Should I Be Paying More Attention To The 76ers?

As far as winter sports go, I am a hockey and a college basketball fan well before I am an NBA fan. I will never pretend otherwise. And with that, I pay much more attention to the Flyers and college basketball (in particular Villanova), than I do the 76ers. But even if it does not equal the attention I give the first two, should I at least pay more attention to the Philadelphia 76ers?

After a rough start, the Philadelphia 76ers have climbed back in the standings and currently sit at 7th place in the Eastern Conference with a 24-27 record, and are just 2.5 games behind the New York Knicks for 6th place in the East. 5th place right now would seem like a stretch with the Magic currently being 8 games ahead of the Sixers, but I guess anything is possible.

The exciting part about the 76ers though is that after the 1-year Eddie Jordan era that can only be described as a complete and utter debacle, they are beginning to develop a young core of players. Jrue Holiday has the potential to be one of the game's real top point guards, and Evan Turner is beginning to play better after a rough spot. Andre Iguadala, though it is likely that he will be traded before the trade deadline, has improved his game and has been having a real good season when not injured. Elton Brand has also been having a solid season.

All year long the 76ers this year have been the epitome of a bad luck team. They have lost many, many close games this year and sheer dumb luck would dictate that they are due to win some down the line. Many blown leads and last second buckets have done the 76ers in this year, so they are likely a better team than their record indicates. The fact they are playing in a watered-down Eastern Conference aids them tremendously as their faults are not as costly in terms of just qualifying for the playoffs. The 76ers's 24-27 record would be good for 11th place if they played in the Western Conference.

All in all, the Philadelphia 76ers are likely a playoff team, but how far they get in the playoffs, who can say for sure. Even though they are likely better than their record indicates, I don't think anyone is going to confuse them with the Celtics or the Heat. If the 76ers can turn their luck around, then potentially they can get into a good 1st round playoff series if they can end up with at least a 6 seed, perhaps even resulting in a win, but outside of that, the 76ers best hope moving forward is to stumble upon another gem in the draft.

So should I be paying more attention to the Sixers? Well, they are trying to build a young team and fairly early on into that building process, they have assembled interesting talent that could be very dangerous in a few years. This is not their year, but with the right moves and the right trades, who knows what could happen in a few years. I will rarely watch the 76ers if a good college basketball game or Flyers game is on at the same time, but maybe on nights when there is nothing else on, they probably deserve a little more attention than what I have been giving them this year.