GOAT
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Joined: 24 Oct 2011
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 Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 10:34 am Post subject: 1976 Cleveland Cavaliers |
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The '76 Cavs were one of the most unlikely success stories of the decade. Still in search of their first playoff trip in their five year history, the team had sold Lenny Wilkens and watched former #1 pick and 20+ per game scorer Austin Carr disintegrate because of injury the previous season. 1975-76 did not get off to a promising start. Carr never recaptured his form or even his health fully and the makeshift Cavs line-up got off to a terrible start winning just 5 of their first 15 games.
However they somehow got it together and won 10 of their last 11 in December of '75 and reeled off a 14 of 16 streak from mid-January to late February. They were doing it with defense (third best in the NBA) and with someone different stepping up and carrying the scoring every night. They kept closing ground on the Central divisions best team, the Bullets and finally they won four in a row late in the season to steal the Central Division title from defending NBA Finalist Washington. (They had beat the Bullets head-to-head in their final two meetings as well.) They finished 49-33, third best in the NBA and set a franchise record for wins that stood until the Nance/Price/Daugherty era. In the postseason they beat Washington in seven games and pushed the Celtics to six in the conference finals before bowing out and returning to obscurity.
The team was propelled by a trio of Jim's who all had career years. Jim Brewer was, entering just his third season, a bust. The number two pick of the '73 draft, the slightly built 6'9" postman had averaged just 7 points and 6 rebounds per game in his first two years. Meanwhile #3 pick Ernie DiGregorio had led the league in assists as a rookie and won rookie of the year. The Cavs were very weak at PG with Wilkens gone. Also #1 pick Doug Collins had become a 20 per game scorer for Philadelphia, with Carr wounded, that was another hole the Cavs had. However in 1976 Brewer had his best showing. He averaged 12 points 11 rebounds 3 assists and over a block and steal a game playing in all 82 contests. Alongside him upfront was Jim Chones who averaged a career high 16 points and 9 rebounds a night while also never missing a game during the regular season. Chones had been passed around pro basketball since leaving Marquette early for the ABA but mostly because of the circumstances of pro basketball and the pending merger. He was unquestionably a talent. A good scorer and a feroucious defender at 6'9" with a giant wingspan but with the New York Nets and Carolina Cougars Chones was a role player, the Cavs made him their go-to-guy inside and their defensive anchor. Later he'd start for the 1980 Lakers Championship team. The third Cleveland Jim was Jim Cleamons. The teams PG by default, Cleamons would set career highs for PPG (12.2), APG (5.2) and SPG (1.5) and like his two same-named teammates, he played in all 82 games. In the playoffs he'd led the team in points, assists and minutes played.
Rounding out the teams core were a trio of relatively unknown wing position players. Bobby "Bingo" Smith, Campy Russell and Dick Snyder spent most of the careers putting up numbers on bad teams or on the bench's of good teams. Snyder (12.6) had played with the expansion Suns and Sonics before completing the horrific hat trick with the Cavs. His last second lay-up (the miracle of Richfield) won game seven for the Cavs against the high-powered Bullets. Smith (13.6 ppg), the teams leading scorer the previous season started his career playing one season for the San Diego Rockets and ended it playing one with the San Diego Clippers. In between he spent a decade in Cleveland, much of it going unnoticed. Campy Russell was a bit different than the rest. He was the Cavs first round pick the previous year. A 24 year old out of Michigan, Russell was the teams second leading scorer in '76 at 15.0 points per game. He'd average at least that many for five more seasons in Cleveland peaking as a 22 ppg scorer in 1979 when he made his only all-star team. He is the only member of this Cleveland roster who would go on to make an all-star team after 1976. Those three players combined missed one game all season, when Bingo Smith missed a game to attend a family funeral.
Also of note is Carr, he played a role off the bench and occasionally show flashes of the 20+ per game scorer he'd been his first three years and most of all a 35-year old Nate Thurmond in his second to last season. He was barely a factor at this point on the court, but his value went beyond the box score. The teams season turned around when he arrived and he was still a defensive force against teams with powerful interior centers.
The Cavs had everything go just right for them all season, but in the playoffs something finally went wrong. As mentioned, the Cavs won the semifinal series against Washington in seven dramatic games but they lost Chones, probably their best player, certainly their most important one, before the start of the conference finals when he broke a bone in his foot during practice. Even without Chones the Cavs pushed Boston to six games. In the West the Suns upset heavy favorite and defending Champion Golden State when the harmony between Rick Barry and his teammates spoiled. The title was there for Cleveland had Chones stayed healthy. The Cavs had split four games with the Celtics during the regular season after acquiring Thurmond and they had great success containing Dave Cowens with Thurmond and Chones. The Cavaliers players have said they are certain they'd have won the series if Chones played. Over the six games in the series, Boston outscored Cleveland by just five points total. It's impossible to say for sure, but prior to that injury it seemed liked the stars were aligning. If ever there was a year for a wacky NBA Champion 1976 was it. Probably the least competitive season in post shot clock history. |
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