Given the waning margin of error in the Eastern Conference, the 76ers should definitely want to win as many games as possible in the regular season and finish as a top seed. That being said, it appears that their staff is placing a higher premium on health as can be gleaned from their most recent decision to sit LeBron James out on the first leg of their upcoming back-to-back indicates.
James has already been ruled out for Philly's game against the Bucks. The team is calling it sciatica management, which is simply a more fleshed-out way of saying that they are resting him and managing his load. Unless LeBron is truly bothered by that injury, there is really no other way to justify his absence than the team simply being conservative with the 41-year-old superstar, given that all players are still relatively fresh as the season had just begun.
The 76ers could be planning on keeping LeBron out of back-to-backs
The 76ers have a unique luxury as they have four All-NBA-caliber players on the roster, meaning that they should remain highly lethal even if one or two of their stars take the night off. Thanks to their newly revamped core, the coaching and training staffs can afford to be less exacting from their older commodities like Joel Embiid and James.
James dealt with sciatica last season which caused him to miss the start of the previous campaign, so to be fair, there is an actual discomfort to speak of. But the bigger picture here is the fact that it looks like the 76ers are considering keeping LeBron out of back-to-backs this season, which means that people should probably expect more absences from the King by design moving forward.
LeBron is less than a couple of months away from celebrating his 42nd birthday. As such, the 76ers sitting him out on one leg of back-to-backs is not only an exercise of caution, but the clearly right thing to do. Overexerting him in November will simply not do the team any good, given that keeping him fresh for April and beyond should be the priority.
By purposely not trotting out a full deck, the 76ers could eventually find themselves having to sacrifice some wins in the regular season. But given how talented this team is, health is the priority, and with LeBron, keeping him as fresh as possible for the playoffs could very well be the deciding factor between Philly winning the championship and settling for second place, if not worse.
Add us as a preferred source on Google