Could LeBron James help solve the 76ers’ depth problem at center? Here’s what the numbers say

The Philadelphia 76ers have a center depth problem. Ariel Huckport, a free agent signed this offseason as Joel Embiid’s primary backup, tore his Achilles in the preseason opener this week and will now miss the 2026-27 season. Adem Bona remains, and Dominic Barlow, typically a power forward, could also slide to center, but remember we’re dealing with Embiid’s team here. Since your starting center has played 96 games in the past three seasons, you need to be prepared to spend a substantial amount of time without him, and as promising as the Bona-Barlow pair of points looked last season, it probably won’t be enough for Embiid to suffer significant injuries.

The 76ers conveniently addressed this question in July when they signed the least versatile player in NBA history. There are few more useful gap fillers in basketball than LeBron James. “The luxury of the game is that I can do everything,” James said at midday. “I can do literally everything.” 76ers head coach Nick Nurse seemed to agree with that decision, choosing James to play some backup center now that Hookport is out. “I think LeBron is another candidate. I think he played five ball,” Nurse said.

James, who left to make his tentative 76ers debut on Thursday night, did play some five-pointers, but he was mostly a recent phenomenon. Despite his career as one of the few players in league history one could argue could play all five positions at the elite level, James didn’t actually take the fifth of those positions until five years later, when necessity became the mother of invention for a star-studded yet far thinner Los Angeles Lakers roster.

So what can we learn from LeBron’s recent forays into playing center? Here’s what the numbers say, based on the cleaning of the glass line.

LeBron in 5: by the numbers

A few immediately stand out. James’ most usage as a center came in one season, during the 2021-22 campaign. In fact, James played almost as many possessions there than Embiid did last season (2,481). Similarly, you will notice that the offense is almost always at least good and often great, while the defense is usually bad and often miserable.

This is valid for all reasons. Centers are typically the worst shot creators in the lineup, and we replace them with them LeBron James at this point. In each of those five seasons, LeBron-at-center lineups have rated at least 88 percent in terms of effective field goal percentage, and in all but one, they were at 82 centers or better in preventing turnovers.

The catch is that they typically found these lines unappealing, with four out of five of them ranking in the 38th cent or worse on that front. That list is theoretically somewhat problematic in an NBA that is suddenly obsessed with offensive rebounding, but remember, the 76ers are probably going to die on this front anyway. The team’s offensive rebounding was very good with Andre Drummond on the floor earlier in the season, but he made less than 29% of his offensive rebounds when he wasn’t, a below-average figure. You can get away with a lot of offensive rebounds if you avoid skipping the ball, which is what both James and the 76ers’ center lineups have done last season.

Defense is not an obvious virtue. Theoretically, you get the benefit of having one of the smartest players in league history leading your communication from the back line, but the sacrifices you make in terms of rebounding, rim-protection, and let’s be honest, night-to-night effort (he’s a 42-pointer, cut someone loose) far outweigh the benefits there.

This is not a 76ers team that is even loaded with defensive play, especially now that Paul George and Kelly Oubre are gone. These lineups probably won’t generate many turnovers, which in turn means fewer opportunities for this potentially great passing offense to shine. The good news on that front, of course, is that James is playing center, perhaps meaning James has more rebounds, and perhaps the greatest hit-and-run passer in league history will start possessions with the ball, possibly leading to some easy baskets.

Overall, it’s a mixed bag based on a little more positive than negative, and this is a 76ers team that has more talent on paper than some of their Laker counterparts. The standard for bench lineups is relatively low. You don’t need to win those minutes when your starters are as good as waiting for Philadelphia. They just need to survive until Embiid puts him back on the floor. Which units make some experiments early in the season, at least and maybe more than the second they look.

But frequency of use is not only a matter of how well the line is, but what it means to the team in the larger context of its time. James will turn 42 again. When he started playing center minutes, it was in the minor NBA, which still progressed in the middle often in the moonlight. The league is bigger today than it was five years ago. Resonance is more of a priority. There are greater demands on body position. James is already dealing with arthritis in his foot and had sciatica last season. You don’t want to wear James, playing him in what is probably the worst. Managing his body will be an ongoing conversation between James, the nurse and the medical team staff.

For now, LeBron-at-middle is probably something the 76ers treat as a luxury. Break into the right matchups, and when the situation calls for it. One of the many benefits of having LeBron James on your team is that he can really do everything properly, and it opens strategic doors for you that are closed to everyone else. If you need to do it, you can. If you take advantage of his ability to do it, however, the defensive and physical issues that make this happen become more of a problem than a benefit. As long as the 76ers balance it out, it will be useful under their belt.