Entering the summer with a ton of hype, we sift through it all and try to find realistic expectations for the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference

The Philadelphia 76ers are the perfect overlap of the Venn Diagram depicting the fall in quality in the Eastern Conference, and the hope of the unknown.

The unknown of promising rookies, mercurial talents coming back from injury, and solid free agent signing; the 76ers are one of the only feel-good stories in the East this offseason. With hope among Eastern Conference teams at an all time low, and trust in the process being at an all-time high, the hype around Philly is gaining momentum like a freight train.

Although, once you sift through the hype, you will find the Sixers’ expectation of playoffs is more realistic than most would believe.

So just how bad is the Eastern Conference? How much better are the Sixers? How much can we expect from a team intending on starting three players with a joint 31 regular season games?

Like the Sixers in general, there are a lot of questions to be answered as we separate the hype and try to see where they measure up.