Season Preview: Philadelphia 76ers

It's back and it continues on, because I know you've all been eagerly anticipating it, or not. Well, regardless, here we go again!

Philadelphia 76ers

Starting 5:
PG- Andre Miller
SG- Willie Green
SF- Andre Iguodala
PF- Elton Brand
C- Samuel Dalembert

Off the bench
Guards: Louis Williams, Royal Ivey, Kareem Rush
Forwards: Thaddeus Young, Reggie Evans, Donyell Marshall
Centers: Theo Ratliff, Marreese Speights

They were the talk of the summer as they managed to pull Elton Brand away from what would have been a remarkable Clippers coup. Warriors fans were happy about that, shaking their "serves you right" fingers at the Clips for stealing away Baron Davis. The starting lineup looks to be the same, with an upgrade of Elton Brand over Reggie Evans as the starting PF. Brand was out for most of last season with a ruptured Achilles tendon, so we didn't get to see much of him, however, we do know he's a hard working, a perennial 20-10 guy, and is considered among the elite of the power forwards in the league. The addition of Brand solves two problems that the 76ers were facing, first, a legitimate go-to scoring option in the low-post, instant offense, sorry, but Dalembert is good, just not go-to good, secondly, he provides veteran leadership next to Andre Miller. With the continued development of Andre Iguodala, Louis Williams, and Thaddeus Young, this team has a good balance of youth and experience.

This is a team that, with its youth, energy, and athleticism managed to take the veteran Detroit Pistons to 6 games in the playoffs. No one really expected them to really even get into the playoffs, let alone take the Pistons to 6 games. Now, they've improved their team in the one position that was really lacking, the PF position. Don't get me wrong, everybody likes Reggie Evans, they really do, but the talent level just wasn't there. He's a good reserve to have coming off the bench, and now the 76ers have a legitimate starter, a very legitimate starter, to put in front of him. As this team has matured they'll hopefully maintain a lot of that energy that propelled them so far. However good this team looks, and however much it's improved over the off-season, the perimeter threat is still somewhat lacking. Certainly they still have Willie Green, and they just signed Donyell Marshall, however, they, I don't feel are really enough to constitute a serious perimeter threat, to be honest, I don't know that Donyell Marshall will see that much playing time let alone get a lot of touches. The players I think you'd likely see handling the ball the most are:

Andre Miller, because he runs the offense, and he can't really shoot outside of 12 feet

Elton Brand, because he's now the no. 1 scoring option (I would have him as that over Iggy), but he's a low post player, I wouldn't want him wandering outside of 12 feet of the basket

Andre Iguodala, the new face of the franchise, his strength is cutting to the basket, shooting isn't exactly his forte, doesn't mean he doesn't do it, but honestly, we'd rather he didn't

Samuel Dalembert, low-post, period

Louis Williams, spark plug off the bench, he's known again for his driving abilities, often likened to Monta Ellis, Monta Ellis, not a shooter

Thaddeus Young, another scorer off the bench, athletic slasher, not a shooter

I think you see where this is going. Outside of Marshall and Green they don't really have much that constitutes as outside threats so they can't really spread the floor. Maybe they're young enough and athletic enough to get away with it. We'll see how well they work together, but all in all, they'll be a pretty fun team to watch coming out of the East.

I see them climbing up the ranks pretty fast, easily jumping up from the 7th seed they once were, as most of the teams in the East I don't think have really changed much, let alone merited significant improvement. A 50 win club, maybe 2nd round this time?