Every Sixer Ranked by How Much I'm Looking Forward to Watching Them This Year
I bet you can guess who isn’t first!
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I don't have a read on the Sixers this season. That probably shouldn't surprise me or anyone else, following an offseason where I (very consciously) thought less about this team than I have any summer since Allen Iverson was the only Sixer I could name. But yeah, I'm all over the place with this team: I think they're being simultaneously overvalued and undervalued, that their vibes should be both better and worse than people think, that they're deeper and shallower than they were last year, that Embiid can't possibly repeat his career performance and that anyone who doesn't pick him for MVP is a goddamn buffoon. There aren't a lot of results with this team that would surprise me -- though this being the Sixers, I'm sure they'll still find one of ‘em.
Anyway, point is: Go to MOC or SixersAdam if you want actual official predictions for the Philadelphia 76ers this year. Far as I'm concerned, we're back to Process-Not-Results basics this season anyway (particularly until the situation with our favorite positionless pacifist is resolved), so I'm not nearly as concerned with how the team does as much as how much I actually enjoy watching them. Not including our couple of two-way guys -- I'm not Mike, please don't make me have opinions on them -- here's how I rank my excitement for the 82 games we're about to spend with these Sixers.
OFF THE BOARD: BEN SIMMONS
I mean.
14. Jaden Springer
Not to put the evil eye on our newest first-rounder before he even plays a regular season game, but man, I just saw nothing that I liked from Jaden Springer this summer. There's defensive potential, I suppose, but in this respect he fails even the Zaire Smith comps to me -- I didn't see any of the explosiveness or the intensity that got us excited about Zaire, only the total lack of offensive IQ or finesse. He gets into the lane and then immediately runs out of ideas. The playmaking isn't there, and the shooting isn't even close. He's a Daryl pick and he's got a cool name, so he probably deserves the long-term benefit of the doubt. But hopefully that development will come out of sight in the G-League, because any amount of time he plays with the pro squad this year is just gonna be pain.
13. Charles Bassey
I don't expect we'll see C-Bass much this year, but I do like that he wears No. 23, can shoot and has long arms -- just like Process Great Jason Richardson.
12. Danny Green
Two good Danny years in a row? It's a big ask, and for as much good karma as the Sixers should have stockpiled by now, I'm not optimistic about us getting it. The Sixers actually appear to have a surfeit of shooting around Joel this year, which means we’re due for at least one major regression season, with Danny Green by far the most likely candidate. I'm glad he's still on the team, he'll probably at least have a good month or two keeping the Sixers afloat, but an elongated cold stretch plus another lost step defensively could make him absolutely brutal to watch -- particularly as the Dannys (Dannies?) of the Night get more and more egregious.
11. Shake Milton
Ooh boy, it gives me *no* pleasure to have to rank Shake this low. I hoped an offseason of scaling the Himalayas or watching HGTV or whatever would give Shake the system reset he so badly needed at the end of last season. But from his couple discouragingly haywire preseason appearances, it appears Angry Young Man Shake has returned, his forehead still set to "sautée." I remain hopeful for a return to better days, and I'll probably still be wearing my No. 18 Milton jersey on opening night in solidarity with my guy — but suffice to say my expectations from this time last year of his emergence being the missing piece of the entire Sixers puzzle have since been, uh, tempered.
10. Furkan Korkmaz
Fun team this year if Furkey from Turkey only comes in at No. 10! And hey, if we got to play all 82 in Philly he might very well have been at least five spots higher -- unfortunately, his performances in Toronto and Detroit this preseason were a reminder of how there's only two rims in all of North America (plus maybe a third in Vegas somewhere) totally susceptible to the seductive charms of Furkan Magic, and we still have to play at least 41 games away from them this season. Nonetheless, glad to have him back on the cheap; as FOTB Jason Lipshutz alluded to recently, we need someone in the locker room who can empathize with the other guy’s trade holdout woes.
9. Tobias Harris
Sorta unfair that Tobias has to do the regular season at all. He proved everything he had to over 82 games last season, and short of taking yet another step into full-on Prime Melo territory -- not impossible, I suppose, but not exactly the likeliest outcome -- all he can really do this year is regress until he gets to the playoffs, when the real test will once again come for our Tobi. Before that, it'll be fun to watch him abuse defenders in the post and in transition, maybe hit another game-winner or two, rack up 20-point streaks, razz our rookies and generally be delightful. But it's mostly just killing time until the second season for Tobias at this point, and that's fine.
8. Paul Reed
I don't particularly expect Paul Reed to contribute to winning this season, nor would I bank on him ever really becoming that guy. But yeah, the dude is something else -- physical and sprawling and just fucking messy in a way I can't remember a Sixer being since Reggie Evans. He's always in the mix; he could play for 15 minutes and still leave the game with a quadruple-double (points, rebounds, blocks, turnovers). That there's actually some semblance of legitimate offensive skill here will always make him tantalizing as a prospect, though his tweener size and general distaste for subtlety may also leave him forever a tough sell for regular rotation minutes. For as long as we don't need him to be more, though, he's all we could want in a third-stringer.
