Everyone keeps worrying about the Lakers nabbing Lebron, and I get it bc it's showtime, hollywood, etc. etc. etc.
But if Lebron really wants to catch Jordan, he's not going to LA. Unfortunately, I think PHILLY is the organization we have to worry about. Not only do they have a cheap young core of Embiid, Simmons, Fultz and Saric and enough cap space to take 2-3 max FAs next season when Lebron is a FA, but the org. is run by the Colangelos now who Lebron knows well from the Olympics, at a minimum.
Philly is the team to be scared of here...
Why would Lebron want to play with a bunch of 21 year old kids who aren't mature enough to win a title? This makes no sense whatsoever.
what if they win 40+ games this year? In that scenario they would look like a team on the verge and you would assume all those young kids would only get better. Lebron could then be on a team that could be a contender for the remainder of his career even as he gets worse.
The Sixers can't really afford two max contracts though as Embiid's cap hold puts them at just under 60 million and Covington's is another 1.5 million (though if they dumped Okafor and Bayless for no return salary, they might get close to 2 maxes). It would be an interesting team if they could some how finagle James and another max level player to pair with Fultz, Simmons, Embiid, Covington, Saric, and the collection of young bench depth (Holmes, McConnell, Korkmaz, Luwawu-Caborrat, Anderson, 2018 rookie) plus whatever veteran minimum guys would end up there.
Again though, I don't see it as a realistic option unless the Sixers young guys put together a .500 or better type team and show that they have high end championship-caliber promise (I personally think they do, but don't think James ends up there unless they can create room for a second max as I don't think James wants to shoulder that much of the load, but if the Sixers also added in Westbrook, George, etc. then I think he would really consider them).