On the three-year anniversary of the Philadelphia 76ers blockbuster trade to acquire Jimmy Butler from the Minnesota Timberwolves, it’s time to reminisce on general manager Elton Brand’s plan.
To Brand’s credit, he went all in. He knew what he had in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. He tried to put pieces around those two players to win right away. He made a bold move for Butler and a big move to acquire Tobias Harris from the Los Angeles Clippers late in the seaosn.
Unfortunately for the Sixers, those four players — plus JJ Redick — did not play in a lot of games after the trades were made. The talented starting unit played 10 games together before the playoffs. Despite their obvious talent, they were unable to develop the necessary chemistry to make the anticipated run. They hoped talent would trump chemistry.
“That’s never worked,” said coach Doc Rivers. “It hasn’t. Miami tried it the first year and it didn’t work. I know people will say ‘Well, they did.’ No, it didn’t work. They had to figure out chemistry first. You don’t just throw a team together and think it’s gonna work without coming up with some type of team play and chemistry.”
As the Sixers move forward, they are looking to grow as a team and develop that chemistry. It was an essential component of any championship team in history. That is what helped the Heat win titles in 2012 and 2013 after they came up short in the first year of the LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh era.
“I had a team in Boston that we got it early; we were lucky,” Rivers added referring to the 2008 champion Celtics. “Talking to those guys, the difference in the Heat the second year was they played together. They figured it out chemistry-wise. Obviously, you have to have talent to win, but you have to be a team to win. That’s gonna help you win.”
Rivers has coached a ton of talented teams. The Clippers had Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and others, but they could never get it done. It seemed the chemistry was off in those situations, and Rivers had to handle it.
“I’ve encountered it all over,” he added. “It’s my job to make it mesh. Sometimes it does and that’s when I’m really smart. Sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s when I’m really dumb. That’s how it works in the coaching profession at least.”
For the Sixers, the chemistry seems to be there. Despite two losses in a row, they have been encouraged by what they have seen considering they have been down so many guys.
“We all like each other,” said newcomer Andre Drummond. “I think with this team here, we found a way to jell regardless of who’s available to play or not. We genuinely want to win and we all have one common goal, so it’s easy to play with anybody on this team.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=54690]
[lawrence-related id=54704,54701,54698]