CLIPS: Can the 76ers Defense Be Good Enough with LeBron James?

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**Mo Dakhil** (0:30)
How do you view this team defensively?

**Jared Dubin** (0:33)
I have some pretty significant concerns defensively, to be honest.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:37)
Go.

**Jared Dubin** (0:38)
What's that?

**Mo Dakhil** (0:40)
Go. What are your concerns?

**Jared Dubin** (0:41)
What are the...
The first two are transition, especially, and defensive rebounding, I think, are gonna be issues for them. Like you got two guys that either can't or don't get back on defense in Embiid and LeBron, and all of a sudden, you got... You're talking about the three guys that have to defend in the backcourt by themselves. Two of them are small and very slight, and one of them, Jalen Brown, is gonna have like a major heavy lift to perform in transition defense. Like, I am very worried about, like... Offense transition? They're gonna... They're gonna fly.

**Mo Dakhil** (1:18)
We didn't even talk about that. Yeah, we were wrong to not talk about that. I do think there will be a top five transition offensive team.

**Jared Dubin** (1:26)
Yeah, they are going to kill teams on the break on that end of the court. I think that they could get killed going back the other way in transition defense, though.
It's not a high level defensive rebounding team. Like, Amita is not an elite defensive rebounder anymore. He's a good one, but he's not an elite one.
Everybody else is like an average-ish positional rebounder. Like LeBron and Jalen are like average-ish positional rebound. Like LeBron is a very good rebounder, but for a four, he's like an average rebounder. Jalen Brown, average rebounder for a three. Maxi and Edgecombe, not great rebounders. I think that they could get hit on the defense of glass a little bit.
And then I am very worried about Embiid in pick and roll defense, because I think he's still good. Like when you get him at the rim, he can defend at the rim. If you get him in space, like he was a traffic cone in that Knicks series. It was a disaster. They put him through the blender every trip down the court, and that's what the Knicks were doing to score every single time. Granted, most teams are not the Knicks. But if you draw and beat into space, especially if you run a pick and roll with Maxey's guy, like that's going to be really difficult for these guys, especially because Jalen Brown's strength on defense is on the ball, not off the ball. You turn him into a helper, he's not quite as effective. Edgecomb strength on the ball, you want him defending at the point of attack. But he's also like, he's kind of slight, like he's only 180 pounds. He's a dog and he's going to absolutely put a thousand percent into the defense every single trip up the floor, especially now, because that's going to be his primary role on this team. Like I trust him to do a good job of that. But there are guys who are going to be able to power through him. That's just physics.
And I'm worried about Maxey on the ball.
I'm not as worried about him away from the ball. He can get a little space sometimes, but he's really good in passing lanes. But I'm worried about him on the ball. I'm worried about him beat in space. I'm worried about LeBron is going to have to be the primary helper.
And we know his effort in that department waxes and wanes during the regular season because it has to, because he's going to be 42 years old in December.

**Mo Dakhil** (3:29)
Yeah, kind of working backwards a little bit with the LeBron aspect of it. Again, if he has a lighter load on offense, I could see him willing to expend a little bit more energy on that end of the court defensively and putting a little bit more fight, but when he does and when he wants to, he's still good on that end, not elite, but good. Like it's not, you know, and that's fair at 42 being a good defender at 42 is pretty damn impressive.