The Celtics’ stunning Jaylen Brown trade has left fans bewildered for many reasons, but one of the most frustrating parts is that he went directly to one of the team’s biggest rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers. On top of the age-old rivalry between the two teams, it’s compounded simply because the Sixers just erased a 3-1 playoff deficit to come back and embarrass Boston in the first round.
The Sixers ended the Jays era in Boston and stole JB away just to rub salt in the wounds. And to top it all off, the Celtics were complicit in aiding and abetting Philly in the theft. As bad as it looks and feels, the Cs will be okay. This was obviously a brutally tough decision, but Brad Stevens and company have their reasons, and it’s not too hard to imagine the long game paying off.
But what about the 76ers? Philly fans are rightfully joyous at the prospect of adding a guy who just finished 6th in MVP voting to a group that just made the second round of the playoffs. On paper, they look pretty daunting, but in reality, I don’t think the Celtics have to be too worried about them, and I think Stevens is sleeping just fine at night knowing that he’ll be seeing this team that he just helped assemble quite frequently.
Sixers still way too reliant on Joel Embiid
And the biggest problem for the Sixers remains the same as it has been: they aren’t viable contenders without Joel Embiid. We saw the former MVP come back and help flip the series against Boston, but he couldn’t hold up, and he and the team cratered against the Knicks.
Philly has done nothing to fix their backup center issue, swapping Andre Drummond for Ariel Hukporti, which means that in what will likely be a lot of minutes that Embiid doesn’t play, they’ll be reliant on Hukporti and Adem Bona to man the center position. If recent history is any indication, that could be half the season, plus valuable backup minutes even when Joel suits up.
Beyond that glaring hole, the fit is a bit clunky with Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and Embiid. That’s three guys who fancy themself a number-one option and need the ball to be successful. They’ve got a young budding star in VJ Edgecombe, but it’s going to be hard for him to get touches with three ball-dominant scorers who don’t function at a high level off the ball.
They added another gunner off the bench in Anfernee Simons, but past that, this team has very little depth. They’ve put a massive amount of eggs in this basket and are hoping that talent wins out, but this group was hastily thrown together. When everyone plays well, their ceiling should look very high, but it’s hard to imagine them hitting that nearly frequently enough, and there’s a world where the floor falls out. Now, if they're able to land LeBron James in free agency? All bets are off.
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