Ah yes, the annual League Pass rankings which takes for granted that the league’s streaming service will work with any sort of reliability (spoiler: it won’t!). But none of that changes the fact that the Sixers will be one of the league’s more watchable teams:

If Joel Embiid were slated to play more, the Sixers could make a run to the No. 2 spot. But I would be surprised if he logs 60 games even if he’s healthy, which means we should prepare for an almost-best-case-scenario of 50. That leaves 30-plus for the rest of the Philly roster, still glowing with starry potential.

But the lure of the unknown — Ben Simmons, Markelle Fultz — can only take you so far. Most rookies are bad. We have to see a little something before slotting Philly any higher.

The Sixers have the best top-to-bottom collection of iconography in the league. They know it, too. They don’t overthink with design overhauls or crazy colors. They search out small tweaks that build on historic themes, and they almost always nail them: stars mounted on a blue stripe down the side of one jersey; cursive writing across another; the persistence of that Wilt-era “PHILA” wordmark; and their new Liberty Bell-themed alternate court (complete with crack). Everything is simple, and gorgeous.

Don’t sleep on the Dario Saric, a young and vaguely villainous Boris Diaw.

Philly is eager to investigate how it fares when Saric and Simmons — both power forward-ish players with shaky jumpers — play alongside Embiid.

That’s some high praise for Sixers branding.