We knew this NBA season would be hard to predict. With just 66 games crammed into about four months, it would help to have a young roster able to navigate the rigors of the exhausting four-games-in-seven-nights routine. So maybe seeing the Philadelphia 76ers on top of the Atlantic Division shouldn’t be such a surprise.
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A playoff team three of the last four years, but never higher than a No. 6 seed, the 76ers have done an admirable job of adding high-end talent despite only one pick in the top eight since 2004. That was Evan Turner in 2009, the No. 2 overall pick that season. And Turner doesn’t even start yet. He’s a swingman off the bench alongside pure scorer Lou Williams, a second-round pick in 2005, and Thaddeus Young, the team’s No. 12 pick in 2007. Add in 2011 draft picks Lavoy Allen, a power forward from Temple taken in the second round, and center Nikola Vucevic, the first-rounder selected No. 16, and you have a bench filled with players 25 or younger.
As for the starters, Philadelphia took Jrue Holiday, 21, No. 17 in the 2009 draft. They made shrewd trades for guard Jodie Meeks, 24, and center Spencer Hawes, 23. And stalwart Andre Iguodala, himself just 28, is one of the league’s best defensive players. Only power forward Elton Brand, 32, can be considered on the downside of his career. And with the Celtics aging, the Knicks a mess and Toronto and New Jersey hopeless, it looks like the 76ers can cruise to a division title and a top-three seed in this spring’s NBA playoffs.
