76ers Make It out of Preseason Fully Healthy
CAMDEN, NJ (973espn.com) — On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia 76ers will begin their newest journey that is the 2019-2020 NBA Season. With last year's heartbreak officially in the past, the new and hopefully improved Sixers squad will have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin fresh within the Eastern Conference.
While the Sixers were still one of the East's best teams last season, it seemed as though they hadn't reached their ceiling. For starters, their team was quite different after a handful of trades went down throughout the year. Of course, injuries didn't help the team much at all, either, which you could make the case that setbacks destroyed the Sixers in 2018.
To be fair, the Sixers have had their fair share of nagging issues, which set the team back over the last few years — especially last season, though. While it is a long road ahead for the 2019-2020 Sixers roster, at the very least, they should be feeling good about the fact they are fully healthy heading into their regular-season opener against Boston on Wednesday.
Following Tuesday's practice, Sixers Sr. Vice President of Communications, Dave Sholler, addressed the media regarding the team's injury report. Fortunately, the Sixers expect all hands on deck to be available on Wednesday night. That includes Ben Simmons, who missed the last two preseason games with a lower-back strain.
The projected starting lineup:
On Tuesday morning, the Sixers announced their final roster after making a series of moves this past weekend following the preseason finale. Considering what Brett Brown orchestrated throughout the preseason, it shouldn't be hard to project the starting lineup for a healthy 76ers team at this point. It goes as follows...
PG: Ben Simmons
SG: Josh Richardson
SF: Tobias Harris
PF: Al Horford
C: Joel Embiid
The Sixers' bench:
In no particular order:
Trey Burke, James Ennis, Furkan Korkmaz, Shake Milton, Raul Neto, Kyle O'Quinn, Mike Scott, Matisse Thybulle.
Inactive:
Jonah Bolden, Norvel Pelle, Marial Shayok, Zhaire Smith
* Inactive projections per NBA PR.