Philadelphia 76ers' NBA Championship Ranking Shows Lack of Respect

With the season soon to be upon us, everyone feels that their team has what it takes to win the NBA Championship.  Some teams are truly in contention while others are obviously building towards their future. 

For the Philadelphia 76ers, their future is now, and an NBA title is in their sights. SBNation has come out with their own rankings for nine teams that they believe could have a good chance to win an NBA title. The Philadelphia 76ers were ranked sixth on that list. 

The ranking isn't even the weirdest thing about all this. It’s really the teams they have placed above them. Let's run down the list:

6. Philadelphia 76ers

5. Minnesota Timberwolves

4. Toronto Raptors

3. New York Knicks

2. San Antonio Spurs

1. Oklahoma City Thunder

Minnesota and Toronto being placed above Philadelphia is absolutely insane. The age of this team may be what has the ranking where it is, but that still doesn’t make any sense. What have they done to be given that type of treatment? Adding Lamelo definitely didn’t catapult them that high on anyone’s list. Your front court may be explosive with Anthony Edwards and Lamelo Ball, but other than that there’s nothing special about them. They traded all their core pieces away. 

Now the Raptors are definitely under the radar as far as talent, but they aren’t better than Philadelphia. Maybe the supposed addition of Kawhi Leonard is what pushes them to this decision, but it’s just not enough. 

Philadelphia on paper is heads and shoulders above those two teams. The next three are fair just based on the last two seasons. The Knicks and Spurs were in the NBA Finals while the Thunder were defending champions the season prior.  This is going to be the season Philadelphia does what New York did last year and shock the world. 

LeBron James and Jaylen Brown are clearly the catalyst for this decision. They have to be healthy and be what keeps the team on track. Something just has to be said about how media outlets are placing the 76ers so low. It’s not like the talent isn’t better across the board, and we’re not just talking about the starters here.  This bench is also better than Minnesota and Toronto. Dean Wade, KCP, and Anfernee Simons all could be starters on other teams. That kind of talent on the bench is enough to put you at the top of the talent.

Philadelphia is going to have plenty of doubters, it’s going to be up to them to change their minds.