LeBron James: The Decision 4.0.
On July 24 at 11:30 a.m., LeBron James announced that he would be signing with the Philadelphia 76ers, creating a starting lineup of Tyrese Maxey – VJ Edgecombe – Jaylen Brown – LeBron James – Joel Embiid — a starting lineup that is stacked on paper in pure talent; however, it leaves much to be desired in terms of roster construction. There are many pros and cons for a roster that has undergone much turmoil this offseason. Let’s look at them.
The Pros
Pro #1: Talent, lots of it. You cannot deny talent, and this team has so much of it that it’s overwhelming. You need to get a lot of players to buy into a lower-scoring role than they’re used to, but when you are getting four All-Stars on the court at once, you hope the players can make those kinds of sacrifices. VJ Edgecombe, coming off a Rookie of the Year finalist season, is looking to make a sophomore jump. I expect a step back in the scoring numbers due to adding two top-30 players to the rotation; however, the talent should seep through with his playmaking and ability to get a clutch bucket. Tyrese Maxey, coming off his first All-NBA appearance, will have to take a slight step back scoring-wise but has enough gravity and playmaking ability to get guys like Brown and Embiid open, two players that, on their own team, would be getting double-teamed at every position. Joel Embiid is a former MVP who is still a generational scorer when on the court, averaging a Wilt Chamberlain-level points per minute when he steps onto the court, along with DPOY-level defence. If healthy enough, they should be able to keep him playing less and shelter him enough to keep him healthy for the postseason. Jaylen Brown’s move to Philadelphia has been broken down recently: he is coming off his second All-NBA season and the first time he has ever received MVP votes, placing sixth last season on a Tatum-less Celtics team. He still simply cannot believe the Celtics sent him to their biggest rival after choking a 3-1 series lead to them just mere months ago. LeBron James needs no introduction; he’s the greatest to ever set foot on a basketball court, the greatest scorer of all time, a top-five playmaker (the best playmaking forward of all time), and a top-25 defender of all time. They’ve added the GOAT to a team with three All-NBA players.
Pro #2: Scoring. There are question marks you can have with every team, but you cannot deny that scoring is the most important thing in basketball; you can’t win an NBA game without outscoring your opponent. This team will have Maxey at the 1 coming off a 28.3-point-per-game season; Edgecombe at the 2 coming off a 16-point-per-game sophomore season; Brown at the 3 coming off a 28.7-point-per-game season; LeBron at the 4 coming off a 20.9-point-per-game season, which was a drop due to a full season of Luka Doncic; and Embiid at the 5 coming off a 26.9-point-per-game season, a drop from his usual 30-34 due to a step-up from Maxey and injury concerns. Off the bench, this team also has Simons, a guy who had a drop in scoring down to 14.3 last season but had been a 19-22-point-per-game scorer for the three seasons prior.
The Cons
Con #1: Too many cooks in the kitchen. This team has added Jaylen Brown and LeBron James to a roster with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Right there you have four of the highest-usage players in the NBA, all of whom are dominant on-ball players. You now have four 20-point-per-game scorers along with VJ Edgecombe, who came in last season at 16. The off-ball movement of LeBron James has obviously been declining over the years as he enters his age-42 season, along with the general movement of Joel Embiid diminishing after years of constant knee injuries.
Con #2: Defence. LeBron James in 2026 is a negative defender. There’s no way around the fact that his defence is simply not where it was back 10 to 20 years ago. Jaylen Brown is a statistical non-factor on defence, having some of the worst defensive on/off numbers in basketball last season, a stat that greatly diminished his value on the trade market. While all of the advanced stats will tell you his defence is lacklustre at best, many people will dispute these claims with the eye test. Tyrese Maxey is an archetype of player similar to that of Steph Curry and Damian Lillard, high-volume scorers with good playmaking and negative defensive impact. Obviously, Maxey is not the same tier of player as a prime Steph Curry, but the model is there. Joel Embiid is an elite defender when healthy; the issue with this is that Joel Embiid is never fucking healthy. His legs simply don’t work like they used to, and he cannot get off the ground enough to be as much of an impact as he was three years ago.
Con #3: The bench. Coming off the bench is a unit of Anfernee Simons, Dean Wade, Dominick Barlow, Justin Edwards, Ariel Hukporti, Adem Bona, and LaBaron Philon. This unit has a lack of depth; Simons is a high-scoring, no-defence player, which they already have enough of in the starting lineup. Wade is a great player to slot into this lineup, with good defence and the ability to play off-ball. Edwards and Barlow are both average-depth forwards that can give you mediocre scoring; Barlow can give you an increase in rebounding if necessary. The main issue I have is a center bench rotation of Hukporti/Bona/Broome; due to Embiid going down with injury very often, you do not want to slot either of those two into the starting lineup. Hukporti is a low-basketball-IQ player who can play a couple minutes a night and keep you afloat. Bona is a very similar player, and Broome simply sucks. Now we get LaBaron Philon, LaBaron and LeBron on the same team. LaBaron Philon was one of the steals of the draft and could be an Anfernee Simons-type player out of the gate. The problem is they literally already have Anfernee Simons, and the high-scoring, no-defence archetype is coursing through this entire lineup as is.
Coming off the pros and cons, you can say lots about where this team will finish. The ceiling of NBA championships. The floor of being a play-in team. There are many middle-ground options and a nuclear option with major injury issues causing a genuine failure of a season. Every season with LeBron James is ring or bust, and as many cons were just listed, in the words of Kenny Beecham, “Sometimes you got to stop being an analyst and be a goddamn fan.” We watch basketball for the talent to show itself, and we are blessed to watch this level of talent on the court at the same time. Don’t take this for granted, as there will simply never be another LeBron James.
