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The Philadelphia 76ers were by far the biggest surprise last season with a 52-30 winning record and securing the third seed in the Eastern Conference. This was also the year where a lot of their players had been awarded an All-Star spot (Embiid), All-Defensive (Covington) and Rookie of the Year( Simmons), with a highly motivated team and increasing in skill the 76ers are definitely upgraded this season.
Off-Season Activity
The offseason grade given to the 76ers would essentially be C- or D+ because the front office was so ineffective, without a President of Basketball Operations and a definite GM any star player would be wary of joining the team. Brett Brown is now the highest person in the front office, and his likability towards his previous players is not making big gains for the team just yet.
Moreover, Ilyasova and Marco Bellinelli leaving were big losses for the team as they addressed the gaps in the 3-P shooting and contributing role players. Philadelphia is still relying too much on their drafted players like Zhaire Smith, Korkmaz, Luwavu and more. This would not lead them to the NBA Finals in the near future as Boston also has young players but they also have the upper hand with the Gordon Hayward contract and Boston being a big market for free agents.
Squad Weakness
The problem for the 76ers was they could not create a solution for their obvious problems such as Simmons not being able to shoot or their ability to properly rotate players if a stater is having an off night. The 76ers further went through an interesting route by trading picks with Boston last season to draft Fultz even though they had Simmons before. If looking at a pure starting 5- Simmons, Redick, Covington, Saric and Embiid, the team looks to be a big playoff contender.
However, Redick is 34 years old, which means if the team needs to increase the pace of the game by moving the ball around and fastbreaks, they need a good shooting guard (a role neither Simmons or Fultz are trained for right now). Covington is a good shooter but his main responsibility is to be the defensive pillar for the team. Brett Brown should design plays where Simmons moves to a point-forward (because of his height) and this would give Covington the ability to move around and hit some catch-shoot jumpers
Further, this also shows a bigger problem- lack of depth. After the starting 5, all they have is role players and rookies in Fultz and Smith. Players like Muscala, Chandler, Bayless, and McConnel are putting up decent numbers but their contribution needs to be more than numbers, by relieving the pressure of the Star players offensively and defensively. Brett Brown needs to train these players like Steve Kerr did with Mcgee, get the most out of them efficiently and within the least amount of time to give the starters some rest.
Team Strengths
One number which pops up from last season regarding the Philadelphia 76ers is their salary cap - $104 million just over the cap. Philadelphia is in a great position as they are barely paying any luxury tax and the have the second or third best chances to reach the NBA Finals through the East.
With LeBron out of the picture, Philly has one less team to worry about and can rest their players to better prepare them for the playoffs. Moreover, the star players Embiid, Saric and Simmons are only in their 3rd and 2nd year in the NBA as per playing seasons so they were still a rookie squad and still won 50 games.
Their biggest competitor to reach the finals are the Boston Celtics. Last year, Philly lost the series 4-1 against the Celtics in the Conference Semifinals but three of the lost games were within 5 points and now that Kyrie Irving and Hayward are back in the playing roster there will be some confusion of the offensive head in the final minutes. The reliance on other players and who closes games will cause confusion which gives Brett Brown to expose the Celtics' vulnerabilities.
Opportunities and Threats
The biggest threat to Philadelphia and some may not agree to this is Brad Stevens. Brad Stevens, in my opinion, is on the path to be one of the greatest coaches of all time. He is the reason the Celtics-Cavaliers series stretched to the 7th game.
Brad Stevens does not have set plays like the 'triangle ' with Phil Jackson, but he has developed a system on how the players and balls should move in different situations. Stevens is the kind of coach who for the first 3 quarters only gives little advice all the while analyzing the current movement of the opposition players to expose offensive liabilities. It is also because of Stevens that players like Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart, and Terry Rozier were able to put up decent numbers on the stat sheet as his plays are not player specific but reliable on exploiting mistakes as a team.
The biggest opportunity that the Philadelphia 76ers have currently is that their superstars are all under 25 years of age. Even Robert Covington and T.J.Mconnel are only 26 and 27 respectively. This means that these players haven't even entered their primes and they are big contenders for winning the Championship.
The problem which they face is that going forward they need a good GM to convince free agents, not superstars, but free agent starters to come to Philly. Reports like ' Simmons wants Crawford at 76ers' are a good thing. Veterans like Jamal Crawford are good role models as well as hard workers who could be the difference makers during the Boston series last season.
Prediction for the Season
The Philly roster is still young and the younger stars need to refine their talents to win the championship. Simmons and Embiid have developed into very good players but with Simmons entering his 2nd and Embiid is 3rd (in terms of playing) they are far away from their peak. However, last season the roster did show us that they are very capable of winning 55+ games in the regular season but it is the playoffs where they would struggle in.
Furthermore, without a working GM, the gaps in the roster are also not being filled and in some cases increasing - Bellinelli moving to Spurs.
Yet, the 76ers need some serious help on the coaching side in terms of Brown developing a system rather than just play by play. They can also go for securing veterans like Jamal Crawford which would go a long way to train the young players for a long playoff run. Most likely, Philly secures the second seed as Toronto has a new Star and head coach, but will be defeated in the second round either against the Toronto Raptors or Boston Celtics.
