Philadelphia 76ers (so far)

This is the season the Sixers (and their fans) have been waiting for years now. They've got a ton of young (unproven) talent and plenty of space for next year. They should still suck pretty bad this year but, unlike previous seasons, they will at least be exciting and/or competitive and they should be well situated to make a for-real splash next summer.

They lost (uh....does it matter who they lost?) Isiah Canaan (Bulls), Elton Brand (Croatia), Christian Wood (Hornets), Ish Smith (Pistons), Kendall Marshall (Jazz), Carl Landry (waived), Sasha Kaun and Tibor Pleiss (both traded for and already waived). Personally I liked Christian Wood (but the Sixers have plenty of young big men) and Ish Smith (but he doesn't give them enough to re-sign him long term) and I think Tibor can be a worthwhile big man in the NBA (hmm, isn't he made for the Mavs?). But really none of these losses are worth thinking twice about going forward.

They added #1 pick Ben Simmons, Timothe Luwawu (#24), Furkan Korkmaz (#26) on draft night, added Jerryd Bayless (3yrs/$27m), Gerald Henderson (2yrs/$18m), Sergio Rodriguez (1yr/$8m) in free agency and they'll be rolling out 2014 draftees Joel Embiid and Dario Saric. Simmons will be a ball dominant forward (sliding McConnell into the 2nd string PG spot that he is perfect for), I suspect Luwawu and Korkmaz will be heading back to Europe for a year and Rodriguez is just a one shot deal.

PG Bayless, SG Henderson, SF Simmons, PF Okafor, C Noel with Rodriguez, McConnell, Stauskus, Thompson, Grant, Covington, Holmes, Embiid off the bench. That's not bad, still a lot of green bananas but the Sixers at least have themselves a bunch. They won't make the playoffs but they'll have another top ten pick (probably two depending on the Lakers) and plenty of flexibility for next summer. 2017-18 is still setting up to be the bust out for Philly but this season will be an exciting one for this team. Already looking forward to watching the youth movement.