Lebron James signs with Philly 76ers

[pickle]

[The Bobster]

Reminds me somewhat of the 1976-77 76ers that had Julius Erving, George McGinnis, Darryl Dawkins, Doug Collins, Lloyd Free, Caldwell Jones, Steve Mix, Joe Bryant, Terry Furlow, etc. that had too many players fighting for the ball.

Embiid's heath is a major concern of course, and there's some sizeable egos involved with LeBron, Brown and Embiid.

[Shabazz]

I don’t think we would have ultimately had a chance against the Sixers lineup but I think it was a mistake not to full court press LeBron to be our starting PG.

[Mori Chu]

Wow. Lebron to Philly; that's wild. I wonder what the Celtics and their fans are thinking right now. Isn't acquiring Jaylen Brown for peanuts from the boneheaded Celtics FO a major part of why Lebron chose Philly? Their stupid trade is having further repercussions.

I dunno if I really even like the fit there. I guess Philly has a place for a forward like Lebron in their lineup, but they already have 3-4 guys who want the ball and want to put up shots in Maxey, VJ, Brown, and Embiid. Are those four plus Lebron the starting lineup? Are they expecting Lebron to run their offense? This will be a wild chemistry experiment.

This is an obvious point to make, but it feels like a team that could have disastrous injury problems. Embiid is always questionable, and Lebron is on the wrong side of 40. You can imagine this team fully healthy really dominating against certain opponents, but if a couple of their key guys are out for long stretches, they would be a lot more beatable.

Overall I kind of dislike the move from the perspective of Lebron's career and legacy. I would have preferred to see him go to Cleveland, Miami, or just stay in LA. Adding yet another team this late in his career, especially a shaky one like this, just feels wrong to me.

[Mori Chu]

This seems to deserve its own thread.

[O_Gardino]

Meh. It will be interesting - from a celebrity gossip standpoint - to see what moves follow. If I'm not mistaken, Philly has a bunch of open roster spots. But I don't think this move really makes PHI much more competitive. I don't think putting together a bunch of old guys is a winning move. This isn't the era of super teams and dynasties any more.

I do think that LeBron will expect to play the role of an orchestrator and distributor. Might be 4th on the team in PPG, but first in assists.

[O_Gardino]

It just isn't common for guys over 30 to be the best player on a championship team any more.

Here are the last 8 winning teams:

Team	Player	Age
Knicks	Brunson	29
Thunder	SGA	26
Celtics	Brown / Tatum	27 / 25
Nuggets	Jokic	27
Warriors	Curry	33
Bucks	Giannis	26
Lakers	James / Davis	35 / 26
Raptors	Kawhi	27

[Aztec Sunsfan]

This 76ers roster reminds me of that Lakers team with Shaq, Kobe, Malone and Payton.

Granted, they actually got to the finals, but still imploded under all those egos in play, and fell against an actual team in Detroit, full of uber role players but none with the star cache on LA. The ultimate clash of team building styles and the first of many super teams failing to win it all.

[TOO]

This 76ers roster reminds me of that Lakers team with Shaq, Kobe, Malone and Payton.

Granted, they actually got to the finals, but still imploded under all those egos in play, and fell against an actual team in Detroit, full of uber role players but none with the star cache on LA. The ultimate clash of team building styles and the first of many super teams failing to win it all.

Malone and Payton were old and washed, LeBron isn't washed but is old, and the rest of the team is good, Maxey and Edgecomb are still very young, just gotta hope Embiid holds up. I think LeBron is the type of leader they needed tbh, if they can hold up physically they are gonna be a monster.

[Aztec Sunsfan]

Brown just got kicked off Boston and LeBron just left LA because he wanted to be featured. Two huge ego problems right there. And we are not mentioning Embiid yet.

Maxey has been cool enough to deal with Embiid, but now you’re asking your best player last year to allow for THREE divas to take the spotlight, higher task than you think, no matter how team oriented you are.

Edgecombe was a great find for them, but he will fall to 5th on that pecking order, let’s see how mature this young man is about it.

And let’s see as well how Joel reacts to LeBron publicly asking for whatever LeBron thinks Embiid should be doing to win. There’s lot of examples where the big guy took really personal the criticism.

My previous post was about ego, but now, moving to basketball: Malone wasn’t as washed as he was injured. Payton was no longer the glove, but you can easily slot here Embiid and LeBron as two players that won’t play more than 55 games, exactly the sixers’ problem last year.

Full lineup? Ok, who is going to defend against mobile 4s and 5s?

How many balls are going to be allowed in the court to fulfill Maxey, Brown and Lebron needs?

They potentially could gel good enough to get home court advantage but I don’t see any monster here, just as much as the Luka-Reaves-James Lakers team wasn’t either.

[pickle]

I was going to post why I don’t like this for the Sixers - I shared my condolences to both my Philly fan friends - but ‘Tec covered basically every angle. Only one more thing I’d add. There’s only one plus shooter in their entire starting lineup in Maxey and IIRC he’s a great shooter off the bounce who uses his fearlessness and speed to generate shots. Not exactly a Duncan Robinson Sam Merrill type plus shooter.

[pickle]

I know Bobster and Tec both mentioned past super team comparisons. Lemme add one … the Nets team that features KG Pierce Brolo Humphries and JJ.

[The Bobster]

And remember, a year ago a lot of us thought the Thunder looked like a sure thing last season. But a season can take a lot of twists and turns along the way.

[pickle]

I might have been a tad low on Maxey as an off ball player. But given his historically low turnover rates as the primary on ball guy it’s probably not a good idea to move him off ball.

[Ring_Wanted]

What a bizarre way to finish a career of a stature such as LeBron's. Extremely anticlimatic but if chasing another "legitimate" title (meaning, no SAS-OKC-NYK) is all that matters, PHI was a better option than MIA, CLE or staying in LA. I imagine that a big factor was having Maxey, Edgecombe and Brown so he can afford the luxury of coasting hard during the regular season, regardless of Embiid.

Not a 2004 LAL but severe concerns in terms of health, usage and depth. There is only one ball and only Maxey is a relevant off ball player. I guess a number of ok-ish FAs should be available to them (leaving aside guards and DeRozan), such as Nick Richards, Agbaji, Sochan or Batum.

[pickle]

Saw that KCP is trying to go there.

[INFORMER]

I have my criticisms of LeBron, but I feel like he knows understands basketball at a high level. I don't see how he could think that this is going to be a situation where he is happy.

I don't see how Jaylen Brown doesn't end up wanting out. And this sucks for Edgecombe. I don't see how he develops next four other guys that want to put up 20 ppg.

I also feel like Nick Nurse isn't equipped to manage these egos and conflict talent.

Embiid missing a ton of games will help, because that will be one less scorer dominating the ball. But this does feel like another version of Beal-Booker-Durant; the roster construction isn't as bad as it was here, but I think they've created more obstacles for themselves than they have pathways to a championship.

[Mori Chu]

Saw that KCP is trying to go there.

I think it'll be easier to judge the Lebron signing after we see what players they can get this summer. The gravitational pull will be strong, and I bet a few good players will sign there for pennies just to chase a ring. If they can get some 3-point shooting and depth, I may like that team more.

Overall I think it's a bunch of guys who all want the ball and all want to score. The Suns just recently found out how well that works. The 76ers are better than that Suns team on paper, but I still don't like so many shoot-first guys in the same lineup. We'll see.