Preseason is giving the Philadelphia 76ers something they badly need: a real chance to run out their new-look starting group together.
According to Philly Voice’s Adam Aaronson, Nick Nurse said it is likely that all of the players projected to make up the starting five will be available for what amounts to the team’s dress rehearsal for the season. That matters, especially with older players in the mix, because the 76ers should get a first real look at how this reshaped core fits on the floor.
Barring anything unexpected, Philadelphia is expected to open with Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James, and Joel Embiid. Nurse has long favored putting his best five on the court, and this preseason gives the coaching staff a chance to see exactly how that group functions together before the games start counting.
That is a much different situation from last year. James and Embiid both sat out the preseason then.
James, who was still with the Lakers at the time, was dealing with sciatica and did not take part in camp. Embiid was still working his way back from knee surgery he had last summer.
Neither absence would have been a surprise. James is the oldest active player in the league, and a later ramp-up makes sense. Embiid, even with reports that he is healthier than he has been in a while, still needs to be handled carefully.
This time, though, the 76ers appear headed for something more useful: actual reps with the full group. That gives Nurse and his staff a chance to experiment with combinations and settle on ways to ease the team into the regular season.
James is expected to be the primary playmaker, which makes his fit with Maxey, Edgecombe, and Brown especially important to evaluate. All of them are most dangerous when the ball is in their hands, so the preseason should offer a better sense of how that balance works.
Embiid remains the centerpiece as Philadelphia’s top one-on-one scorer, but the team is also putting a clear emphasis on defense around him this season.
For the 76ers, that makes this preseason stretch more valuable than usual. The games won’t count in the standings, but they do count for a team trying to get a revamped core ready for an 82-game grind and whatever comes after that.
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