Jeff Teague isn’t buying the idea that the Philadelphia 76ers have simply lapped the Miami Heat by landing LeBron James.
On his Club 520 Podcast, the former NBA guard made the case that Miami is the better team right now, even after James chose Philadelphia and turned the 76ers into one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference.
“I got Miami Heat better than Philly,” Teague said.
When co-host Bishop “Bhen” Hendricks pushed back and said Teague was lying, Teague didn’t budge. Asked whether he was factoring in any future roster moves, he kept it simple.
“No pending,” Teague said. “… I’m rolling with the Heat. Better season than the Sixers.”
That’s a tough sell in most NBA circles. Miami spent the offseason gutting its roster to bring in Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks, and the team still has major holes to patch after missing out on James, who was supposed to help fill some of them.
Playmaking is one of the biggest questions, and that problem doesn’t exist for Philadelphia anymore. The 76ers can now line up James, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, and Joel Embiid as a starting five that looks loaded on paper.
Teague, though, sees Miami’s side differently. He pointed to Antetokounmpo as the kind of force nobody can really handle, noting that he averaged 27.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game for the Bucks in 2025-26.
He also likes the Heat’s defensive options, saying Andrew Wiggins can bother Brown and Davion Mitchell can slow down Maxey.
“We lock up,” Teague said. “Everybody on that team can guard.
We lock up. And we going to be trapping ball screens.
We going to do all type of wild s*** that y’all ain’t never even seen… [The Heat] got an easier team to plug and play.”
Even with that confidence, Miami’s roster still doesn’t stack up cleanly against Philadelphia’s. The expected starting group of Mitchell, Tim Hardaway Jr., Wiggins, Antetokounmpo, and Bam Adebayo brings size and versatility, but the shooting and playmaking issues remain obvious. The bench also looks thin, with Bobby Portis, Pelle Larsson, and Simone Fontecchio among the main names currently set to lead that group.
That lack of depth is part of why one NBA analyst believed the Heat would have been a play-in team if they had missed on James. Miami will keep looking for backup options, but there doesn’t appear to be a major difference-maker available now.
The roster should look cleaner by the time the season gets here, but the source of the concern hasn’t changed much: the Heat don’t look like a title team. Philadelphia does. The 76ers may need some time to settle in with all that star power, but the expectation is that they’ll be fine by the second half of the season.
For Miami, this offseason may end up being remembered as the one that got away. The Heat did land Antetokounmpo, but if James had picked them instead, the conversation around their championship chances would look a lot different.
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The bigger challenge for Philadelphia is that the pressure is not just coming from outside. LeBron James reportedly chose the 76ers because he believed they offered the best chance to win, which only raises the stakes for a team still trying to prove its foundation is sturdy enough for that kind of expectation. For now, the Sixers have the talent to command attention, but the questions Williams raised are the ones that usually linger until the games start to decide them. [Read more 🡒]
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Sixers Just Made The Kind Of Move That Changes Everything
Golden State had more than one chance to get into the Jaylen Brown business and passed each time, a decision that now looks even more notable after Brown ended up elsewhere. The Warriors hesitation came amid internal disagreement, and the price tag being discussed around the deal only added to the complexity, with Boston seeking a hefty return that made the whole thing harder to swallow.
For Philadelphia, the ripple effect is the part worth watching. Browns arrival has already changed the temperature around the roster, and the Sixers suddenly find themselves in a far more intriguing position than they were a short time ago. Meanwhile, the Warriors are leaning toward continuity after bringing back Draymond Green, which only sharpens the contrast between a team trying to keep its core intact and another that may have just altered its trajectory. [Read more 🡒]