Last season, the team watched on in agony as former Raptor Kawhi Leonard broke their collective hearts. The eventual champs ending the 76ers season with Kawhi's game 7 buzzer beater – hitting the rim four times, no less – in the Eastern Conference semi finals. Star centre Joel Embiid held his head in his hands, shedding despairing tears as the Canadian club celebrated wildly.

For the new season, there is new focus.

Embiid, in particular, has made a renewed (some would say belated) focus on his body and conditioning. Gone are the Chick-Fil-A double orders, and with it around 20 pounds. Embiid, listed at 265 pounds last season, has never played in more that 64 games a season through his career. His frame may have contributed to the array of knee, back and foot complaints that the big Cameroonian has endured.

A force on both end, to the tune of 27.5 points, 13.6 boards, 3.7 assists and 1.9 blocks, Embiid has been the single highest usage centre in the league since his rookie year. His 1.05 points per post-up lead the league amongst players with at least 3 post ups per game. However, Embiid has fallen in love with his below average 3 point shot, shooting 30% on over 4 attempts per game last season. It's hoped that a fit and motivated Embiid will feast down low without resorting to the bailout long jumper.

Ben Simmons is the other pillar that this Sixers team rests upon. The multi-positional Australian has averaged close to a triple-double with almost two steals and a block per game thrown in through his young career. But for all of Simmons transcendent play making, smothering defense and rollicking drives to the bucket, he has one rather obvious flaw – the man just cannot shoot the rock!

Despite actually shooting a three in the preseason, nobody is going to believe that he can be a threat from deep until he starts taking and making them in competitive games. There is a train of thought that Embiid's 3 point fetish was at least in part to help space the floor for the non-shooting Simmons' drives to the basket. Let's reverse that – Simmons being able to at least occupy a defender on the perimeter will open up space for Embiid to monster fools inside.

The rest of the Sixers starting unit is, well.....huge! Al Horford, Josh Richardson and the returning Tobias Harris mean that Philly will roll out a starting unit standing 6'5”, 6'9”, 6'10”, 6'10” and 7'0”. That length and athleticism, coach Brett Brown hopes, will simply envelope teams on the perimeter, and smother and interior attempts.

The acquisitions of Al Horford from Boston (via free agency) and Josh Richardson (traded for Jimmy Butler) give the team a couple of high end complimentary pieces. Horford might be the best defender of Embiid in the league - simply having him as Embiid's teammate is a boon for the club. His ability to stretch the floor and create on offense will compliment Embiid, and his anchoring the defense when Embiid sits, makes Horford a game changing addition.

Richardson was overstretched as the #1 option in Miami, but is overqualified as the 4th or 5th option here. Expect him to revert to his high efficiency numbers (46% fg, 38% from deep) from two seasons ago, whilst being the main defender of opposition point guards.

Harris, and eight season veteran yet still only 26 years old, will be hoping that after stints in Milwaukee, Orlando, Detroit and the LA Clippers, his nomadic journey is finally over. The career 36% 3 point shooter has the ball handling and passing chops to be a high end secondary creator when the opposition puts too much time into Embiid and Simmons. Defensively, he's adequate at the 3, but is able to slide up to the 4 when Horford is at centre, giving coach Brown a very switchable front line.

Whilst the starting unit - arguably the league's best - is the bedrock of the team, don't sleep on the backups. The Sixers have a deep an d versatile bench. In Trey Burke and the underrated Raul Neto, Brown has two dependable veterans to run his offense.

Aussie Jonah Bolden, fan favourite Mike Scott and free agent addition Kyle O'Quinn all provide some stretchyness from the four and five sports, whilst former Perth Wildcat James Ennis III will compete with youngsters Zhaire Smith and Matisse Thybulle for backup wing minutes.

Perhaps the only thing holding the Sixers back is Brett Brown. The long time Spurs assistant and former NBL Championship Coach (Vale, North Melbourne Giants) is a lightning rod for Sixers fans criticism. Brown was brought in by former GM Sam Hinkie to oversee The Process.

Brown has certainly been a success on a cultural level, keeping the team motivated and putting in place outstanding work habits and professionalism throughout the seemingly never ending losing of the mid decade. Now that the team is chasing success, is Brown a good enough X's and O's coach? It's up for debate.

He's certainly not on a Rick Carlisle, Gregg Popovich or Erik Spoelstra level. But he is working with such an unusual array of talent, led my the inimitable Embiid and the shot shy Simmons, that it's not completely fair to judge. If he had more conventional talents such as the recent Golden State or Houston rosters, would his offense look better? That said, it's fair to say that this season will either make or break Brown's tenure with the team.

More than coaching, it's talent that wins in the upper echelons of the NBA. The Sixers talent from top to bottom is perhaps only matched by the Clippers. After last season's heartbreak, signs from Philly appear positive.

If Embiid's health kick brings results, Simmons takes (and ideally makes) the occasional jumper, and Horford doesn't age in dog years, then Philly look primed to make their first finals appearance since the heyday of Allen Iverson.

Sixers fans will tell you that this is why 'Hinkie died for our sins'. Six long years after the dramatic tear down and rebuild of the franchise, the Philadelphia 76ers are now truly in a position to compete for the NBA title.