3. The 76ers fall all the way into the play-in tournament bracket
As of writing, Philadelphia is in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a 32-22 win-loss card. They are two games ahead of Indiana for the final guaranteed playoff spot, but are also just 2.5 games away from Orlando, the current eight-seeded team.
The 76ers are not exactly hopeless and are at least guaranteed to be in the top-eight (thanks to Chicago and Atlanta having losing records ), but their favors might stop there. They have the ninth-toughest schedule remaining while the Pacers have the 12th easiest slate. Not so convinced? The Heat have the fourth easiest schedule remaining. Still overly optimistic? The Magic have the least intimidating slate to end the season.
Realistically speaking, Philly is likely to end up in the seventh to eight range, which isn’t all that undesirable. After all, this gives them two tries to get into the playoffs as they gear up for what could be an interesting 2024 postseason, which brings us to…