Many in the sports world wax about "experience" and "paying your dues" and "waiting your turn," as though success is romantically obligated to be preceded by failure. It's such a lazy way of looking at things, and Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Donovan Mitchell, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and even, to some degree, Anthony Davis are here to destroy it.
On Saturday in Miami, the 76ers shot 7 for 31 from three, committed 27 turnovers, and still, somehow, defeated a gritty, veteran-filled Heat team to take a 3-1 lead in their barroom brawl of a first-round series. Afterward, Brett Brown said he was "shocked" his team managed to escape such a madhouse environment -- and believe me, American Airlines Arena was about to register on Richter scales -- with a playoff victory after playing the way they did through three quarters, but that's what happens when you have this little thing called talent.
"We flipped our whole discipline in the fourth period," Brown said.
In other words: Simmons and Embiid shook off three quarters of rust and took the game over in money time. And they did it in a way that "experienced" veterans are supposed to do it -- with Simmons settling a scattered Sixers offense and re-establising their pace and execution, while Embiid took care of the defensive end. Savvy, the romantics would call it, if it were two grizzled vets doing the little things. Turns out, when you're really good, you can also be really savvy without being really old.
By the way, the reverse is true as well. Simply having been "through the wars" doesn't mean you're inherently better for the experience. The Cavs are led by two players in LeBron James and Kevin Love who have played in a combined 267 playoff games, including 57 NBA Finals games, and they're hanging by a thread in the first round against a Pacers team whose best player, Victor Oladipo, had played in a grand total of five playoff games entering this series.
A very similar thing is happening out West in the Thunder-Jazz first-round series, where rookie Mitchell has been taking Russell Westbrook to task as the Jazz have gone up 2-1 in that series. Westbrook has played in 90 career playoffs games, been to every level of the playoffs, seen it all, and would you like to know how many combined fourth-quarter points across Games 2 and 3 all that experience has netted him? Two. How many fourth-quarter points has Mitchell and his three career playoff games scored over that same time? Twenty-three.
When the Jazz lost Gordon Hayward last summer, general manager Dennis Lindsey and coach Quin Snyder came up with seven questions as they began looking ahead to this season and beyond as something of a post-Hayward chart forward. One of those questions was how quickly Mitchell could develop into the go-to player they imagined him being. Suffice it to say, it happened quickly. Lindsey credits Snyder with being willing to put the ball and, to a large extent, the fate of this whole Jazz team in a rookie's hands.
"Quin said from the beginning that he wasn't into the whole rookie earn-your-stripes thing," Lindsey told CBS Sports just before the playoffs began. "If Donovan was ready to be our most versatile offensive player, why obscure it? Why get into this rookie ritualistic, pay-your-dues, wait-your-turn stuff. Let's just get on with it."
Put another way: If you can play, you can play. Mitchell can flat-out play, as can the Celtics' Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, who combined for 55 points Sunday vs. the Bucks. For context, only one other under-22 duo has ever scored more combined points in a playoff game (Westbrook and Kevin Durant combined for 56 in 2010).
And again, Tatum and Brown are not just wiry kids surviving on raw skill. They are chock-full of basketball substance, old-fashioned players who make smart decisions, feel the game and play with poise and consistency -- you know, the stuff that's supposed to come with experience. Good is good. Great is great. Anthony Davis had played in one playoff series prior to this year, in 2015, when his Pelicans were swept in the first round by the Warriors. Meanwhile, the Blazers have been in the playoffs the past five years, led by All-Star Damian Lillard each time. They've been to the second round twice. Lillard had played in 31 playoff games.
New Orleans just swept Portland.
Davis was dominant. Lillard was a relative no-show.
So, yeah, we can put all this "experience" talk to bed. It's not to say that it doesn't help. Everyone benefits from experience, athletes or otherwise. But for the most part, when young players fail, it's not because they're young per se; it's because they're not good enough yet. Fine line, perhaps, but there's a difference.
Take the 2015 Warriors, for example. In one year's time they went from barely winning 50 games and losing in the first-round to 67 wins and a championship. Romantics will say they got better from the experience of three straight trips to the playoffs, and there is some truth in that. But not much. The real truth is that the Warriors got a new coach and started playing in a style more suited to their personnel. When they did that, they won. Immediately. No baby steps. When they were good enough, they were good enough.
The same thing will be true as these playoffs continue for the Sixers, who, I'm here to tell you, are the flat-out best team in the East right now. They're not the hottest or most exciting or most promising team, though those labels also fit. They're the best team. Right now. If the Sixers and Cavs eventually meet up, or even if Philly sees Toronto or even Washington (two teams who also have much more playoff experience) down the road, there won't be a single note on any of the white boards in any of those locker rooms addressing the Sixers' inexperience.
There will be a hundred notes about how the hell to contain Simmons and Embiid, how to possibly slow the Sixers' pace down, how to defend all those Philly shooters, but believe me, you won't hear a word about "experience" in an actual game plan. That will be coming from the media, building up story lines to create drama. "Jordan had to suffer through years of losing to the Pistons," they'll say. The Sixers aren't ready. Give them time. This is a different stage. Blah blah blah.
In the end, there are no rites of passage in basketball. The game is true in that way. Honest. Whether you're on a playground in the city or inside a billion-dollar arena, when they throw that ball up, the team with the best players, the toughest players, the smartest players, tends to win. Plain and simple. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
