The Philadelphia 76ers have now put together quite the formidable superteam after signing LeBron James in free agency. James is joining a 76ers team that already had stars in Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Jaylen Brown, but The Ringer’s Bill Simmons thinks there is potential for disaster.
On the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons brought up the 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers when explaining how things could go wrong for these 76ers.
“This was the most fun basketball option, the more we talk about it,” Simmons said, via NBA Courtside. “I just think this has the most variables every which way, including like there’s 2012 Lakers potential too, where this looks awesome on paper, and there are all these reasons for it.
“But you have LeBron, who’s 41,” Simmons continued. “Who with a ton of miles on him, God only knows when he’s going to break down someday, and Embiid, who never plays, and Jaylen Brown on a new team, trying to fit his way. There’s an unhappy version of this, too. And I don’t know which one I would bet on, to be honest.”
The 2012-13 Lakers are among the biggest disappointments in modern NBA history. Like these 76ers, they had acquired two All-Stars in the 2012 offseason in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.
Those acquisitions meant the Lakers had a starting lineup in which every single player had made at least one All-Star team. You had Nash, Howard, Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace, and Pau Gasol.
The Lakers entered the season as one of the title favorites, but wouldn’t come close to meeting expectations. Injuries were a big reason why.
Gasol played 49 games while Nash played 50. The latter didn’t perform all too well when he did play either. Howard, who was coming off back surgery, wasn’t as impactful as in years past as well.
Those hyped up Lakers were 17-25 at one point, and it seemed they might end up missing the playoffs. Bryant, though, would manage to drag them back into contention, but his minutes started to rise as we got deeper into the season. It was too much for his aging body, and he’d tear his Achilles tendon in the 80th game of the season. That was a hammer blow.
The Lakers would finish the campaign with a 45-37 record and entered the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference. They were probably going to be a first-round exit if they were fully healthy, and Bryant’s absence meant they got swept by the San Antonio Spurs. Now, this in itself isn’t a disaster, but when you think about the expectations, it sure was.
Injuries could prove to be an issue for these 76ers, too. Embiid has played just 96 out of a possible 246 games in the last three seasons. James also missed the start of last season for the Los Angeles Lakers due to sciatica and is now entering his 24th campaign.
Maxey, Brown, and young VJ Edgecombe don’t have a troubling injury history, though, so the 76ers should still be fine on that front. You’d probably bet on them not being a disaster like those Lakers.
Now, there are some concerns when it comes to the 76ers, like fit. There are some high-usage players there who are going to have to adjust, like Brown, because there is only one basketball. The 76ers might struggle a bit at the start of the season, but expect them to kick on in the second half of the campaign. It’d be very surprising if we aren’t looking at them as a contender when we get to the business end.
