The Sixers were the team with the biggest hype in the offseason, after all the team didn't lose any important player and they managed to get in the market Elton Brand. This addition makes the team to be now appointed by the analysts as one of the candidates to win the East. Let's remember the Sixers reached the Playoffs last season, when nobody was expecting that and they were actually one of the best teams on the league at the end of the season, finishing with 22-13 record on their last 35 games.

Their big challenge this season will be to handle the pressure of being a top team, something the Sixers aren't used to in the last couple of years. Suddenly, the team will be one of the targets to take down on the Eastern conference and if Boston could handle that pressure extremely well and became champions, the truth is that they had experienced players, who were involved before in tough battles, like Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. The Sixers have now their own Big Three with Iguodala, Brand and Miller, but neither of these players has even reached a conference final before and handling this pressure of winning can become a major struggle for them during the season.

Elton Brand will give the team the offensive skills down the post the team lacked last season and even though he has missed almost the whole season in LA last year, he played the last 8 games of the Clippers and he averaged 17.6 ppg and 8.0 rpg, very encouraging numbers. Together with Dalembert, Evans and Ratliff, the Sixers will have players capable of stopping any frontcourt of the league, at the same time the Sixers will also win with Brand, a player capable of creating his own opportunities in the paint and give more freedom to the backcourt of the Sixers.

The frontcourt of the Sixers isn't just made by experience. Marreese Speights is a very talented rookie, who won't have the pressure of needing to cause an immediate impact on the team. He will have time to learn and develop with Elton Brand. Thaddeus Young was one of the biggest surprises of the league last season, as he averaged 8.2 rpg and 4.2 rpg on his rookie season and it was when Maurice Cheeks decided to start him that the Sixers began improving big time and reached the Playoffs. Young is a versatile player, capable of doing several tasks on the field and with a speed of execution extremely high. With him getting more minutes, the Sixers became in the middle of the season the team with most counter attacks on the league. For this season, it is expected that Young to improve even more, as he will be more experienced and Cheeks has already proved that he knows how to use Young's great potential.

The backcourt of the team has a lot of depth, just like the every other area, with lots of solutions for any system Cheeks wants to use. Andre Iguodala has recently signed a new contract ($80 millions for six seasons) and he will need to prove that he is worth this great contract. He averaged 19.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg and 4.8 apg for 45.6% FG last season. Cheeks will need to make Iguodala understand that he shouldn't shoot from the perimeter, as it's his weakest part of his game (just 32.9% 3pts last season and 33.1% on his career), but to drive to the basket instead. AI is a very complete player: very strong on the offensive transitions and also a good defender. The presence of Elton Brand on the team will give more space and he should take advantage of that to average more than 20 ppg this season for the first time on his career. He is a very fit player, as he has just missed 6 games on the last four seasons in Philadelphia!

Andre Miller is coming from a career season, with 17.0 ppg and 6.9 apg, for almost 50% FG! His ability to be on the interior positions caused a lot of problems to their opponents (we have seen how Billups struggled so much in defending him on the Playoffs) and he was a true leader on the field. However, it will be curious to watch how Miller will play this season. Will he be a scorer PG or he will convert himself into a playmaker? He has attempted 14 shots per game last season and I doubt he will have so many attempts this season.

Lou Williams was another surprise of the Sixers last season and he was even decisive in some ballgames. After two poor seasons, he exploded last season by averaging 11.5 ppg in just 23.3 minutes per game. Having in account he had 1.9 ppg on his rookie season and 4.3 ppg on the following season, this says it all about his improvement and it is expected that Williams continues to improve this season, in order to become the team's starting point guard in the future.

The Sixers were the worst team on the league last season in 3pts shooting, with just 31.72% and to solve that, GM Ed Sefanski acquired Kareen Rush from Indiana and also the veteran Donyell Marshall, but honestly I doubt these two players will play enough minutes, in order for the team to improve on its exterior shooting. The best idea for them will be to play with what they have, which is enough to be a major force in the Eastern conference.

The Big Three of the Sixers can compete in the East against Boston and Detroit and they have an extremely deep roster, which will give Cheeks different solutions for every game. The big challenge of the team this season will be to know if they will be able to handle the pressure of being now a favorite to reach the NBA finals.

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