If the 76ers are going to squeeze real value out of a lineup packed with star names, the best blueprint might come from a team they’d rather not admire too closely.
Philadelphia is headed into the 2026-27 season with four All-NBA players in the starting five: Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, LeBron James, and Tyrese Maxey. V.J. Edgecombe is in the mix too, and he could carve out a defensive specialist role, but he still needs the kind of offensive reps that only come from playing through mistakes and learning on the fly.
That’s a lot of talent, and a lot of mouths to feed. The cleanest way to make it all function is to look back at the 2023-24 Boston Celtics, who won a title with a roster that had its own share of star power and overlapping responsibilities.
Boston’s championship group leaned on Brown and Jayson Tatum as the main offensive engines, but the rest of the roster was hardly standing around. Kristaps Porzingis gave them 20.1 points in 29.6 minutes per game.
Jrue Holiday arrived as an All-Star and NBA champion. Derrick White needed touches as both a scorer and a playmaker.
Even Payton Pritchard and Al Horford had to be fit into meaningful roles.
On paper, that kind of setup can look crowded fast. In practice, the Celtics made it work by building around defense, assigning clear jobs on offense, and spreading isolation chances as evenly as possible.
That’s the lesson for Philadelphia. The 76ers’ roster is not a carbon copy of Boston’s, but the broad idea translates: if the defense is elite, the offense has more room to breathe.
Boston’s title team was defined by defense first. Every player, whether he was a stopper or simply a solid contributor, bought into that identity. The Celtics finished No. 2 in the NBA in defensive rating and opponent field goal percentage, and No. 4 in opponent three-point field goal percentage.
For the 76ers, that has to be the starting point. Their stars need to set the tone on that end, and the encouraging part is that the core includes plenty of players who are willing defenders. That gives Philadelphia a real chance to build something similar.
The other piece is sorting out the offense without forcing everyone into the same lane. The shape of that arrangement is still unclear, but there’s a strong case for James as the primary playmaker, Brown and Maxey carrying the biggest scoring load, Edgecombe choosing his spots, and Embiid managing his regular-season workload to cut down on wear and tear.
However the 76ers divide things up, the Celtics’ model points to the same conclusion: defense has to come first. Once that’s in place, the offensive roles become a much easier puzzle to solve.
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