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Ranking Which Sixers Have to Sacrifice the Most to Pursue a Championship

Philadelphia added quite a bit of talent to its starting lineup, but there must be sacrifices for it to fully work.
Jacob Moreno|
Jan 9, 2026; Orlando, Florida, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) reacts to guard Tyrese Maxey (0) against the Orlando Magic in the third quarter at Kia Center. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Jan 9, 2026; Orlando, Florida, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid (21) reacts to guard Tyrese Maxey (0) against the Orlando Magic in the third quarter at Kia Center. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Philadelphia 76ers

The Sixers don’t make sense. They now boast four 20-point-per-game scorers in their starting lineup between Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and LeBron James.

The NBA has not seen this much talent join forces since the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving-led Brooklyn Nets got James Harden, fresh off a 34.3-point-per-game season, in January 2021.

People are struggling to fathom how Philadelphia’s stars will co-exist, as teams possessing this much talent only come around every so often. To help put it into perspective, let’s rank how much every starter has to individually sacrifice this coming season from least to most.

5. LeBron James

Even though James will turn 42 years old in December, he's still capable of averaging more than 20 points per game. But that’s not why he came to Philadelphia.

The 22-time All-Star chose the Sixers in large part because he believes that they will give him the best chance to win his fifth championship.

To accomplish that, Philadelphia will need James to be its main playmaker. While the Sixers are loaded with high-level scorers, none of them are natural floor generals. Luckily, James is one of the best passers in basketball history.

James played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019-20 and led the NBA in assists with 10.2 en route to a title.

Adapting is nothing new to James at this stage of his career, though. 

Last year, the four-time Most Valuable Player embraced a three-and-D role alongside Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves with the Los Angeles Lakers. The result? Los Angeles won 13 of its last 16 regular-season games and secured the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

The Sixers can only hope for similar results with James orchestrating the offense.

4. Joel Embiid

Two-and-a-half years ago, Joel Embiid was considered one of the best players in the NBA. He was playing the best basketball of his life while averaging a league-leading 34.7 points and 11.0 rebounds per game in the first half of the 2023-24 season.

Even if he tallies half of that now, the Sixers will still have a great chance to win every night.

Embiid was already scaling down even before the arrivals of Brown and James. According to NBA.com, 28.4% of Embiid’s shots were of the catch-and-shoot variety last season—a 10.3 percentage-point increase from the year he won MVP in 2022-23. Much of his offense came from pick-and-pops with Maxey, which will continue to be a strength this season.

Philadelphia has so much scoring at its disposal that Embiid could be better off facilitating from the top of the key. He has matured as a facilitator throughout the years, recording 4.7 assists in his last three seasons.

Embiid could still erupt for 30 or more points on any given night, but the Sixers no longer need him to do so every night anymore.

3. VJ Edgecombe

Much has been made about Edgecombe’s usage potentially declining from his rookie season following the arrivals of LeBron and Brown. There is some merit to that. He posted the eighth-highest usage rate (19.6) among first-year players who played at least 65 games, according to NBA.com. That number is bound to shrink this year.

Maxey, Brown, James and Embiid will likely have more touches than Edgecombe, but he'll still have chances to be aggressive. The sophomore could thrive by attacking closeouts with his blend of athleticism, speed and rim-running in transition, which looks like the Sixers' biggest strength on paper.

“I’ma push him,” Maxey said of Edgecombe on the Numbers On the Board podcast on August 12. “Even this year, when all our shot attempts drop for sure, and that’s perfectly fine. We're still gonna need him to be aggressive, be a key piece to this team—his youth, his explosiveness, the way he defends, his growth. He's gonna be big for us.”

Edgecombe has made it known that he prioritizes winning above anything else, so playing a smaller role shouldn’t frustrate him as much as people are speculating. The 21-year-old has the chance to learn from some of the most talented players in the league.

That could lead Edgecombe to become a superstar role player this year and much more in the future.

2. Tyrese Maxey

Maxey recorded a career-high 28.3 points last season as the Sixers’ unquestioned first option. That will almost certainly be subject to change this year, but the two-time All-Star is absolutely fine with it.

“At the end of the day, I want to win,” Maxey said on NOTB. “I ain’t much tripping on the PPG.”

This will be a positive change for the 25-year-old for multiple reasons. The first is that Philadelphia is a much more dangerous team than it was last season and has a chance to reach the conference finals for the first time since 2000-01. 

Secondly, Maxey inherited too much of the offensive load at times last year. He led the NBA with 38.0 minutes per game, which led to stretches where he was inefficient and looked tired. Barring a tidal wave of injuries to his teammates, Maxey shouldn't have to deal with that this season. 

Maxey is also most effective without the ball in his hands every possession. Look no further than the 2022-23 campaign when he had a career-best 60.5 true shooting percentage.

Maxey played that year alongside James Harden, the league’s assist leader, which yielded him many chances to shoot off the catch and get to the rim off movement. He should have similar success this year with the way Philadelphia is constructed.

1. Jaylen Brown

When Brown said on his Twitch livestream that the 2025-26 season was the favorite of his career, many fans called him selfish. This was because Brown chose the year that he posted a career-high in points per game—mostly without Jayson Tatum—rather than the season the Boston Celtics won the championship in 2023-24.

So when Boston traded him to the Sixers for Paul George and draft capital, people became skeptical about how he feels about this situation. However, Brown has said and done all of the right things since officially becoming a Sixer.

“My focus is winning,” Brown said during his introductory presser on August 6. “How do we win night in and night out? Sometimes it may look different. Whatever it takes. At this point in my career, nothing else really moves me.”

Brown is correct—Philadelphia’s leading scorers may differ each game, and a feel-out period is inevitable. The biggest thing the five-time All-Star must accept is being more active off the ball on both sides of the court.

Brown has developed into a physical point-of-attack defender, but he's known to have lapses off the ball. That's an undesirable trait in Nick Nurse’s defensive system, which encourages over-helping.

He has never been much of a spot-up shooter either, with 83.7% of his field-goal attempts using at least one dribble last season, according to NBA.com. That simply won’t work on a Sixers team with so many cooks in the kitchen. Brown must develop into a capable catch-and-shoot threat and focus on backdoor cuts when he isn’t initiating the offense.

But his winning pedigree and determination to make it work should make Sixers fans optimistic not only about him but also about Philadelphia’s ceiling as well.

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Jacob Moreno
JACOB MORENO

Jacob Moreno is a Sports Media major at Temple University who aspires to become a 76ers beat writer. He previously contributed to The Sixer Sense and also covers Temple Athletics for The Temple News. He is a huge Marvel nerd and falls victim to expensive Lego sets.

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