As moments go, the most concerning, and darkly humorous, came in the first half, when rookie guard Labaron Philon Jr. tried to cap a 2-on-1 fast break by lobbing a pass near the rim to Embiid, who instead of leaping to slam the ball home caught it flat-footed and missed a layup.<\/p>\n
\u00bb READ MORE: LeBron James\u2019 commute has drawn attention. Here\u2019s what we know about the 76ers star\u2019s helicopter trips from New York.<\/a><\/p>\n Now, does that sequence mean that Embiid\u2019s health and conditioning are already a problem as the Sixers stand poised to begin their most fascinating and highly anticipated season in years? Not necessarily, no. But Embiid\u2019s ugly stat line and, more importantly, the sight of him moving with all the speed and steadiness of a 91-year-old high-wire walker served as a reminder of the challenges inherent in the Sixers\u2019 attempt to win their first championship since 1983.<\/p>\n LeBron James<\/a>\u2019 presence won\u2019t make Embiid\u2019s knees more stable or his footwork smoother, and it won\u2019t prevent Embiid from crashing to the court (as he has long been apt to do) and maybe taking a teammate with him. Jaylen Brown<\/a>\u2019s enthusiasm for and embrace of Philadelphia won\u2019t stop or even slow James\u2019 inexorable march to his 42nd birthday on Dec. 30. Tyrese Maxey<\/a>\u2019s and VJ Edgecombe<\/a>\u2019s skills in the open court and on the perimeter won\u2019t make up for the (temporary?) absence of a backup center, and they won\u2019t mitigate the worry that, once again, the Sixers won\u2019t be able to protect the rim when Embiid isn\u2019t on the floor.<\/p>\n The easy way of prognosticating about the 2026-27 Sixers is to peruse the roster and presume the best. That James has been so productive and (relatively) durable so late in his career is a marvel. Brown appears bent on proving to everyone \u2014 his previous team, the Boston Celtics, most of all \u2014 that he has been and is a genuine superstar, one who doesn\u2019t need to score 29 points a night to be indispensable to a title-contending team. Embiid, and Maxey and Edgecombe, for that matter, ought to be invigorated for having two such accomplished teammates. With Philon, Anfernee Simons, and Dean Wade, the Sixers promise to have a deeper bench than usual.<\/p>\n Again, pretty easy to see all those assets. It\u2019s harder to acknowledge the combustible elements in this experiment that could leave the lab in smoking shambles. No one should expect James to suit up for more than 71 games this season; that\u2019s the most he\u2019s played in any season in the last eight years, and he\u2019s done it just once. Embiid hasn\u2019t appeared in more than 39 games in a season since 2022-23, and he appeared in just 66 games then. Perhaps Nick Nurse<\/a> can stagger their nights off to keep them fresh for the postseason, but such an approach could cost the regular lineup the chemistry, cohesion, and seasoning necessary for a long playoff run.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Even in Year 24, there\u2019s new (and old) things to learn for LeBron James<\/a><\/p>\n Remember: James has been the alpha dog on all his teams, maybe in the whole league, for 24 years now. Brown is coming off a season in which he set career highs in points per game and shots per game, leading the Celtics to 56 victories without Jayson Tatum for most of the season. Embiid has been the alpha and omega of the franchise for a decade, and Maxey was poised to succeed him as that centerpiece player, if he hadn\u2019t already.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a ton of ego for Nurse and the players themselves to manage, and we haven\u2019t even added to the scale James\u2019 passive-aggression, Embiid\u2019s fondness for trolling, and Brown\u2019s intelligence and honesty and willingness to wield them.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, unlike the last season that the Sixers won a championship, unlike that \u201982-83 club that took on an air of inevitability once it added Moses Malone, this team doesn\u2019t have Maurice Cheeks and Bobby Jones in its starting lineup \u2014 two stars so humble and unselfish that they couldn\u2019t conceive of growing grumpy because they weren\u2019t getting enough shots. The assurances that this season\u2019s Sixers won\u2019t create such obstacles for themselves are nice, but these guys haven\u2019t even taken their first road trip together yet.<\/p>\n \u201cYou would think it would be hard from looking at it, but if you just knew the things I knew about these guys, then it would change your perspective on how much they\u2019re willing to sacrifice,\u201d forward Jabari Walker said. \u201cThey understand what it takes to win, and everyone is just looking for this opportunity. I think you\u2019ll see different sides of different people now that this situation looks different. The idea of ego and things like that is kind of going out the window now. It\u2019s like, \u2018How do we figure it out?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n What does Walker know about James, Brown, Embiid, and Maxey that we outsiders don\u2019t?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great group \u2026\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the most included I\u2019ve felt in any training camp. It just shows that the stereotype of high-end guys and high-end athletes \u2014 sometimes it\u2019s not what the media makes it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: \u2018Sixers Extra\u2019 season preview: What to expect from LeBron James and his new team this year<\/a><\/p>\n Slow down. The Sixers haven\u2019t shown us anything. This whole exercise could go very, very right, and it could go very, very wrong. They have a genuine shot at greatness, yes, but they\u2019re going to need Joel Embiid looking healthy and LeBron James looking young. They\u2019re going to need their starting five to do what Walker insists they will: sacrifice. <\/p>\n If the Sixers get all these stars at their best often enough, this will be something to see. If they don\u2019t, same thing.<\/p>\n Watch the first episode<\/p>\n After an exciting Sixers offseason highlighted by the additions of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, join Inquirer beat writers Gina Mizell and Chris Hine for a preview of the season. Watch here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Sixers Extra podcast on Spotify<\/a> or Apple Podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min On an average night in Brooklyn, I don\u2019t imagine it\u2019s difficult to find…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,496025,590,85],"class_list":["post-929177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-lebron-predictions-season-preview-embiid-jaylen-brown","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929177","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=929177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/circle_outline_footer_light_theme.png\"\/)
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