As LeBron James joins the Philadelphia 76ers to continue his brilliant career and head into his 24th season, one has to wonder how much he has left in the tank. He proved he can still be productive as he averaged 20.9 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.1 rebounds in the 2025-26 season with the Los Angeles Lakers, but he will turn 42 in December. He has to slow down, right?
The Sixers signed James to a 2-year $8 million deal in the offseason and they were able to walk away with the biggest addition of the offseason. As he joins Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, and VJ Edgecombe, one has to wonder what his production will look like while playing next to some elite talent like those four.
HoopsHype ranked the top 100 players heading into the 2026-27
season and James comes in ranked No. 28:
That gives us some second thoughts as to how James’ numbers are going to look. Could 2026-27 be the first season of James’ career in which he averages fewer than 20 points per game? It’s not out of the question, depending on how much of a back seat James takes to the young and loaded roster around him.
Still, James being James, we’re confident he’ll find a way to carve out a major role for the Sixers, perhaps as a play-making forward who won’t have to worry as much about scoring as he has in years past. Just like we could see James averaging under 20 points for the first time, we could also easily see James putting up 10 assists nightly, as he’ll be dishing the ball to so many talented scorers.
Overall, despite it looking like he’s finally slowing down a bit, James still ranked as a Top 30 player league-wide in VORP and Top 20 in BPM last year, so he’s still hugely impactful despite his advanced age. We’re just not sure how he’ll put up his usual numbers having to share the ball so much in Philadelphia. But that was probably why James made the decision to join the Sixers: so he could take a backseat in the regular season and be fresh come playoff time in the hunt for championship No. 5.
It remains to be seen if James will still be able to be one of the top players in the game, but him playing with the Sixers should make life easier for him on the floor. There won't be too much pressure on him to score 20-plus points due to the offensive talent around him in Philadelphia. One has to believe he will be among the league leaders in assists all season long.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers' LeBron James ranked No. 28 player heading into 2026-27 season
