After years of being Eastern Conference basement-dwellers, it appears the “process” is nearly complete for the Philadelphia 76ers. The team now has a young core in place with Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, Ben Simmons, and this year's first overall pick Markelle Fultz, and appear to be on the cusp of making the jump to playoff contention in a severely watered-down conference.
However, team president Bryan Colangelo recently warned fans to temper expectations for the upcoming 2017-18 season, as their young players still have a lot to prove going forward.
“I think any talk of playoffs is getting a little ahead of ourselves,” Colangelo told NBA.com. “The East is definitely in flux right now and a lot of changes are happening. A lot of changes are happening to this roster and we’re not going to know what we have until we actually play some games, when we get together in the fall and we go through a camp and we start to play live NBA games. We want to take this a step at a time. We want to go about it the right way, with patience and the proper focus, and the focus is on taking that next step forward.”
Colangelo has the right mindset when approaching next year, but it's going to be tough to settle down a starved Philadelphia fanbase. They've been waiting a long time for the resurrection of the Sixers, and it looks like they finally have the right pieces to the puzzle.
Of course, there are injury concerns when it comes to their young core, as Embiid has yet to play a full season, and Ben Simmons and Fultz have yet to step on an NBA court. However, they were also able to nab three-point specialist J.J. Redick in free agency, and the two best players in the East not named LeBron James have moved out West, so the Sixers look like they're ready to compete sooner, rather than later.
For Sixers fans, it's definitely sunny in Philadelphia.
Follow Us
Subscribe