After the Philadelphia 76ers won the highly vaunted bidding war for LeBron James, everyone expected the team to get one of the best closers and playmakers the league has ever seen. Little did they know that the megastar could end up being one of their potential solutions to their backup center conundrum –– a possibility recently floated around by none other than Nick Nurse himself amid the team's flimsy depth at the position.
As per The Philly Voice's Adam Aaronson, Nurse bared that LeBron is a candidate on the roster to fortify the team's center rotation behind their current crop of big men in Joel Embiid, Adem Bona, Dominick Barlow, and Jabari Walker. While James has the necessary tools to play some spot minutes as a nominal center, no one definitely expected him to even be a possible option to play the five this season.
The 76ers may ask LeBron James to take on a role nobody saw coming
James has actually played a considerable number of times at the center position in the past, especially during the 2021-22 season with the Lakers. In that campaign, he spent 50 percent of his time on the court as the nominal center for his team, thanks in large part to Anthony Davis being limited to just 40 games and Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan being too old to be banked on.
At this point, in view of the limited availability of their backup big men and the untimely season-ending injury to Ariel Hukporti, the 76ers are now probably anticipating a similar situation, hence the possibility of deploying LeBron at the center position.
Of course, that is a scenario the team likely did not envision when they signed James. While Nurse and the coaching staff have not yet resorted to that, an argument could be made that playing LeBron at the five bears more risks than benefits for the most part.
James is already 41 years old, and expecting him to bang bodies with opposing bigs, even if only in spurts, will take a toll on his body. The 76ers have to place a strong emphasis on preserving his body, and the thought of him playing at center is simply counterintuitive to that effect.
For now, that remains an idea that has not yet materialized, but the 76ers definitely did not sign James to play center for them this season. Hopefully, the coaches exercise restraint in resorting to that option, lest the superstar could get taxed when the stakes are high.
Add us as a preferred source on Google