How the Philadelphia 76ers stack up against the Southeast Division

How the Philadelphia 76ers match up with the East’s weakest division.

In case you missed it, my last two articles detailed match-ups between the Philadelphia 76ers and the teams in the Atlantic and Central divisions.  Today, we round out the Eastern Conference by taking a look at how the Sixers match up with the Southeast Division.

The Southeast is one of the weaker, if not the weakest, divisions in the league, but there is some friskiness at the top.  We will also see a familiar face down in South Beach. Like last week, I will start at the bottom of the division, working up to the most talented teams, and get more in-depth as we go.

Charlotte Hornets

Charlotte Hornets Projected Starting Five:

• Terry Rozier
• Dwayne Bacon
• Nicolas Batum
• Marvin Williams
• Bismack Biyombo
• Other Notable Players — Malik Monk, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Cody Zeller, Willy Hernangomez, Miles Bridges

After losing star point guard Kemba Walker, the Hornets go into the 2019-20 season projected to be near the bottom of the Association. Terry Rozier and his career 38 percent field goal percentage will step in to the starting point guard role and try to lead this team out of the NBA cellar.  Malik Monk, Dwayne Bacon and Miles Bridges will see hefty minutes this season as Hornets coaches will hope for internal development from their young players.  The rest of the roster is a mundane caboodle of replacement-level players.

Without Kemba and Jeremy Lamb, the Hornets will lack a go-to scoring option.  If the Sixers are able to contain Rozier at the point of attack, offense will be hard to muster for Charlotte.  Hernangomez and Biyombo will cramp the court, making things easy for Joel Embiid in the interior. A lineup with Cody Zeller at center could help their offense, but he will be chopped liver for Embiid in the post when the Hornets are on defense.

There will be mismatches galore on the other end.  Ben Simmons should have his way with any of the wing rotation outside of maybe Kidd-Gilchrist. Embiid will lick his lips at the sight of the center rotation.  I haven’t even mentioned Tobias Harris yet.

The Hornets are not a fun team, perhaps the least fun in the league, so I’ll keep it short here.  Barring a forfeit due to boredom, the Sixers should sweep this series. Maybe Terry Rozier will spice things up and try to punch Josh Richardson.