After a strong season in 2018-19 that saw them finish with the 3-seed in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia 76ers had an interesting offseason that saw a glut of new players enter the team with familiar faces on the way out. Most notably, the team signed Al Horford to a deal that will likely see him play the four alongside Joel Embiid. Beyond that, Philly pulled off a sign-and-trade with the Miami Heat that sent Jimmy Butler to Miami and Josh Richardson to Philadelphia – giving the Sixers a threatening starting five of Embiid, Horford, Richardson, Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons.
Sounds like a team that might make it to the NBA Finals, no? Zach Lowe of ESPN thinks so, and he said as much on ESPN’s The Jump on Thursday.
“I'm scared about Joel Embiid's conditioning. I'm scared about Ben Simmons' jumpshot. I'm scared about how weird this team is. But I think they're going to the NBA Finals. I just think their talent and their size is overwhelming. I think they're going to have the best defense in the NBA. Joel Embiid should win Defensive Player of the Year, and they're just going to bludgeon people.”
The full video of Lowe on The Jump is below:
Indeed, the team’s defense is likely to be among the best seen in recent history and they have some scary offensive talent too that should mesh well together. While it might take some time for all the pieces to fit together, the Sixers do indeed have a good chance of advancing to the NBA Finals on the back of strong defense and offensive upside.
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