Older and more experienced than some realize, veteran leadership has been a key factor in the Sixers’ success

Doc Rivers keeps referring to the 76ers as young.

Surely the coach hasn’t paid attention to the rosters his predecessor, Brett Brown, worked with the last seven seasons.

Never during The Process did the Sixers have as many key veterans as does the current roster. Think about it. That’s part of the reason Elton Brand got back into the NBA.

In January 2016, the Sixers released then-rookie power forward Christian Wood to make room for Brand on their 15-man roster. A great locker room guy, Brand came out of retirement to mentor the team’s young players, especially then-rookie center Jahlil Okafor, who had his share of publicized off-the-court incidents.

Things worked out well for Brand, who is now the Sixers general manager. But in 2016, he was one of the few veteran Sixers. For the most part, those veterans were past their prime, injured, and/or didn’t have much of a voice.

Fast forward to this season. The Sixers have five guys who have been in the NBA for at least a decade. Four of them — Tobias Harris, Danny Green, Dwight Howard, and George Hill — will be in the Sixers’ playoff rotation. And Harris and Green are in the starting lineup.

Two other players, starter Seth Curry, 30, and reserve Mike Scott, 32, are at least 30 years old.

So this team is as veteran as it gets in regard to the Sixers’ recent history. In fact, this season’s squad is one of oldest and most experienced teams in the NBA.

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They’re tied with Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks as the league’s fifth-oldest team, with an average age of 27.4 for the 15-member regular roster. The Sixers are also the fifth-most experienced team, with an average of 5.8 seasons for members of the regular roster.

The Sixers do have three rookies in Tyrese Maxey, Isaiah Joe, and Paul Reed, and second-year player Matisse Thybulle on their 15-man roster. And All-Stars Joel Embiid, 27, and Ben Simmons, 24, are young compared to the average age of the top two players for the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, and Brooklyn Nets.

However, Harris, 28, is in his 10th NBA season. Green, 33, is in his 12th season. This is the 17th season for Howard, 35. Hill, 34, and Anthony Tolliver, 35, are both in their 13th seasons. Tolliver, on his second 10-day contract, was brought in partly to mentor the young non-rotation players.

“It is really interesting with our guys. When a veteran comes in, [the young guys] start gravitating toward him,” Rivers said. “And it’s like automatic with Dwight, with Danny, with Tobias, and now George, even Anthony.

“I walked through the locker room [Saturday at Fiserv Forum], and four of the young guys were sitting over by [Tolliver’s] locker, and he’s telling his war stories as I always call them. So it’s good. It’s good that they want the information. And I tell you a lot of guys don’t want the information. I like seeing it.”

That’s a big difference from the early days of The Process.

Previous young first-round selections Nerlens Noel, Michael Carter-Williams, Embiid, and Okafor were basically on their own, hence Brand coming out of retirement. The lack of quality veteran leadership then led to players developing bad habits, and there were lack of accountability issues.

The Sixers didn’t have enough respected and contributing veterans to provide advice on everything from proper rest to managing money to work ethic and in-game situations. Instead, the young players did mostly whatever they wanted without being held accountable. And folks somehow wondered why the team had chemistry issues and failed to live up to its own hype.

These days, the Sixers are second in the Eastern Conference.

They’re 41-21 after Wednesday night’s 127-83 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at the Wells Fargo Center.

Embiid is a league MVP candidate, while Simmons is a frontrunner for defensive player of the year. As cornerstone franchise players, Embiid and Simmons receive most of the credit for the team’s success from the national media.

However, Harris has been playing at an all-star level and is one of the most vocal leaders in the locker room.

Green and Howard both come with championship pedigrees. Green was a starting guard, and Howard was the backup center on last season’s Lakers NBA championship team. Green also won NBA titles with the San Antonio Spurs (2014) and Toronto Raptors (2019).

He’s kind of like a coach in uniform for the Sixers.

“He’s great,” Rivers said of Green. “Him and George Hill, I would say, they just have so much knowledge they can share. It’s also better [coming] from them than from [the coaches].”

It’s not uncommon to see Green giving instructions or going over situations with teammates during games. Hill has been helping his young teammates after being acquired from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a three-team trade on March 25.

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The team acquired the point guard, who can play off the ball, to help them in the postseason.

“It’s just invaluable,” Rivers said of Green and Hill advising the young players. “You can see the information [the veterans give]. They listen, and it’s good.”