The Sixers and GM Ed Stefanski interviewed quite a few candidates in their search, but ended up settling on the guy they pretty much wanted from the start. Since the firing of Eddie Jordan, it's been widely considered that Collins was the front runner for the position.
I'm glad the deal is done and Collins can immediately begin preparing for the upcoming season. It's encouraging that a guy who had a cushy job at TNT even wanted to come to the Sixers - a team in certain rebuild-mode. But good karma was awarded and now he gets to coach the second pick in the 2010 draft (PleaseBeEvanTurner,PleaseBeEvanTurner).
Collins is a guy who will coach defense and fundamentals - two things the Sixers of 2009 knew diddly-poo about. A team that plays solid defense will go a long way to adding some points to the win column. Now, don't be fooled, Collins isn't a "great" coach. But at this current point in time, he's about as good as anybody else available to coach a young team with glaring flaws.
As for drawbacks - I'd have to say that it’s Collins' propensity to slow the game down. If nothing else, the Sixers squad is athletic and when they pushed the ball under Mo Cheeks, good things happened. Don't expect too much of that. Collins runs a very deliberate offense. Lots of play calling and not much running the floor. In all of Collins previous seasons coaching, not one of his teams finished higher than 4th worst in the league at number of possessions. Collins has been out of coaching for a while, so maybe his philosophies have changed a bit. He's at least stayed in touch with today's game and today's players through his television commentating . We'll see how that translates to his coaching style.
All in all, my final verdict is that this was a solid choice for the team. And more importantly, we will never have to see the shit-show that was the Princeton Offense. Ever
