Last October, VJ Edgecombe broke a 22-year-old LeBron James record in his first NBA game, scoring 14 points in the opening quarter of a 117-116 win over Boston. “It feels good to have my name mentioned with LeBron,” he said that night. Nine months later, James is walking into Edgecombe’s locker room.

And while many analysts believe the Sixers have assembled one of the league’s most talented rosters, former Philadelphia player Kwame Brown sees the situation very differently, arguing that the team’s young stars could end up paying the price.

“So now that I hear this young man talk, VJ Edgecombe, I think is in trouble,” Brown said on his Bust Life podcast. “If I’m VJ Edgecombe and I had the rookie season that I had, I wouldn’t give a Jimmy Cricket that you’re bringing in a 41, 42-year-old man that’s talking about legacy. I’m thinking about my legacy.”

“They want VJ Edgecombe to accept this role… have somebody take shots that’s supposed to be your shots for two years to help his legacy.”

He’s talking about touches. Jaylen Brown, replacing Paul George in the starting five, averaged 21.7 shots a game with the Celtics last season. George averaged 13.9. Embiid and Maxey already run through plenty of possessions themselves, and now James joins too. Somebody’s usage has to shrink, and a 20-year-old on his rookie deal is the easiest name to point to.

That’s a real cost, given what Edgecombe already showed. He averaged 16.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists across 75 games as a rookie, finished third in Rookie of the Year voting behind Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, made the All-Rookie First Team, and broke Allen Iverson’s own franchise debut record the same night he broke James’s.

Draymond Green made a similar point on his podcast. “If I’m VJ Edgecombe’s agent, I’m not sure I’m happy with the summer that the 76ers have had,” Green said. “You go from being sometimes the second option when Embiid was out to sometimes being the fifth option. I don’t know if y’all understand like how big of a difference that is.”

It isn’t just outside voices. ESPN reported that two Sixers sources have privately flagged the same worry, given how much of the ball Brown and James are each used to holding. Still, not everyone agreed. One NBA coach pushed back: “It’s not like this team is going to stay healthy all year. The young guys will probably have to carry the load in the regular season anyway.”

“Honestly, LeBron is the guy who just proved the best that he’s capable of playing a different role,” the anonymous coach added. “None of those other guys has ever really done it.”

Edgecombe himself doesn’t sound worried. Speaking to reporters in Las Vegas after the Brown trade, he said: “I like it. It’s LeBron James. At the end of the day, despite how old he is, he’s still, to me, the greatest player of all time. If I get to play alongside LeBron, that would be amazing.”

How Nick Nurse actually divides shots among Embiid, James, Brown, Maxey and Edgecombe remains to be seen.