LeBron finding his new Kyrie Irving in Tyrese Maxey is scary hours for the Celtics

It's still hard to digest that the Boston Celtics trading Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers convinced LeBron James to sign there. That might not even be the worst part of it all. The worst part is that Tyrese Maxey is the closest player archetype to the one James thrived with the most in a two-man game: Kyrie Irving.

It's been almost a decade, believe it or not, but back when LeBron and Irving played together in Cleveland, they were one of the most unstoppable duos. Putting all bias aside, they probably would have won more titles together if Kevin Durant had never joined Golden State.

Maxey's not Irving, but he's close enough. He's not as crafty as Irving is (that has more to do with Irving than it does Maxey), but he's a speedster who can score from anywhere on the floor and has shown an ability to play off the ball. Now he's being paired up with one of the NBA's best playmakers ever who has achieved quite a bit with a player whose style isn't too far off from Maxey's.

It appears as though he and James are getting ahead to develop chemistry with one another well before the season starts.

James isn't the player he was back when he and Irving paired up, but even so, he and Maxey developing a similar chemistry may simply be enough to make the Sixers a legitimate threat to the Celtics that Boston created by proxy.

If those two are LeBron & Kyrie part deux, the Sixers are very much a threat to Boston and the East itself.

But it will depend on if the rest of Philly's roster works out

The Sixers' approach is an understandable one - talent wins out - but whether it's a successful one is yet to be determined. It's very likely that the players most likely to play the best with each other will probably be James and Maxey, but whether that leads to anything will depend on whether the Sixers can establish a consistent hierarchy.

But will Brown be okay with being a third/fourth banana? He plans to play with no ego this season, but ego has never deterred him as much as his inability to be adaptable has. Brown is an exceptional talent, but now he'll be tasked with being the complementary, and there's no telling how easy that will be for him to accept.

Same goes for Joel Embiid, who has usually been the reason why Philadelphia has been as good as they've been at his peak in previous years, but now must grapple with a lesser role as his rampant injuries take more of a toll on him.

The combo of James and Maxey may be the Sixers' easiest bet, but the rest of the roster might not be despite the talent.

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