Category: NBA

Count Bill Simmons among the Boston Celtics fans who were stunned by how the little the team got when they traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers. But what Simmons was going through at the moment the transaction went down made for a one-of-a-kind reaction.

Simmons, a longtime Boston sports supporter, gave his first thoughts on the move during a live recording of "The Bill Simmons Podcast" on Thursday, July 2, and revealed that he found out Brown had been traded from his wife after finishing a colonoscopy at a medical facility around 3:20 p.m. PT. She then told Simmons the details, which featured the Celtics receiving Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks from the Sixers.

"I'm not really coherent ... and I'm like, I think I'm dead. I think I died," Simmons said on the broadcast. "The anesthesia killed me and now I'm a dead person."

This is one of those moments in your fandom you might remember forever — where you were when you found out the Philadelphia 76ers traded for Jaylen Brown.

For me, I was on my couch, taking a few bites of the dinner I had just made and settling in. Then, a notification on my phone from X popped up. The Sixers had traded Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks for Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown.

My first reaction? “No f*cking way.” I actually said it out loud, to my phone screen, alone in my living room.

And I meant it with all sincerity. I double-checked to make sure it was actually ESPN’s Shams Charania, and not Scams Charania or Slams Charania or some other fake troll username. Nope, it was the real Shams. Then I took a moment to wonder if he had been hacked by a troll somehow. Unlikely, and would be especially cruel, but it would be the sort of thing to happen to the Sixers.

I think that’s why this feels so monumental. I didn’t think this franchise could surprise me anymore, in a good or bad way. From The Process through Collargate, to crushing repeated injuries, to player drama around the likes of Ben Simmons and James Harden, to seemingly freakish occurrences like Kelly Oubre Jr. getting hit by a car or Markelle Fultz forgetting how to shoot, to a Paul George drug suspension, to the highs of drafting a player like VJ Edgecombe to the lows of the 2024-25 season… and that’s just naming A FEW of the headlines from the last decade or so.

I didn’t think this franchise could surprise me ever again, honestly.

Until they did. Boy, did they ever. And I love it.

Now, as someone who has covered this team for years now and was a fan of them long before, there is a certain level of fear and apprehension that comes with anything seemingly good happening to the franchise. At times, I’ve almost been convinced the team was cursed by some unknown force in the universe. I’ve often pondered if the Camden practice facility had accidentally been built on a sacred burial ground.

But, today, I’m going to let myself be excited, as a Sixers journalist and as a fan. The reason for that is simple: I love this deal. This was a good deal. A great deal, even. A no-brainer. Hindsight will always be 20/20. Views on the deal could sour in the future if Brown suffers some freak Sixers-esque injury or PG experiences some late-career resurgence in Boston… but it still will not change the fact that this is a deal you do right now 100 times out of 100 if you are Philadelphia.

Let’s look at it practically. The Paul George contract was one widely regarded as one of the worst in the league for its length and cost. Brown makes a similar amount, with one season added, and is 6.5 years younger than PG. Brown is in his prime, much more available — Brown playing 134 games across the last two seasons compared to PG’s 78 — and is simply a better player than PG by a fair margin.

Just look at last season for a small example. Brown played nearly twice the amount of games George was able to (due to injuries and the drug suspension) and averaged a career-high 28.7 points as well as 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 71 contests. George had his moments across his 37 games, but averaged just 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists. Brown was an All-Star, as he’s been for the past four seasons in a row. George hasn’t been an All-Star since 2023-24.

If you don’t want to listen to me, to the stats, or to your own eyes, maybe you’ll take it from Ringer, who has Jaylen Brown at No. 14 in their Top 100 NBA Players for 2025-26. George was ranked No. 66.

Next up is what they gave up in addition to PG. Boston was reportedly asking for the likes of VJ Edgecombe, George and five first-round picks, per Charania. By the time the deal was made, they got just three of those seven asks, with the Sixers keeping the young standout Edgecombe and giving up just two first-rounders — the 2028 (Clippers) of which feels like the biggest loss, if you can even call it that. It is a smaller haul of assets than an injury-prone, 35-year-old Kawhi Leonard just garnered.

