The Philadelphia 76ers have one of the most talented rosters in the league. Led by an All-Star duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons bolstered by talents like Tobias Harris, Al Horford, and Josh Richardson around them, they have high expectations for the season.
At the beginning of the season, coach Brett Brown proclaimed that he wanted the top seed in the East and it’s a reasonable goal for a team with this kind of talent. Despite that talent, the Sixers sit at the 5 seed in the East standings with other teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat, and the Toronto Raptors all ahead of them.
Still, Brown is not backing down on his 1 seed goals.
“For me, it has to be. I think it’s still early days,” said Brown Saturday before their win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Tonight(Saturday) will be our 14th game without our starting five, I think that we’re going to be pretty good if we can play together a little bit more. Is that going to be realistic with health management and possible injuries? I don’t know. So for me to look at you and say ‘It’s out of reach. We can’t do it. I ain’t doing it’ I’m not going to do that. That’s what we want, that’s what we want to strive for.”
The success of the Celtics, the current 2 seed, and the defending champion Raptors, the current 4 seed, has caught the attention of Brown who has been surprised by their early-season success. Both teams underwent a few roster changes including Toronto losing NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard in free agency.
“I’m surprised by the success, and I don’t know why, you just assume Kawhi leaves, you feel like there’s going to be pain,” Brown added. “I think that Boston’s done great stuff and really, I’m not here to judge strength of schedule, I don’t really pay attention to it so I couldn’t say if it was easy or hard. The base of win column that Toronto and Boston has had, I give them credit. It is a little bit better start than personally, I might have guessed.”
The Sixers and the Raptors enter a matchup on Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center with the 4 seed on the line. Toronto is percentage points ahead of Philadelphia in the standings and they both are a half-game back of the Heat for the 3 seed. Miami hosts the Chicago Bulls on Sunday as teams are beginning to look at the standings in a bunched up top of the East. [lawrence-related id=20851,20843,20831]