The Philadelphia 76ers are entering next season with five players who are all capable of making the All-Star team next season.
While that’s a good problem to have, it doesn’t always guarantee team success. In fact, it’s usually the well-balanced team that ends up winning a championship rather than the top-heavy one.
With Tyrese Maxey slated to start alongside LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown and VJ Edgecombe, he understands exactly what needs to happen to allow this team to thrive.
“I think the biggest thing is nobody on this team can have an ego,” Maxey said. “We have two guys that have won regular-season MVPs, two guys that have won Finals MVPs, multiple gold medal winners on this team, multiple 25-plus points per game, All-Star, All-NBA. We're all pretty accomplished. So the ego has to drop, and you have to do it collectively.”
James has ample experience making star-studded teams work, winning championships alongside Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis.
However, James will be turning 42 years old midway through the season and has more mileage on his tires than any player in league history, so he’s probably going to need to make more sacrifices than any other player in the Sixers lineup.
James already proved capable of such while helping Team USA take home a gold medal during the 2024 Olympics, deferring to some of the younger stars to carry the scoring load, though it was James who put the Americans on his back to help them emerge victorious in some tight contests.
With no other natural point guard in the Sixers’ lineup, that is a role James could easily step into at this stage of his career, with his focus on setting all of his teammates up for clean looks.
Maxey himself is going to have to adjust his game a little, giving up some touches to allow Brown to dominate in the scoring department and for James to control the flow of the offense.
The Sixers’ new lineup could also allow Embiid to take on a lighter workload over the course of the season and pick and choose when he wants to attack the basket rather than forcing the issue.
The names on this roster are pretty huge, but they’re going to need to prove that they can understand each others tendencies on both sides of the floor for this team to be a success.
