Superstars may be unnecessary if you win with strong team play | Bob Cooney

MONDAY'S NCAA championship game between Gonzaga and North Carolina was the opposite of what many think college basketball is about when it comes to getting players getting ready for the NBA. Juniors and seniors dotted the rosters of both the Bulldogs and the Tar Heels, just like last season, when Villanova used its veteran roster to capture the national crown.

One-and-dones garner most of the attention during seasons, as Washington's Markelle Fultz, UCLA's Lonzo Ball, Kansas' Josh Jackson, Duke's Jayson Tatum, Kentucky's Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox, etc., did this season.

The thought is that to win in the NBA, superstars must be accumulated, and it's a task on which the 76ers are embarking. One of the aforementioned probably will join their roster after the June 22 draft, to join a team with such potential superstars as Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Dario Saric.

But, like college, is having superstars becoming a bit overrated in the NBA? Could it be that teamwork and good coaching could become the way to win in the league?

Probably not, but wouldn't it be sort of refreshing if it did?

Maybe it's because many don't like to ride the obvious line of thinking, but it seems that fewer and fewer people who follow the NBA think that both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, the prohibitive favorites when the season began to meet in the NBA Finals, will get there.

Some of it has to do with the knee injury that has sidelined Golden State's Kevin Durant for more than a month, or because the Warriors don't have the depth they had the previous two seasons. Many point to the Cavaliers and see a team they believe to be in some disarray.

So then you look at the teams that may replace them as reps from the West and the East in the Finals, you go directly to the San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics. And if you examine their rosters, it's not as if either team is loaded with players who would be labeled as superstars in the league.

San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard may be the best two-way player in the league and could very well come away with the MVP Award when the season is over, though he probably will wind up in the top three. But when he was taken with the 15th overall pick in 2011 by the Indiana Pacers and traded to the Spurs for George Hill, he wasn't envisioned as a difference-maker, let alone an NBA superstar. San Antonio groomed the 6-7 small forward out of San Diego State to become the player he now is. Yes, superstars such as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Many Ginobili undoubtedly played a huge part in developing Leonard. But Duncan is retired, and Parker, 34, and Ginobili, 39, aren't nearly the players they were when they teetered on the brinkg of being considered superstars. Yet, the Spurs sit at 59-17, a serious threat to unseat the Warriors as conference kings. Sure they have LaMarcus Aldridge, who was the second overall pick in the draft. But that was back in 2006, and he is 31 now. And Pau Gasol was the third overall pick, but he is 36 now and certainly not the player he once was.

The Spurs do it with team play, a style that coach Brett Brown is trying to emulate as he grows the Sixers' program. It is an offense in which the ball never stops moving and good shots get even better with an extra pass or two. While Leonard has proved to be an offensive leader in the league, with his 25.9 points a game, he does it on only 18 shots a game. His offense comes mostly from team play and not the isolation type that most need to post those numbers.

Boston sits atop the East, a half a game ahead of the Cavaliers with a 50-27 record. Coach Brad Stevens has been the talk of the league since taking over the Celtics in 2013 because of his professorial offensive mind after a wildly successful college run at Butler. And if you look at his roster, you see that, like the Spurs', superstars don't dominate.

Diminutive guard Isaiah Thomas is the wonder of the league, averaging 29.1 points a game and regarded as one of the most clutch players in the game. But when Boston acquired him from the Phoenix Suns at the 2015 trade deadline for Marcus Thornton and a first-round pick (Cleveland's) they certainly didn't anticipate they were getting a superstar.

Stevens' offensive schemes have helped a great deal in Thomas becoming the scorer he now is, and a terrific supporting cast has contributed, as well. It is a cast that does include Al Horford, the third overall pick out of Florida in 2007. But, at 30, he is now a terrific role player, as his numbers of 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists show. Though he was taken sixth in 2014, guard Marcus Smart was viewed as a tough-nosed defensive player who could get to the hoop and perhaps score a little bit. Rookie Jaylen Brown might be more of a contributor in the future, but for now the third pick from last June's draft is still feeling his way.

Yes, the Sixers want to accumulate superstars, and that is what the past four seasons have really been about. But maybe the NBA, like college, is starting to show that garnering as many superstars as possible isn't the only way to win.

cooneyb@phillynews.com

@BobCooney76

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog