is working on that.