Kyle Terada – USA Today Sports
The Philadelphia 76ers are one of many teams in the market for a new head coach. After a 34-48 season, Doug Collins decided to step down after three seasons with the team. Rumors have floated as to who would replace Collins including top assistants such as Brian Shaw and Mike Malone, to even some in-house candidates.
Two of the team’s top players are hoping current assistant Michael Curry is given the chance to run the team.
According to an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer, both Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner have endorsed Curry as their top choice to become the next head coach.
According to Holiday, he referred to Curry as “the glue to the team last year.” He added that the team was “defensive based, that was our calling card, and Mike was responsible for that.”
Turner chimed in similarly saying he often turned to Curry when he had his clashes with Collins. Turner said: “he was great because he was calm in certain situations and he never really panicked.”
These are two of the players that the 76ers hope to build their future around, and it is important to have the top players on the same page with the head coach. If Curry has the trust and respect of Jrue Holiday and he can keep Evan Turner calm like the article states, it would be wise to consider Curry a top candidate.
The 76ers do need to be careful if they intend to hire Curry. While it is encouraging that he is so well respected by the current players on the team, it is also important to note this group of guys played awful this year. If he is too much like Collins and they continue to struggle to score the basketball, it wouldn’t be wise to force the fans to go through that again.
In Curry’s only season as an NBA head coach with the 2008 Detroit Pistons, his team was 28th in points per game and eighth in points allowed. Sound familiar? It would be awesome to see this team get back to playing hard on the defensive end, but they still need to score some more points.
If management is convinced that Curry has the best chance to turn this current group of players into a winner, they should hire him. If they want a new voice in there, they are entitled to that as well because of how horrible this past year has been. Either way, it is promising to see Turner and Holiday step up to take a leadership role and try to put this team on the right path. Whoever the new coach ends up being, it’s clear that Holiday and Turner are ready to step up and be leaders.
Zach Slotter is a writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @zslot6, Like his Facebook page, or add him to your network on Google.
