What’s Left of The King?

Beckett separates the LeBron myth from the 42-year-old reality, and finds a whole lot the Sixers desperately needed.

LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er. Just had to remind myself; it still feels surreal to type. Our team has added either the best or second-best player of all time, depending on your opinion, to the roster for just the veteran’s minimum, a statement that feels wrong to put into writing.

But best player of all time doesn’t necessarily mean best player right now, and in fact, hasn’t for some years now. How much of the LeBron we’re actually getting matches the myth?

Let’s start with the negative. First, LeBron last season was not the nearly the scorer he once was in his prime. His pure scoring volume at 31.0 points per 100 possessions was below every season of his career besides his rookie year (though it’s mind-boggling that that’s a low number for him). And his scoring efficiency, while far from poor at +1.6 rTS% (true shooting percentage relative to league average), wasn’t near the unstoppable level he has shown capable of. This becomes even more pronounced when you consider his declining three-point proficiency (31.7% from deep, his lowest in a decade) and the fact that his shots are being created for him more frequently than ever — 53.9% of his made field goals were assisted, the highest rate of his career by five percentage points.

His efficiency numbers (-1.6 rTS%) also took a clear step back in this past year’s playoffs, when he was without his co-stars and became the focus of the opposing defense. This isn’t a player who’s going to drop 50 points on the regular anymore — he might not even crack 30 that often, as he only did so six times last year — and we don’t necessarily want that to be his role regardless.

His overall impact metrics show the same story. They aren’t poor necessarily; he still has a net positive on/off rating at +2.3 points per 100 possessions. But he’s also not carrying the team on his back alone anymore like he was as recently as 2023-24 (+9.9 points per 100 possessions) — needless to say, LeBron is no longer capable of willing a team to the NBA Finals on his lonesome like he did in his Cleveland years.

However, what he still brings to the table matters more than the bits and pieces that have been lost over the years.

LeBron’s passing in particular stands out, in both volume and impact. He has ranked above the 89th percentile in the NBA for his position in potential assists every year of his career since the stat was created in 2013-14, a trend that continued last season even as he took a step back in usage alongside Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. Many of those opportunities are creating high-value looks for teammates as well, with around half of his assists coming at the rim — generating easy shots for teammates is one of the most valuable skills in basketball.

That playmaking is desperately needed for the Sixers, who ranked 28th in the league last season in assist rate. LeBron’s 34.1% assist percentage — the percentage of teammates’ made shots a player assisted on when they were on the floor — was good for 14th-best in the NBA, even with Doncic (6th at 38.7%) on his team. For reference, this would have easily been the highest of any player on the Sixers by far last season — the best playmaking Sixer by assist percentage was Tyrese Maxey at 28.9%, and the closest after him was a glorious 22 games of Cam Payne at 21.8%. This is a level of playmaker the Sixers haven’t seen since James Harden left.

Another area of continued success that I find to be a bit underrated is his durability. While a lot has been made about LeBron’s health — and to be fair, he has taken a slight step back from his previous years playing 80+ games — he’s actually been incredibly durable for his age. He played 70+ regular-season games in both 2023-24 and 2024-25 and played 60 regular-season games last season. The total games played between those three years is more than our own durable star in Maxey since 2023, and only two games fewer over the same time period than Jaylen Brown, a player who we have been rightfully excited about for his durability specifically. We may not need LeBron to continue that volume of games this season, but I don’t think the narrative surrounding him as injury-prone is particularly fair given his recent play.

LeBron James Is a Sixer and I Still Don't Believe It

He’s also still a terrific defensive rebounder, a fact that will surely make Mike extremely happy. His per-game and per-possession numbers have barely shifted on the defensive glass even as he’s gotten older, which should help him continue to generate the frequent transition possessions he is so known for. The rest of his defense has taken a step back in the regular season in both the eye test and some advanced catch-all metrics, but in the playoffs he is still an overall net positive due to his basketball IQ and understanding of positioning and team defense.

That intelligence isn’t just a defensive weapon, as I’m excited to see the impact his leadership and IQ could have on the rest of the players on the roster. LeBron’s 1,924 total games played in his career are more than the rest of the Sixers’ projected starting lineup of Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Brown, and Joel Embiid combined. He has played nearly four full NBA seasons’ worth of playoff games in his career. This is a level of experience that is indispensable, particularly for younger players like Maxey and Edgecombe who are still learning how to win in the playoffs when the intensity ramps up. He has played for and against every offense and defense under the sun and can be another coach on the floor (not the Kyle Lowry version) for the team.

LeBron is clearly not going to offer anything close to his MVP-peak at age 42. However, given the impressive lack of drop-off in many areas at that age and the incredibly small contract the Sixers had to pay to get him, this is a steal of astronomic proportions. This kind of signing is precisely what the Sixers needed to offset the should-be-crippling money they have tied up in Joel Embiid, Brown, and Maxey. (Who knew, the way around the new restrictive CBA apron is just to sign a four-time Finals MVP on a minimum?)

For once, the myth and the reality point in the same direction. No, we’re not getting 2013 LeBron, but we’re getting exactly the version a 28th-ranked passing team badly lacking in cohesion and leadership was praying for. And we’re basically getting him for free. Did I mention how this still doesn’t feel real yet?