3. 76ers advance to conference finals
Prior to the 2017-18 campaign, the Philadelphia 76ers had not been to the playoffs since 2011-12. With the young duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons in the lineup, though, the Sixers have been to the conference semifinal round in each of the last two years.
In 2017-18, they were eliminated by the Boston Celtics in five games. Last season, they pushed the eventual champion Toronto Raptors to a seventh game. And if not for this memorable shot by Kawhi Leonard, perhaps the Sixers could have been the team facing the Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.
During the offseason, the Sixers lost two key pieces in Jimmy Butler and J.J. Redick. On the positive side, they did replace them with Josh Richardson and Al Horford. True, Richardson isn’t the on the same level as Butler from a playmaking standpoint, but at 6’6”, he is able to defend multiple positions.
Meanwhile, in no way will Horford make up for the loss of Redick. On the other hand, because he has a decent conversion rate from 3-point range (shot better than 35 percent over the past three seasons), he will pull opposing big men out of the paint. This, along with reports about Simmons working to improve his jump shot, gives 76ers fans something to look forward to next season.
If Simmons can be at least a decent mid-range jump shooter and Embiid can be healthy when the postseason rolls round, the Sixers have more than an outside shot of a making it to the conference finals.