The basketball world at large is fading the Philadelphia 76ers coming into the 2023-24 NBA season.

As if last year's playoff failure that undid a season full of positivity and growth wasn’t enough, the Sixers are once again dealing with a star guard holding out and demanding a trade. While they are more equipped mentally to deal with James Harden's situation, they’re not exactly eager to have to go through it again.

New head coach Nick Nurse has roughly the same core as last year with the obvious caveat that James Harden will probably be on the move at some point to a new team. Patrick Beverley, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Danny Green are the main new additions to a Sixers team that was one of the better squads last season. But with Harden on the outs, what can this team really achieve? What will this new season bring after the staunch disappointment of this past postseason?

After making bold predictions for Joel Embiid, who could be in for a monster defensive season, and Tyrese Maxey, who is ready to make a leap to an All-Star level, here are five bold predictions for the Sixers' 2023-24 season.

The James Harden fiasco is resolved with a trade well ahead of the trade deadline

Harden will almost certainly get traded. He will most likely end up with the Los Angeles Clippers. The main source of uncertainty is when it will happen.

Morey has remained patient as he tries to wrangle a better offer. With the Sixers so tapped out on assets and still having months to make a trade, it makes sense. It's not easy for anyone to sit back and wait while he works behind the scenes but it's what he gets paid to do: make the moves necessary to help this team be as good as it can be. However, this situation is not an exact copy of last time — and one key difference will compel Morey to find a suitable offer as soon as possible.

The Ben Simmons ordeal went up until the trade deadline but without the luxury of a longer contract giving him leverage — plus Harden lashing out publicly more than Simmons did — Morey may feel more inclined to make a trade. That pressure almost certainly won’t get him to agree on a bad trade for Philly but he can’t threaten to wait this thing out for years like he did with Simmons.

At the end of the day, the Sixers have until the trade deadline to make a deal or risk losing Harden for nothing next offseason, which seems very likely given his dissatisfaction with the team. Harden may come to realize that the Sixers are the lone team that can currently sign him to a huge contract if he doesn’t get traded, so perhaps that gets him to go along better. In the end, though, a split at some point seems inevitable.

The Sixers have one of the best defenses but a middle-of-the-pack offense

Last season, Embiid said he wanted the Sixers to be the best defensive team in the league. That obviously didn’t happen, as he and Harden generated amazing chemistry and made Philly a juggernaut on offense. The defense was still pretty good but not their whole identity nor elite over the course of the whole season.

Now, Nurse's defensive scheming should make the Sixers a good defensive squad. With Embiid as the centerpiece, it shouldn’t be hard for him to build a top-notch defensive unit. In the preseason, Philly took pride in its defense and looked to continue growing as they learned the ins and outs of Nurse's plans. Jaden Springer's emergence into the rotation should give them a boost, especially at the point of attack.

On offense, the Sixers will have to figure out how to fill the playmaking void left by the Beard. It's up to Maxey and Embiid to become better at finding teammates and using the gravity they have to get teammates the ball. Nurse's offense has featured more player movement and actions to free up looks, so the opportunities should be there.

The Sixers' offense will go as far as Maxey takes them. Nurse's scheming should put him and Embiid in spots to make plays but it's up to them to execute and develop. It's also on players like Tobias Harris and Kelly Oubre Jr. to accept new roles and become accustomed to fewer iso possessions. Squeezing the most that he can out of what he has may not be enough for Nurse to create a truly great offense. It's perhaps part of the reason why he's prioritizing easy opportunities in transition.

I predict that the Sixers will have a top-five defensive rating and an offensive rating somewhere between 12th and 15th.

The Sixers finish fourth in the Eastern Conference, maybe even as low as fifth

Embiid, Maxey and a solid collection of players led by Nurse is too good to fall all the way out of the playoff picture. Only some serious injuries will threaten the Sixers' six-year postseason streak. But the teams that already have their number only have a firmer grasp on it. And there are competitors creeping up on them that, at least in the standings, could surpass them.

The Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks are the top dogs in the conference — arguably the league — and should finish as the top two teams in the East. The Cleveland Cavaliers may not be on their level but they could also be in the top three. After having one of the best net ratings in the NBA last season, they added two key perimeter shooters and have young players who could continue to improve. They were just three games behind Philly last season and could easily jump them this year.

The New York Knicks are also becoming a formidable squad that goes deep into its rotation and is led by a pair of stars. They have the depth and talent to compete with the Sixers record-wise, though Philly should still be considered the superior team in a series, largely thanks to Embiid. New York's depth could allow them to win more games than Philly, especially because just one prolonged injury to Embiid or Maxey could spell doom for the squad in the standings.

Depending on the matchup, the Sixers could get bounced in the first round of the playoffs. But they still have the talent to win a first-round series again. Whether they have the juice to get any further remains uncertain and, barring a huge return in the Harden trade, remains doubtful.

Nick Nurse finishes top 5 in Coach of the Year voting

While many NBA awards can sometimes have voting patterns and justifications that differ from year to year and voter to voter, the Coach of the Year award is typically voted along the same lines; the coach of the team that outperformed its expectations the best wins it. That's probably why Nurse won’t win the award. But that doesn’t mean he can’t become a candidate that gets votes lower on the ballot.

Nurse should get more out of the Sixers and keep them competitive despite the Harden ordeal. If young players like Maxey and Springer take big leaps and Philly is one of the better teams in the East, it could make for a compelling case behind whoever the primary candidates will be. Nurse's reputation as a genius tactician will prop him up, too.

Coaches of young teams with the potential to make leaps like the Indiana Pacers' Rick Carlisle and the Oklahoma City Thunder's Mark Daigneault are among the prospective favorites to win the award this season. Any team with a tip-top record in the league could see their coach as a candidate. For getting a Sixers team to play well despite a major distraction, Nurse could get some media love in the form of COTY votes.