• March 29, 2024

The Sixers Play Basketball The Old Fashioned Way – As A Team

They don’t have a thirty-point scorer like Allen Iverson.  There’s no championship-level head coach like Larry Brown. You could even make a case for them not having five players over the age of 26, but somehow, some way with just ten games into the season, the Sixers find themselves atop of the Atlantic Division with an impressive record of 7-3.

The early success for this team of young guns, marks the first time the organization has started the season this well since the 2000-2001 season.  If fans do not recall, that season was the last time the Sixers made it to the NBA Finals led by Iverson, Dikembe Mutombo, and cast of no-name role players. My apologies to Eric Snow and Aaron Mckie whom I enjoyed watching as  a fan for years, but their identity and pedigree was virtually nonexistent before and after wearing a Sixers uniform.

Getting back to this season’s 76ers, a lot of questions may arise as to how this team is playing so well without one player averaging over 17 points per game, a coach in his second year who stepped into a situation in which the team won just 27 games the previous season, and having the 3rd youngest roster in the league.

There is no simple solution as to why the team is performing at such a high level over the last year and a half, but a lot the reason for their success can accredited to the job being done by Collins. After a less than stellar start to the 2009-10 season, he was able to get players to buy into his defensive schemes which led to a strong finish to the season.

Although the Sixers don’t have the likes of Kevin Durant or Kobe Bryant or even a dependable go-to scorer like Joe Johnson, the roster does have 5 double digit scorers including two additional players hovering around that mark. But the thing that makes this team truly set themselves out from the rest is their defensive pressure which is ranked first in a number of statistical categories.

The Sixers give up a mere 85.5 ppg to the opposition. So while their putting out a balanced attack on offense through ball distributing and unselfishness, their locking up on defense giving the other team almost no open looks at the basket. This balance of offense and defense also gives the Sixers the No. 1 ranked team in the league in point differential at 13.8 ppg. They are not just beating teams, they’re blowing them out.

In Bill Simmon’s The Book of Basketball, he discussed his experience growing up and being a fan of the Celtics and their style of play. He talked about the 70’s Celtics (Russell, Owens, Havlicek) and how they played passionately as a team and then shortly followed that up with the cohesion of the late 70’s early 80’s teams that featured Bird, Parrish, and McHale. He talked about that style of play being unrepeatable and how in today’s game there is no way one would be able to see such an even distribution of talent on the court again, the type of talent that had unselfish players that played together and as a “team.”

The Sixers are far from those old Celtics teams, but this team is truly something fun to watch at this stage of the season. They fastbreak, they score the ball, they defend the ball, and they just have an overall respect for the game. No ultra-egos or pre-madonnas to disrupt the chemistry, their simply a group of young guys that want to win ball games.

When watching this team you can’t help but say “they need a big name scorer or talented big man that they can go to in the post, late in the game.” But if you go out and make one of those moves you would instantly throw off the makeup of this extremely humbled group.

For years the Sixers tried to make Andre Iguodala into that big name scorer who would pick up where AI left off when he left the team (only to come back for a lackluster second go-around that was very much forgettable), but that simply is not where he’s found his niche. Collins has fit him into the team as an all-purpose wing player that can knock down shots when needed and defend the opposition’s best player, which is something that Iguodala has grown to be known for around the league.

You think of a guy like Lou Williams who leads the team in scoring with 16.6 ppg. Collins has explained in previous press conferences that when the team is down late in the game or in close-game situations that Lou is the guy to go to. In season’s past the organization tried to make him into a point guard which would limit his offensive ability and make him into more of a passer first. We’ve seen early on this season as well as last season that coach Collins has placed Lou into a role that perfectly utilizes his scoring prowess, not to mention he does all of this coming off the bench.

Thaddeus Young is yet another guy that was flirting in and out of the starting lineup playing both in the post and on the perimeter. Collins has brought Young off the bench and has allowed him to do whatever he wants on the offensive end as long as he rebounds and defends on the other end.

Right before your eyes we have seen how coach Collins has taken three players that are young but have been with the team for a number of years and have put them in roles where they can utilize their natural ability and help the team win games.

In his book, Simmons also talked about a conversation he had with Isiah Thomas and how Thomas explained to him “The Secret” to basketball.  For Thomas, he talked about his experience with the Pistons and how they were so successful without having any one player with numbers that stuck out more so than the rest of his teammates. “Lots of times, on our team, you can’t tell who the best player in the game was. ‘Cause everybody did something good. That’s what makes us so good. The other team has to worry about stopping eight or nine people instead of two or three. It’s the only way to win.”

