By
Andrew Brand on Wednesday, September 24
th 2014
Philadelphia 76ers
Atlantic Division
Last season's record: 19-63
Roster additions and losses
The biggest roster addition to the Philadelphia 76ers came in the form of their 3rd overall draft pick. Keeping to last year’s form the 76ers won’t be debuting their newest asset till much later in the season, if at all. Joel Embiid was a potential first-overall pick till his draft day status was greatly impacted by the news of his back injury. Despite the injury concerns, the 76ers went ahead and took Embiid with their draft pick as they prepped their fan base by using their 2012-13 Draft Pick on the injured Nerlens Noel.
Building for the future through the draft is the mantra in Philadelphia and they continued to do just that by drafting a Euro draft-and-stash player in Dario Saric. Saric may in fact play in the Association this season; however, the 76ers don’t have a real need to bring the young Croatian over too soon. Reviews of Saric are positive and he did perform well recently in the FIBA World Cup against some solid international competition.
The 76ers continued their full-on rebuild by trading away their best front court asset in Thaddeus Young who was shipped the Minnesota Timberwolves. Coming back to the 76ers is the young and unproven Alexey Shved. Shved figures to be a part of the lineup as he will be given the chance to prove his worth in the City of Brotherly Love.
Keys to Success
In reality there are no ‘keys to success’ for the 76ers. They will have no success this season in terms of team wins. Individually there exists hope for the future as Michael Carter-Williams looks to build on an impressive rookie campaign and Nerlens Noel will be making his debut. Noel looked nimble, athletic and explosive in the NBA Summer League action. He was still head out of action a few nights for precautionary measures but hopefully once the NBA season gets rolling Noel will be able to suit up on a nightly basis.
Fantasy Roster Impact
There are three players worth keeping an eye on from a fantasy perspective here. Carter-Williams is far and away the best-in-class as he will have free reign to run the offence next year. Problem could be that in lieu of having a supporting cast to help him; defences will key on him and he won’t have a lot of talent around him to boast those assist numbers.
An interesting option out of Philadelphia is Tony Wroten. Wroten had some really good games for the 76ers last year where he scored twenty-plus points and shot the ball well. Take out a bad month of January where he averaged a measly 9.1 ppg, 2.3 apg and 2.3 rpg and all of a sudden his season stats of 13 ppg, 3.0 apg and 3.2 rpg look a bit more impressive.
The wildcard in Philadelphia is of course Nerlens Noel. Due to the uncertainty surrounding his playing time, ability to play back-to-back games and just how he will be used in the offence remains to be seen. A big upside for Noel owners will be his defensive stats as he has shown his ability to protect the rim and generate steals. I’m expecting big things from Noel this season in terms of fantasy production and I see him being well worth the risk come draft day.
2014 Season Prediction
The 76ers will be bad once again. Just how bad depends significantly on the health of Carter-Williams and Noel. As it stands now the 76ers must be considered the top contenders for the league’s worst record and first-overall pick in the NBA Entry Draft. Last season the 76ers won a woeful 19 games. This season that twenty-win plateau is likely going to be out of reach yet again. I can’t see the 76ers eclipsing last season’s win total and would pencil them in for a 16 win season.
A bold prediction based on the hype of the incoming draft class; Nerlens Noel will win rookie of the year honors. Noel must be considered a front-runner for this award based on his Summer League play and while the likes of Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins will make strong cases of their own; expect Noel to get the hardware at the end of the year.