On Friday, the Sixers pulled off one of the biggest free-agent heists in NBA history when they landed LeBron James on a two-year, $7.9 million veteran-minimum contract. You\u2019d never know it based on some of the reactions to that deal.<\/p>\n
Jack Simone of the Boston Sports Journal declared<\/a> that LeBron\u2019s arrival in Philadelphia \u201cwill be a disaster\u201d because they have too many alphas and not enough depth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sixers are banking on their current squad following the old-school Big 3 era, but with a Big 5 instead,\u201d Simone wrote. \u201cThey added talent for the sake of adding talent, hoping the math will add up to a championship. But that would require playing basketball on paper instead of in person.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Pina of The Ringer acknowledged<\/a> that the Sixers\u2019 new starting five has \u201can egregious amount of skill, power and athleticism.\u201d However, he added that James\u2019 decision \u201cdoesn\u2019t dramatically alter the NBA landscape, let alone guarantee a top-six seed for Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor the past month, I\u2019ve been of the mind that James\u2019s decision wouldn\u2019t move the league\u2019s needle in a meaningful way; he\u2019s debatably a top-20 player in a highly competitive playoff picture,\u201d Pina wrote. \u201cWhile his decision is extremely surprising, undeniably a good thing for Philadelphia, and a bad thing for the Cavs, Heat, Warriors, and any other team that thought they were in the mix, I still feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Oddsmakers don\u2019t agree<\/a>. The Sixers vaulted from +2200 to win the title prior to LeBron\u2019s arrival to +1000 afterward. They\u2019re now trailing only the San Antonio Spurs (+260), Oklahoma City Thunder (+260) and the defending-champion New York Knicks (+950) in championship odds.<\/p>\n Bostonians aren\u2019t the only ones expressing doubt about LeBron and the Sixers, though.<\/p>\n \u201cGood luck,\u201d a rival executive told Howard Beck<\/a> of The Ringer. \u201cThey do not have any role players on their team now. All those guys want and need the ball. I\u2019m not sure any will want to sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody will have to check their ego at the door,\u201d another team executive told Beck, \u201cand I don\u2019t see Joel or Bron being the ones to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n So, let\u2019s dive into the three chief concerns about the new-look Sixers and how much it\u2019s fair to worry about each.<\/p>\n \u2019There\u2019s only one ball\u2019<\/p>\n Of the three, this is the one to be least concerned about.<\/p>\n In mid-July, ESPN\u2019s Dave McMenamin reported<\/a> that Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown had \u201call been in communication with James\u201d during his free agency, \u201cwith Maxey leading the charge.\u201d Tony Jones of The Athletic added<\/a> that Embiid was also \u201ca heavy figure in LeBron\u2019s recruitment, and that recruitment lasted throughout the process.\u201d (We see what you did there, Tony.)<\/p>\n Given his age (32) and lengthy injury history, Embiid\u2019s MVP days are all but assuredly over. He can no longer carry the Sixers like he did for most of his tenure. Maxey, Brown and VJ Edgecombe were already poised to help shoulder more of the load, but adding LeBron takes it to a whole new level.<\/p>\n Granted, LeBron is at a similar stage of his career. He proved in the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 first-round win over the Houston Rockets that he can still conjure one-of-a-kind magic occasionally, but he\u2019s no longer the nightly 28-7-7 threat that he was in his prime. He needs help to have a real chance at winning his fifth title.<\/p>\n Maxey has a longstanding relationship with LeBron because they share the same agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. Paul said on his Game Over podcast<\/a> that Maxey\u2019s familiarity with LeBron will help ease his transition to the Sixers and vice versa.<\/p>\n \u201c… When you add a LeBron, everything changes,\u201d Paul said. \u201cThat is why it is not easy for someone who is [deemed] to be a star player on a team, when he comes, he kind of shows you how big or little of a star you actually are. It takes a special kind of person to mentally embrace that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe familiarity with him and Tyrese, you don\u2019t have to worry about that with Tyrese. They know each other, they embrace each other, they have been working out together for the last five years. So you won\u2019t have any pushback. You can\u2019t pay for that. You can\u2019t put a value on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Maxey\u2019s role has changed on a year-to-year basis for most of his Sixers tenure. Edgecombe is just smiling through it all<\/a>. And Brown presumably didn\u2019t spend his recruitment of LeBron discussing how much he refuses to downshift as needed.<\/p>\n LeBron is hungry for a fifth title. Brown is hungry for his second\u2014and to shove egg in the Celtics\u2019 faces. Embiid, Maxey and Edgecombe all have yet to win even one. The Disease of Me should not be what undoes the Sixers in 2026-27.<\/p>\n It feels safe to assume that Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown, LeBron and Embiid will comprise the Sixers\u2019 starting five. Among that group, Maxey shot the best from three-point range last season at only 36.7 percent. Edgecombe shot 35.4 percent, Brown shot 34.7 percent, Embiid shot 33.3 percent and LeBron shot 31.7 percent.