Golden State Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers: The NBA’s Bookends
The Golden State Warriors, the league’s best team, will visit the Philadelphia 76ers, the league’s worst. What has gone right for Golden State and wrong for Philly?
If we imagine the NBA as a shelf filled with different books, then the Golden State Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers are the bookends.
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The defending champion Warriors enter the matchup with a league leading 42-4 record while the Sixers come in with an awful 7-40 record. The Warriors are looking like a team that could break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ single-season win record while their opposition looks like it might actually do worse than it’s 18 win season last year. They’re on completely opposite ends of the Association’s spectrum.
How did this happen?
It was only a few years ago that the playoffs seemed like a dream to the Warriors, who constantly found themselves in the draft lottery. And from the 2007-08 season to the 2011-12 season, the 76ers made the playoffs four out of five seasons.
Everyone can look at the process.
Once Joe Lacob and Peter Guber took over in Golden State, winning was made a priority. They didn’t inherit a winning team, but there was talent. A young Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson waited for their opportunity to take on bigger roles. As the team, understandably, continued to struggle, the bright basketball minds ownership trusted made the right moves in the draft, picking Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli, and Draymond Green in 2012.
Young talent is great, but it needs to be developed properly. While game reps and good coaching can do wonders for a young player, there needs to be veteran leadership to help teach the new kids on the block how the game is played and how the league works. Without it, teams are susceptible to having their rookies and sophomores, particularly those that were one-and-done in college, running around looking like a chicken with it’s head cut off.
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For the Warriors, the presence of David Lee proved to be invaluable. Jarrett Jack‘s leadership clearly had an impact on Curry who was just figuring out how special he could be. Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston are extremely high-IQ players who are a calming presence for the young Warriors core. Without them, Curry might not be the MVP. Green and Thompson might not be All-Stars. The Warriors might not be defending champions.
This is where the 76ers have failed. They’ve trusted a process that doesn’t work.
Nevermind their countless misses in the draft. But they have a talented frontcourt in Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel. Two big men with the skill set to dominate. Around them are plenty of young guards and wings. In fact, only four players (including the recently un-retired and re-signed Elton Brand) have three or more years of experience on the roster. Four players.
They’re showing some signs of life on the court as of late and certain organizational moves such as the hiring of Jerry Colangelo and Mike D’Antoni have finally shown that the franchise is interested in building something. But for the most part, the team has not been competitive at all. And, more importantly, they haven’t tried to be.
This is where they fail and the Warriors have succeeded.
Sure, the Warriors were lucky (there’s that word again) to have a generational talent fall to them at 7th in the 2009 Draft. And sure, Steph Curry’s don’t just grow on trees, but they also aren’t made from day one. Curry isn’t the same player he once was and that’s because the Warriors had a vision and they worked to fulfill it. They surrounded him with the right personnel. The same can’t be said about Philadelphia and their young talent.
If the Sixers want to be even a fraction of what the Warriors are, they need to make some big changes. And it’s going to take a few more years and it’ll probably get worse (believe it or not) before it gets better. For now, these two are the league’s bookends.
One side pushing back against the weight and pressure of every one behind it pushing against it and the other tipping over with no chance of stopping it anytime soon.