The Philadelphia 76ers starting five, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James and Joel Embiid, might be the best starting lineup in NBA history– on paper. 

Eight games into the season, the team has a 7-1 record. LeBron and Embiid have each already missed two games, and Brown and Edgecombe have each missed a game. 

In my opinion, this is the exact reason that the 76ers “superteam” will not work out. 

LeBron is 41 years old and will turn 42 this season. When his team plays games on back-to-back nights, he does not play in the both games due to load management or taking care of his body at an older age. 

In 2026-27, the team will play on back-to-back nights on 13 occasions, per NBC Sports Philadelphia. Right there, it sounds like LeBron will miss 13 games. 

LeBron started missing games due to load management as early as 2017, according to a 2019 article written by Frank Isola for “The Athletic.” According to Pro Basketball Reference, he has missed 125 games since the start of the 2020-21 season: 27 in 2020-21, 26 in 2021-22, 27 in 2022-23, 11 in 2023-24, 12 in 2024-25 and 22 in 2025-26.

Not only does LeBron not play in back-to-backs; neither does 32-year-old center Joel Embiid due to his long injury history. A post on X from ClutchPoints from April showed that Embiid has missed more games than he’s played in his career. 

The 76ers played their first set of back-to-back games on Oct. 24 and 25. LeBron sat out the first game and played in the second; Embiid vice versa. 

By the end of the season, Philadelphia may only have 20-25 games with all five starters active, especially when it’s the third game of the season and players are already skipping games to rest. Through eight games, they’ve only had all five starters play four times. 

Even if everyone is healthy, there are a lot of different mouths to feed. Each player’s points per game average could take a hit, and questions could arise as to who should take the final shot. 

This team reminds me a lot of the 2018-19 Boston Celtics, who had to share the ball between Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward and Al Horford. 

Looks great on paper, right? That team lost in the second round, and Irving left in the offseason after just two years in Boston. There is a chance that if this team fails, either Embiid or Brown go elsewhere.

Based on injuries, veteran rest days and the way history has gone, I won’t be surprised if this Philadelphia team looks completely different after two years, and I also won’t be surprised if they don’t win any championships with the current starting five.