7. Tyrese Maxey
This might feel blasphemous for most; I get it. It's not to say I'm not tremendously excited for Tyrese Maxey's future -- I just don't think that future is necessarily getting here this season. If he really does end up our PG1, I foresee a lot of exciting performances that look a little better on the floor than they do in the box score, and then a lot of nights where I'm yelling at my TV for him to shoot the open three or to not run smack into the screen or to absorb the contact at the rim and try to finish through it rather than attempting to octopus his way around the defender. Long-term, that's all still chill: on a normal Good Team, we wouldn't be asking Tyrese to be Kyle Lowry in his second season when even Kyle Lowry wasn't really Kyle Lowry until six or seven years into his career. But this year, I just see frustration ahead for a moony-eyed fanbase with their new chosen son. (Literally, btw -- my mother started referring to him as her third son late into last season.)
6. Georges Niang
Absolutely unreasonable to have Georges Niang higher than Tyrese Maxey on this list -- but holy shit am I pumped to have this guy on my team. I've loved him since Iowa State. He gets threes up so quickly! A lot of them actually go in! Maybe it's just too long having Mike Scott as our backup four -- I considered finding a spot Mike on this list, since I still believe when half the roster is out with injuries in Game 66 and they need someone to start at power forward, Doc will still find him sipping a jack-no-ice at the end of the bench -- but just to have a real shooter there again, one who can put the ball on the floor a little bit but still recognizes that clearing out for Jo is his No. 1 responsibility, seems to open up the entire second unit. He's the Spursiest guy we've had on the team since Belinelli, but doesn't seem to have anywhere near the irrational confidence. I'm sure he'll end up infuriating in his own way, but for now, he seems like a best-case scenario 9th man.
5. Matisse Thybulle
Matisse would certainly be a spot or two higher if a) the situation was resolved with our other big non-shooter guy or b) he had a preseason showing beyond just the one game where he missed a million threes. But holy hell, if we can ever find big minutes for this guy where he's the worst shooter on the floor -- the possibilities are absurd. We saw it at the Olympics: Matisse's defense can be absolutely game-changing at the very highest levels of play. (Well hopefully you saw it at the Olympics anyway, I still couldn't bring myself to watch a second of basketball at that point.) If better spacing for the defensive destabilizer gets his shooting and overall offense up to "passable," he might get enough minutes this season to be a legit DPOY candidate. And with defensive contact rules finally being adjusted, his revenge against Trae Young and the Hawks should be swift and merciless.
4. Isaiah Joe
Goddamn it I hate having Isaiah Joe this high. This is bad news for all of us really: Isaiah Joe made sense enough as Young Guy We're Getting Pre-Emptively Mad at Doc Rivers For Not Playing Enough, but it's wayyyyyyy early for him to be Young Guy We Expect and Maybe Kinda Need to Become a Reliable Rotation Guy From Day One. He's almost certainly gonna still be up and down to start; there'll be weeks where he does absolutely nothing right. But, well, fuck -- that's just how good Isaiah Joe was in the preseason. He shot the lights out both home and away, he handled and defended well, he made smart decisions and (like a true Summer League Sixer) played absolutely fearlessly. Now Doc's guaranteeing his playing time and I can't wait to watch him be prime Danny Granger from opening night. We are so screwed.
3. Andre Drummond
Andre, Andre, love how go your own way. Preseason Andre Drummond was everything I could've hoped for: He's so much more skilled than I expected, and still so much less skilled than he thinks he is. He'll make two high-level bounce-passes to cutters in the half-court and then attempt to thread a third in transition that even Courtney Vandersloot would scoff at. He'll work hard for the money on the block for a successful possession or two then start posting up damn near every trip down, until he just starts hurling them off the backboard. He lusts for all stats good and bad like a Pacino in Heat and I cannot wait to see him spend 12-15 minutes a night just inhaling 'em. Getting Dwight and him for free in consecutive offseasons remains perhaps Daryl Morey's truest stroke of genius as Sixers steward to date.
2. Seth Curry
A full season of a Seth Curry who actually likes to shoot: I can't pretend like I'm not fantasizing about the upside here. We saw just how potent a weapon a Fuck It We'll Do It Live Seth could be during the Hawks series last year -- lest we forget, he averaged 21 a game while hitting 31 of his 52 threes (!!!!!) across those seven games, even if he did earn Kevin Huerter an extra 20-30 mil on his recent contract extension at the other end. And preseason was encouraging, as he continued to fire away and continued to hit like a guy who's one of the best shooters in NBA history; which, incidentally, Seth Curry actually is and has been. There's some room for heartbreak here for sure, but especially if the dude who plays with the two-way pager in his pocket (metaphorically if not literally) is still on the sidelines to start the season, Seth is gonna see himself in the middle of the action a whole lot, and the evidence is mounting he might actually be up for rising to the occasion. I've never been more excited to reach for a Sixer in fantasy.
1. Joel Embiid
Well obviously. Joel is the main and perhaps only reason why, as dark as things got for me with the Sixers this offseason, I never seriously contemplated giving up on or even pulling back from the team in any meaningful way. The Sixers could -- likely will -- continue to underwhelm, frustrate and mystify for a decade to come; if Joel Embiid is still in attendance and putting size 17 sneaker to hardwood and ass, I will be watching. I don't know if he'll have the legs to mount another proper MVP push this year, but given all the shit he'll have to rise above with his presumed co-star this year, the narrative should absolutely be on his side if he puts up numbers and the Sixers put up W's. Meanwhile, watching him put the entire Nets team through the rim in just eight minutes of game action this preseason was a brilliant reminder that a full blast JoJo remains as unstoppable a force as the league currently possesses. It may be precious and fleeting, but even after all that's happened, I will see Joel Embiid take the tip against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night and I will smile to be a Sixers fan.