<\/p>\n However, the two years prior, LeBron shot a combined 39.3 percent from deep. Maxey drilled a scorching 43.1 percent of his three-point attempts across his second and third seasons. And Edgecombe ended the season pledging<\/a> that \u201ccoming into next year, a team won\u2019t ever leave me open.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the rest of the talent throughout the Sixers\u2019 starting lineup, they might not have a choice.<\/p>\n Thankfully, Doc Rivers is not in charge of this roster. Nick Nurse isn\u2019t likely to follow his lead with hockey-style full lineup changes. The starters will mix with the bench players for all but the beginning and end of each half.<\/p>\n Coming off the bench, the Sixers have Anfernee Simons, a career 38.1 percent long-range shooter on 6.6 attempts per game. He spent exactly none of those seasons alongside a playmaker of LeBron\u2019s caliber, either.<\/p>\n They\u2019re also going to get Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> after he clears waivers. KCP was rough the past two seasons in Orlando and Memphis, but he was a dead-eye shooter over the half-decade preceding that. He spent all but one year of that span playing with either LeBron or Nikola Joki\u0107.<\/p>\n If KCP has a bounce-back season from deep by feasting off wide-open shots, he and Simons alone might help mitigate concerns about the Sixers\u2019 offensive spacing. Rookie Labaron Philon Jr., who shot 39.9 percent from distance at Alabama last year, could also chip in. But the impact of LeBron shouldn\u2019t be understated here, either.<\/p>\n LeBron might not be the scorer or drive-and-kick threat that he was once, but he\u2019s still a preternatural passer at the age of 41. He has the uncanny ability to deliver passes right into his teammates\u2019 shooting pockets. Not only should each Sixers player get easier shots just by virtue of how much stress they\u2019ll be putting on defenses, but they\u2019ll be catching passes from one of the best playmakers of all time.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth noting that the Sixers were 21st leaguewide in three-point attempts, 22nd in three-pointers made and 23rd in three-point percentage last season. How much further can they fall?<\/p>\n With a bounce-back season from Maxey and the new additions off the bench, the Sixers should be able to scrape by with enough shooting. They won\u2019t be the Steph-and-Klay Golden State Warriors by any means, but they also won\u2019t be the 2025-26 Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n This is the most legitimate concern. Between LeBron\u2019s age\u2014the man missed the beginning of last season with sciatica, which is the most DNP-Old ailment possible\u2014and Embiid\u2019s lengthy injury history, there\u2019s no guarantee that the Sixers will make it to mid-April in one piece.<\/p>\n Backup center looms as a potential problem area with that in mind.<\/p>\n The Sixers chose not to re-sign Andre Drummond this offseason. Instead, they spent part of their bi-annual exception on Ariel Hukporti, who was the Knicks\u2019 third-string center last year. He\u2019ll battle with Adem Bona to be Embiid\u2019s primary backup, but he\u2019s more or less a total mystery box for now.<\/p>\n Bona is energetic and springy, but he\u2019s also foul-prone and fumbles far too many passes. Getting him not to botch easy scoring opportunities will be LeBron\u2019s final exam with the Sixers during the regular season.<\/p>\n In the games where Embiid plays, Bona and Hukporti should be able to hold down the fort for 15-20 minutes. But in the games that Embiid misses\u2014especially if those come in the playoffs\u2014the Bona-Hukporti duo would not strike much fear in the heart of opponents.<\/p>\n Embiid and LeBron both figure to miss at least 10-15 games during the regular season even if they otherwise stay healthy. The Sixers will likely look to limit their load throughout the 82-game meat-grinder with one eye on the playoffs. How the Sixers make do in their absences will be one of the biggest questions hanging over this team heading into the year.<\/p>\n Granted, the roster in mid-February almost certainly won\u2019t be the same as the roster in late July. While the Sixers don\u2019t have enough space under the first apron to fill their final roster spot right now, veteran-minimum contracts prorate once the regular season begin. They\u2019ll be able to fill it at some point.<\/p>\n The opening months of the season will help the Sixers figure out where their biggest needs are. From there, it\u2019ll be up to Magic Mike Gansey and Co. to once again turn lemons into lemonades, just as they did this offseason.<\/p>\n In the meantime\u2026 the Sixers just signed LeBron James on a veteran-minimum contract! Let\u2019s not overthink this one, people.<\/p>\n Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com<\/a>, PBPStats<\/a>, Cleaning the Glass<\/a> or Basketball Reference<\/a>. All salary information via Spotrac<\/a> and salary-cap information via RealGM<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, the Sixers pulled off one of the biggest free-agent heists in NBA history when they landed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,107314,85],"class_list":["post-825630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sixers-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}