The 76ers have been talked about as the best team in the East. There have been questions about how they match up with a team like the Cavaliers.
The Cleveland Cavaliers completed a trade that allowed them to acquire Peyton Watson from the Denver Nuggets. With that new addition along with the re-signing of James Harden, many are asking who would win in a seven-game series between them and the Philadelphia 76ers.
In all honesty, it’s really not as close as many think. The 76ers would manhandle the Cavs in a seven-game series. This is not a knock on the Cavs, and it’s not to say they wouldn’t push Philadelphia to their limits. But the star power between the two teams is completely different. Watson is a great addition, and his length is sure to be a problem, but there isn’t much he could do against the duo of Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown.
James Harden defensively is nonexistent, so he won’t be that big of a deal. Donovan Mitchell is an offensive nightmare, so he’d pose some major problems. This is literally the same Cavs as last year, where their only shot creator is Mitchell. On the Philadelphia side, it’s a very different story.
This team has so many playmakers who can score on their own they won’t know who to guard. The Cavaliers are ranked 15th in defense. The 76ers team, who was ranked 4th in offense, is only going to be better with LeBron James running the offense. This makes the choice of who would win even easier. Watson is a player who has to have another player create for him to get shots up while Brown, Maxey, and Edgecombe can get their own. Then, there are the big men of Jarret Allen and Joel Embiid. Between those two, Embiid clears Allen.
Outside of Allen’s length, it is very hard to see him pose a threat to Embiid. If Embiid takes Allen out on the block, in the words of Shaquille O’Neal, “it’s barbecue chicken” for Embiid. All this and we haven’t even addressed the bench of Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Cavaliers would be in major trouble if they had to turn to their bench, as their most seasoned veteran is Thomas Bryant.
The depth of Philadelphia will be the key to this series, and they trump anything the Cavs could throw at them. Now if James really gets things going, it’s going to be lights out, and this series is in the bag.
The Philadelphia 76ers are a team that can compete with any team in the NBA. If this team stays healthy, there's hardly anyone in the East that can rival them.
