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’d never know it based on some of the reactions to that deal.
Jack Simone of the Boston Sports Journal declared that LeBron’s arrival in Philadelphia “will be a disaster” because they have too many alphas and not enough depth.
“The Sixers are banking on their current squad following the old-school Big 3 era, but with a Big 5 instead,”
Simone wrote. “They 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.”
Michael Pina of The Ringer acknowledged that the Sixers’ new starting five has “an egregious amount of skill, power and athleticism.” However, he added that James’ decision “doesn’t dramatically alter the NBA landscape, let alone guarantee a top-six seed for Philadelphia.”
“For the past month, I’ve been of the mind that James’s decision wouldn’t move the league’s needle in a meaningful way; he’s debatably a top-20 player in a highly competitive playoff picture,” Pina wrote. “While 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.”
Oddsmakers don’t agree. The Sixers vaulted from +2200 to win the title prior to LeBron’s arrival to +1000 afterward. They’re now trailing only the San Antonio Spurs (+260), Oklahoma City Thunder (+260) and the defending-champion New York Knicks (+950) in championship odds.
Bostonians aren’t the only ones expressing doubt about LeBron and the Sixers, though.
“Good luck,” a rival executive told Howard Beck of The Ringer. “They do not have any role players on their team now. All those guys want and need the ball. I’m not sure any will want to sacrifice.”
“Somebody will have to check their ego at the door,” another team executive told Beck, “and I don’t see Joel or Bron being the ones to do it.”
So, let’s dive into the three chief concerns about the new-look Sixers and how much it’s fair to worry about each.
‘There’s only one ball’
Of the three, this is the one to be least concerned about.
In mid-July, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Jaylen Brown had “all been in communication with James” during his free agency, “with Maxey leading the charge.” Tony Jones of The Athletic added that Embiid was also “a heavy figure in LeBron’s recruitment, and that recruitment lasted throughout the process.” (We see what you did there, Tony.)
Given his age (32) and lengthy injury history, Embiid’s 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.
Granted, LeBron is at a similar stage of his career. He proved in the Los Angeles Lakers’ first-round win over the Houston Rockets that he can still conjure one-of-a-kind magic occasionally, but he’s 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.
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 that Maxey’s familiarity with LeBron will help ease his transition to the Sixers and vice versa.
“… When you add a LeBron, everything changes,” Paul said. “That 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.
“The familiarity with him and Tyrese, you don’t 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’t have any pushback. You can’t pay for that. You can’t put a value on that.”
Maxey’s role has changed on a year-to-year basis for most of his Sixers tenure. Edgecombe is just smiling through it all. And Brown presumably didn’t spend his recruitment of LeBron discussing how much he refuses to downshift as needed.
LeBron is hungry for a fifth title. Brown is hungry for his second—and to shove egg in the Celtics’ 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.
Not enough shooting
It feels safe to assume that Maxey, Edgecombe, Brown, LeBron and Embiid will comprise the Sixers’ 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.
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 that “coming into next year, a team won’t ever leave me open.”
Given the rest of the talent throughout the Sixers’ starting lineup, they might not have a choice.
Thankfully, Doc Rivers is not in charge of this roster. Nick Nurse isn’t 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.
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’s caliber, either.
They’re also going to get Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 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 Jokić.
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’ 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’t be understated here, either.
LeBron might not be the scorer or drive-and-kick threat that he was once, but he’s still a preternatural passer at the age of 41. He has the uncanny ability to deliver passes right into his teammates’ shooting pockets. Not only should each Sixers player get easier shots just by virtue of how much stress they’ll be putting on defenses, but they’ll be catching passes from one of the best playmakers of all time.
It’s 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?
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’t be the Steph-and-Klay Golden State Warriors by any means, but they also won’t be the 2025-26 Brooklyn Nets.
Can they stay healthy?
This is the most legitimate concern. Between LeBron’s age—the man missed the beginning of last season with sciatica, which is the most DNP-Old ailment possible—and Embiid’s lengthy injury history, there’s no guarantee that the Sixers will make it to mid-April in one piece.
Backup center looms as a potential problem area with that in mind.
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’ third-string center last year. He’ll battle with Adem Bona to be Embiid’s primary backup, but he’s more or less a total mystery box for now.
Bona is energetic and springy, but he’s also foul-prone and fumbles far too many passes. Getting him not to botch easy scoring opportunities will be LeBron’s final exam with the Sixers during the regular season.
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—especially if those come in the playoffs—the Bona-Hukporti duo would not strike much fear in the heart of opponents.
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.
Granted, the roster in mid-February almost certainly won’t be the same as the roster in late July. While the Sixers don’t 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’ll be able to fill it at some point.
The opening months of the season will help the Sixers figure out where their biggest needs are. From there, it’ll be up to Magic Mike Gansey and Co. to once again turn lemons into lemonades, just as they did this offseason.
In the meantime… the Sixers just signed LeBron James on a veteran-minimum contract! Let’s not overthink this one, people.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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