Nick Nurse stayed true to his word and rolled out the Philadelphia 76ers' projected starting five in the NBA preseason.
When the Philadelphia 76ers paid a visit to the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, LeBron James, and Jaylen Brown were all rolled out for a partial shift.
There was a lot of promise. Some rust, of course. But best of all... No injuries! The Sixers didn't come away with the win in the end, falling short with a 114-108 loss against a young and aggressive Nets team, but the starting five did enough to generate some overreactions to think about.
Buying or selling the overreaction
Joel Embiid is cooked
Four out of five players looked good. Joel Embiid is the one who struggled. He checked in for 24 minutes, producing six points with 1-for-5 shooting, along with three rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block. He turned the ball over eight times. His career-high in that category is nine--achieved in 2018.
Joel Embiid's history of injuries will certainly lead to this question at the start of each upcoming season until his career ends. Is he cooked? In a way, Embiid looks like this every fall. When he's rusty, it's ugly.
Buying or selling? Selling. I don't know if he's got any more MVP runs in him, but he's not going to look like that for much longer.
LeBron, the assist king?
LeBron James became the Sixers' best passer the moment he signed with the team. It's in the numbers and it shows up on the tape.
Seeing as though the 76ers have plenty of scoring star power surrounding him, James is getting assist-champion hype early on. Those passing highlights (five assists in 18 minutes) are laughably good.
Buying or selling? Buying. It's not going to be easy. LeBron will have to average double-digit assists, which he's done only once in his career, in 2019-2020. He just made it look so easy, and the Sixers are going to rely on him for it.
Jaylen Brown leads the team in scoring
Out of the starting five, Jaylen Brown and VJ Edgecombe are the only two to appear in both preseason games. Without the others, Brown put up 22 points in 17 minutes, leading the 76ers in scoring. For the second game, he checked in for 24 minutes, producing 18 points. Once again, he was the leader in the scoring department.
Buying or selling? Buying. It's going to be close. Ultimately, I think Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown are going to be neck and neck, but Maxey might be focused on balancing the playmaking and scoring, giving Brown the slight edge.
VJ Edgecombe takes a step back
Statistically, it feels almost inevitable, right? There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. So, for box score watchers, they might feel that way about what Edgecombe is about to bring to the table.
But nothing in these first two games suggests that the sophomore guard isn't going to have another impactful season. Edgecombe has been flying around and playing with the same confidence.
Buying or selling? Selling.
Too many alphas
Sorry, Jaylen Brown. You've all played alpha roles. It is what it is. Are there too many No. 1s to settle for different spots on the pecking order? That is the biggest question for this Sixers team heading into the regular season.
There are highlights from Thursday's game that suggest this will work because talent will prevail. There are also lowlights that hint that there might be some on-court confusion about who the go-to player should be in specific moments.
Buying or selling? I'm standing here undecided, truth be told. For the sake of exercise, I'll rent it for now. I'm confident the Sixers are going to be good no matter what, but I've seen enough superteams to know to keep expectations in check.
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