Go big or go home: 76ers pursue title dreams by bucking small-ball trend

Prediction

The Philadelphia 76ers, thanks to the changing face of the Eastern Conference, manage to win one more game than last season, but bump up a spot in the standings to second in the East behind the Milwaukee Bucks with a 52-30 mark, as the NBA has more parity than it has in decades.

Philadelphia gets through the first round of the playoffs and then confronts its biggest obstacle in its current iteration — the conference semifinals — getting past the Boston Celtics to add another chapter to the epic history of postseason clashes between the two franchises.

But the Bucks prove to be a bit too much to handle in the Eastern Conference Finals and the 76ers have to settle for taking another agonizing step closer to their goal of an NBA title.

Coach Brett Brown could find himself on an offseason hot seat despite making it to the league’s final four teams, as the team seems to have hit a ceiling in the low 50s in wins.

Brown has been given a rare opportunity as a head coach to go all the way through a complete rebuild and bottoming-out process and still keep the job once those efforts start to come to fruition.

But short of a Finals appearance in 2020, there will have to be a discussion among the higher-ups in the 76ers organization about whether or not they need to hand the coaching reins to someone who can finish the deal.