Sixers’ future looks bright

Off the Dribble
By Ryan Smith

So you think the 76ers are in bad shape, huh?
With a 2-4 start to the first season of the post-Allen Iverson era — the Sixers were taking on the Dallas Mavericks in game seven as the Times went to press — the Sixers look just like the last-place team they are.
It’s easy to see that, in a much-improved Atlantic Division, the Sixers have little chance to make the Eastern Conference playoffs this season.
So, for Sixers fans, the only thing worth looking forward to is the future.
And I’m here to say that the future is bright.
Well, let me modify that — the future is not as dim as it could be.
Remember the last time the Sixers found themselves in this situation? The last time the Sixers made a blockbuster, franchise-altering move — the 1992 trade of Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns — the team found itself in much worse shape than it is today.
The Barkley trade was a move that sent the Sixers back to the Dark Ages for close to a decade.
In the first full season without Barkley — the 1992-93 campaign — the Sixers finished 34 games out of first place with a 26-56 record.
Now, 15 years later, the Sixers have begun the first full season without Iverson. And it’s apparent that this young, competitive squad is a far cry from the group of pushovers who made up the 1992-93 team.
As an exercise in making ourselves feel better, let’s compare the two teams.
In the first season of the post-Barkley era, the Sixers were led by point guard Hersey Hawkins, who, in his fifth NBA season, averaged 20.3 points per game.
That season turned out to be a career year for Hawkins, who never was able to duplicate the success he had that year in later seasons with the Sixers, Supersonics and Hornets.
This year’s squad, however, is led by swingman Andre Iguodala, who is averaging 20.5 points per game in his fourth NBA season.
In 1992, it was obvious that Hawkins was playing his best basketball. He was a good scorer on a bad team.
Iguodala, however, is widely considered an up-and-coming star.
While his numbers are almost identical to Hawkins’ ’92 stats, Iguodala will continue to grow as a player, blossoming into an all-star, possibly as early as this season.
Much like this year’s team, that 1992 squad’s second scoring option was a sharp-shooting guard with a penchant for hitting big three-point shots.
But while he had averaged over 20 points per game the previous season, the 1992 season marked the beginning of a steady decline in Jeff Hornacek’s career.
In the season after the trade, Hornacek averaged 19.1 points per game for the Sixers.
However, he would never accomplish that feat again, as he went on to finish his career as a role player on a Utah Jazz team led by Karl Malone and John Stockton.
In his fifth season with the Sixers, Kyle Korver is one of the league’s premier three-point shooters.
But unlike the ’92 squad, which relied on Hornacek as a vital cog, this year’s team uses Korver off the bench. While he provides instant offense as a substitute, Korver is not counted on to provide the type of scoring that was demanded of Hornacek.
Likewise, point guard Andre Miller is not asked to be a scorer in the same way Hawkins was on that ’92 team.
The reason for these differences is the level of talent that makes up the remainder of both rosters.
Sans Clarence Weatherspoon, the rookie forward who would go on to be a productive Sixers starter for seasons to come, the team that followed Barkley’s act was made up of veterans who were on the road to nowhere: Armon Gilliam, Tim Perry, Johnny Dawkins, Andrew Lang and Manute Bol are the most notable names on that list.
None of these guys had the potential to become a star.
On the other hand, this year’s roster is filled out with young talent — many of whom have a good chance to be productive NBA players. Run down the roster and it’s hard to find a player who lacks at least the potential to be a star.
Names like Willie Green, Samuel Dalembert, Louis Williams, Rodney Carney, Jason Smith and Thaddeus Young inspire much more confidence than the list of slugs mentioned a few paragraphs back.
So next time you see Iverson in that Denver Nuggets uniform, the next time you’re feeling down about your last-place team, just pull out that 1992 roster and know that things could be much, much worse. ••