With talk about Paul Reed and Mo Bamba possibly playing alongside center Joel Embiid, it might be a good idea to look at the last time the Philadelphia 76ers committed to a two-center lineup.
In a league embracing the three-point shot, the NBA has shied away from lineups that featured two bigs playing together, commonly known as ‘Twin Towers‘. However, the big, and even bigger, lineups have made a mini-comeback lately.
- This past season, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a lot of success with centers Jarrett Allen and Even Mobley both starting. The Grizzlies start Steven Adams and Jaren Jackson Jr. and had one of the best records in the NBA.
- The Milwaukee Bucks won an NBA title two years ago with 7-foot Brook Lopez and 6-foot-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo.
- The Lakers won the championship in the bubble with Anthony Davis and future Sixer Dwight Howard (and occasionally JaVale McGee) in the starting lineup.
Of course, Sixers fans remember this year’s Eastern Conference semifinals. The 76ers held a 3-2 lead on the Boston Celtics and played at home for Game 6 to close it out. In maybe an act of desperation, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla put center, Robert Williams, in the starting lineup along with fellow center Al Horford.
The move flummoxed coach Doc Rivers, who had no countermove, and James Harden and Embiid both had two bad games in a row as Boston pulled out the series.
Teams do not seem to be as inclined to try and mirror the Warriors’ ‘Lineup of Death’, with 6-6 Draymond Green as the center. Unless you have Steph Curry and a healthy Klay Thompson in there, it might not work, they have seen.
Will the Philadelphia 76ers return to a Twin Tower lineup?
The Sixers might be joining the trend, or at least are seriously considering it.
After having his offer sheet from Utah matches, Paul Reed, the primary backup center last season, said new coach Nick Nurse has talked to him about playing a ‘Pascal Siakam’ type power forward game.
Mo Bamba, a 7-footer with a good three-point shot, has signed with the 76ers. He is close to Embiid and immediately brought up the possibility of him and Embiid being able to play together. That did not just come out of thin air, Bamba must have had some signal from the coaching staff to mention it.
The other backup from last year, Montrezl Harrell, is only 6-foot-8 so he certainly could play the forward position (with the understanding he can not shoot a lick from outside).
The Sixers would go sometimes last season with 6-foot-5 P.J. Tucker as a super-small ball center. Neither Tucker nor Harrell are rim-protectors on defense, which led opponents to have a clear runway to the basket.
Rumors have been circulating that general manager Daryl Morey would like to trade away Tucker as part of a potential James Harden deal and Harris is always involved in Sixers’ trade chatter.
If Tucker or Harris do end up getting traded, could Bamba or Reed move into the starting lineup, giving the Sixers a ‘Twin Towers’ alignment?
Remember, when the Raptors won the NBA title under Nurse, they started Siakam and center Marc Gasol, so he has experience with fielding big lineups. If they all stay, and somehow Daryl Morey keeps five who all can play center, having a two-big lineup would at least help, somewhat, with the log jam of bigs.
With that in mind, let’s look at the last time the 76ers went with a Twin Towers lineup and had success.
Chocolate Thunder and CJ help the Sixers to the NBA Finals.
The 76ers were one of the top teams in the NBA from the mid-1970s thru the early 1980s but could not break thru to win the NBA championship (but they did usually get through the second round).
One of their weaknesses was rebounding, particularly on the offensive end. In the 1979 Eastern Conference semifinals, against the San Antonio Spurs, the Sixers found themselves down 3 games to 1. A significant problem was the Spurs starting Billy (the Whopper) Paultz at center and burly Mark Olberding at forward.
Sixers’ forwards Bobby Jones and Julius Erving were each future Hall of Famers, but they got simply outmuscled on the boards. Center Caldwell Jones was a good rebounder but he could not do it all.
For Game 5, coach Billy Cunningham did what Mazzulla would do 44 years later, start another big, in this case, massive Darryl Dawkins. With Jones and Dawkins starting, the Sixers won the next two games and lost Game 7 by just three points.
For the next three seasons, the Sixers went with the ‘Twin Towers’ of Jones and fan favorite Dawkins in the starting lineup – with very good success.
They fell to the Los Angeles Lakers twice in the NBA finals and would have made it three straight trips to the championship round if they did not blow a 3-1 lead over the Celtics in the East finals.
However, Sixers fans and management were tired of being close but no cigar. In the summer of 1982, they traded for Moses Malone and got rid of Caldwell Jones and Dawkins.
Interestingly, despite losing two starters and replacing them with one, Bobby Jones did not return to the starting lineup. Instead, the Sixers kept with the ‘Twin Towers’ concept and had Marc Iavaroni, a 6-10 free agent who had primarily played in Europe, to start in the open power forward position.
That 1982-83 76ers ended up doing pretty well with that lineup.
The Sixers then went away from the big lineups, They traded Malone and what would have been center-of-the-future Brad Daugherty to go instead with smaller lineups.
How has that worked out? Well, how many championships have the Sixers won since 1983 (hint, rhymes with Zero)?
If the Sixers do indeed end up starting Reed or Bamba, or at least during a game have Embiid on the floor at the same time with one of them, it is something that has worked in the Sixers’ past.