LeBron James going to the Philadelphia 76ers might just be the single most defining move in the offseason. Now, the franchise is poised to be a strong contender this coming season. But more importantly, the team should be able to give The King what he needs at this point in his career, which the Lakers could not afford to provide him –– a lighter load on the scoring department.
Save for this past season, when the Lakers leaned fully into having Luka Doncic lead the way for them, Los Angeles has simply asked way too much of James since arriving there. That is most prominent when it comes to putting the ball into the hoop. But now that he is in Philly, his scoring ability will finally be secondary in his game, as the team will likely be asking him to perform a much different role.
The 76ers have no reason to overtax LeBron James on the scoring end
Make no mistake –– even at 41 years old, James is still easily capable of taking over as a scorer. That was pretty evident during the playoffs when he single-handedly carried the Lakers to a playoff series win over the Rockets despite Doncic and Austin Reaves getting sidelined due to injury. However, that caused him to eventually flame out against the Thunder, which swept them in the Conference Semifinals.
LA actually had a more ideal design for him when they tried to entrench James as their No. 3 option in the middle of the season, but that did not last long due to those injuries. Heck, even in those outings where Doncic and Reaves had bigger slices of the scoring pie, James was still heavily banked on to do the scoring, especially during crunch time. That was a primary reason why the Lakers were one of the best teams in the league in the clutch.
That dynamic should easily change in the upcoming campaign. After all, the 76ers have four other players aside from James who can take over and seize the lead role on offense. Given the team's lack of natural playmakers, it is now incumbent upon LeBron to own that role and be the one to organize the team in the half-court without putting a major emphasis on scoring.
Being a primary connector should be the best way for the 76ers to deploy LeBron at this juncture. With the Lakers, he was still overtaxed as a scorer. Now, it could even be ideal if the superstar ends up turning in a career-low mark with regard to his scoring average. Alas, that scheme will also allow the team to lighten his load and preserve him for April and beyond.
Functioning as the main table-setter is nothing foreign to LeBron, but it will definitely be uncharted territory for him that he will not be primarily counted on to rack up points. The Lakers could not afford to utilize him that way, but the 76ers, as currently constructed, definitely can.
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