In exactly one week, the 2026-27 Sixers will all be at the team's practice facility in Camden to ring in the start of the highest-profile Sixers season in recent history.

After two years of confusion, apathy and frustration, the Sixers are set to contend for a championship, with all-time leading scorer LeBron James and 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown now in the fold, forming a star-studded starting five alongside Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Joel Embiid.

There is one week left in what might be the best offseason the Sixers have ever had. Naturally, some skepticism is in order.

The final 5 Sixers thoughts of the 2026 offseason details this team's chief concerns entering the 2026-27 campaign:

Availability of Joel Embiid and LeBron James

Embiid has been a walking medical red flag since the Sixers drafted him more than 12 years ago. For a very long time, James was one of the league's ultimate models of consistency and durability. But James will turn 42 years old on Dec. 30 and only exceeded 70 games once in his eight-year tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Can the Sixers keep Embiid and James healthy and at their best as much as possible? The balance they must strike: not putting too significant burdens on either player during the regular season in hopes of staging a lengthy playoff run while also ensuring that by the time that run begins, the team has created enough continuity and familiarity to win at the highest levels.

No matter how talented a team is, it is always a tremendous challenge to win in the first year with a new-look roster. All three of James' previous free-agency arrivals have been followed up by a championship... in two years. Meshing high-usage players is always a long-term process – more on that shortly – and it requires not just sacrifice, but time. The Sixers have to work out the kinks to make their five-headed monster successful, but Embiid and James both need their minutes monitored very closely over the course of the regular season.

The Sixers' hope and expectation is that their volume of high-octane scorers will ensure nobody has to handle a role too significant, either in terms of total minutes or on-court responsibilities. Embiid and James should benefit from this dynamic more than anybody else. But both players are still prone to experiencing extended absences.

MORE: Full 2026-27 Sixers schedule, with details, analysis and games of note

"There is only one ball"

A rule of thumb: most times a team accumulates enough talent for doubters to express the concern that "there is only one ball," that team turns out to be excellent. But there are plenty of adjustments that must be made within this starting five:

Those massive usage rates are made to look even larger when compared to the recent history of the league. A quick statistical analysis of the usage rates of the five key players on the last 10 NBA Finals participants:

Data/via basketball-reference.com

Expect to hear the word sacrifice used a whole lot on Media Day and in the weeks ahead. It is easy to talk about the need to sacrifice before the games start. Once the Sixers hit their inevitable first bit of adversity, will their key players be singing the same tune?

Defense

While much of the focus is understandably on how the Sixers go about trying to maximize their offensive talent, there is something to be said for the potential downside they have on the defensive end. It starts with Embiid, whose mobility has come and gone over the last two years, and James, capable of turning the clock back for possessions at a time but largely tries to rest on defense these days.

The Sixers' eventual production as a defense hinges on Embiid more than anybody else by far, both because centers have such massive defensive impacts and because the delta between Embiid's high- and low-end outcomes is so enormous.

If Embiid misses time frequently and is a defensive liability when he is on the court, it is hard to fathom the Sixers fielding an above-average defense. If he plays somewhat regularly and is even 60 percent as good of a defensive anchor as he once was, the Sixers might not have an elite defense but will wipe out or reduce many of their concerns.

Last season, Embiid started and ended the season with such limited mobility that he was a walking target on defense. But at one point, he was actually humming on that end of the floor. At the very least, he has high-level defensive games left in him. The Sixers hope he has high-level defensive seasons to give.

At this point in his basketball life, he is not the shockingly versatile and switchable defender he was in his early years, but Embiid showed that there is still excellent rim protection to be tapped into when he can be kept at the rim. That will undoubtedly be head coach Nick Nurse's objective: keep Embiid fresh enough to be a true stalwart, and close enough to the basket to not be exposed.

Elsewhere, Edgecombe enters the season with enormous pressure to continue leveling up as a point-of-attack defender. He seems primed to inherit top guard assignments, beginning with opening night, and the primary wing assignments will go to Brown. Brown is strong, physical and versatile on the ball, but over the course of his career has given away a lot of points with poor execution off the ball. Can the Sixers reduce Brown's offensive workload and increase his defensive engagement at the same time?

SIXERS FILM STUDIES

Jaylen Brown's strengths | Jaylen Brown's weaknesses

Anfernee Simons | Dean Wade | Ariel Hukporti

Backup center

As far as this team's depth chart is concerned, backup center is the only potential weak point. Adem Bona and Ariel Hukporti will be the team's primary backups for Embiid, and at least one of them needs to pop in a major way for the Sixers to not pursue an upgrade ahead of the trade deadline in February.

Bona's first two NBA seasons have included plenty of flashes of promise and skills that cannot be taught. He is one of the NBA's best shot blockers, an elite athlete for a center (even if undersized) and has a terrific motor. The makeup of a strong backup center is there. But Bona must cut down on his cheap fouls and other unforced errors as he tries to earn the trust of not just Nurse and his staff, but also James and the rest of his teammates. He really needs to become a better defensive rebounder; Bona's silly fouls and frustrating miscues are more eye-popping but his inability to stabilize the defensive glass has been at least as problematic.

His new competition is Hukporti, whose two-year stint with the New York Knicks only included 715 regular-season minutes. Hukporti is a lot bigger than Bona, which could bode well for him as a rebounder. But he has a very similar profile: a strong blend of size and movement skills, but not much basketball skill and a propensity to pick up fouls and make mistakes.

The Sixers have better alternative options on the roster now than ever: James can play the five if need be, and so can Dean Wade. But Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker, two-way success stories at power forward last year, each had brief success as small-ball fives last season.

Nurse never really embraced that option – until he had to go to Barlow at the five in the second round – but once the team is satisfied that Bona and Hukporti have received ample opportunity to stand out, he could look to Barlow or Walker for center minutes, even if neither is a long-term or permanent solution.

MORE: Barlow is 'willing to play wherever' to help LeBron James, Sixers

Head coach Nick Nurse

Many were surprised to see Nurse outlast Daryl Morey, and there is no question that Nurse is facing as much pressure as any member of this organization heading into 2026-27.

Even Nurse would likely admit that his first three seasons in Philadelphia have been underwhelming, though his advocates would argue very little of it is Nurse's fault. He has certainly been dealt a very difficult hand, from Embiid's constant availability issues to those of Paul George, the James Harden saga early on and rosters that have forced Maxey to be one of the highest-volume on-ball players in the NBA.

Now, the time for excuses – or even valid reasons why the Sixers did not achieve playoff success – is done. Nurse has won one playoff series in three seasons with the Sixers. He has never coached a team with this much talent and probably never will again.

It should not be NBA Finals or bust for Nurse and the Sixers, but they must at least demonstrate in 2026-27 that they are legitimate contenders with serious championship equity. If Nurse cannot get this team to that point, his job could be in danger.

SIXERS PLAYER PREVIEWS

Joel Embiid | Labaron Philon Jr. | Dean Wade | Dominick Barlow

Adem Bona | Tyrese Maxey | VJ Edgecombe

Jaylen Brown | Ariel Hukporti | Kentavious Caldwell-Pope