The 76ers have been heralded as the team of the future with their young talented core. Joel Embiid has become an icon and came onto the scene two years ago and proved last year that he can put together a 60+ game season. Ben Simmons showed all of us the potential he holds even gaining comparisons to LeBron James. Robert Covington was able to make first team all defensive team and so would’ve Embiid if it weren’t for Rudy Gobert. Dario Saric established himself as a stretch four that is a nice complement to Embiid. JJ Reddick was able to give this team veteran leadership and a sharpshooter on the perimeter. They were able to do all of this without the number one pick of Markelle Fultz from the year before! “The Process” is coming into fruition, but has it hit a wall?

Let’s go back to last years playoffs. The 76ers dominated the Heat in the first round and everyone expected them to take down a Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward less Celtics team. Then they lost in 5. Three of the four Celtics’ wins came within 5 points. Nonetheless, the 76ers ending to the season was tough. Al Horford made them hide Joel Embiid on defense because he couldn’t guard him out in space. The Celtics punished the small players of JJ Reddick and TJ McConnell. And the 76ers showed their inexperience and youth by losing multiple close games because of experienced play and excellent coaching. It was made obvious the 76ers needed more, not a lot, but more to take that next step as a team.

So, what did the 76ers add this offseason to help them out? First, they retained players like JJ Reddick and Amir Johnson which helped them get to where they were. Then, they acquired Wilson Chandler from the Nuggets for practically nothing. They traded for Zhaire Smith and the Heat’s 2021 first round draft pick from the Suns for Mikal Bridges. Mikal Bridges is projected to be able to help contribute to teams right away, but the 76ers decided to ship him out for the athletic freak of Smith who is viewed as more of a projected. The pick might be valuable in the future, but the trade doesn’t help them in the now. The last addition came with the trade of Justin Anderson for Mike Muscala. Muscala is a big man who isn’t afraid to shoot the deep ball and should backup Embiid and Saric off the bench.

Obviously, the 76ers didn’t add anyone significant in the offseason. Paul George’s resigning in OKC and LeBron to LA seemed already to be in place and Philly never had a shot with either of those two. Then, the 76ers never seemed to gain traction in the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes. Nothing ever came out between the Spurs and 76ers about specific players outside of Simmons, Embiid, and Fultz were all untouchable. This prompted the Spurs to leave the table and go to the Raptors. The 76ers stayed out of the Melo story whether they wanted to or Melo was never interested in going there. The 76ers also lost key role players such as Marco Bellinelli and Ersan Ilyasova. All of this sounds like the 76ers missed out this summer, but it really shows the 76ers are doubling down on Markelle Fultz.

In a perfect world, Markelle Fultz exhibits everything he showed in college this year in the NBA. Fultz will prove why he shot 41% from 3 at Washington and averaged 23.2 points per game. Fultz will slide right into that off guard spot next to Simmons and show that he can spot up and move off ball and score easy baskets as Simmons finds him. Then when Simmons goes out, Fultz will take over ball handling responsibilities and be able to create for himself and others and maybe be able to work off ball screens. But, that is the perfect world Brett Brown and Elton Brand are hoping for. In reality, Fultz needs to show that he is confident in consistently shooting jumpers and knocking them down. If he can’t do this, Philly’s offense will be terrible. The lane will always be clogged because the inability of Simmons and Fultz to shoot. Embiid will not be able to work down in the post because he would always have two guys on him. The bright side is Fultz has shot some jumpers so far in preseason. This is preseason so I don’t buy into it too much, but hope is there. If Fultz can show that he can shoot and last year is behind him, the 76ers are in for a good year.

The one thing that is going under the radar is the defense this team will put out on the floor. Like I said earlier, Robert Covington made the NBA all defensive first team and Embiid made the second team. Ben Simmons has said that he want to make one of those teams and Fultz has the athleticism and body to be a very good perimeter defender. Wilson Chandler should bring some defensive help off the bench and Saric is a respectable defender as well. Last year the 76ers held there opponents to an average of 105 points per game which is a point lower than the league average. In a league that requires defenses to be able to switch on wing players and to have a rim protector, Philly looks really good.

The last thing I want to talk about with the 76ers is one thing that I think people have turned an eye to as we have watched Fultz’s problems with his jump shot. Ben Simmons does not have a jump shot. His average shot distance was 5.76 feet. To put that perspective, a free throw is 15 feet. I mean the guy only shot 11 threes all of last year and 8 of those were beyond half-court! The guy shoots with his left hand, but seems to shoot more with his right hand when he is around the basket. This even happens when he doesn’t need to shoot with his right hand. At some point, Ben Simmons has to develop a jump shot. If he doesn’t, his potential will be limited. Just look at Giannis Antetokounmpo. The only thing holding him back from being in the very upper tier of players in the league is his ability to shoot. You can be the most skilled guy with all of the physical attributes, but if you can’t shoot in today’s league, you will never be one of the best. This year we will see if Simmons tried to improve his jump shot this summer. A big chunk of the offense goes through Simmons and if he can’t shoot, the 76ers will be handicapped by this once again.

In the end, Philly still plays in the East. The 76ers could have an okay season and still lock up home court advantage in the first round because of how bad the East is. But, that’s not the goal for this team. This team wants to make the Finals and compete for a ring. In order to do that, they will have to go through one or both of the Celtics and Raptors. Both of these teams will test the 76ers and make them play well to advance in the playoffs. During the season, the 76ers will be preparing for this. Last season they started clicking towards the end of the season and caught fire. They rolled that into the playoffs, but being hot wasn’t enough last year and it won’t be enough this year. I expect the 76ers to become a more focused and disciplined team this year. There will be growing pains trying to figure out how to incorporate Fultz into the lineup and take that next step as a team and make the Conference Finals and maybe even the League Finals. This season is a critical year for the 76ers as the look to prove why “The Process” works.