LeBron James and Steph Curry teaming up would have been incredible. But NBA history is better this way

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Ball operations Mike Ganzi, LeBron doesn’t have any strong connections to the city of Philadelphia. From a storybook perspective, Cleveland or Miami or even Golden State would have made more sense. But there’s another version of this story people are forgetting about. Listen to what LeBron James agent Rich Paul says right here. If the Knicks hadn’t have won, He, this wouldn’t even, there would be no board. He’d be going to the Knicks. He’d be going to the Knicks. Interesting. If the Knicks hadn’t won the title last year, LeBron would have chosen New York. And in this alternate reality, it would be LeBron helping the mecca of basketball break its longtime championship drought. But now that the Knicks have won, there is no city, fan base, or NBA team that would relish in winning a championship and breaking their 43 year title drought more than the Philadelphia 76ers. The trust the process Sixers. The Sixers who were heartbroken by 4 bounces, the Sixers who haven’t made the conference finals, let alone the NBA Finals since 2001. With LeBron choosing Philly, he is taking the boldest path forward with potentially the highest risk, but also the highest reward, bringing another franchise, their long-awaited title. So as far as stories go, LeBron picked the destination with possibly the juiciest finale, but he’s better. On the fact that he could take a team with the Sixers’ unlucky history all the way to the promised land. And if he doesn’t reach that finish line, his all-time story ends on a sour note. That risk LeBron is taking is because while the Sixers are without a doubt, talented enough to win a championship with Maxi, BJ Edgecombe, Jalen Brown, and Joel Embiid alongside the King, there are many questions moving forward. First and foremost, can Embiid stay healthy long enough? For them to make a title run. The former MVP hasn’t played more than 40 games in 3 straight seasons and isn’t the same player he once was defensively. In fact, even last season, the Sixers were better defensively when Embiid was off of the floor in the games he was healthy enough to play in. Embiid’s defensive questions have a cascading effect for a team that also houses two smaller guards in Maxey and Edgecombe. And while Jalen Brown is a good on-ball defender, his consistency on that end waned. Especially in a team context. By the numbers, he was the 2nd-worst defender on the Celtics last season, and the Sixers’ defense would require him to be the guy guarding the opposing team’s best players. That’s just too much pressure on Jalen Brown, which in turn will force a 41-year-old King to quarterback their defense in a major way. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and it’s something he’s capable of. The last couple of seasons, the Lakers had similar defensive. Concerns having to cover for Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves, but JJ Reddick’s zone defense combined with LeBron’s defensive playmaking helped them survive. And despite all of that effort, the Lakers were still a bottom 10 defense, far away from the standards Philadelphia needs to be a legitimate contender. It will take a lot of work for LeBron, for Embiid, and for head coach Nick Nurse to build a competent defense. The offense could be tricky too. Between all of their starters, the Sixers have a 1. 146.4% usage rate, which means Nick Nurse will have a major challenge on his hands when it comes to having everyone, all four of his all-star caliber players do less. It will be difficult, but if there’s one guy who can orchestrate it all together, it’s LeBron James. With the King running the show, Maxie should benefit from a lesser workload. The star guard was the league leader in minutes played two seasons in a row, and now doesn’t have to be the sole creator on the team. Maxie, has also morphed into one of the best off-ball scorers in all of basketball, and his ability to play as a screener in pick and rolls and create off of closeouts should pair wonderfully next to LeBron. And Bead’s mobility is limited defensively, but not on offense, where his ability to be a pick and pop threat and a post scorer should be a worthwhile weapon when he’s healthy. The biggest domino is Brown, who averaged 29 points last season for the Celtics, mostly in isolation situations. As the de facto number one guy and got traded in part because he wanted to be the number one guy. Something that is now not possible in Philadelphia. How his scoring works with LeBron, and by extension, the Sixers’ offensive scheme could be what determines whether they’re good on offense or elite. In the end, these are all really good problems to have. In one summer, the Sixers have gone from a middling team that was completely dependent on its star center to be healthy to A team with legitimate title aspirations. This is the most stacked roster Embiid has had next to him in his career. And adding LeBron, who has gotten less talented teams to the finals in the past, and who averaged 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists in 60 games in his 23rd season, might just be what they need to get over the hump. The King has barely shown any signs of slowing down, and he just made the biggest bet of his career for his last dance.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/edit-guidelines/”,”sameAs”:”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Esfandiar Baraheni”}]}