Last week, ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst conveyed that the Philadelphia 76ers trading for Jaylen Brown made them serious suitors in the LeBron James sweepstakes.
Fellow NBA insider Shams Charania confirmed this and then some during a July 7 conversation with Stephen A. Smith.
Charania initially said that after checking around the league, he has heard that the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Miami Heat, and the Philadelphia 76ers are the teams that he keeps hearing about as LeBron’s top free agency fits at this point.
“Philadelphia, after they got the Jaylen Brown [trade done]. Philadelphia was not in the picture [before that],” Charania said.
He then spoke about how James didn’t necessarily have a free agency plan in place headed into this offseason because there’s no clear indication about how much money he’ll try to secure.
Charania then added, “When the Sixers got Jaylen Brown, I did some research and I found out within 24 hours, [LeBron is] taking their pitch really seriously. So, when I look at it, when I talk to teams now, I have a hierarchy of Cleveland, Miami, Philadelphia, and then some teams on the peripheral.”
The 76ers stand out among these three teams at the top of James’ “hierarchy”, if only because it’s the only franchise among the trio that James hasn’t played with before.
It’s clear that LeBron is looking to compete for another NBA championship before retiring, and the 76ers’ addition of Jaylen Brown to pair with Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, and VJ Edgecombe already makes them one of the Eastern Conference’s most talented rosters on paper.
Adding LeBron to that mix would make them even more lethal and probably cement them as favorites in the East.
Of course, things can change very fast in free agency. But Philadelphia has become one of the most compelling teams to watch regarding LeBron.