For me to mention the present-day Sixers in the same sentence with the ’88-89’,89-90’ Pistons are a tad overstated for a team that has not really done anything in terms of accolades or true accomplishments, but the team’s style of play and direction of the organization draws a lot of similarities to that ‘Bad Boys’ team of the early ’80s.’

In recent years, we look at a team like the Spurs who had no real solidified perennial All-star outside of Tim Duncan, and look at the success they had. Although being one of if not the most boring team to watch in basketball, the Spurs held their opponent to a dismal shooting percentage while receiving a modest scoring output from Tony Parker Manu Ginobili and the aforementioned TD which led to 55+ win seasons year after year.

Once again, I’m not calling the Sixers the Spurs and making a case for them to be a 55+ win team or make it to an NBA Championship, I’m simply acknowledging their play and presenting the fact that this way of basketball translate into wins.

For the Sixers hopefully they can keep it up and continue to make a statement across the league. Barring injuries, this Sixer team with eight to nine solid players deep could be mentioned as one of the upper echelon team’s in the eastern conference come so look for this team to be making a lot of noise come playoff time.

Colin Washington

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DCar
DCar
January 13, 2012 5:09 am

G,
Let’s be real, 5 of the 7 wins they have, were against teams playing without their leading scorers & best players. Although they are fun to watch, they are still the same mediocre team as last year, with ZERO realistic chance of going far in the playoffs, let alone win a Championship. Once the good start inevitably ends, & reality sets in, it will be the same old, same old with this organization, until they properly rebuild, & get rid of Iggy & Brand. I don’t want a fun team, I want a team that is a legitimate threat, do make a bang in the playoffs. Anyone who thinks they do, is delusional. Maybe I’m wrong. Just saying.

daggolden
daggolden
January 13, 2012 6:07 am

DCAR I have been preaching the same thing all year and I get bashed. Trust me Im a 76ers fan but I know the real deal. Yes they play old school fundemental basketball. They have no choice no one is good enough to stand out. Dallas played old school b-ball and had 1 superstar and 2 very very good players. No one goes to the games because there is no superstar. Give me Melo everynight. Thats what I want. I was at work and arguing with another Sixers fan. He said the same bull^%& “they play the right way”. He said he would rather have this team then the AI teams. I said the same AI teams that went to finals, filled every arena in the NBA and gave us them exciting runs? He said yeah “they play the right way”. I just walked away.

ChuckRob
ChuckRob
January 13, 2012 8:47 am

I’m as big an AI fan as they come, even now with him wasting his money away and really not doing anything productive in his life, I still love that little soldier. BUT, this Sixer team is a TEAM. That team be it exciting with AI and everything that he brought to the table was a one man show. Give the ball to AI watch get out the way and watch him work, and work he Did. I like the makeup of this team and the parts they have. Need a more athletic pyhsical 4, but this team will contend this year. They play the right way, and if the fans can’t get behind a team like that, then I question whether they are a fan of basketball played the right way. Give me Carmelo, please, Carmelo is leading the Knicks no where fast. He plays no defense. great scorer though. The AI led Sixers filled the seats because of him (His Brand) and nothing else.

bugsyhawk
bugsyhawk
January 13, 2012 8:58 am

There is no middle ground with most of you guys in here. Either we have to love something or hate it. I harbor no illusions that this Sixer team is going to win a title, but they are playing well. They probably will get rid of Brand or Iggy after this season. They probably won’t make it past the second round of the playoffs, but it is pretty difficult to build a championship team in the NBA. Doesn’t mean that we should stop watching.

jakedog
jakedog
January 13, 2012 9:14 am

I would rather watch, root for this team on the climb, than that dysfunctional organization branding green, with its punk players dissing the fan base, you guys are fans of divas, not teams, you want flash, you want everything now, and a lot of you probably have it handed to you, well it doesn’t work that way, it takes time you mfers , I once went to a game in the early 70s when attendance was so bad you got in with a snickers wrapper, no championship until 83, and before that tough losses to Lakers and that ugly bastard McHale, if you can only watch, root for everything now, get the f out

daggolden
daggolden
January 14, 2012 6:05 am

Yeah I would rather watch Lou Williams score 11 and Thadeus 13 and Holliday 10 rather than Jordan score 35 and Kobe 40 and AI 36. We play as a team. Sorry Jordan our brilliant fans say you wouldnt fit in. We play team ball here. lol. Yeah give me some Spencer Haas and 12 points Ill take some of that. Shame on me. Who the Hell wants a Lebron James on their team score 30 a night. Give me Iggy and his greatr defense and 12 a night. the hell with Melo who wants to go see him.