The Philadelphia 76ers have a center depth problem. Ariel Hukporti, the free agent they signed this offseason to serve 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 Dominick Barlow, typically a power forward, could also slide up to center, but remember, we're dealing with an Embiid team here. When your starting center has played 96 games in the past three seasons, you need to be prepared to spend substantial time without him, and as promising as the Bona-Barlow pair looked at points last season, they probably won't be enough on their own should Embiid suffer any notable injuries.

Conveniently, the 76ers accidentally addressed this problem in late July, when they signed the most versatile player in NBA history for the minimum. There are few more useful gap-fillers in basketball than LeBron James. "The luxury of my game is that I can do everything," James said at media day. "Literally, I can do everything." 76ers head coach Nick Nurse seemed to agree with that statement, listing James as an option to play some backup center now that Hukporti is out. "I think LeBron is another candidate. I think he's played some small-ball five as well," Nurse said.

James, who is set to make his preseason 76ers debut on Thursday night, has indeed played some small-ball five, but that has been a mostly recent phenomenon. Despite spending his career as one of the few players in league history anyone would argue could play all five positions at an elite level, James didn't really take on the fifth of those positions until five years ago, when necessity became the mother of invention for a similarly 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, according to Cleaning the Glass' lineup data.

LeBron at the 5: By the numbers

2021-22

2,133

115.6

76

115.9

23

2022-23

455

120

89

115

51

2023-24

154

126

98

128.3

1

2024-25

714

122.8

94

119.7

16

2025-26

143

155.2

100

115.1

57

A few things stand out immediately. Most of James' experience as a center came in a single season, the 2021-22 campaign. In fact, James played nearly as many possessions there as Embiid played all of last season (2,481). Similarly, you'll notice that the offense was almost always at least good and often great, while the defense was usually bad and often miserable.

This holds true for all of the reasons you'd expect. Centers are typically the worst shot-creators in a lineup, and we're replacing them with LeBron James in this context. In each of these five seasons, LeBron-at-center lineups rated in at least the 88th percentile in terms of effective field goal percentage, and in all but one of them, they were in the 82nd percentile or better at preventing turnovers.

The obvious catch is that these lineups typically didn't get offensive rebounds, with four out of five of them ranking in the 38th percentile or worse on that front. That list bit is theoretically problematic in an NBA that is suddenly obsessed with offensive rebounding, but remember, the 76ers were probably doomed on this front anyway. They were a very good offensive rebounding team with Andre Drummond on the floor a season ago, but pulled in less than 29% of available offensive rebounds when he wasn't, a below-average figure. You can get away with minimal offensive rebounding if you avoid turning the ball over, which both James-at-center lineups and the 76ers last season largely have.

Defensively, there isn't an obvious virtue. Theoretically, you get the benefit of one of the smartest players in league history leading your communication from the back line, but the sacrifices you're making in terms of rebounding, rim-protection, and let's be honest, night-to-night effort (the man is about to turn 42, cut him some slack) vastly outweigh any benefits there.

This isn't a 76ers team that is especially loaded with defensive playmaking either, especially now that Paul George and Kelly Oubre are gone. These lineups probably aren't going to generate many turnovers, which in turn means fewer opportunities for this potentially great transition offense to get out on the break. The good news on that front, at least, is that James playing center presumably means James rebounding more, and letting maybe the greatest hit-ahead passer in league history start possessions with the ball would probably lead to some easy baskets.

All in all, it's a mixed bag leaning slightly more positive than negative, and this is a 76ers team that has more on-paper talent than any of those Laker groups had. The standard for bench lineups is relatively low. You don't need to win those minutes when your starters are as good as we expect Philadelphia's to be. You just need to survive them until Embiid makes it back onto the floor. That makes these units worth some early-season experimentation, at least, and perhaps more than that depending on how they look.

But frequency of usage isn't just a matter of how successful a lineup is, but what it means for a team in the greater context of its season. James is, again, about to turn 42. When he started toying around with center minutes, it was in a smaller NBA that still had forwards moonlighting at center frequently. The league is bigger today than it was five years ago. Rebounding is more of a priority. The physical demands of the position are greater. James is already dealing with arthritis in his foot and had sciatica in back last season. You don't want to wear James down by playing him at what is probably his worst position. Managing his body is going to be an ongoing conversation between James, Nurse and the team's medical staff.

For now, LeBron-at-center is probably something the 76ers should treat as a luxury. Break it out in the right matchups and when circumstances demand it. One of the many benefits of having LeBron James on your team is that he really can do literally everything, and that opens strategic doors for you that are closed for everyone else. If you need him to do this, he can. If you abuse his ability to do it, though, the defensive and physical issues doing so creates become more problematic than helpful. So long as the 76ers strike the right balance, it's going to be a useful tool in their belt.

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