One of the most entertaining possible destinations for LeBron James should he become a free agent this summer are the Philadelphia 76ers. The team has a young and talented core, and adding James to a team that made the conference semifinals last year is theoretically the type of thing that could turn an already scary Sixers team into a threat to win a title right away.
Despite this, it’s easy to have some skepticism about how James would fit alongside Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons in the City of Brotherly Love. For that, we turn to Charles Barkley, who isn’t an especially big fan of No. 23 these days.
Barkley appeared on The Mike Missanelli Show in Philadelphia on Tuesday, and after saying he’s not “gonna let this dude hijack my life,” made the case for why James on the Sixers could be kind of awkward.
“He’s not coming to the Sixers,” Barkley said. “He’s not coming to the Sixers because he needs the ball, Simmons needs the ball and Embiid needs the ball. That would make Simmons useless.
“He’s not going to give the ball up at this stage of his career,” Barkley continued. “He’s not a great shooter, so you can’t play him off the ball. I guarantee you [defenders] would let him shoot threes all night. Guys would love him to shoot threes. … It would hurt Embiid and Simmons going forward.”
One of Barkley’s points is objectively not correct: James has become a better shooter and connected on 36.7 percent of his threes last season, including a 42.3 percent clip from three on shots considered “wide open” by NBA.com. Defenders would not let him shoot threes all night, because NBA defenders by and large know that giving LeBron James wide open threes is a terrible idea.
However, Barkley is right that James coming to town would take the ball out of Embiid and Simmons’ hands. While there’s no guarantee that would stunt their development, you still don’t want to reduce the roles of the two players who are expected to be the rocks upon which your franchise will be theoretically built for the next decade. Going further, bringing James on board could (again, theoretically) lead to a reduced roles for an important piece of the puzzle in Philly in Dario Saric, or prevent Markelle Fultz from getting the reps he needs as a primary ball handler and playmaker.
It’s a good point from Barkley, and it’s the sort of thing that the Sixers will have to will have to weigh as free agency begins in a few weeks and they pursue James. Of course, it stands to reason that they’ve already had these discussions and decided these concerns don’t outweigh the good that James would bring, but still, they exist.
(Via Yahoo Sports)
