Philadelphia 76ers: Does history say Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons need to be traded?
Mo & Mo: Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks
The Philadelphia 76ers had a great fastbreak in the late 70s/early 80s, but it was not producing any championship banners to get hoisted in the Spectrum rafters.
The Sixers featured one of the greatest finishers in NBA history with Julius ‘Dr. J’ Erving. Besides being recognized as one of the top defensive players in the league, for a 6-foot-9 guy, Bobby Jones was deceptively fast and usually had a couple slam dunks during the course of a game.
Fueling the fast break was future Hall of Fame point guard Maurice Cheeks.
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One of the biggest steals in 76ers draft history (OK, I know that is not saying much), the second-round pick out of West Texas State ran the point for the Sixers from 1978-89 (and them famously was told by a TV reporter he got traded).
Cheeks finished his time with the Sixers posting an incredible 7.2 assists to 2.3 turnovers.
But while they were an entertaining team, the 76ers of that era could not take that final step of winning the NBA title that Dr. J had promised. They were basically a doughnut team, as centers Caldwell Jones and Darryl Dawkins were not the kind of scorers that scared any team.
In the NBA finals, the Sixers fell once to the Bill Walton-led Portland Trail Blazers and twice to the Lakers with Abdul-Jabbar. They also blew a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals to the Boston Celtics, who started a frontcourt of all bigs in Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish.
The doughnut was filled for the 1982-83 season when the 76ers traded for veteran center Moses Malone.
The 6-foot-10 Malone was already established as one of the top post players in the league.
Like Abdul-Jabbar, Malone was not much for the three-pointer. In 22 seasons (three of which there was no three-point shot) he attempted just 83 total three-pointers, making just eight (for a 9.6 percent career shooting percentage).
Malone loved to bang inside. When he missed a shot, he grabbed the miss more often than not, and put in the offensive rebound.
Filling a lane on the fast break with Cheeks, Bobby Jones, Dr. J and Andrew Toney was not something Moses did much. He was quite happy to let them run and, eventually, made his way upcourt and plant himself down low (although Malone, much like Embiid, did not have a bad shooting touch from mid-range and could score on open jumpers).
So, how did the 76ers do by adding a center who excelled in the low post but would not be much of a factor in a fast-paced offense?
The 76ers rolled to the 1983 NBA championship. Their only loss in the playoffs was one game to Milwaukee in the Eastern finals. The Lakers got swept in the finals by this juggernaut as Malone outplayed Abdul-Jabbar.
Having a halfcourt oriented center certainly did not slow down the 1983 76ers, particularly Dr. J.