NBA Season Preview 2019-20: The one reason to watch each and every team

Philadelphia 76ers: Testing the Twin Towers

Joel Embiid is a walking lightning rod, both in his play and his antics. Ben Simmons was captivating to watch before he started taking (and making!) 3-pointers. Tobias Harris, a borderline All-Star last year, will get a bigger role on offense after deferring to Butler and even J.J. Redick last year. Josh Richardson is perpetually slept on, and the Philadelphia 76ers are one of exactly two juggernauts in the East.

With that being said, the massive Twin Towers lineup Philly will turn to this season is hands down the biggest reason to watch this team. Al Horford was the only guy who could really stop Embiid, and now he plays for the Sixers. That removes a pretty big roadblock from their path to the Finals, but how head coach Brett Brown deploys those two will be the biggest story of their season.

Between Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford and Embiid, that’s an all-encompassing tangle of limbs and wingspan to smother defenses with. Can it hold up against small-ball lineups? Will Horford and Embiid mesh on offense? Can Simmons keep defenses honest enough to make the spacing work? Questions abound.

There’s too much talent here for it not to work out for the Sixers, who could even stagger Embiid and Horford in a worst-case scenario where they don’t develop the right chemistry. Philadelphia was dominant in Embiid’s minutes last year, but got destroyed whenever he rested. Horford could plug up that hole quite easily, but how those two coalesce on the court will be a major storyline to watch.