The NBA Las Vegas Summer league ended earlier this week, which makes now a great time to assess the current state of my favorite NBA franchise. It's no secret that the last couple of years have been brutal both for the Sixers as a franchise and for fans as they have done nothing but lose over the last few seasons. The arrival of number one draft pick Ben Simmons has brought new hope to the city and the team, and if you can't understand why just watch this highlight tape.

While there is a lot to work on with Simmons, primarily with his jump-shot, aggressiveness and defense, there is a lot to look forward too. Simmons showed a decent jump shot throughout summer league and looks like one of the top five passing power forwards in the NBA already.

Simmons is not the only reason to be optimistic; Dario Saric, another talented guy out of Croatia has a great shooting touch and play-making ability. Saric also brings an edge and grittiness to the game that Philadelphia fans will love.

I'm also a huge fan of Timothe Luwawu, a shooting guard out of France who has the potential to be a legitimate two-way shooting guard. Those new players in addition to the still improving Robert Covington, T.J. McConnell, Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid (praying he can make it through a season), Jahlil Oakafor (I would trade him for a free haircut at this point) and Nick Stauskas (Hopefully he's finally learned how to shoot a three), this team has a lot of young talent that, if they develop properly, could make a fun team at the very least and extremely good at the most.

This is without the extremely solid free agent acquisitions of Jerryd Bayless and Gerald Henderson, the Sixers should have their best season in a while, which isn't saying much but they should be a fun team to watch and that is much needed progress.