Brett Brown has done a marvelous job

Every time the Sixers lose a close game the attention turns to Brett Brown. 

Almost always, a small margin defeat comes with a last minute play going bad for the losing team, and the Sixers are certainly not immune to that. 

Related: Jimmy Butler helps Sixers beat Magic​

The most recent example of this was Philadelphia's 120-117 loss at home to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, where Ben Simmons was curiously instructed to miss his second free-throw attempt on purpose with just 10 seconds left and the Sixers trailing by only two. Brown, of course, was criticized for this late-game blunder, and deservedly so. 

But in those tight losses, the quality coaching decisions naturally go unrewarded, like this beautifully designed set for JJ Redick against the Warriors with less than two minutes to go. 

Can't ask for a much better look than this. pic.twitter.com/USnxQr5sCN

Brown is far from a perfect Xs and Os coach and is still learning how to push the right buttons in the late-game NBA situations, especially in big games. After all, the 58-year-old head coach did not win more than 28 games in a season until last year—his fifth season—when Philly went 52-30 in their first year with a relatively healthy Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. 

While Brown continues to navigate the rugged waters of these late-game situations against good teams in meaningful NBA games, the criticism—if you insist on dealing it out—should come with a grain of salt and just a tiny bit of context. 

Brown has been forced to use 18 different starting lineups this season and give minutes to 24 different players in 2018-19. For comparison sake, the Celtics have played 15 players this season and the Warriors have played 16.

To continue contextualizing, thinking about how different the 76ers were to begin the season—Markelle Fultz was in the starting lineup and Redick was not. The only constants on the bench from then to now are T.J. McConnell and Jonah Bolden, who played one minute in the first game.

Through all of that, the Sixers traded away two key starters in Dario Saric and Robert Covington and three critical role players in Landry Shamet, Wilson Chandler, and Mike Muscala. They added, arguably, the NBA's biggest enigma in multiple-time all-star and veteran Jimmy Butler, plus an ascending all-star caliber talent in Tobias Harris and a slew of other bench pieces. Rookie Zhaire Smith has yet to play a game after fracturing his foot and then suffering an allergic reaction, second-year guard Furkan Korkmaz is now out for the season with a meniscus tear, the team's best player Joel Embiid has missed six games in a row with left knee soreness, and backup center Boban Marjanović has missed three straight with a bone bruise. 

Amir Johnson, a week after driving himself to Delaware to play in a G-League game for the Blue Coats just so he could play some ball, scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds in his third start of the season on Tuesday night thanks to all of the big man injuries.

Brown has not blinked and there has not been one single complaint. He has impressively kept everyone happy, including Butler, who closed the Sixers' win on Tuesday night against the Magic with back-to-back buckets and two massive defensive plays in the guts of the game. Amazingly, Butler was virtually nonexistent before the fourth quarter, attempting just one shot in the first half. Still, Brown ran consecutive iso sets for Butler down the stretch. 

LATE GAME BUCKETS pic.twitter.com/GoFukhQBBB

After the game Butler said he understands his role and is "cool with it." And when asked about the current state of the locker room, Butler told me, "I just think everybody likes each other, everybody gets along... Everybody is happy, Everybody is smiling. Basketball is the easy part."

Despite all of the rosters changes, lineup changes, injuries, and other stuff, the Sixers have not lost more than two games in a row all season long. They're currently 41-23 with 18 games to go, just 0.5 games back of the Indiana Pacers for the No. 3 seed in the East (who they'll face at home on Sunday at 3:30pm). 

In just his second winning season as an NBA head coach with a team that has been together for just 10 games, no, Brett Brown is not perfect. But who the heck is? Instead of focusing on the few mistakes Brown has made throughout his tenure as Sixers' head coach, I'd prefer to take a macro look at the impenetrable culture he has created. 

The Sixers will probably lose in the 2019 NBA playoffs at some point and in the results oriented sports world that we live in, the rhetoric will undoubtedly turn to Brown and whatever late-game decision he made or did not make.

And I'll be there to defend him.