After that comes the coach.
It's the players, Ed.
"We have good players that people will like to coach,'' said Ed Stefanski, the Sixers' president and general manager. Stefanski said that prospective coaches will be "lining up" to get what he considers to be a good job among NBA coaching jobs. It's all probably true.
But they do not have enough good players. And they need to alter the mix of players. And as we all will be fixated on what Stefan-ski decides about a replacement for Tony DiLeo, the interim coach/good soldier who has taken his name out of the coaching derby and decided to return to the front office, none of us can forget that it is the stirring of this mix that will matter the most.
Stefanski said he would love to hire a big-splash guy for his attendance-challenged franchise, but only if he is the right guy. He offered no hints on what might be coming. He said the guy should be hired by July 1, the start of the free-agent signing period, but would not commit to any other timetable.
"I'm going to start putting things together," Stefanski said, indicating that strong communication skills were tops on his list of requirements. "Obviously, you know people in the league and outside the league. You're always talking about coaching. I do know coaches."
Whoever it is, though - experienced or green, quiet or loud, tactician or big-picture guy, big money or cheap - the hiring of the coach really is about the fourth most important thing that Stefanski will do this summer. Because the coach had nothing to do with how the Sixers folded at the end of their playoff series against Orlando, and the coach had nothing to do with the fact that this team spent the season dying for somebody who could make an outside shot, among other things.
