Ranking The All-102: Creating The Eight Best Rosters Of The Brett Brown Sixers Era
Is Okafor really that low?
Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA.
A few days ago, Spike forwarded me an email from a Ricky listener named Bill, thinking it might be a good idea for an article. The listener said:
“Since the process is dead and OBVIOUSLY was a colossal failure (fuck you, Mike Greenberg), what’s the best roster you can assemble from the 102 players Brett coached over the past 7 years?”
I liked the concept, but I thought it wasn’t dreaming big enough. What if I tried to assemble not only the best team, but the second best team, third best, fourth best, and so on, until I use up all 102 players that Brown coached?
So, that’s what I’ll do here. 12 players per team until we reach the end. Just one stipulation: we’re judging the players on how good they were when they were here. Christian Wood would go on to become a very nice player, but he was not good when he was in Philly. That’s why he’s not on one of the first few teams.
Also, all of my rankings are based on sheer ability, not total contributions. I don’t care if Trey Burke made essentially no contributions and was buried on the bench while he was here. I’m still ranking him ahead of Michael Carter-Williams.
Let’s get started.
First team All-Brett Brown
PG: Ben Simmons
SG: JJ Redick
SF: Jimmy Butler
PF: Robert Covington
C: Joel Embiid
Bench: Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, Jerami Grant, Dario Saric, Al Horford, Landry Shamet, Thaddeous Young
Naturally, this team would be unbeatable. What’s most upsetting in looking at this team: they could have very easily had this starting lineup (plus Dario and Shamet) at one point. Had they not traded for Fultz and instead used those assets to acquire Butler (either on draft night 2017 or at a later time), this could’ve been the Sixers’ actual starting lineup. Oh, well!
Second team All-Brett Brown
PG: T.J. McConnell
SG: Shake Milton
SF: James Ennis
PF: Ersan Ilyasova
C: Nerlens Noel
Bench: Ish Smith, Alec Burks, Richaun Holmes, Marco Belinelli, Furkan Korkmaz, Evan Turner, Matisse Thybulle
This team would scrap and claw its way to 31 wins. Second team All-Brett Brown is the ultimate trap game team.
Third team All-Brett Brown:
PG: Markelle Fultz
SG: Nik Stauskas
SF: Glenn Robinson III
PF: Mike Scott
C: Amir Johnson
Bench: Raul Neto, Trey Burke, Mike Muscala, Wilson Chandler, Luc Mbah a Moute, Gerald Henderson, Spencer Hawes
This team wins 24 games, according to my calculations.
Fourth team All-Brett Brown:
PG: Michael Carter-Williams
SG: Isaiah Canaan
SF: Corey Brewer
PF: JaKarr Sampson
C: Boban Marjanovic
Bench: Tony Wroten, Justin Anderson, JaVale McGee, Trevor Booker, Hollis Thompson, Carl Landry, James Anderson
This is my favorite hypothetical team out of all of them. They’d win 16 games.
Fifth team All-Brett Brown:
PG: Tim Frazier
SG: Jason Richardson
SF: Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot
PF: Jonah Bolden
C: Jahlil Okafor
Bench: K.J. McDaniels, Sergio Rodriguez, Henry Sims, Christian Wood, Jerryd Bayless, Zhaire Smith
Look, I know you might be asking: does Okafor really belong this low? The answer is yes, yes he does.
This team gets 12 wins.
Sixth team All-Brett Brown:
PG: Larry Drew II
SG: Marial Shayok
SF: Chris Johnson
PF: Thomas Robinson
C: Dewayne Dedmon
Bench: Lavoy Allen, Brandon Davies, Casper Ware, Malcolm Thomas, Norvel Pelle, Alexey Schved, Alex Poythress
7 wins.
Seventh team All-Brett Brown
PG: Kendall Marshall
SG: Elliott Williams
SF: James Young
PF: Shawn Long
C: Greg Monroe
Bench: James Michael McAdoo, Demetrius Jackson, Darius Morris, Haywood Highsmith, Jarvis Varnado, James Nunnally, Tiago Splitter
As with all Sixers teams, this team has no guard play and way too many big men. They’d win 3 games.
Eighth team All-Brett Brown
PG: Eric Maynor
SG: Jonathon Simmons
SF: Malcolm Lee
PF: Furkan Aldemir
C: Kyle O’Quinn
Bench: Adonis Thomas, Justin Patton, Lorenzo Brown, Jacob Pullen, Justin Harper, Phil Pressey, Drew Gordon, Arnett Moultrie, Daniel Orton, Sonny Weems, Chasson Randle, Darius Johnson-Odom, Elton Brand, Byron Mullens
Even with this team having extra players (since there weren’t enough left to form two teams, I just made them into one), I don’t think it could win its division in the G-League. My guess is they’d win 0 NBA games.