LeBron James has made his “final decision”, signing with the Philadelphia 76ers on a two-year, $8 million deal. 

Does this make the 76ers a real threat to the New York Knicks?

Examining Philly’s roster construction

This Sixers team is extremely top-heavy; outside of the starting five, there really isn’t much threat of scoring.

Philadelphia lost Quentin Grimes, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Andre Drummond to free agency, and Paul George in the Jaylen Brown trade.

In addition to James, Philly traded for Brown and signed Ariel Hukporti, Dean Wade, and Anfernee Simons.

Simons is coming off his worst season since 2021, averaging 14 points on 55.2% EFG%, while only playing 55 games and getting dished out to a tanking Chicago team.

They have a promising guard for the future in Labaron Philon Jr., who averaged 22 points on 50.1/39.9/79.8 splits for Alabama.

To the Knicks’ advantage, neither Simons nor Philon are exactly premier defenders.

As for New York’s bench, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson, Jose Alvarado, and Mohamed Diawara returned, with Drummond coming over from Philly through free agency.

Along with the new longest-tenured Knick, Deuce McBride, the reigning champions have a clear lead in depth.

As for their starters, they have one of the most formidable in the Association; all five players are All-Star caliber.

It may strike fear in some, but the Knicks have seen and matched up with all of these players well as of late.

Top-to-bottom matchups

For Tyrese Maxey, the Knicks have Mikal Bridges.

Bridges was Maxey’s fifth-most-played-against opponent during the regular season and second-most-played-against opponent during the playoffs.

In 93 possessions in the regular season, Maxey averaged just 15.3 points per 75 possessions. During the playoffs, Maxey averaged just 7.5 points on 43.8% true shooting across 140 possessions.

VJ Edgecombe will have Jalen Brunson.

Edgecombe has taken advantage of the Brunson matchup in both the regular season and playoffs, with Brunson being one of his most-seen opponents.

But with all the other weapons for Philadelphia, it’ll have to do.

The ex-Celtic, Jaylen Brown, will be most likely be matched up with OG Anunoby.

Choosing between Brown and James as Anunoby’s matchup is a difficult decision, but I believe James will take more of a pass-first, playmaking role in this offense.

Last season, Brown averaged just 10 points per 75 possessions on 36.8% true shooting against Anunoby.

With Hart being dominated in his matchup last season against Brown, it only makes sense for him to take James, as it seems likely that James is willing to take on a complementary role.

In an X thread, James made it clear his main goal was to win a championship. 

“I’m not going for money. I’m not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point?” James said. “I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship. I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team…”

Joining a team with this much scoring talent on such a cheap deal shows he’s ready to take a back seat and do what they need him to do. That makes it ideal for the Knicks to leave Hart on James while allowing Anunoby to focus on Brown.

Finally, Joel Embiid will be matched up with Karl-Anthony Towns.

Towns was able to force turnovers on Embiid throughout the playoffs, mainly restricting him rather than stopping him. Towns, though, dominated this matchup offensively, averaging 33.5 points and 13.9 assists per 75 possessions against Embiid in the playoffs.

While Philadelphia will probably be the biggest test for this Knicks team, they still have the star power and depth to beat the Sixers when it matters most.

Four of the five players in the starting lineup have lost to the Knicks in the playoffs in the last two years.

Will a 42-year-old James be enough to change that?