Whose Team Will It Be? (Sixers)

[Goldstar88]

Philadelphia now has 3 star players with Embiid, Maxey and Brown. Looks good on paper, but I?m not sure it will work out. This has always been Embiids team. Him and Maxey take a ton of shots. There is only one ball.  How is JB going to react to being a 3rd option? I can?t see him being OK with taking over the PG13 role with them. Would not be surprised if things went sideways for Philly.

[Who]

It will be Embiid's team when he is healthy.

It will be Jaylen's team when Embiid is injured.

It will never be Maxey's team. Although there may be a fight for 2nd option between Maxey & Jaylen when Embiid is healthy. Maxey will naturally have the ball in his hands more often because he is a PG. So that might create friction there.

I imagine all 3 of them will shoot 20 shots a game and nobody else will get to score. Poor Edgecombe will be lost to the selfishness of his teammates. Dean Wade doesn't like to shoot anyways. And they have no bench player that can score. So the 3 stars can take their 20 FGA.

[SparzWizard]

Well, Brown wanted his own team and he's the only one on that squad with "FMVP".

It's got to be Brown's team. Embiid will need to play second fiddle. Maxey will be the #3 guy. Edgecombe the 4th man.

Our division is very stacked. New York, Philly, Toronto and Boston.

[Goldstar88]

It will be Embiid's team when he is healthy.

It will be Jaylen's team when Embiid is injured.

It will never be Maxey's team. Although there may be a fight for 2nd option between Maxey & Jaylen when Embiid is healthy. Maxey will naturally have the ball in his hands more often because he is a PG. So that might create friction there.

I imagine all 3 of them will shoot 20 shots a game and nobody else will get to score. Poor Edgecombe will be lost to the selfishness of his teammates. Dean Wade doesn't like to shoot anyways. And they have no bench player that can score. So the 3 stars can take their 20 FGA.

Agreed. I don?t see any of those guys being willing to sacrifice shot attempts.

[Muzzy66]

Well, Brown wanted his own team and he's the only one on that squad with "FMVP".

It's got to be Brown's team. Embiid will need to play second fiddle. Maxey will be the #3 guy. Edgecombe the 4th man.

Our division is very stacked. New York, Philly, Toronto and Boston.

I really do not see that happening for a few reasons.

Embiid is probably one of THE biggest egomaniacs in the league.  The man has a rediculolus god complex and seems to think he's the center of the universe.  Add this to the fact that he's won an actual MVP (not the "Andre Iguodala" type FMVP treatment) and that he's been the star of this sixers squad for upwards of 10 years, and I don't see him budging on the mentality that he is the guy. 

Maxxey was drafted to this team and has grown with the team from day one and developed into the guy he is.  He's carried this team through the (not insubstantial) number of games that Embiid has missed, and hes been a ballpark top-10 scorer in the league for the past three seasons - Brown cannot say the same.

If you're Embiid and Maxxey - two home grown guys who were have been in Philly since draft day - how are you going to feel about a newcomer who has been a Robin his entire career, suddenly rocking up trying to claim this as his team?  I'd be putting that man in his place real quick. 

I honestly see potential for this to be a huge disaster for Philly.  Not only does this have potentially to completely destroy team chemisty (and the flow of their offence),I'm actuallly more concerned with the defence.  The Sixers ranked 16th in defensive rating last season and they just lost Paul George, who might have been their best defensive player.  Jaylen Brown is going to come in, and due to his reputation as a stopper he's probably going to be expected to take on the opponents best defensive player every night - and with no Queta/Tatum/White as backup I feel there is a high chance that his average off-ball defence will be exposed and that people will realise he might not be the impact defender that people have labelled him as being. 

This has all the signs of being one of those teams that looks amazing on paper, but looks like a chaotic mess on the court.  And given how emotional and edgy JB is as a person, the Embiid's tendacy to throw teammates under the bus, this sounds to me like a disaster waiting to happen. I wouldn't be shocked if JB is throwing tamper tantrums and demanding trades by the end of next season.

