Maurice Cheeks is out as Philadelphia 76ers head coach .
Philadelphia 76ers
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Maurice Cheeks is out as <m> Philadelphia 76ers </m> head coach .
Maurice Cheeks is out as <m> Philadelphia 76ers </m> head coach .
General manager Ed Stefanski announced Tony DiLeo , the team 's assistant general manager and senior vice president , will take over as the head coach for the remainder of the season .
Stefanski fired Cheeks with the Sixers floundering at 9-14 and in the basement of the Eastern Conference 's Atlantic Division .
As recently as a season ago , when speaking about Cheeks ' new contract extension , Stefanski said , `` we are excited about the future under this direction . ''
That changed dramatically on Saturday .
`` I made the decision because I felt we were not progressing the way we wanted to progress , `` said Stefanski .
`` I feel on the floor we were n't executing the philosophy that we want to have as Sixers basketball .
I told Mo we needed to go in a different direction and make a change .
He was very gracious about it .
He 's a Sixer and is rooting for us to turn this around . ''
This past offseason , the Sixers bolstered their youthful , athletic roster with frontline cornerstone Elton Brand , who is leading the team in scoring ( 15.9 ) and rebounding ( 10.0 ) but is significantly short of his career scoring average and has already missed time this season due to injury .
The expectations were high for a team that won 40 games and took Detroit to six games in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal round last season .
Cheeks did not meet them .
Friday night 's 88-72 loss in Cleveland , the team 's eighth in 10 games , was apparently the last straw. Cheeks is the fifth NBA head coach to be fired this season .
`` I believe in this team .
We are better than this , `` said Stefanski .
`` We are going to make it better .
We will find a way to improve on this team. ``
The member of the Sixers ' 1982-83 NBA championship team started his head coaching career in Portland , where he finished with a 162-139 mark and a pair of playoff appearances .
He guided a transition in Philadelphia from the Allen Iverson era and won more games than expected last season behind a rising star , Andre Iguodala , a young frontcourt led by Samuel Dalembert and a veteran presence at point guard , Andre Miller .
Miller is averaging 15.5 points per game this season , but Iguodala is averaging just 14.9 points per contest , a drop of five points per game from last season .
Dalembert is down almost five points per game ( 5.8 ppg ) and just over two rebounds ( 8.0 ) per contest .
DiLeo is in his 19th season with the Sixers basketball operations department .
He spent four seasons as the team 's director of personnel ( 1999-2003 ) before being promoted to senior VP and assistant GM in September 2003 .