Cover Photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images


[In the 30 days leading up to the season opener, we'll preview all 30 NBA teams, from Tanking Teams to Lottery Leaders to Warriors Wannabes. Tanking Teams are fighting for the No. 1 pick. Lottery Leaders could make the playoffs, or they could land in the lottery. Warriors Wannabes are title contenders. Then there are the Warriors in a league by themselves. Team 4 in our preseason rankings is the Philadelphia 76ers. Check back every day for previews of every team in the NBA followed by our complete preseason rankings.]


Key Losses: Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova. These two guys were huge down the stretch for the Sixers, and the team will certainly need to fill their void, specifically as two big three-point threats. The Sixers do have some capable bodies to at least chip away at that vacated production, but they might have to reshape their offense on the second unit because of this. It's not the end of the world, but it's definitely something to keep an eye on out of the gate. 


Key Returns: Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, J.J. Redick, Robert Covington, Markelle Fultz, T.J. McConnell, Amir Johnson. The returning core is among the best in the NBA, and they should make a big move in the Eastern Conference with ​LeBron James heading out West.

Key Additions: Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala. They're certainly not on the same level as Belinelli and Ilyasova, but these guys could end up being valuable to this team in their own right. Chandler has shown flashes of brilliance at times throughout his NBA career, mostly as a scoring threat, so we'll have to see how he meshes with his new teammates. Muscala is relatively unknown by the basketball community, but this is a guy that put up big numbers in short spurts of time on the court.
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​X-Factor: Ben Simmons. Luckily, the relationship with Kendall Jenner is over, and that's a good thing as he won't fall victim to being the latest one jinxed by the Jenner/Kardashian family curse. Hopefully, Simmons uses all that free time to improve upon the 56 percent he shot from the free throw line last year. Teams finally started picking up on this and implemented the Hack-a-Ben strategy late last season. This Sixers team is most deadly when they're playing at an up-tempo game and putting Simmons on the charity stripe is often the result of that tempo.
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​Betting Odds: The Sixers win total over/under is 53.5 while their odds to win the NBA Championship currently sit at +1800.

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Al Walsh is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Al Walsh also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username 14AdotWalsh. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.