Sixers Crack Top-10 of ESPN’s Future Power Rankings

The Sixers have been one of the best teams in the NBA since the start of the 2017-2018 season due in large part to their young core, obtained during their "Process" years.

As good as it looks now with the team just one win away from clinching the top seed in the east, they are built to be contenders for more than just the short term says ESPN's Kevin Pelton.

The NBA writer rated the Sixers fifth in its annual NBA future power rankings, which considers how well teams are set up for the next three seasons. It’s a seven-place jump from last year, when Philadelphia was 12th.

Writes ESPN’s Kevin Pelton:

It's worth remembering that the Sixers' core is relatively young compared to their competitors for the Eastern Conference title. Joel Embiid is in his prime at age 27, while Ben Simmons won't turn 25 until July. In his first year on the job, president of basketball operations Daryl Morey has skillfully rebuilt around his stars, putting the 76ers atop the regular-season standings in the East. With Morey and new head coach Doc Rivers, Philly boasts a management team we rated tied for first in the NBA. And the Sixers also benefit from having all their own first-round picks going forward, unlike the contenders ahead of them who have already made win-now moves.

ESPN’s future power rankings asked analysts Bobby Marks and Pelton to rank each team in five categories:

• players (accounting for 58.3% of the final scores)
• management (16.7%)
• money (8.3%)
• market (8.3%)
• draft (8.3%)

Where Philadelphia really excelled was in management, where they garnered a tie for first in management, which includes ownership, coaching and front office leadership. Pelton notes that new President of Basketball Operations, Daryl Morey, head coach Doc Rivers and havin gall of its future first-round picks sets them up well to continue to build, unlike many other contending teams.

The team, also rated well in player talent (tied-7th) and market (tied-9th), which measures how well the team can sell itself to future acquisitions.

Pelton noted that Embiis (27) and Simmons (25) are both in their prime years.

Two categories where the team wasn't among the best was the money category (tied-19th) and future draft positioning (19).

The team has a lot of money tied into Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.