A new NBA champion being crowned is always followed with the tradition of the other 29 teams asking themselves “what can we learn from this?” or “what does it take for us to reach that mountain?” The thorough ass-kicking the Sixers received from the eventual champion New York Knicks to send them home in the second round of the playoffs made it easy to evaluate their own status as a title contender. In the words of their new front office, they are not one just yet.
Still only a year removed from a franchise-derailing 24-win season, that fact doesn’t present an existential crisis it would have in years past. The Sixers have a long road ahead of them to get back to title contention. A big stretch of that road may very well be patience for VJ Edgecombe to age into his prime.
If this eight-year pattern of no repeat champions continues for the league, there’s definitely a lesson the Knicks have taught the Sixers and the rest of the league when it comes to team building, and it’s that there is no one right way to do it.
The now infamous example of the Knicks bucking conventional wisdom when it comes to roster construction is winning with a small guard as the best player on the team. This has been a hot topic in New York since Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon voiced her concerns about Jalen Brunson being capable of being the best player on a championship team on an ESPN segment back in 2023.
Building their team around a small guard was just the start of the Knicks’ unorthodox path. They hardly built any of their team through the draft. The only rotation regulars they drafted were Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride. Three of their best players spent several years in college as opposed to being one-and-dones. They burned the last of their draft capital in a trade not for a star to push them over the hump, but for a role player.
At no point did the Knicks stop and try to put a team together the “proper” way — they just kept tinkering with pieces around Brunson until the puzzle came into place.
Even perhaps the most universal truth, it takes one of the best players in the world to win a championship, has started to become challenged. Two of these last three champions, the Knicks and the 2024 Celtics, have done so without a top-five player in the league. Both Brunson and Jayson Tatum are surefire All-NBA players, but you’d be hard pressed to find them in the top five in anyone’s player rankings.
The point of this post was inspired the God of Pacers and frankly, basketball coverage, Caitlin Cooper. She pointed out how different in play styles each of the last few champions have been compared to each other. Her observation in the difference in play also highlights how different each team’s path was in getting to the championship.
The Thunder underwent a long rebuild, but still lucked out a bit in acquiring Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a part of the Paul George trade. The Celtics were more traditional in building around two top-five draft picks, but the Nuggets didn’t draft their star until the middle of the second round.
If there is one pattern here, it’s that all of these teams still needed a bonafide star to win a championship. That’s been the case even for Brunson and Tatum.
Now, this will matter a whole let less if the 7-foot-4 alien who just lost to the Knicks ends this era of parity, which he and the San Antonio Spurs still look well set up to do. If they don’t, the good news for the Sixers is they believe they have one, potentially two of those guys who can be that in Edgecombe and Tyrese Maxey.
With Paul George and Joel Embiid having years left on their contract, it won’t be a straightforward path to get the Sixers to optimize their backcourt. Recent history has shown the path isn’t always obvious.
They just have to find the one that works for them.