Their salary situation is also going to be...intersting.  You have Embiid on $58M, Maxxey on $40M and Brown on $57M - and all of them have 3 years left.  Philly are about $15M over the tax line so they will have pretty much zero ability to add supporting talent...so they will likely be a very top heavy roster relying very heavily on thee guys...one of whom has been so unhealthy that he's practically a meme.  I also can't see Philly extending all three of those guys long term given that they will probably all be eligible for somewhhere int he $60m-$70m/year range...so we could have 3 guys all trying to battle each other to prove they are more worthy of a contract than the others. Yikes. 

If they don't win a title (or AT LEAST make the Finals) in the first year that locker room situation could start getting VERY messy.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Yeah, Brown is the third banana.

Embiid is probably the biggest "everything orbits around me when I'm in the game" player in the league.

And Maxey is beloved by fans and has the most magnetic personality.

Regardless of ppg last year, Brown is the third banana.

[Donoghus]

Embiid is the figurehead but I think Maxey will be the guy.  Could be wrong.  Just a gut feeling.

[LilRip]

Embiid is never healthy. So a Brown-Maxey team will be led by Brown.

If all 3 are in the game, like during the playoffs, that is maybe where I can see how it could unravel. But I think those 3 guys will take all the shots from their teammates and I think they will be fine and I think Maxey will end up looking like Bosh.

It is only when they start losing will it start to implode. As a Cs fan, I am hoping that happens lol

[Goldstar88]

Yeah, Brown is the third banana.

Embiid is probably the biggest "everything orbits around me when I'm in the game" player in the league.

And Maxey is beloved by fans and has the most magnetic personality.

Regardless of ppg last year, Brown is the third banana.

I agree. When Embiid came back in the postseason, he was like a black hole. First game he had 21 shot attempts. Maxey went down to 14 attempts after having 31 shot attempts the game before. JB did not seem to like being the second option behind JT and now he is the 3rd?   I just can?t see those 3 co-existing. Especially Joel and Jaylen. The Egos are too big. Feel like they will clash. Wouldn?t be surprised if JB gets moved again.

[Donoghus]

Maybe this turns into the whole "Bledsoe to the Bills" thing and Sixers end up going nowhere.

(we can only be so lucky)

[jpotter33]

I do think there?s a lot of risk there for them. Say what you want about PG, but he was accepting of his role. How is JB going to react to significantly fewer touches and likely being the third banana instead of the second banana in Boston when he was already not happy with that?

And in that same vein, I?m really interested to see the JT-centric team we have now with much more complementary players in terms of style/fit/role around him.

[Kuberski33]

I can't see this going necessarily well for them. Jaylen demands the ball. Embid needs the ball. Maxey is really good when he has the ball and is ascending. And that's before we get to Edgcombe.  Unless Embid gets hurt again and winds up the shelf for a long time there are gonna be issues.

There is only one basketball. And Philly fans don't take well to lack of success and JB cares what people think of him.  There are no guarantees that this works for them.

[A Future of Stevens]

I do think there?s a lot of risk there for them. Say what you want about PG, but he was accepting of his role. How is JB going to react to significantly fewer touches and likely being the third banana instead of the second banana in Boston when he was already not happy with that?

And in that same vein, I'm really interested to see the JT-centric team we have now with much more complementary players in terms of style/fit/role around him.

I would imagine they made this trade with JB being at least 2nd banana in mind, but we will see.

I could see Tatum (if he fully gets back) having a monster season. I think the record will be similar to this years, with a minor regression just from the East going ALL IN all over the place. The playoffs....will be tough when every team just blitzes Tatum with every defender.

[Goldstar88]

I do think there?s a lot of risk there for them. Say what you want about PG, but he was accepting of his role. How is JB going to react to significantly fewer touches and likely being the third banana instead of the second banana in Boston when he was already not happy with that?

And in that same vein, I?m really interested to see the JT-centric team we have now with much more complementary players in terms of style/fit/role around him.

Exactly. Good luck to Nick Nurse managing all those egos.