This really does feel like a different Sixers team with a new coach, new players, new offense, new vibes, but still the same pillars of the team with Embiid, Maxey, and Tobias. Of course we can expect a few more moves to come later on but the foundation of this team just feels different from past few years when they were playing dress up as contenders.

For me, what inspires actual hope is just the overall team philosophy and structure of the team. It seems like the locker room is filled with glue guys. It was even big to trade Harden immediately into the season so that didn’t affect the locker room as Nurse begins building. The ball movement makes it look like a real team offense for pretty much the first time in the Embiid era and actually opens him up to use his talents more since the main problem in the playoffs has been having to figure out keeping Embiid involved and the team engaged at the same time. This leads to the other thing that makes me believe in this team - we actually have playable wings. While none are really all star level players, we have multiple guys that can score/defend wings. Spacing has been issue #1 and partly because we had nobody (outside of Jimmy buckets) who we could trust in the middle of the lineup. It’s been all guards and big men until now.

Hoping this year is legitimately different. What has you thinking it actually might be?