The Sixers are riding a four-game losing streak and made a pair of trades at the deadline to help bolster a squad that isn’t performing anywhere close to the level we expected.

General Manager Elton Spoke to reporters before the Memphis game for about 25 minutes, and I’ve pulled quotes covering the six most significant topics from the availability for us to “analyze.”

(I put analyze in parentheses since Elton usually doesn’t give much away, but he did drop some interesting tidbits Friday night) – 

1. A question of fit

Keith Pompey, Inquirer: Elton, you said you believe in this group; do you think the starting unit fits?

Brand: We have the pieces on this team and we will make it fit. It hasn’t fit at times. It’s baffling to us all and we have a lot of work to do to have the best record at home in the entire NBA, and then to play how we’ve been playing on the road, we’re not happy about that. I’m extremely disappointed, we’re extremely disappointed, and the players know that they have to do better. Coaching staff, and myself, the whole organization has to do better.

I personally think the ‘Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid can’t coexist‘ narrative is slightly overblown, since they looked good when playing alongside Jimmy Butler, JJ Redick, Robert Covington, and others. I think Al Horford’s addition really complicates it more than anything, and the streaky nature of Tobias Harris’ shooting makes for some really stagnant offensive nights.

2. Fit to scheme, or scheme to personnel?

Crossing Broad: You know that Brett Brown has always philosophically been a “pace and space” kind of guy, wants to move up and down the floor, pass the ball, shoot threes. Then during preseason we hear about “bully ball” offense and “smash mouth” defense. Did you guys go into this season thinking you could fit the players to the scheme or with an understanding that Brett may have to coach this squad with a different approach?

Brand: Brett and I have a great relationship and we talk all the time. That was the goal, we are big, we are long, we are athletic, and we’re going to pride ourselves on defense. We were going to find ways to score, and we are going to find ways to score, but we were going to be a defensive-minded team, physical team that was built for the playoffs, which we are. And I still believe that.

Crossing Broad: So what are you seeing out there fit-wise, with Horford and Embiid and Simmons and the spacing issue? What do you see mechanically there?

Brand: I see a really talented group of players that need time to figure it out. I don’t want to use injuries as an excuse, but we have a few starters that missed a lot of time, and coming together, they’re used to having the ball in their hands, to certain positions that they’re not. It just needs time to jell. That’s my true belief and how I feel.

Well, the injury thing is true. Horford missed time. Ben missed some games with the shoulder earlier in the year. Richardson had the hamstring and Embiid dislocated his finger. But the fit problems go beyond just figuring out the starting lineup, and Brett mentioned a few weeks ago that he’s had to change up his style and call more plays to accommodate this roster, saying:

“We were sort of clunky and turnover prone and everybody is trying to grab the post when space still rules my world. It was just not a great fit. So part of any coaching job is to take your team and now coach that. Help that team. You’re not going to change a decade’s worth of habits. It screamed as this thing played out, of, ‘I gotta help them, I gotta put them in spots,’ to create not organic space, but floor space. And then you hope to grow it from that base.”

“It was just not a great fit,” said the head coach not long ago.

3. On youth

Howard Eskin: Is ‘young’ really an (excuse)? You look at some of the great players now that are younger than the players you have, and they don’t have these issues. The way I see it, they don’t have the problems you do. Is ‘young’ really a good excuse?

Brand: For closing games, finding a fit that works offensively, managing what we need to manage to close games on the road, I think it’s an okay excuse. We need to grow there. We need to grow on the road. The crowd’s not on your side. I’m a realist; we have an uphill battle, and right now we’re starting the playoffs on the road. We haven’t been good on the road. So we need to figure it out, and figure it out fast, but I think we have the group that can do it. That’s a learning process, the more experience you get in a three-point, four-point game, we’ll be better from it.

Not sure about this. Horford is a veteran. Harris is a veteran. Embiid and Simmons have been around long enough that they should have enough experience in this department. They’ve won some big road games in recent years (Golden State comes to mind), so this shouldn’t be as much of a thing as it is.

4. Leadership

Jason Blevins, Painted Lines: It seems like you have a lot of quiet guys on this team, is there some downside to not having enough guys that can communicate and have crucial conversations?

Brand: Crucial conversations are important to any organization, any team, especially in basketball. You may have heard of a team meeting the other day. Our guys are open and candid and I believe we’ll push them. They push each other. There might not be one boisterous person that does that, they might lead by different examples, and that may be part of our road woes, but we’re working on fixing that.

My takeaway here is Brand confirming the report that there was a players-only meeting this week. Embiiid and Simmons definitely seem more like “lead by example” guys.

5. On Brett Brown

Eskin: How many discussions have you had with ownership concerning coaching?

Brand: Brett is our head coach. I believe in Brett’s ability to lead this team and I talk to Brett directly. I will be responsible for that decision when it comes. I talk to Brett every day to get this problem fixed. We’re not happy with it and we know what it is.

This was significant, the idea that Brand is now part of a different front office hierarchy, which he elaborated on in follow-up questions from Jack McCaffery and Keith Pompey:

Brand: We have a standard GM/coaching org chart as it stands now, but yes it has changed.

…

Brett Brown is our coach and I believe in him to lead this team. That’s what I’m standing by, and I truly believe that. He’s the leader of this team. I will support how I can support it, and that’s dealing with whatever issues that arise. It was more ‘if’ that decision is made, an ownership thing is what I was trying to say. That has changed to me.

Right, so the big thing here is that Brett Brown’s future seems to be in the hands of Elton Brand. Previously, both reported to ownership, as Elton explains here:

Brand: A first-time GM, I’ve learned a lot about leadership, culture. We look at that was what we tolerate and what we celebrate. So, once I got a year under my belt, the conversation was ‘hey, you did a great job your first season, where you took us.’ The (conversation with Brett was), ‘look, E.B., this is how it is around the league, you’ve done a lot for me and the organization and we respect it.’ Ownership, we’re all aligned with that, that that’s how it should be. It wasn’t a big deal. It was light.

I was always under the impression that if Brown was fired, it would be an ownership decision during an offseason. Now it seems like Brand has the power to make that decision whenever he sees fit, if it comes to that.

6. On Ben’s shooting, or a lack thereof

Crossing Broad: If you watched Giannis last night, he goes out and air balls his first three, then scores 36 points anyway. Ben isn’t even attempting those shots at this point. Are you okay with where his jump shot is, or does it need to be further along at this point?

Brand: It’s gonna be a thing. He’s seeing how defenses are playing him, and he’s gonna have that growth moment. I think he’s gonna look back and say, ‘hey, I should have been doing this a long time ago.’

Crossing Broad: If you look at the threes he’s taken this year, they’ve looked pretty good.

Brand: As a point guard, a person with the ball, he wants to make the best play every time. The highest percentage play. That’s just the way he’s motored. That’s the way his motor works.

That’s perfectly fine, but sometimes the highest-percentage play is the open 10-footer that defenses are giving you. And when you do that, you open up the floor for even higher-percentage efforts from your teammates, instead of, for instance, Joel Embiid being doubled all the time.