NEW YORK – The 2026-27 Sixers have already accomplished something most teams never do: they made a preseason game must-see television.

On Thursday night at Barclays Center, LeBron James, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey made their preseason debuts for the Sixers, joining fellow starters VJ Edgecombe and Jaylen Brown. It was the first chance to see the Sixers' historically talented starting lineup in action. And while the highs were so high – like the Sixers' immediate offensive blitz behind James' playmaking – there were plenty of speed bumps along the way. There remains a lot of work to do.

From James' playmaking to Embiid's struggles, Brown's unique role, Maxey's new-look responsibilities and Edgecombe's unusual avenues to production, all of the following observations from Thursday's action specifically pertain to not just the Sixers' starters, but how they fit alongside each other. All of their individual skills are well-documented; whether or not this team succeeds will be determined in part by how well this specific five-player grouping meshes.

A hefty collection of notes on the Sixers' starting unit after Thursday's 114-108 exhibition loss against the Nets, during which Maxey, Edgecombe and James played one half, while Brown and Embiid stayed in for an extra stint in the third quarter:

Tyrese Maxey

• Maxey has played on the ball as frequently as nearly any player in the entire NBA since the Sixers and James Harden experienced their ugly breakup three years ago. And in the Sixers' seven minutes and change with their starting unit on the floor to open Thursday's game, Maxey might not have initiated a single possession. And that was just fine: he casually scored 10 points on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting line to kickstart the game.

Allowing Maxey to free himself from defenders off the ball offers the Sixers so much optionality. And, when he did attack defenses with the ball, he often did so on the second side after a dribble-drive from James, Brown or Edgecombe. That allowed Maxey to face scrambled defenses just trying to keep up. Given his speed, nearly unparalleled across the league, there are very few players equipped to thrive in those scenarios like Maxey.

• Maxey will still play on the ball a whole lot this season; not only will James and Embiid miss time, but Nurse will rigidly stagger his starters to ensure at least two of them are on the floor at the same time. When Maxey is playing with only one or two other ball-dominant players, he will get into his bag, breaking down defenders off the dribble and serving as a more consistent creator of offense for the Sixers.

• James' prowess as a passer was on display all night long, and Maxey is one player set to benefit from his sheer ability to run. Maxey never tires, and his aforementioned blazing speed gives him the chance to beat other players down the court, even off of made baskets by opponents. His first basket on Thursday came when the Sixers pushed off a make.

• With more players capable of forcing switches, look for Maxey to create and exploit mismatches more often than ever. Late in the second quarter, the Sixers spread the floor, ran a Maxey-Embiid screen and Maxey dusted a big on an ensuing switch for an impressive finish at the rim.

VJ Edgecombe

• The same is every bit as true for Edgecombe; the recipient of a gnarly James outlet pass off a made basket to score the Sixers' first points. Edgecombe simply took off in a dead sprint and James put it right on him from a ways away; Edgecombe is also one of the fastest players in the NBA – but unlike Maxey, he is also a lob threat. He nearly threw down a thunderous alley-oop poster dunk off an ambitious pass from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

• When the Sixers had all five starters on the floor, Edgecombe was often stationed in the corner, with Embiid on the near-side block, a ball-handler at the top of the floor and two players on the other side of the court. That places a significant responsibility on Edgecombe's shoulders: he will be tasked with floating to the wing to set himself up for an entry pass to Embiid very often. It is not a high-level play necessarily, but the Sixers have often had to rely on suspect entry passers to get Embiid the ball down low.

• Edgecombe had five rebounds in his half of play, and it underscores the difference he could make on the glass for this team, which still projects to struggle when it comes to defensive rebounding. Edgecombe is not going to out-muscle many players inside right now, but his outstanding leaping ability and strong sense for where the ball is headed have helped him do more than hold his own as an NBA rebounder. It is another way he can keep making a difference without having as many shot attempts to work with.

Jaylen Brown

• What stood out most about Brown's minutes within the starting lineup: he was often lurking in the dunker spot near the basket. His first basket came on a James-Embiid pick-and-roll; when Brooklyn had to summon an extra defender for Embiid he made the easy read of throwing it to Brown for two:

With Embiid frequently screening for Maxey, James or even Edgecombe at the top of the floor, it was often Brown sneaking into the paint as Embiid's first read on the short roll. Brown has very rarely driven offensive value as an off-ball player or play finisher in his 10 NBA seasons, but that is in part because Brown has been such a prolific on-ball player for a Boston Celtics team which places such an emphasis on three-point volume. Kelly Oubre Jr. often thrived as a play finisher in this role for the Sixers because of his ability to score through contact; Brown can be a more adept version of that when it comes to playing out of the dunker.

