The Sixers Stink, but I Remain Hopeful

At 0-14, there's not much to get too happy about. Kendall Marshall, Robert Covington, and Tony Wroten haven't really played though, and while none of them is LeBron James, they would probably represent the third, fourth, and fifth best players on the current Sixers rosters, sandwiched between the Okafor/Noel front-court and Nik Stauskas. That's a lot of fire power to be missing, and the Sixers are not good enough to miss it and prosper. Not when their best two players haven't played two combined seasons in the NBA. Not when they don't have a starting point guard capable player. Not with the team they have right now.

So while I'd like to see them win a game, i'm paying more attention to the progression of Okafor and Noel, or Stauskas, at this point. It's about the younger guys turning into NBA starters and showing they can possibly grow into a title contender. I'm enthused by the play of both young big men so far, even if there are some serious questions on the offensive end-

The problem is it’s hard to evaluate Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor as a front line because of the terrible play around them. Make no mistake, they have not looked good together — when Okafor and Noel are on the court together, the Sixers have an offensive rating of just 80.7 points per 100 possessions, and they are getting outscored by 25.7 per 100. The spacing is terrible, but then again the Sixers’ spacing is terrible in general because of the lack of quality guard play and shooting.

Make no mistake, there's room for improvement. It's an open question if these two can play together or not, but it's only November and they really do have most of the season to show there is hope. Okafor leads all rookies in scoring, and frankly isn't getting enough credit because of the usual ridiculous New York over-hype around Kristaps Porzingis. Noel is a work in progress, but a good one on his own. I'm remaining hopeful here.

I'm also remaining hopeful because we have yet to see Joel Embiid or Dario Saric from last year's draft, because of the injuries this team has, and because of the four first rounders they possess in next year's draft. I absolutely have my doubts about "the plan," like most fans, but it hasn't yet really had a chance to be judged. Clearly the team is not as far along as I thought they were before the season started, and that is a concern, but there are 68 games left for this team to show something. I didn't want them in the playoffs yet, and clearly i'll get my wish. I just still believe we'll see some progress this season.