The rebuilt Philadelphia 76ers may very well win the Eastern Conference in 2019-20. No team in the league possess more top-tier defenders than Brett Brown's, and there's a sense that effectively swapping Jimmy Butler for Josh Richardson, while retaining Tobias Harris, will more seamlessly delineate offensive responsibilities between the team's best players.

But any expectation that Philadelphia stands truly apart from their in-conference competition conveniently ignores both the existence of the Milwaukee Bucks, as well as many questions the team must answer before reaching its potential. Don't tell that to James Ennis, though. The Sixers' reserve wing believes his team is “going to walk to the Finals in the East.”

“Because it's a good team, and a good chance of winning,” Ennis said, per Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, of why he decided to re-sign with Philadelphia. “The East is going to wide open. We had a good chance last year. Kawhi is gone. He went to the West. So we are going to walk to the Finals in the East.”

Ennis' confidence, to be clear, is hardly unfounded.

As he says, the defending-champion Toronto Raptors will be a notch below the East's top-line contenders after losing Kawhi Leonard. The Boston Celtics are in a new phase of contention. The Bucks, dominant as they were last season, are due an adjustment period after losing Malcolm Brogdon, and don't have as much stylistic versatility due to the loss of Nikola Mirotic. From a pure talent perspective, the Sixers should absolutely be Eastern Conference favorites.

But Philadelphia didn't just lose Butler this summer while bringing in Richardson and Al Horford. The influence of J.J. Redick was always underplayed, and the Sixers will rely in part on unproven options like second-year athletic marvel Zhaire Smith and first-round pick Matthias Thybulle to replace him. Brown will have to further adjust his team's offense to account for the presence of both Horford and Joel Embiid, too.

James Ennis and Philadelphia will be very, very good next season, but winning the East certainly won't be as easy as he makes it seem.