Whenever there are star-laden rosters rolled out in the NBA, skeptics of said rosters often have the same critiques.
“There’s only one ball.”
“Too many egos.”
“Good luck getting that guy to take a back seat to anyone.”
The NBA has long been powered by its stars and while it seems as if the narrative in recent years has changed, particularly with a team like New York winning an NBA championship last season primarily due to its stellar depth, top-end talent will always garner a lot of conversation in the NBA.
The Sixers have a ton of it. It was fair to question how quickly all of the talent would mesh and come together, but if the season opener at Madison Square Garden was an indication, chemistry isn’t going to be a problem for this season’s Philadelphia 76ers.
Every Sixer in the starting lineup, besides VJ Edgecombe who attempted the fewest number of field goals amongst the five, had at least five assists in the 106-100 victory over New York. The Sixers committed fewer turnovers than a Knicks team that was returning the bulk of its roster that won last season’s title. Philadelphia also had 24 fastbreak points to 16 for the Knicks. These are all statistical categories that indicate a strong degree of togetherness and selflessness on the court.
On Tuesday night, the Sixers did not look like a team that was still trying to figure out how to put the puzzle pieces together. They also did not beat the Knicks due to a hot shooting night that could just be chalked up to randomness. Philly shot just 28% from the three-point line in the win. They did so with two high-profile new starters in the lineup in LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. They closed out a close game on the road against an opponent that’s owned them in recent seasons including two of the last three postseasons. So if they can do all of that in their first game together against the reigning champions, maybe it’s easy to see why there was so much hype around this team.
Inevitably, there are going to be overtures, if they haven’t started already, from fans about coach Nick Nurse’s overreliance on the starting five. Every starter played at least 33 minutes in the opener. There are another 81 regular season games to go plus what the franchise hopes is a deep playoff run. Managing minutes is not a novel concept for Nurse, but how good will he be at it this season? It’s a fair question.
Will Mike Gansey be able to find a backup center to Joel Embiid after losing Ariel Hukporti for the year before the season started? Finding some consistent outside shooting from the wing also figures to be the easiest way to get James some rest throughout the marathon that is the regular season.
Surely, there are still things the Sixers will have to figure out during the season as they’re not going to waltz to an NBA championship. But playing into June was on everyone’s minds before this season started and the victory on Tuesday night in New York showed us why. Chemistry and cohesion are usually things that only get better as the season goes on and if that’s the case for this group, we might be in for a very special next 6-8 months, Sixers fans.
