00:00LeBron James has finally made his decision 9.3 or whatever it's going to be.
00:06He's decided on Philadelphia, and with absolutely no history whatsoever with Philadelphia,
00:16we saw a lot of the prediction markets looking at, you know, Miami and Cleveland and maybe
00:22Steph Curry and Golden State, but you and I both knew he was never staying in the Western Conference.
00:30But Philadelphia, for $8 million on two years, says this will be his last announcement.
00:36I'll believe that when I see it.
00:38But the Philadelphia Sixers, did you run out and bet your championship ticket yet on that news?
00:46I did not.
00:47We have seen a little bit of odds movement for Philly in terms of championship along with
00:52the Eastern Conference.
00:53They're just, you know, half a step behind the Knicks in the Eastern Conference, you know,
00:57up in that top tier or that second tier, we should really call it when it comes to the
01:01NBA title overall.
01:03But I think this honestly is a good role fit for LeBron and having an emerging player like
01:11Vijay Edgecombe having, I'm going to say, a star with Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brown in the mix.
01:17LeBron, it doesn't have to be all on his shoulders, which is frankly a pretty good thing.
01:21And same thing with Embiid.
01:22And everyone's going to talk about, oh, if Embiid's healthy, well, if they just manage
01:25things properly, you have any one player in the lineup, and you have four of them, really,
01:30I'm not going to put Edgecombe in there yet, but you have four different players in the
01:33lineup, that could give you 30 a night.
01:35And if you could rotate these guys in, have a solid health plan for all of them, you'll
01:39be healthy rolling into the postseason, and that team looks pretty dangerous at that
01:42point.
01:43So I think from a player standpoint, LeBron doesn't have to do the heavy lifting.
01:47It's a pretty good fit.
01:48I think the 76ers at this point are unbettable, just because if you don't have them pre-flop,
01:53you should not be betting them into the number at this point.
01:57Well, I mean, they also wasn't the only move they made in the offseason, right?
02:00They brought in Anthony Simons.
02:02They brought in Dean Wade.
02:04And the only, you know, and of course, Jalen Brown.
02:08So, you know, to go with Edgecombe and Maxey, yeah, I get it from a basketball standpoint.
02:15I, there's zero connection with LeBron in Philadelphia for a farewell tour here.
02:21And boy, it's going to be something else.
02:23If you get bounced out because Embiid can't play in the postseason again in the first round,
02:28that's going to be kind of awkward.
02:30But aren't you a little worried about, it's one thing to try to protect Embiid and keep
02:36them ready for the post.
02:37Now you got two dudes in that bucket that you got to keep healthy the entire season in
02:44order to have them during the postseason.
02:46It's hard enough to keep one guy in that situation.
02:49Now you got to keep two of them.
02:52Yeah, that is certainly going to be the task at hand for the 76ers management for the, you
02:58know, the strength and conditioning, the training staff.
03:00That is going to be their top priority.
03:03You know, they got to have a very firm plan going into the season.
03:06This is something that we're going to constantly hear questions about, constantly hear, oh,
03:09he's going to miss a week, whether it be LeBron, whether it be Embiid.
03:13But they need to have a solid plan going into the season.
03:16And frankly, I think they stack up well, at least in the Eastern Conference.
03:19And we mentioned this kind of briefly yesterday, that going back to Lakers or going to the
03:26Golden State Warriors just didn't make sense knowing that you're always looking up at
03:29the mountain that the Thunder and the Spurs are.
03:32So just getting to the conference finals in the West seems a bit tough.
03:36Now with the East, the Celtics are a bit weakened with no Jalen Brown.
03:39What's their offense going to look like?
03:40We're not sure where we're going to get from Giannis in the heat.
03:43The Knicks obviously are still there with a very solid team.
03:46But the East is far more wide open.
03:48There are far more contenders in the East compared to the West, which is just too big of a hill
03:52to climb.
03:54Yeah.
03:54And now it's interesting because the fallout from this is, all right, if the Warriors were
04:00really thinking he was coming back, I guess they got to bring back Draymond now.
04:06Still some issues with that team there as far as youth goes.
04:11And then as far as, listen, the Cavaliers, you just gave all of that money to Donovan Mitchell
04:17again.
04:17You're still stuck with Harden.
04:20You know, there's, OK, great.
04:22You're still going to do what you were going to do anyway.
04:25Miami was still going to need to go out and find some other cheap pieces to be able to
04:32plug and play in there anyway.
04:34So, you know, the Sixers, it's a great luxury to have, but I don't think it changes my mind
04:39on the direction of the Miami Heat or the Cleveland Cavs.
04:43I don't think LeBron going there would have made them the favorite in the East.
04:49I still think the Knicks are the team to beat.
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