They’re right about all of that. But I think they’re wrong in believing that any of it actually matters. The Sixes are awesome, and they’re gonna win a whole shitload of games next season.

Now, I know what you’re possibly thinking: Still pretty delirious from that Fultz three, huh? Possibly. It’s true that Markelle Fultz’s progress is a key, maybe the key, to the team’s 2018-’19 success. But I don’t think he’s to be great, or even particularly good, to make the difference for this squad. I think he just has to be kinda fine, just consistently there and sometimes good and sometimes not so good but generally, totally playable. And then the Sixers will be close to unstoppable.

Again, this is mostly because while the Sixers’ faults are real, I believe they’re ultimately not that relevant. Let’s look at the three most commonly cited.

The Sixers have no depth, which is a problem for a largely injury-prone team.

True. Assuming Fultz stays a factor -- not a safe bet, exactly, but I think we’ve seen enough from him to upgrade it to “reasonable” -- they have seven guys you can definitely count on to be reliable parts of the rotation: the five starters, J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson. T.J. McConnell looks to be odd man out currently with Fultz and Simmons at the point. Furkan Korkmaz still comes and goes. Wilson Chandler is already injured, and has maybe been dead since 2015 anyway. Zhaire Smith is hurt and a rookie, the latter affliction similarly affecting Landry Shamet and Shake Melton. We’ll have to see it from Mike Muscala. We’re just a couple bodies short at the moment.

But, y’know, our starting lineup last year was really, really good -- best in the league, by some metrics -- and all those guys are still here, even if we’ve shifted Redick for Fultz in the first five. What’s more, most of our guys are young and versatile enough that we won’t need to play full bench units: the Sixers are creative enough with staggering PT that we can play just two or three reserves at a time and patch our starters around them as needed. There are times where we’ll have to dig deeper on the bench and not find the answers we’re looking for, but it’ll be a once-a-week-or-so problem rather than an 82-game concern.

And injuries? Well, they’ll hurt our already shallow depth, but our topliners are flexible enough that I don’t think any one injury really kills ‘em. Fultz out? Let Ben loose at the one, play Redick at the two, steamroll teams like we did last year. Simmons out? Same thing with Fultz at conventional point. Saric out? Plug in Redick, slide Covington to the four -- where he should be getting some minutes anyway -- spread the floor and shoot the lights out. Embiid out? Maybe get nuts with Muscala at the five, have Simmons patrol the paint a little more on defense, let Saric and Johnson split coverage of his reserve minutes, spread the floor and shoot the lights out. Covington out? Well, defensively that could be tough -- though if healthy/alive, Chandler could do a kind of poor man’s approximation of RoCo’s contributions -- but if not, plug Redick in at the three, have Simmons get his back on D, and just outscore teams with a lineup consisting entirely of dynamic offensive threats. Sounds fun.