The Sixers last won a championship in 1983. They haven’t reached a conference finals since 2001. That’s about to change in 2027.
Philadelphia is a legitimate contender, and might have the most talented roster in the NBA.
The consensus top tier going into next season includes the reigning champion Knicks, the runner-up Spurs, and the 2025 champion Thunder. Well, make room for one more because the 76ers are about to be a problem for the rest of the league.
Mismatches galore
GM Mike Gansey took over a 45-37 seven-seed at the end of May. In a single summer, he turned it into the most imposing starting five in basketball — and somehow kept real depth behind it.
Paul George and draft picks (two firsts, two seconds) magically became Jaylen Brown. That gave Philly a superstar wing to pair with the talented trio of Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe. From there, the Sixers added to their guard depth by landing Alabama’s stud point guard Labaron Philon Jr. in the draft and signing a microwave scorer in Anfernee Simons. They also picked up a couple of playoff-tested three-and-D wings in Dean Wade and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Oh, and they just so happened to land the greatest player in NBA history, LeBron James, for the veteran minimum — who took the largest pay cut in NBA history for a shot at a fifth ring.
Now, the 76ers have a plus-athlete at every starting spot. Maxey is the fastest man in the league and an All-NBA player who averaged 28.3 PPG and 6.6 APG last season. Brown powered his way to 28.7 PPG, 6.9 RPG and 5.1 APG and finished sixth in MVP voting. The ever-bouncy VJ Edgecombe gave them 16.0 PPG, 5.6 RPG and 4.2 APG as a 20-year-old rookie. LeBron, still a premier athlete at 41, posted 20.9 PPG, 7.2 APG and 6.1 RPG, and dragged an injured Lakers team to an upset in the first round of the playoffs. And Embiid, when remotely healthy, is still the most physically overwhelming center alive.
Tempo versatility
The half court will be clunky in November as chemistry is impossible to obtain without extensive reps. So expect Nick Nurse to have the team playing at breakneck speed as they learn to play with one another.
Maxey, Brown and James ranked second, third and fourth, respectively, in transition PPG last season, and Edgecombe was in the top-50. Philon was the head of the highest-scoring team and one of the fastest teams in college basketball last season too.
Philly should be looking to push off of every miss and some makes. Pushing the pace will help them bank wins, keep LeBron and Embiid fresh and give Nurse time to sort out his rotations.
Unique offensive optionality
The Sixers intend to hand LeBron the point guard job on offense. The last time James played point guard — in 2019-20 — he led the NBA in assists at 10.2 per game, and the Lakers won the title. Having him delegate touches between Maxey and Brown, two of the NBA’s leading scorers, is the best way to avoid a “my turn, your turn” stagnant offense.
The other half is Embiid at the elbow. He’s elite at the dribble-handoff — something he began running with now-Lakers coach JJ Redick half a decade ago — and will create a plethora of open threes for the Sixers’ shooters. Moreover, he’s capable of finding the open man passing out of double-teams as evidenced by the seven APG he averaged against Boston in last year’s playoffs.
Put those two together and you get an inverted attack nobody else can replicate. If LeBron and Embiid are on the perimeter, it means the other team’s best rim protectors are out of the paint, which means Brown, Maxey and Edgecombe will be feasting at the rim.
And an inverted offense is far from the only option on the menu. If the other team has a slow-footed defender, Maxey will pick-and-roll him to the bench. Got a skinny wing? Get ready for an entrée of shoulder sandwiches from Brown and James. Oh, and if you decide to play no-help defense on the other four guys? Embiid will go to the low-post and put your entire big man rotation in foul trouble.
Every coverage has a counter.
These guys will play roles
The loudest objection is: They don’t have any role players!
Look closer. While their raw stats may take a hit for the good of the team, some of their best players already possess the attributes to make them stars in their roles.
Among players who played in 40 or more games, Edgecombe led the entire league in loose balls recovered as a rookie — he has the makeup and explosiveness to be a chaos-creator point-of-attack defender. Brown loves the challenge of guarding the likes of Luka Doncic or Kawhi Leonard, and should be motivated to prove that he’s the best two-way player in the league — both by the eye-test and analytically! LeBron just spent a full season as a third option, posting a career-low usage rate. He knows how to play the facilitator role as well as any star player.
Also, Caldwell-Pope and Wade are role players, and good ones.
This is where Nurse earns his keep. Between substitution patterns and LeBron’s connective passing, every starter — plus Simons — can have stretches where he’s the primary option, or at minimum the guy hunting the weakest defender on the floor. Nobody has to disappear.
Obviously, the health concerns are real. Embiid has played only 96 total games the past three seasons. But health is also random — if Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton can suffer major injuries, any star player can. Embiid told LeBron he’s healthy. Hopefully the decreased usage keeps him that way.
This roster has also insulated itself about as well as any team: If Embiid is out, they go small and play fast; if LeBron is out, it’s back to the spread-out drive-and-kick offense from last season only with Brown replacing a washed Paul George; and if any of Brown, Maxey and Edgecombe are out, Simons, KCP and Wade have all been starters in this league. Plus, the team has enough assets to acquire more depth at the trade deadline.