• So far, so good when it comes to the Sixers setting the proper spacing for Brown when he goes into his one-on-one game in the middle of the floor. That style of shot-taking is inherently inefficient for many players; even for the great ones like Brown, it requires a supporting cast that knows how to give him enough room to operate. The starting lineup did not cater to Brown's one-on-one tendencies much, but when it does, Embiid's ability to space the floor will serve Brown well.

• Anecdotally, it did feel like Brown was lost in the shuffle offensively a bit more often than any of the Sixers' other starters – and that is not shocking given he does not have as many established methods of attack as his teammates. There will continue to be bumps along the way, but his role within this group remains the question with the least obvious answers.

LeBron James

• In the first stint of the game, James' prodigious passing was on full display. He seemed largely uninterested in hunting his own shots and entirely invested in displaying the many different ways he could set up teammates for easy baskets. The quick-hitting long-range passes were perhaps his most audacious looks – and he had a few more of them, which led to free throws instead of made baskets – but they were far from the only plays he made as a facilitator.

• The second a defense becomes disorganized in a half-court setting, James is going to pick it apart. It was remarkable to watch him, as he has done for more than two decades, instantaneously diagnose that a defender was out of position and find the hole in the defense. The Sixers have lacked high-level passing since Harden's departure and just added a true basketball genius to quarterback their offense. Every member of the Sixers will score many easy baskets as a result of James' otherworldly processing.

• James had a comedic scoring line: 10 points, 1-for-1 from the field and 8-for-8 from the foul line. Just as his hunting of mismatches will help his teammates find good looks, they will give the NBA's all-time leading scorer chances to play bully ball against undersized defenders. Even at his age, James' combination of downhill speed and force make him a player only some can contend with one-on-one.

• It is not as if the Sixers put too much thought into defensive matchups ahead of a preseason game, but James guarded Nets star Julius Randle to open Thursday's game – and it signified that he is indeed the only player in this starting lineup with the requisite combination of strength and speed to guard some of the league's bigger forwards.

Of course, the argument can be made that James' lightened offensive workload will allow him to be a better version of himself defensively. But counting on a 41-year-old with 23 seasons of mileage for anything other than occasional spurts of defensive energy would probably be unwise. So much focus is on how the Sixers' starters will look offensively, but Nurse indicated pregame that a lot of their recent work has come on the defensive end of the floor. And even as they experienced a torrid offensive start, they did not get tons of stops. Defense will make or break this team.

"I think that we have done a lot more schematically in the last couple of days, whether it's in practice or walkthrough or film. So we'll see if that can progress, if we can do a few more things in our half-court defense, while still trying to make sure our transition defense and rebounding hold up at the start and end of our possessions," Nurse said. "And I think that the thing that I probably want to see is that when we're doing some of the sets and stuff, there should be, you know, some interchangeable pieces where the same set can look a lot differently or have longer life or however you want to look at it with moving some of the pieces around. And then again, it's up to them, me, coaching staff to see where the pieces do need to move depending on where the matchups are and stuff like that. So that'll be good to kind of start looking at some of that stuff."

Joel Embiid

• Simply put, Embiid did not play well at all on Thursday – and perhaps that is why, after a lackluster first half, he opened the third quarter alongside Edgecombe and Brown. He missed a few shots he typically makes with ease – including one right next to the rim on an awkward transition play – and was extremely sloppy with the ball. Maxey, Edgecombe and James showed very few signs of being part of a new-look group without any game reps to this point; Brown at times looked like he was searching for answers and Embiid continuously appeared out of sorts and on a different page than his teammates.

• What did stand out in a positive light was how easy it was for Embiid to force switches. This team simply has too many players that cannot be left open; a hard screen from Embiid will go a long way towards creating the mismatches that this team has all of the personnel it needs to exploit.

• Embiid did not look tired at any point in this one, which is unusual for his first in-game action of a season. He was taking many falls and appeared unaffected by them – this is a marker Embiid often cites when evaluating his condition. That bodes well, even if it sounds like the bare minimum. There does not need to be any justification for his poor performance, especially in his first preseason game of the year. A year ago, it felt like a miracle that he even appeared in one half of one preseason game. But clearly his role in all of this has not been entirely fleshed out so far.

Up next: The Sixers' third of four preseason games will be in Boston on Saturday night when they face the Celtics.