The Philadelphia 76ers landed two big fish this offseason. It started when they acquired Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics on July 6, then signed LeBron James a few weeks later. A betting man would say that getting Brown is what swayed LeBron to join Philly, but what if it was actually the other way around?
This is just a theory, but what if LeBron let the Sixers know ahead of time that he would join them if they got Brown? Getting those two definitely makes Philadelphia a talented enough team to contend, but it had been clear for a while that Boston was trying to get rid of Brown even after Giannis Antetokounmpo pursuit failed.
James kept things close to the vest this time, with no one thinking he was going to Philly and the most likely suspects being his former teams, Cleveland and Miami.
So, hypothetically, James knew Brown was available and told Philadelphia (and perhaps other teams) in advance that if they got him, he would join. It was confirmed that Cleveland not getting Brown factored into why James passed on going back home for Round 3, so who's to say it came down to simply being willing to bite the bullet on the ex-Celtics star if it meant they were getting James?
When the Brown deal happened, it screamed how low his value was, not because he's a bad player by any means, but because teams didn't want to pay him what he was eligible to get. It's a deal that more or less confirmed that Boston canvassed the entire league and went for the best one available, without risking the situation getting worse.
At the same time, Boston got two valuable draft assets out of it and Paul George, who will likely opt into his contract next season, but that contract will also be expiring. Just because George is a talent downgrade from Brown doesn't mean it was a bad deal overall.
Because Brown's market was seemingly that bad, Philly may not have done this unless they knew ahead of time that James was on the table for them only if Brown was on the team.
LeBron has always been about assembling the most talent possible
Back in 2014, Cleveland won the draft lottery weeks before LeBron re-joined them. Not too long after he did, they traded the No. 1 pick (Andrew Wiggins) and Anthony Bennett for Kevin Love, who wanted out, Having that kind of asset pretty much gave the Cavaliers the edge over anyone else who wanted Love, so of course, they pulled the trigger.
And since James has always factored into front office decisions, there's no way he didn't know ahead of time that the Cavaliers had planned to do that, whether it was before or after he signed on the dotted line.
Because James typically has a say in what his team does - him joining the Sixers already led to ex-Lakers teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope re-joining him there - it would fit his MO if he told them ahead of time that getting an exceptional player like Brown would guarantee him coming over.
Teams can (and should) kick themselves for not giving themselves the chance to get both Brown and Bron, but it's definitely possible Philly was the only team that knew ahead of time that they could pull it off.
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