RealGM

A lot can change mid-season and before the playoffs start....but the consensus is that these are the 2 top teams in East going into the Season on Paper.

Milwaukee Bucks:

Eric Bledsoe / George Hill
Wesley Mathews / Kyle Korver
Kris Middleton / Pat Cannaughton
Giannis Antetokounmpo / Ersan Ilyasova
Brook Lopez / Robin Lopez

Philadelphia 76ers:

Ben Simmons / Trey Burke
Josh Richardson / Zhaire Smith / Korkmaz
Tobias Harris / James Ennis
Al Horford / Mike Scott
Joel Embiid / Kyle O'Quinn

As of right now, Who wins?

everybody at 100%? sixers for sure

Offensively the Bucks are better, but the size of Philly makes me lean towards them.

Philly. They lost butler but gained Horford and J-rich. Bucks went from brogdon to a washed up Wes Matthews

I'm leaning towards Milwaukee. I think the lack of Ball Handlers and got to Scoring Winger for Philly might hurt them.

When they were badly struggling to Score in the playoffs last year, Jimmy Butler was their Cop out Player. They dont have him anymore.

Sixers fan but I think I'd favor the Bucks if I had $ on it. I'm worried about the scoring and spacing during the PO, Sixers have lots of offensive talent but I'm not sure it's going to come together against a locked-in defense. Embiid has to show he can play full strength deep into the PO (and up his reaction time and counters), Simmons has to figure out how to be useful in the half court, or the whole team has to develop some kind of magic ball-sharing synergy. My guess is that all of those will happen a little bit this year but not enough to come together for 7 games against a tough defense.

7 game series.

Bucks and Sixers get 2 close wins and 1 blowout win each.

Game 7,tied,final seconds-Bucks ball,Giannis drives and gets surrounded by Simmons,Horford and Embiid.

Passes the ball to Middleton in the right corner.Middleton takes a shot with 1 second left.The ball bounces 1,2,3,4,5,6 times on the rim before it goes in the hoop.

Bucks win.

Bucks were 5.5 points per game better than Philly in the regular season and 2 points per game better against the Raptors. Brogdon’s not worth anywhere near that even if Sixers didn’t downgrade from Butler to Horford. I’d take the Bucks in 5 or 6.

Shooting is the difference. I'll take Milwaukee. Not a surprise to anyone here.

Buck win via Death by Bropez 3's

Bucks got weaker and the Sixers got better. add in the natural expected improvement of its two young stars and I think the Sixers just edge it. will be pretty close though.

I've got Bucks. For Philly I don't know who makes the big plays or takes the big shots in crunch time of a playoff game. They have a bunch of top notch players in search of closer.

I'm not sure the 76ers got better. Reddick was somewhat overrated. Very good on offense, but abysmal on defense. Butler on the other hand was easily their best offensive player in the regular season and playoffs. His loss is going to hurt.

The 76ers no longer have a Greg Monroe sized hole at the 5 whenever Embiid sits with Horford although I'm not sure he's going to be at the same level as his Celtics peak. The worry is shooting in this lineup. The team is going to play big but 4 v 5 on offense with Simmons.

I think it's too early to say without seeing how the 76ers gell this season. Right now, I think Milwaukee gets the benefit of the doubt.

If Bucks' shooters make shots then I think the Bucks win.

I'll go with Milwaukee.

Asif16 wrote:I'm leaning towards Milwaukee. I think the lack of Ball Handlers and got to Scoring Winger for Philly might hurt them.

When they were badly struggling to Score in the playoffs last year, Jimmy Butler was their Cop out Player. They dont have him anymore.

Definitely, it should be an exciting series. Losing Butler and Redick changes things, but teams targeted them.

Toronto put Kawhi on Butler in crunch time and he struggled. Also, Redick was denied the ball at times and that disrupted things.

Embiid should be the Sixers go to guy. He is difficult to stop when not exhausted. Hopefully, Horford being added can help towards Embiid being fresh to end games.

Giannis is a beast finishing, but Embiid, Horford, and Simmons could make it difficult for him.

Simmons should make a huge leap this year and he could be the difference maker giving the Sixers the advantage.

Bucks. Im probably in the minority but the Sixers just don't impress me. If they had Butler that might be a different story. I'd take the Bucks or Celtics over Philly.

who has Home court?

stepic wrote:Bucks got weaker and the Sixers got better. add in the natural expected improvement of its two young stars and I think the Sixers just edge it. will be pretty close though.

Why do people think the Sixers got better? They turned a Top 10 player in the league into 33 year old Al Horford.