The Sixers’ season opener is tonight.

Yay!

Never before have we been this excited for a Sixers season to begin. Here are some things to look forward to:

  1. Nick Nurse isn’t Doc Rivers.
  2. the charismatic and affable Tyrese Maxey’s continued development
  3. Paul Reed is back and we want to see if he takes the next step under a new head coach.
  4. The final year of the Tobias Harris contract (it’s not about him and never was, it’s the dollar amount).
  5. Joel Embiid finally won MVP, so we got that out of the way and can focus on other things.
  6. No clue if Patrick Beverley has anything left, but at least he’s a dawg and he will provide good content for snarky websites like this one.
  7. Jaden Springer getting some burn.
  8. Kelly Oubre possibly, actually being able to hit some shots off the bench.
  9. James Harden either being traded or leaving at the end of the year.
  10. Not sure, can’t really think of a 10th one. Maybe curiosity at the backup center position and whether or not Mo Bamba is able to contribute.

We snark because we’re burned out on this team.

That said, the coaching change is good. We’re interested in seeing if Tyrese Maxey takes the next step as a lead guard and creator with the ball in his hands. We want to see if Paul Reed plays more of the four alongside Embiid. We’re curious to see if the veteran presence of Beverley, P.J. Tucker, and Danny Green has any meaningful effect on or off the floor. Expectations aren’t very high, but maybe that’s a good thing, because Philly sports teams always seem to play better or be more enjoyable when that’s the case. Fingers crossed. We’re grasping at straws here but it’s not like these guys are a bunch of bums. They have the reigning MVP and a coach with a ring. We keep the Sixers at arm’s length, but will at least pay half-attention, or maybe 15% attention until the calendar flips.