Winning matters but it may not be enough. LeBron James' teams struggle to reach a certain number when it matters
Every team has a chance to win an NBA title. Whether they’re built to win right now or not, there's always a chance if you dedicate yourself. For LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers, it’s an expectation.
Their best chance is getting the highest seed possible. According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, James’ teams have a hard time eclipsing 50 wins. Windhorst believed the team would still be good but not a top seed.
Over the last nine years, a LeBron-led team has only won 50-plus wins twice. This could be a concern for Philadelphia fans, but let’s take a closer look at this.
In those nine years, eight were with the Lakers and one with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Neither team had anything remotely close to the lineup of the 76ers. With the Los Angeles Lakers, he at one time had Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, and Luka Dončić. James won a championship with Davis, who was traded for Doncic.
The fact that those teams didn’t get to 50 wins doesn’t matter, considering seven of those nine years he made the playoffs, and that’s what matters most. The argument of the teams not getting to 50 wins holds no validity when you get past the regular season.
The other difference is that the majority of those years were spent in the Western Conference. The Western Conference is stacked with powerhouses, and the average number of wins to qualify for the playoffs is 42 wins. Not only that, but the win margin for playoff seeding was no more than a game apart. The fact that James was able to make the playoffs at all is astounding in and of itself.
Now that James is in the East, there's a higher possibility of getting those 50 wins. There's no reason not to believe this team is capable of that. The East had an average win total of 40. That's less than half the season in wins. James is comfortable with the East and seems to feel more at home, no matter how much the rosters change.
The 76ers are capable of running through the East and finding their way to a top 3 seed in not only the East but maybe even the entire association. So again, what does this average number of wins matter when it mostly ended with James’ team in the playoffs?
Winning matters, yes, but once you get to the playoffs, your record is 0-0. It’s at that moment where the real winning begins.
