Ever since the Sixers traded for Jaylen Brown—and especially ever since they signed LeBron James a few weeks later—one question has repeatedly popped up: Who will take the last shot for them?
NBA teams typically have an established pecking order in crunch time. The Denver Nuggets are going to run their offense through Nikola Jokić, the Los Angeles Lakers are going to run theirs through Luka Dončić, so on and so forth.
The Sixers might be the rare outlier in that regard. When they have all five of Tyrese
Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James and Joel Embiid out on the floor, they’ll have five legitimate go-to options. Allocating one of them as the primary last-shot-taker would be a grievous misuse of their unique roster.
It would also be anathema to LeBron’s ethos.
As strange as this is to say about the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron’s greatest gift is his passing ability. He’ll likely be handling the ball and running the offense plenty during crunch time, but that doesn’t mean he’ll always be taking the last shot. Quite the contrary, in fact.
“You always make the right play,” James told reporters last December after his streak of 1,297 straight games with 10-plus points came to an end. (Instead of trying to extend his streak, he passed to Rui Hachimura for a game-winning three-pointer.) “That’s just been my M.O. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career.”
The Sixers’ collection of talent this season should afford them a rare opportunity, particularly once the playoffs roll around. They’ll be able to mismatch-hunt like few (if any?) other teams.
When Jalen Brunson went into seek-and-destroy mode against James Harden in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals this past spring, he single-handedly flipped that game back in favor of the Knicks. An apathetic defender like Harden will have nowhere to hide against the Sixers’ starting lineup. They can hunt him with whomever he’s guarding, even if that changes on a possession-by-possession basis.
You’re guarding Edgecombe? Great! Oh, you’re gonna try to guard Maxey now? Good luck. You’re shifting over to Brown or LeBron? LOL.
If the Sixers are facing an overmatched frontcourt, they can funnel their offense through Embiid. If they’re going against a defensively challenged backcourt, Maxey and Edgecombe can take the reins. And if they’re matched up against a team without strong wing defenders, Brown and LeBron can take turns bullying their way to the basket.
The “who takes the last shot?” mentality is the exact wrong way to think about this year’s Sixers team. That’s the sort of ego-driven madness that they need to avoid like the plague.
They’re well aware of that, too.
“Obviously, on paper, we’re excellent,” Brown said during his introductory press conference in August. “We have a lot of talent compared to other teams in the league. But I’ve been around a long time, long enough to know that just what you have on paper don’t really mean nothing. It can, if you put the work in. But it also, if you allow distractions, if you allow the media to get into your locker room, if you allow certain things and personalities don’t work, it can be a detriment.”
Whenever the Sixers’ crunch-time offense bogs down, critiques are bound to come flooding in. Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins will be blabbing on ESPN about why the Sixers made the wrong choice—regardless of who actually takes the last shot—and why it means they’re doomed to fail. Given his well-documented hatred of LeBron, Skip Bayless’ part-time return to First Take could not be coming at a worse time.
Luckily, it’s easier than ever to entirely tune that nonsense out. Step 1: Just log off Twitter for a while. Your brain will thank you.
The good news is that the Sixers’ party line heading into training camp is all about sacrifice.
“As far as the chemistry off the court, guys are communicating, guys are having a good time doing it, guys are really pumping each other up, and guys are also willing to sacrifice,” Maxey told ClutchPoints’ Tomer Azarly. “It’s just what they’ve said. So when we step on the court, we have to kind of embody all those things that we’ve been talking about.
“Sacrificing, coming together as one, and going out there competing every single night. Those are the three things that we really have to focus on.”
The architect of this roster, Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey, echoed that sentiment during an August appearance on Midday With Marks.
“It’s gonna be exciting just because we have so much talent,” Gansey said. “The guys, I think want to sacrifice. We’ve gotta get to camp. We haven’t even had a practice or played a game. So we’ve gotta see if this thing works, obviously. I like the pieces and the talent we have, but we’ve gotta get to a practice first to see how this works. I think it’s gonna work because these guys are gonna wanna be together, and they see the big picture, I think. And that’s what’s exciting.”
If the Sixers’ starters keep their egos in check this season, the last-shot question won’t be a question at all. There shouldn’t be a single go-to option in those situations. It should vary on a game-by-game basis depending on where their opponent is weakest, no matter what the likes of Smith, Perkins and Bayless will inevitably say whenever they come up short.
LeBron’s make-the-right-play mentality is the way forward for the Sixers this season. Trust the process.
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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