Cohesion, then Completion
Don’t skip a step. So many are trying to jump from accumulating the pieces to a championship team to the final steps of completing the puzzle. But the most tedious, and most important step, is cohesion.
Right now, this Philadelphia 76ers team needs cohesion. Adding veterans simply speeds up the step, but neither eliminates it, nor raises the outcome.
Players who arrived to an NBA team are rookies. Overwhelmed by the game around them, by the sheer fame and notoriety of the center stage. In the game of NBA basketball, young men must focus inwards, to develop their own skill-sets to effectively compete. The next step is assembling complementary pieces to optimize the best team of the roster. That is not five scorers. That is not a post center, a perimeter shooting small forward, and a lightning fast point guard with laser-guided passing either. It’s the best five man lineup. That lineup is the group of men who are the most effective as a group.
We’ve guessed at what the Philadelphia 76ers roster might become, what the starting lineup might look like if Dario Saric elects to join this team. It’s pretty intimidating.
The Philadelphia 76ers may need to move Ben Simmons to point guard of necessity. Necessity is the mother of invention. This is the Tall Ball we’ve been drooling about for months!
Ben Simmons on why he's different: "Being a 6-10 PG I’m able to push the ball up the court & start breaks a lot quicker than most big guys."
— Jessica Camerato (@JessicaCamerato) June 24, 2016
If the team can ease Ben Simmons into the 6’10” point guard role which so many scoffed prior to his arrival, then the team could get a center and power forward out of Okafor and Embiid. Saric slides to small forward. Covington goes shooting guard.
The bench of the Sixers loads up with Landry, Noel, Grant, Stauskas, Thompson, Canaan, and McConnell.
Next: Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid Stand Tall In NBA
While the roster will take a month or so to truly hit on all cylinders, it’s got the makings of something quite special. And not a single free agent or trade needed.