Self-Eject

Tony DiLeo, the mostly successful interim coach of the Sixers this year, has withdrawn his name from consideration to continue the job next year.

DiLeo is an organization lifer who seemingly wasn't interested in the full-year meat grinder commitment, nor the family sacrifice. He took the gig after Mo Cheeks was unable to get the team to take the Elton Brand transplant, and righted the ship enough to get them into the playoffs. Things looked really good with a half dozen games left in the regular season, where the team had an outside shot at the #5 seed, but they stumbled until the last game, when they were barely able to win in Cleveland against a LeBron-less Cavs team that was resting all of their regulars. Against the Magic, the team took an early 2-1 lead until the Magic got Hedo Turkoglu up to speed, at which point the favorites closed it out. The fact that they were able to take Game Six in Philadelphia without Dwight Howard was particularly damaging, and there was post-game griping from several players. But I'm still kind of surprised to see him say no thanks to the job.

Under DiLeo, the Sixers were 32-27, able to get good minutes out of rookie Marresse Speights, continued development from Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams, and solid years from the Andres, Miller and Iguodala. Frankly, I think his withdrawal was the right move for him personally, given that the next coach is going to have to revisit the Brand situation -- there is, of course, way too much money there to just walk away and play the kids, and as out of place as he seemed with an up-tempo team, he's clearly a better idea at the 5 than the wildly inconsistent Sam Dalembert -- and I'm not sure that's a situation that's coachable.

Speculation is that GM Ed Stefanski, on the job for a couple of mostly good years, might go to a big-name retread (Avery Johnson, Doug Collins, Eddie Jordan) for his next pick. Johnson has some possible interest, given his past work with Tim Duncan (aka, the very rich man' s Elton Brand), but I'm not sure I'm willing to hold my nose that much. Given the economy, it's also very possible that the team won't go for somone they'll have to pay well-known money to.

I'd like to see them spirit away a top assistant from a successful organization -- say, Clifford Ray from the Celtics (which would also help to weaken that team, especially on teaching their big men), or Mike Budenholzer from the Spurs, who might be getting tired of waiting for Gregg Popovich to give him the job in San Antonio.

But the simple fact of the matter is that the Sixers are seen as a treadmill team right now -- not good enough to threaten for a title, not bad enough to blow up and get acclaim for your rebuilding genius. Stefanski is going to have to sell this job to a really good candidate, and just might not have enough of a story to tell to get the best possible candidate. Which, given that this might be his last hire, puts him in a hard place... but a better one than if DiLeo's heart wasn't really in the gig.