After years of trusting the process, Philadelphia 76ers fans are looking forward to next season with a sense of optimism and excitement.The Sixers have finally assembled a talented team that has a realistic chance of making the playoffs and bringing a winning culture back to the franchise.After drafting talented young point guard Markelle Fultz with the number one overall pick this year, the 76ers will be adding him to a promising young core that also features last year's top pick Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Dario Saric.To complement their youngster, Philly also picked up veterans J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson in free agency to add balance and leadership to their roster.On paper, the Sixers have one of the most talented teams in the Eastern Conference but they know their hopes next season will depend largely on health.After missing his first two years in the league with multiple injuries, Embiid finally made his NBA debut in the last campaign but only lasted 31 games before a knee injury curtailed his progress.Like the Cameroonian big man, Simmons missed his entire first year after suffering a broken foot.But there's good news for the 76ers as the Australian has reportedly been cleared to finally resume all basketball activity.We saw evidence of this recently as the 21-year-old dominated a pickup game in his hometown of Melbourne and looked in great shape ahead of the new season.

He dazzled the crowd with a mixture of dunks, look-away passes and long range shots as he builds up towards his debut campaign.

The Aussie hasn't played in any NBA-calibre competition since taking part in last year's Summer League in Las Vegas but there is still an anticipation to see him take to the court.

Simmons is naturally a small forward but he has a tendency to handle the ball and run the offence for his teams and has already stated that he considers himself to be a point guard.

With Fultz likely to assume that position, head coach Brett Brown will have an interesting decision to make, but it seems he's already made up his mind on where the former LSU man will play.

"When I say point guard, I mean point guard," Brown said on The Vertical Podcast. "You know, who takes the ball out of bounds, who receives the ball when the ball goes in the basket, who brings it up the floor after a free throw.

"I’m not talking about Draymond (Green), I’m not talking about LeBron (James), you know, I’m talking about a point guard. And so I intend on trying this."

Fultz is equally adept at playing off the ball and spotting up so Brown will have many options to explore which is a nice problem to have.