the reason i think the sixers are better than the bucks and raptors is because of the way our roster is constructed. last season, we were vulnerable because teams targeted redick defensively and we did not have someone who could adequately defend small point guards. this season, we've swapped out redick for richardson. if redick was a D level defender, richardson is an A-, and that upgrade offsets the 3-4 redick three pointers per game. now teams cant target any of our starting 5 and instead we can hunt mismatches. richardson is 6'5/6'6 and will be able to take advantage of smaller guards offensively, and we've been absurd in the paint offensively. against portland, who didnt have a healthy true center/rim protector, harris, horford and simmons kept getting easy looks from 3 feet whenever they wanted it. if teams play small, they will get punished. if teams go bigger, horford will drag a big out to the perimeter and it will leave embiid 1 v 1 in the post in a matchup he will win 90% of the time.
horford, embiid and simmons are all theoretically capable of defending giannis. we can vary our looks against him. them not having brodgon is a huge loss, imo. toronto, who knows, honestly. siakam is good, but embiid basically erased him from the series last season, and we lost that series because of the lack of embiid. if we had horford and KOQ last year, we are in the NBA finals.
