The Philadelphia 76ers offseason was dominated by blockbuster headlines with the acquisitions of LeBron James in free agency and Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics.
In all of that excitement, one might nearly forget they also made a first-round draft pick just a few months ago. Back on day one of the 2026 NBA Draft, the Sixers used the 22nd overall selection to draft Labaron Philon, a 20-year-old guard coming off an impressive sophomore season at Alabama.
Philon’s first season as a freshman at Alabama
was focused more on his defensive contributions, with him excelling on that side of the floor more. His sophomore year was a different story, with Philon thrust into a high-usage offensive role, where he met the challenge and began putting up impressive numbers. In that 2025-26 season, Philon averaged 22.0 points per game on 50.1% field goal shooting and 39.9% shooting from long range with 5.0 assists across 33 games (32 starts).
So Philon is no stranger to changes in expectations. And good thing, too, because a lot of things have changed for Philadelphia and Philon since he heard his name called at the draft. He was already due to share a court with players like Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. Now, expectations on the squad are higher than ever as LeBron and Brown have joined the mix.
Talk about having some stellar players to set the example for someone transitioning to the NBA — and Philon is ready to learn all he can.
“It’s a blessing just to be around guys like that. To be able to have a young guy in VJ who can help me with stuff that he’s seen his rookie year. It’s great to have four guys, five guys like that,” Philon told reporters at the team’s media day. “A rookie doesn’t normally get to play on a team like that or play with the stars like that. So I would say being able to have questions ready every day for those guys — I’m a rookie. I don’t really know a lot, and those questions can help me go to the next level.”
One can imagine it might be hard, however, for a 20-year-old rookie to relate all their experiences with a player like LeBron, one of the greatest to ever do it in his 24th season in the association. For a fresher perspective on being the young new guy in town, Philon looks to Edgecombe, the 2025 No. 3 overall pick that has gone from fresh-faced newbie himself to bona fide NBA player with a bit of experience under his belt. Philon, who’s known Edgecombe for years, is taking full advantage of his perspective.
“[Edgecombe] being young, in the same age around I am, it’s definitely been helping me just to reflect on the things he had to go through his his rookie year, and then the things I’m going through now,” Philon explained. “It’s been definitely great to be around him and talking on and off the court — you know, even while we’re on the game, we’re still talking about basketball and stuff like that. So it’s been a great relationship with him, and I’ve been knowing him since high school, so that relationship just picked back up, and it’s been going great.
“So I would say he’s one of the guys I’ve been trying to learn from the most right now.”
Philon has gotten his first kind of taste of NBA action with the preseason getting underway. In the Sixers preseason opener, the young guard played 25 minutes. His stats for the night were nothing spectacular, but he’s already showing promise in a number of ways in his game, from his impressive handles and footwork to his willingness to run the offense.
“I really like his ability to run the team, as you guys probably could notice,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse told reporters after the game Monday night. “He’s really, really communicative. He really gets the guys set up.
“[The Knicks] certainly had a certain coverage for him that we’ll be able to let him work on now and give him a counter move to that.”
That seems to be the running theme with Philon, the idea of learning as things come throughout his transition to the NBA and adapting to new challenges as they arise. He certainly has some work ahead of him to establish himself in a rotation filled with stars and veterans, but it seems like Philon is willing and eager to prove himself at the professional level.
