The 76ers had the splashiest offseason in the NBA, signing LeBron James on a two-year, $8 million deal and trading for Jaylen Brown. Those additions elevated the expectations for the Sixers, who were previously considered a playoff-bound team buoyed by the young backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe and former MVP Joel Embiid.
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But now they have leapfrogged into the title conversation after adding two stars with championship experience. Considered one of the greatest of all-time, James has lived in the NBA Finals and come away with four titles. Brown was the NBA Finals MVP in 2024 and carried his team to the postseason last season.
This team is also deeper than year’s past, with Anfernee Simons and Dean Wade — two players with starter talent — anchoring the reserves alongside exciting rookie Labaron Philon Jr.
So what does that formula mean for the Sixers? Should it make them the favorite to win the title? Or should the talent in New York, San Antonio, Oklahoma City be enough to pump the breaks on this star-studded experiment? We asked our Sixers experts.
Gina Mizell, Sixers beat writer
Odds say no, simply because of the field.
The New York Knicks deserve respect as the defending champions. The Eastern Conference is the deepest it’s been in some time, making the road to the Finals a gauntlet. And in the West, the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder boast (arguably) the game’s most dominant players and recent Finals experience.
Yet this Sixers team is the franchise’s biggest title threat since at least the 2019 Kawhi Leonard shot, and possibly since the 2001 Finals squad. And it does already feel different than 2024, when many projected the Sixers as contenders after signing Paul George. Tyrese Maxey is even better. VJ Edgecombe is coming off a fantastic rookie season. Even if Joel Embiid’s health does not hold up and LeBron James needs rest days, Jaylen Brown is still in his prime and more reliable from an availability standpoint than George.
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The hype around the Sixers is deserved, given the out-of-nowhere nature of their blockbuster offseason. But it’s really hard to win a championship. If it does happen, history tells us to bet on it in LeBron’s second season and not 2026-27. Regardless, the Sixers will be the NBA’s most fascinating team this season, which is a blast for folks like us who chronicle it all.
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David Murphy, Sports columnist
I’d love to be the contrarian, but the answer really is no. What matters is that there is a realistic scenario where they are the favorites by the time the playoffs start. There’s also a realistic scenario where the Knicks are again the heavy favorite. Right now, Vegas odds have the two teams even as the co-favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference. That alone speaks to the massive upside of this team.
After all, there is a tremendous amount of unknown priced into those odds. No team in the NBA has a wider range of potential outcomes than the Sixers. We know who the Knicks are. We know they are going to be somewhere in the mix at the very end (barring injury, of course). The Sixers could easily find their formula is a lot more difficult in reality than in theory. That’s especially true if Joel Embiid is closer to the player he was in his worst stretches last season versus his best stretches.
That being said, go back to the Knicks series last year. Imagine swapping Jaylen Brown and LeBron James in for Kelly Oubre and Paul George. And imagine a bench that has Dean Wade, Anfernee Simons and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope coming off it rather than Quentin Grimes, Dominick Barlow and Justin Edwards. Imagine the Sixers aren’t coming off a seven-game first round series on the road. The potential is very real.
Gabriela Carroll, Sports reporter
Let’s go with no, to be safe. If this Sixers team is fully healthy, and manages to gel on offense and defense, they’ve got a shot. It’s as good a chance as they’ve had since the beginning of The Process. They currently hold the fourth-best odds to win the NBA title next season, behind the Spurs, Thunder, and the reigning champion Knicks.
Victor Wembanyama continues to level up, and the Thunder have two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and multiple deep playoff runs under their belt, including a championship in 2025. Even if everything goes right, winning an NBA championship against the strong field is a challenge. Even Rich Paul, LeBron James’ agent, said he didn’t think the Sixers were favorites for the title.
And as Sixer fans know well, a lot can go wrong. While Joel Embiid said his knee issues are behind him, anything can happen, as indicated by last year’s late-season appendicitis.