76ers 2020-21 Schedule: Top Games, Championship Odds and Record Predictions

Few teams will be carrying a bigger chip on the shoulder heading into the 2020-21 NBA season than the Philadelphia 76ers.

On its own, losing to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs wasn't a terrible outcome for the Sixers, who were without Ben Simmons. Getting swept by the Celtics—on top of a disjointed regular season—required some soul-searching, however.

Shortly after the playoffs, Philadelphia fired Brett Brown and brought in Doc Rivers. Daryl Morey was hired to run the Sixers' basketball operations. 

Rivers' track record speaks for itself, but the larger concern is that the Sixers roster is irredeemably flawed. Al Horford fell short of expectations in his first year, Tobias Harris' five-year, $180 million extension has become an albatross and the questions about Simmons' fit with Joel Embiid will remain until the team wins something.

Morey quickly made his presence felt by remaking the roster. He brought in Seth Curry, Terrance Ferguson and Danny Green in trades, while getting rid of Horford and Josh Richardson.  

Perhaps last year's playoff disappointment was merely a case of Brown taking the team as far as he could. Rivers is a new voice who will bring new ideas. Maybe that's enough to take the Sixers to a new level.

2020-21 Sixers Schedule Details

Season Opener: December 23 vs. Washington Wizards

Championship Odds: 24-1 (via FanDuel)

First-Half Schedule: NBA.com

Top Matchups

Boston Celtics (First Meeting: January 20)

Kim Klement/Associated Press

Rather than geography, the playoffs have been the surest recipe to forge a rivalry in the NBA over recent years. Spend some time fighting in a seven-game postseason series and a level animosity is inevitable.

The Celtics have ended the Sixers' season in two of the last three years. Horford added some spice when he turned down a player option with Boston in order to sign with Philadelphia. Now you have Rivers, who helped orchestrate the Celtics' last championship, in direct competition with them. 

These are two teams with ambitions of clinching a top-four seed en route to winning a conference title. That fact alone is enough to make these games fun to watch.

But Celtics vs. Sixers is one of the better rivalries going in the league right now.

Miami Heat (First Meeting: Jan. 12)

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Oh, what could've been.

Yaron Weitzman explained in an August piece for Bleacher Report how Philadelphia had valid reasons to wonder whether a long-term deal for Jimmy Butler would be worth it. That didn't stop the second-guessing as Butler almost single-handedly lifted the Miami Heat to the NBA Finals.

Even benign tweets from Embiid became an opportunity to heap scorn upon general manager Elton Brand and the front office.

The Sixers can't go back in time and hand Butler a max deal. It's hard to see how Philly can still get the last laugh because Miami's Finals run was almost enough by itself to justify the sign-and-trade that landed him in South Beach.

Miami won the season series 3-1 in 2019-20. Repeating that mark would serve as another reminder of the future the Sixers might have had if they kept the trio of Butler, Embiid and Simmons together.

Season Forecast

Barring the absolute worst-case scenario, the Sixers have almost no chance of falling out of the top eight in the East. That conservatively puts their floor at anywhere between 42 and 45 wins.

Formulating this team's ceiling is more difficult. You can convince yourself—against all of the evidence from last season—of Philadelphia seriously challenging the Milwaukee Bucks for the East's best record. 

Maybe Harris' three-point shooting improves to the 42.6 percent clip he enjoyed with the Los Angeles Clippers. Rivers might command enough respect to get Simmons to extend his shooting range. The nature of last year's postseason exit could cause the squad to collectively reassess and refocus.

Of course, you have to balance optimism with what transpired on the court. Brand might have bet on the wrong horses—namely Horford and Harris—when he pushed all of his chips in ahead of the 2019-20 campaign.

The Sixers won 51 games in 2018-19, when they finished third in the East. Fifty-two games was their win total before that.

That roughly seems a reasonable target for 2020-21.

Record Prediction: 45-27

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