Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Current lineup among Sixers’ best
PHILADELPHIA >> The 76ers were good, and then they added Jimmy Butler. The 76ers were better, and then they added Tobias Harris. The 76ers were championship contenders, and then they rolled into any conversation about the most complete starting units in the sport.
But where would the Sixers’ sochristened Big Five of Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Butler, Harris and JJ Redick rate among the best starting lineups in franchise history? The answer: Not at the top.
Since almost any 2019 NBA team not housed in Madison Square Garden would humiliate even the greatest units from long-ago decades, any starting-lineup comparison must be adjusted for rampaging basketball inflation. Also, if the study is about the starting fives and not about the benches, the coaching, the matchups, the injuries, the breaks or the relative strength of the competition, then it cannot be wildly influenced by the ultimate results.
So, in the classically fundamental playground-basketball joy of choosing-up-sides, which Sixers’ sides would have kept the court longer in shirts-vs.-skins, losers-take-a-seat hoops? In order, these: 1. Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney in 198485. For sheer talent, championship stock and rock-star popularity, there was nothing like a 58win collection that would lose to Boston in five Eastern Conference final playoff games.
Just two seasons removed from winning the world championship, the established stars were still producing (Erving, at 34, would average 20 points), all while Barkley was being quick to remind anyone who would listen that he’d planned to be better than them all. Malone, Erving and Barkley were all among the best 50 players in the NBA’s first 50 years. Cheeks is in the Hall of Fame. Toney was a clutch shooter.
If the starting lineup included Bobby Jones, a finalist for the next Springfield class, Billy Cunningham could have run five Hall of Famers onto the floor at once. Five. Five of ‘em.
2. Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer, Chet Walker, Luke Jackson, Wali Jones in 1966-67. With 68 wins and a world championship, Alex Hannum’s unit was the most accomplished in franchise history. And if Cunningham, the sixth man, was on the floor with Chamberlain, Greer and Walker, it would have included four Hall of Famers.
3. Erving, Malone, Cheeks, Toney, Marc Iavaroni in 1982-83. The world champions knew they were great in training camp, played that way through a 65win season and drew a million fans to a Broad Street parade. With sixth man Bobby Jones involved, as he was early and often, Cunningham typically used a lineup with four potential Hall of Famers.
4. Chamberlain, Greer, Jackson, Walker, Wali Jones in 196768. With the same nucleus that dominated in 1966-67, Chamberlain averaged slightly more points and won his third consecutive MVP award in the encore. Considering that the players were that much more polished and championship-proven, the group that lost in seven to Boston in the Eastern Conference finals may have been more dangerous on any given night. And isn’t that the purpose of this exercise?
5. Erving, George McGinnis, Doug Collins, Caldwell Jones, Henry Bibby in 197677. In the first season after the ABA merger, after Pat Williams and Fitz Dixon were able to pirate Erving from the Nets, Gene Shue’s team seemed to have it all, but won only 50 games and lost to Portland in the finals. Erving and McGinnis both would reach the Hall of Fame. And Collins, likely because he often was tormented by injury, is one of the lost superstars in Sixers history.
6. Embiid, Simmons, Harris, Butler, Redick. Embiid is the most talented player and Redick is the best shooter in Sixers history. So the best-player, bestshooter combo is a good way to begin any fantasy-basketball argument. Beyond that, Elton Brand has formed a starting-lineup masterpiece. Simmons, a 6-10 power guard with unique skills and highest-level court vision, is surrounded by scorers. Embiid, a stretch five, can open opportunities for Simmons inside. And Harris and Butler can score in ways that earlier-era players may have believed magical.
7. Erving, Cheeks, Caldwell Jones, Lionel Hollins, Darryl Dawkins in 1980-81. Similar in makeup to a series of Sixers contending teams of the era, it noses ahead of the others because it was the year when Erving was at his absolute best. At 30, not old, not young, no longer new to the league, he averaged 24.6 points and won his only NBA MVP award.
8. Allen Iverson, Theo Ratliff, Aaron McKie, Tyrone Hill, George Lynch. For the better part of the 2000-2001 season, Larry Brown coached the lineup to jaw-dropping efficiency, with Iverson at his Hall of Fame best. The basic unit was around for 50 games, 36 of them victories. And then ... 9. Iverson, Dikembe Mutombo, Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, Tyrone Hill. Never content with greatness, Brown was determined to improve, and effectively flipped the All-Star Ratliff to Atlanta for the Hall of Famer-to-be Mutombo. But directly counter to Brown’s plot to better prepare his team to match up with Shaquille O’Neal in the 2001 finals, O’Neal was unstoppable and Sixers fans would forever wonder if the original starting unit was not the more valuable.
10. Barkley, Johnny Dawkins, Mike Gminski, Hersey Hawkins, Rick Mahorn in 1989-90. Almost a pop-up contender between eras, Jimmy Lynam made the most of five special players who simultaneously enjoyed close-to career years before losing to Michael Jordan and the Bulls in five second-round playoff games.
55. Fred Carter, Leroy Ellis, Manny Leaks, John Block, Freddie Boyd in 1972-73. Though this team would win just nine games, Carter remains on the fringes of any discussion about Sixers individual excellence.
56. Kendall Marshall, Nerlens Noel, Robert Covington, Ish Smith, Jerami Grant in 20152016. Yes that was the constellation Brett Brown used in Game 82 of a 10-win season.
It’s also proof that plenty can happen in three years.