NEW YORK - The Sixers didn’t need long to find out what LeBron James can do for this offense.
About two minutes into Thursday’s preseason game against the Brooklyn Nets, James had already slipped into the role he seemed built to play in Philadelphia: the guy seeing the whole floor, setting the table, and making everything around him easier. VJ Edgecombe caught on immediately.
James worked the ball from the left corner toward the foul line, then glanced toward Tyrese Maxey on the right wing. Edgecombe read it, cut hard from the right corner, and James fired a one-handed, no-look bounce pass that turned into the simplest dunk of Edgecombe’s life.
"It’s just all a read," Edgecombe said after the exhibition. "Obviously, someone like him just requires so much gravity and attracts so much attention that I’ve just got to play off of him. And that’s cutting, running the floor, spotting up, whatever."
That one sequence was the cleanest snapshot of what the Sixers are trying to build. In his first official game in a Sixers uniform, James spent the night creating instead of hunting.
He worked as a short roller, zipped hit-ahead passes in transition and carved up Brooklyn with half-court assists. Whether or not he wears the point guard label, he was clearly running the offense.
James’ feel for the game gave the Sixers a different gear, especially in the first quarter, when he piled up all five of his assists. It looked like he was experimenting with a new set of toys, and the roster gives him plenty to play with. Maxey and Edgecombe, two of the fastest players in the NBA, give Philadelphia a backcourt that can turn one pass into a layup in a blink.
"You’ve got to sprint," Edgecombe said, "and you’ve got to be ready for the outlet pass. You never know when the ball’s going to come your way."
That transition game has become a clear priority for the Sixers through two preseason outings. On Thursday, it showed up in the form of quick hit-ahead passes after Nets makes, leading to baskets and fouls before Brooklyn could get organized. Nick Nurse has made it clear he wants the ball moving fast, and he explained before the game why the pass is such a key part of that idea.
"The ball travels faster through the pass. So I think if you do want to play with pace, being able to get it up the floor via the pass is always important," Nurse said.
"I think the increased full-court pressure that's kind of developed over the last two seasons in the league - if you're getting jammed in the backcourt, you obviously can throw it ahead. Now you're playing in - maybe not [a] numbers advantage, but you're playing in smaller numbers, i.e., 4-on-4 or 3-on-3 or whatever.
So that's always important, too."
James said the same basic thing in his own way after the game, pointing to the value of attacking before the defense gets set and stressing how much easier that becomes with Maxey, Edgecombe and Jaylen Brown on the floor.
"I think it's always important just to be able to attack offensively before the defense is set," James said. "So anytime we can get some early transition points or early attacks against defenses that's not set, or you know, you've got VJ, you've got Tyrese, you've got JB, we're able to punch gaps, especially if they have a numbers advantage, or even a one-on-one advantage, the guys are not going to really be able to stay in front of them. So it's great we [connected] on a couple of them tonight."
For a while, the Sixers looked like a team with a lot of possibilities. Then the game got messy.
After the early burst, Philadelphia slipped into a stretch of sloppy turnovers and mistimed possessions. The second quarter alone brought 11 turnovers, and the lineups on the floor often looked like combinations of players still figuring each other out. That wasn’t exactly a mystery to anyone watching.
"We just had turnovers, but they're all unselfish turnovers," Edgecombe said. "It's like, we’re-trying-to-pass-to-each-other type of turnovers."
Some of those mistakes were the result of too much generosity. Joel Embiid had eight of the team’s turnovers, and he acknowledged that turnovers have often piled up for him early in seasons.
More broadly, the Sixers are trying to mesh a group with five players who are used to having the ball in their hands. That kind of adjustment doesn’t happen overnight, and everyone in the starting group has said as much.
Still, the first preseason look made one thing plain: when James is orchestrating, the Sixers have a chance to make the game bend to them. And if Thursday was any indication, he’s already acting like the quarterback of the 2026-27 Sixers offense.
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