Philadelphia 76ers: Ranking possible first-round playoff opponents

The Philadelphia 76ers won their first playoff series since 2012 last season, and they will look to build on it in this year’s postseason after big trades.

The Philadelphia 76ers did not make the playoffs between the 2012-13 season and the 2016-17 season because they did not want to. After the rebuilding years of the Process, the Sixers have assembled a contending roster with plenty of weapons in its arsenal, and the ultimate goal of winning a title and vindicating the Process has never looked closer since their last Finals appearance in 2001.

Bryan Colangelo left the team after the burner Twitter account scandal and before the club’s most important offseason in history, leaving Brett Brown to take over the position for free agency. He announced the team would star-hunt in free agency, but they came back empty-handed. Fans began to worry about whether the front office talked without acting, but the next GM put that theory to rest.

The media linked the then-desperate Sixers with Houston’s Daryl Morey and Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti, so fans felt underwhelmed when the team announced Elton Brand would take over as general manager a month before the beginning of the regular season.

Brand waited less than two months to start betting on winning now when he traded Dario Saric and Robert Covington for Jimmy Butler on Nov. 12, and he cashed in his other extraneous chips to acquire Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic, and Mike Scott before the trade deadline.

Eleven games remain and teams including the Sixers have clinched playoff spots, meaning the bottom part of the standings will solidify soon. The Sixers sit in third place in the Eastern Conference with a 45-25 record, seven games behind the first-place and league-best Milwaukee Bucks, who Philly just beat 130-125 on Sunday.

Before they start to think about ending Golden State’s dynasty, Philly will have to get through the first round of the postseason, and with

Here are the possible teams the Sixers could play in the first round of the playoffs, ranking from easiest matchup to hardest.