It's been just over a week since LeBron James made himself the most popular man in Philadelphia. With each passing day, we're learning more and more about the vision for the prized forward's time with the Sixers.First was Shams Charania, who reported on Tuesday that the Sixers plan to use James as a point guard. That's not exactly surprising. James is 6-foot-9 and one of the most brilliant passers of all time. Of course the ball is going to be in his hands.But James' agent and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul shed some light on the style he envisions for his client now that he's in the fold in Philadelphia."I just envision Iverson cuts and things like that, which I think they will bring back into the fold now because you have optionality. So basically you're putting LeBron in a Draymond type of role on that Sixers team," Paul said on the latest episode of his Game Over podcast with Max Kellerman.Much remains up to the imagination, but there is now some context to clarify how this operation will work in Philadelphia.If the mention of Green causes you to raise an eyebrow, it's understandable. Green's résumé has always been defined by his defense. His athleticism never reached anything close to what James' body was capable of—at his peak or even right now.But Green, when he wasn't having temper tantrums on the court, was perhaps the second most important ingredient to the Warriors' offense back when they were at the top of their powers. It wasn't just about his ability to nail somebody with an authentic pick to free a teammate. It was about Green's mental processing speed.Defenses had to account for Stephen Curry at all times, often throwing two at the ball to push him away from reasonable shooting range or force the rock out of his hands. Green often played the release valve, punishing the attention on Curry by making himself available one pass away. He applied pressure on the rim, pushing the ball down the middle of the lane until the defense collapsed to account for him. That triggered his aptitude as a passer, finding teammates open for 3s off movement or dashing to the rim behind a lifted defender.But there are two things that have caused Green's value to fade. One is that he's effectively become a non-shooting big over the past couple seasons. If you're not a threat to score from outside of the paint, defenses are going to play back and make sure you can't get around them. The other factor is that, well, Green's teammates not named Curry frankly haven't been very good. The other pieces of Golden State's puzzle don't strike fear in defenses. No one is collapsing on the middle, and no one is dangerous enough to punish those mistakes even when a defense does engage Green.60% of Green's shots came from 3 last season, per Cleaning The Glass (CTG). He shot 33% on those looks. He's simply not a scoring threat, and that eats at his playmaking abilities.Still, we can compare his utility to James'.Green (via CTG)UsageAst %'21-2217.7%32.3'22-2315.8%26.7'23-2417.8%27.6'24-2518.3%25.5'25-2618.6%27.9James (via CTG)UsageAst %'21-2233.2%29.7'22-2334.2%30.7'23-2431.4%35.7'24-2532.7%39.4'25-2629.2%33.8Right off the bat, it's an imperfect comparison because James' usage is almost twice that of Green's over the same span. It makes total sense. James has played with better supporting casts on offense. Their volumes of shots and free throws are totally incomparable.Yet their assists rates aren't as laughably disparate.That speaks to one similarity, which explains the point of the comparison.Green's desire to shoot has left him as he's aged. It's forced him to put more of an onus on Curry to help inflate the assist numbers. But it's also forced Green to drive any value for Golden State by always seeing his teammates' advantages when the ball is in his hands. That is to say, he's not creating the advantages anymore, but that doesn't mean he can't read them as they present themselves.James is a better and more willing shooter by orders of magnitude. That, coupled with the aforementioned athleticism discrepancy, still leaves him capable of generating advantages against unbalanced defenses. But he, too, can process the floor quicker than defenses can.Green has been used as a big for most of his career. James has been deployed as a forward for much of his. At the end of the day, they're both just big dudes who can pass the ball.Except Green is spending the twilight of his career passing to the likes of Brandin Podziemski, Gary Payton II and De'Anthony Melton when he can't get the ball to Curry. James is spending his feeding the likes of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown and V.J. Edgecombe.Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X and Bluesky for the latest news.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow