Don't let the headline of this story fool you. Brett Brown isn't hitting the panic button. In fact, is the exact opposite. Truth be told, the Sixers head coach is actually very excited about his team 39 games into the season.
Weeks ago, Brown made it clear that he wasn't ready to assess his team in relation to "Eastern Conference Royalty" until after Christmas. Well, the predominantly underwhelming teams the 25-14 76ers faced, for the most part, are going to go away in a little less than two weeks.
Related: Report: Jimmy Butler has challenged Brett Brown
We're going to get a real good indication of how real the Sixers team is when they face a stretch of Indiana, Oklahoma City, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, the Lakers, Golden State, Sacramento, Toronto, Denver, the Lakers and Boston from January 17 to February 12.
As far as where Brown feels his team stands in relation to the best teams in the East, there's certainly room to improve.
"I think that we're still fighting to figure some things out," Brown said honestly after practice Friday, while also admitting his judgement might be a bit harsh, especially since they could've beaten the Celtics on Christmas. "I just feel when I put my head coaching hat on, that we're a little ways off."
One of the Sixers goals is to play in the NBA Finals. If they're going to do that, they're going to need to outlast the Bucks, Raptors, Pacers and Celtics. Right now, they only defeated the Pacers and a very short handed Toronto team. They're certainly capable, on paper, of defeating those squads in a seven game series and, quite frankly, they should. But until they win those games with more regularity in the regular season, the Sixers will be considered underdogs in those match-ups, and their head coach will continue to work diligently in finding ways to improve his team so they can reach that level.
"Whether you look at just trying to get our guys to figure each other out, the starters, (or) whether you look at trying to assess our bench, that we're not where we need to be," Brown said. "That is not a negative. That is almost a level of excitement."
Brown is 100 percent correct. Joel Embiid can get better with Ben Simmons, and Simmons can improve with Embiid, and both of them can develop more chemistry with Jimmy Butler—who is reportedly unhappy with the offense. JJ Redick can certainly factor in as well. A lot of the bench is very young considering Landry Shamet and Furkan Korkmaz are getting tons of minutes, and don't be surprised if Jonah Bolden continues to work himself into the rotation. You also can't forget about the open roster spot General Manager Elton Brand will look to fill with an impact player.
Before the trip, Brand emphasized how the Sixers aren't a finished product. Brown may be realistic about where they currently stand amongst the elite of the East, but that means there's room to grow.
Things will certainly be very interesting over the next month and a half.
"It's only January—whatever it is—and we got a lot more basketball to play," Brown said. "We got another half of the NBA season to play and I'm excited to try to like give you a better answer later. But as it sits today, that's my answer."
