NBA champion sends warning to 76ers ahead of LeBron James first season in Philadelphia originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare for the regular season, there’s a lot to consider on both sides of the ball.
Offensively speaking, the 76ers should be among the best teams in the NBA. There’s no reason a team with LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe can’t be elite on that side of the ball.
If the 76ers have offensive problems, that’s going to be a coaching issue or guys simply being selfish.
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Defensively, I can see why there are concerns about Embiid’s health, Maxey not being a great defender, and James getting older.
The bigger problem, or question, is whether the 76ers can gel right away. For one former NBA player, that’s the biggest question he has about this team right now.
“There are a lot of guys over there and ain’t but one ball,” Shawn Marion told Action Network. “They don’t really call plays anymore, so that’s the uniqueness of the game now, but a lot of guys don’t play well without the ball.
“Every star doesn’t play well together. We see it time and time again. We’re going to see how it rolls out. I’m optimistic, but I want to see what happens.”
It’s hard to disagree with what Marion is saying here, since he also knows playing with other stars isn’t exactly easy.
A four-time All-Star, 2011 NBA champion with the Dallas Mavericks, and a two-time All-NBA selection, he knows what it’s like to play a different role than being a star on a team.
He did that with the Mavericks, averaging just 11.9 points during that championship run. The 76ers have to be hopeful that all these guys can mix well together, though there’s reason to believe that they will.