The NBA’s LeBron James Free-Agency Watch is finally over. James announced Friday that he’s signing with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year deal worth nearly $8 million.
In doing so, he upended the league’s 2026-27 championship picture.
Heading into the offseason, the Sixers opened as +6000 favorites to win the championship. After they traded for Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown at the start of free agency, they jumped to +2200, putting them behind only the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks and the Celtics.
After signing LeBron, they’re now +1000 to win the 2026-27 title. The Spurs (+260) and Thunder (+260) are still the two clear favorites, but the Sixers are right behind the reigning-champion Knicks (+900) and are now ahead of the Celtics (+1400).
“A source familiar with James’ thinking” told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that “James’ choice hinged on the pursuit of a fifth championship. After weighing his options, he landed on Philadelphia as the best situation for that.”
If the Thunder and Spurs weren’t under serious consideration and the Knicks were out after just winning the 2026 title, the Sixers were LeBron’s next-best option, as evidenced by their surge up the title-odds leaderboard. However, there is no shortage of skeptics questioning how much the King’s arrival in Philly moves the needle on this year’s championship race.
There’s no guarantee that the new-look Sixers coalesce in time—and, more importantly, get to mid-April in one piece—but anyone rushing to declare them a disaster in the making is missing the forest for the trees.
How Does LeBron Fit In Philly?
After the Sixers introduced Mike Gansey as their new president of basketball operations in early June, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment president of sports Bob Myers—the architect of a four-time champion in Golden State—identified his chief concern with his new club.
“We’ve got to find an identity,” Myers told reporters. “We just don’t have one. That may be a harsh thing to say, but look at the numbers. We were not elite offensively or defensively. If you’re going to win at the highest level, you’ve got to be great at something.”
It’s safe to say the Sixers have an identity now.
If anything, LeBron might be the connective tissue that they were missing. Although Tyrese Maxey has made major strides as a playmaker in recent years, he isn’t a natural point guard like Chris Paul or Tyrese Haliburton. He averaged a career-high 6.6 assists per game this past season, but scoring is more of his forte.
LeBron should help Maxey operate more off the ball this coming season, which was a stated goal of Gansey’s coming into the summer. Maxey is a lethal catch-and-shoot threat, and his lightning-quick first step makes him a dangerous cutter as well.
Having an all-time great passer in LeBron helping to orchestrate the offense should make everyone around him better. That includes star center Joel Embiid, who’s about to receive the cleanest entry passes in his decade-plus-long NBA career.
It’s fair to wonder whether the Sixers have enough long-range shooting in their starting lineup. Among their starting five, Maxey shot the best at 36.7% from deep last year. However, the Sixers aren’t likely to have hockey-style lineup changes where all five starters come out at once. Anfernee Simons, who’s a career 38.1% shooter from distance on high volume, figures to see plenty of time alongside some of the starters.
Defense is arguably the Sixers’ bigger concern, although that may be somewhat overblown as well. They finished 17th in defensive rating last season, and that was with both Embiid and Paul George missing roughly half the year.
Even if Embiid misses 20-plus games again, the Sixers are now better insulated against defensive slippage in part because their offense projects to be so much better. That should lead to fewer transition opportunities for opponents off missed shots.
The Sixers are combining a bunch of high-usage players, which naturally leads to questions about their crunch-time hierarchy and whether the NBA will allow them to play with three balls instead of one. However, all three of Embiid, Maxey and Brown recruited James directly, according to McMenamin. One would imagine their pitch was tailored around their willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.
The bigger question is what comes next for the Sixers.
Do The Sixers Have Other Moves Coming?
Roughly 12 hours after LeBron announced his decision, longtime NBA reporter Chris Haynes broke the news that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is negotiating a buyout with the Memphis Grizzlies and intends to join the Sixers once that’s complete.
Caldwell-Pope spent three years alongside LeBron in L.A. and won a championship with him in 2019-20. However, the Sixers currently don’t have enough room under their first-apron hard cap to officially sign LeBron or KCP.
Heading into Friday, the Sixers were only $3.4 million below the $209 million first apron. Since they split their non-taxpayer mid-level exception between Dean Wade and Simons, they’re hard-capped at the first apron, which means they cannot cross that threshold under any circumstance between now and June 30.
Because James signed a two-year veteran-minimum contract rather than a one-year deal, his full $3.9 million cap hit will go on the Sixers’ books. Had he signed a one-year deal, he would have counted as only $2.4 million. That means the Sixers would be nearly $500,000 over the first apron once they signed LeBron, which isn’t allowed.
To give themselves enough wiggle room under the hard cap to sign James, the Sixers figure to waive Dalen Terry, whose $2.6 million contract is fully non-guaranteed. To make room for Caldwell-Pope, they’ll likely look to either trade Johni Broome or Jabari Walker or waive Walker, who only has $250,000 of his $2.6 million deal guaranteed.
If the Sixers do waive both Terry and Walker, they’d be roughly $2.0 million under the first apron once they officially sign James and Caldwell-Pope. They’ll have only 14 players under contract, but they won’t have enough room under the hard cap to sign a 15th player unless he’s an undrafted rookie free agent.
Luckily, veteran-minimum contracts begin to prorate once the season begins. The Sixers may choose to keep that roster spot open until the February trade deadline to give themselves extra flexibility, but by that point of the season, they’ll have plenty of wiggle room to sign someone to a minimum deal if they don’t fill that open roster spot via trade.
After adding James and Brown to the core of Maxey, Embiid and Edgecombe, the Sixers could become a premium landing spot for ring-chasers, too. Caldwell-Pope might not be the last player who’s looking to hop on board with the Sixers for cheap.
Even in the wake of their offseason overhaul, the Sixers are by no means guaranteed to win a championship in 2026-27. It takes time for rosters to coalesce, particularly when they’ve undergone this much of an overhaul.
But there’s no denying the ceiling of the Sixers with LeBron in tow. After getting swept out of the second round by the eventual-champion Knicks last year, the Sixers now have legitimate title aspirations of their own heading into the 2026-27 campaign.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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