The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the biggest enigmas in the NBA. This is a team that has incredible talent on paper but has just a 39-26 record (tied-for-5th in the East) as the league gets ready to restart their season on July 30th.
Philly has two of the top players in the world in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, although the latter is one of the most reluctant 3-point shooters in the league. However, there is a lot of talk about how those two fit together on the court. Embiid also has some on-the-court chemistry issues with big man Al Horford.
Embiid made some interesting comments in a conference call with reporters yesterday, saying that the offense should go through him. He also made the following comment about his fit with Simmons (source ESPN).
“We’re going to need him (Simmons). It’s a team game. I’m going to do my best to keep helping him and create some space for him, and we all got to do the same thing just to help each other. At the end of the day, it’s all about winning a championship, and I feel like he has the right mindset, that’s what he wants to do. I know one thing about him, he wants to win, and he’s going to do what it takes to win. So whatever we’re going to need him to do, that’s what he has to
do.”
76ers are third-favorite in the East
The 76ers are +650 to win the Eastern Conference at Winning Poker Network sportsbooks. That ranks third behind the heavily favored Milwaukee Bucks (-214) and Boston Celtics (+529).
The fact that Philly has better odds than Toronto (+732), who has a much-better 46-18 record, shows that a lot of people believe this is a dangerous team. They could be right.
