Philadelphia 76ers: How Coach Doug Collins Has Provided Hope to Sixers Fans

At this point in the season, it's time for Sixers fans to suck it up and realize the obvious: Despite our most passionate wishes, the Sixers refuse to mail it in this year. For better or worse, the Sixers and new coach Doug Collins have their eyes firmly on the playoffs.

Playoffs?  You're talking about playoffs?  Playoffs?  Playoffs? 

While Collins has recently refused any comment on the Sixers' playoff chances, he wasn't so shy about discussing it a few weeks back.  Neither were his players. 

"We're thinking about it," forward Thaddeus Young said. "We've got to go out there and compete every game and make sure we seal up a spot." 

The fact that this team can even begin to discuss a playoff spot speaks largely to Collins' tutelage (and to the crappy Eastern Conference). After the Sixers got off to a 3-13 start this year, with Tony Battie sucking up regular rotation minutes, what Sixers fan in their right mind wasn't having PTSD-style flashbacks of the Eddie Jordan era? 

Since then, all the Sixers have done is reel off an 18-13 record. As of this writing, they're one full game ahead of the Charlotte Bobcats for the seventh seed in the East. 

I haven't been shy about expressing my dismay that (once again) the team appears to be hurtling towards a first-round playoff KO. That said, it's impossible to cheer against the fact that 45 games into the season, the Sixers are still going out and playing hard every night. 

Marc Stein of ESPN can speak to this point. In his latest NBA power rankings, he says the following about the Sixers: "Can't tell you how often I've heard it from rival coaches/scouts: Collins has the Sixers, for all of their issues in close games (1-7 in games decided by three or less) and suspect shooting, playing as hard as anyone does." 

A quote like that should end all comparisons between Collins and Eddie Jordan, to say the least.

Last year, the Sixers under Jordan were the perfect picture of dysfunction. They lost every type of game imaginable. They consistently put themselves in negative situations on the court. Jordan's rotation appeared to switch on a game-to-game basis, frustrating both players and fans alike.  

The bottom line of the Jordan era: He never figured out each player's respective strengths and weaknesses. Or, if he did, he certainly didn't ensure that he put them in positions to maximize their strengths and hide their weaknesses. 

Collins has changed all of that. 

The 3-13 start to this season was unquestionably hard to swallow, especially as veterans like Battie and Andres Nocioni sucked up regular bench minutes while some of the younger players couldn't find their way onto the court. The thinking being: If you're going to tank, at least do it right and get your youth some experience. (After all, they are your team's future…theoretically.) 

But now, after seeing Evan Turner thrive while Andre Iguodala battled a hamstring issue for a few games, Collins understands how to give this team a chance to win each night. 

The Sixers don't have a LeBron James, Kobe Bryant or Dwight Howard who can bail them out on a nightly basis. Instead, this team must win by committee—getting crucial contributions from anyone who sets foot on the court. 

That's where Collins' true expertise has been revealed. Unlike Jordan, who couldn't have coached his way out of a paper bag last year, Collins appears to understand the situations in which his players tend to thrive. 

That's why Collins has Elton Brand patrolling around the low post more than ever. Suddenly, after shooting only 44.7 percent from the field in Year 1 as a Sixer and 48 percent last year, Brand's now averaging 51.8 percent shooting from the floor.

He's attempting nearly one more shot per game from the five-10 foot range (a good, high-percentage shot for a big man like Brand), and he's shooting one less shot per game from the 16-22 foot range (aka the worst shot in basketball).  

When the Sixers signed Brand to that dreaded five-year, $80 million contract back before the 2008-09 season, it's no exaggeration to say most Sixers fans expected a 20-10 guy coming in. Two disappointing, heart-breaking years later, anyone that tells you they're not stunned by Brand's current averages of 15 points, 8.5 boards and more than one block and one steal per game would be lying to your face. 

Look down the line at the Sixers roster, and it's tough to find a player who Collins hasn't helped in some capacity. Thad Young is averaging a career-high 55 percent shooting from the field. Jrue Holiday has taken a sophomore leap in his first full season as starting PG. 

Best yet, Andre Iguodala is taking one less three-pointer per game, recognizing that his true strength as a scorer comes when he's driving his wide-framed body to the hoop. Anyone that’s been privy to one of Iggy’s famed off-balance 26-foot three-point shots with the shot clock at 0 could likely go their entire lives without wanting to see another. 

And once Collins settled on a rotation, he also began recognizing the Sixers' depth as a strength. 

“Any time you can have three players come off the bench and get in double figure (points) that’s big for us,” Young said after Philly’s win against Phoenix last week. “That is one of the main things coach puts on the board for us before every game—the bench has to win the game for us. Our bench is one of the toughest in the league and we have to go out and prove it each and every night.”

Instilling that type of mentality in your sixth, seventh and eighth man speaks largely to the type of coach that Collins has been for the Sixers this year. 

"I'm teaching all the time. That's one thing that I'm trying to do all the time is teach," Collins said after the team's win against the Toronto Raptors last week.

"I don't like our team getting sloppy at the end," he said. "I told them I have never coached a garbage minute in my life, so every play you are out there, you are being evaluated. I don't want to play to the score." 

With that kind of attitude coming from the head coach each night, it's no surprise to see the team responding positively and playing hard each and every game. Collins expects—and demands—nothing less. 

And that's why, despite staring at the likelihood of being swept out of the playoffs by the Miami Heat this year, the Sixers faithful have reason to believe for the first time in what feels like years.