Is Brett Brown On Chopping Block If Sixers Don't Get Past Raptors?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The questions are there, they just need to be answered. For Philadelphia, those answers could possibly spell the future of the 76ers franchise: Will the Sixers' season end here, the same round it ended last year?
Can the Sixers overcome a Toronto Raptors team that has pretty much owned them this season? Will Brett Brown survive if the Sixers don't get past the Raptors, and does he deserve to?
The second-round NBA Eastern Conference playoff series between the 76ers and Raptors could very well come down to this: Sixers' subs Boban Marjanovic, Mike Scott, and James Ennis vs. Raptors' bench of Serge Ibaka, Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell.
The heavy lean is toward Toronto.
On paper, Toronto has the more balanced team. This past season, the Raptors were able to play offense and defense with near identical stations.
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The Raptors averaged 114.4 points per game, which ranked eighth in the NBA, and gave up 108.4 points per game, which was ninth in the league. The Sixers, however, have proven that they have one of the most potent offenses in the NBA, averaging 115.2 points a game, (4th in the NBA), while also showing they've had problems stopping people, giving up 112.5 points a game (19th).
Compound that with Joel Embiid's balky left knee going up against the Raptors' Marc Gasol. It won't be as easy as when Embiid tore apart the Brooklyn Nets' Jarrett Allen in the first round.
Against Allen and the undersized Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Embiid averaged 24.8 points and 13.5 rebounds.
In games against each other, Embiid averaged 14 points and 12 rebounds in five games against Gasol, though it's Gasol who has owned the series.
The Sixers were 1-3 against the Raptors, who Embiid ripped during the regular season, averaging 26.3 points and 11.8 rebounds a game, before Gasol came to the Raptors.
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The Sixers had their problems against the Nets. The Raptors aren't the Nets. They're more talented and deeper.
The prediction: Toronto in six.
The other prediction: Brett Brown will get fired -- though he deserves another season with this team, meaning a training camp and more time in putting these pieces together. He may not get it.
With fan pressure building and Sixers Managing Partner Josh Harris putting it out there that he expects the Sixers to advance beyond what they did last year, Brown could lose his job and this "Process" may have to hit the restart button.