I’m not sure how Mike Gansey did it. Perhaps just taking advantage of what felt like a questionable desperation from the Celtics, but welcome to Philly, Mike!

None of this is to say I’ve never criticized or said a bad word about Brown. He’s not infallible, nor am I. I’ve said his Twitch stream antics complaining about flopping and officiating after Boston’s playoff exit was lame. I thought it then, I still do now. I have absolutely personally complained about his forearm push-off method on offense. Now, you’ll also see “reports” from mysterious “league sources” about his personality or his locker room presence being this negative thing.

Not only is Brown a good enough player on his own to outweigh those things, but what the Sixers franchise gets from doing this deal even moreso outweighs all of it by a fair margin. Now, the Sixers have the opportunity to — especially with maybe a little more support pieces down the bench — make an actual contending push with Joel Embiid and Brown for the next few seasons. Even if nothing ends up coming from it and their contracts both end without a championship, you reset in a few seasons with Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe at the helm instead. That’s really not a bad spot for the franchise to be in.

All in all, the reality is time will tell what will ultimately come of this blockbuster between the Sixers and Celtics. Maybe all of my writing and posts about this will join the hall of freezing cold takes in a few years. But again, hindsight will always be 20/20! Right now, at the time the deal is being made, this was an absolute no-brainer for Philadelphia.

And I love that they did it.

The biggest question in NBA free agency is where LeBron James will go next.

The four-time NBA champion informed the Los Angeles Lakers he would not return for the 2026-27 season. The news officially kickstarted a new era in LA, but also caused a league-wide stir given James’ desire to find what could be his final destination before retirement.

James has reportedly narrowed down his decision to two teams: the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Warriors insider Nick Friedell reported an update on the 41-year-old.

“It’s about a 50/50 right now. It’s Golden State and Cleveland,” Friedell said. “I just don’t see another team that makes that much sense.

The San Antonio Spurs were previously considered a potential contender in the LeBron sweepstakes, but the rumor was shut down Wednesday. Friedell made his case as to why James would fit so well with the Warriors, but noted the storybook ending would be with Cleveland.

“LeBron is looking for basketball happiness at the end. There’s no better place to do that than here, flatly. He’s got a chemistry with Steph. He knows Draymond for all these years. He knows what Steve Kerr’s all about. They lived it and won a gold medal together in Paris at the Olympics.

“The Warriors, on top of all that, and I think this has gotten lost in the shuffle. They let their players be who they are. Look at Jimmy Butler.”

James began his career in Cleveland and returned for four more seasons before signing with the Lakers ahead of the 2018-19 season.

James is looking for complete happiness in the twilight of his career and only he knows where he can find it.

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Today is a tough one, Celtics fans. It’s the day after what’s being viewed as potentially one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history, and we’re on the wrong end of it.

We’re not used to being in this position. The Celtics are the franchise that wins those trades and turns them into banners. Consider Boston’s greatest hits.

• 1956, Red Auerbach trades two future Hall of Famers, Ed Macauley and draftee Cliff Hagan to the then-St. Louis Hawks for rookie Bill Russell. Eleven championships ensue.
• 1980, Auerbach sends two first-round picks (no. 1 overall plus no. 13) to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish and overall pick no. 3, which became Kevin McHale. Parish and McHale win three titles on their way to the Hall of Fame.
• 1983, Auerbach roasts the Phoenix Suns, acquiring Dennis Johnson and a first-rounder for back-up center Rick Robey. DJ wins two rings with Boston.
• 2007, Danny Ainge gives up young star center Al Jefferson, four other expendable players, and a pair of first-round picks for all-time great Kevin Garnett. Banner 17 follows.
• 2013, Ainge tops himself by shipping a package of players and picks – headed by two aging superstars, Garnett and Celtics legend Paul Pierce – to the Brooklyn Nets for a bunch of players and first-round picks. Two of those picks result in nine seasons of The Jays, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, becoming arguably the best duo in the league.
• 2017, the Celtics win the draft lottery thanks to the Nets trade, and Ainge completes his masterful trade trilogy. Confident that his draft target, Tatum, will be available at no. 3 overall, Ainge sends the top pick in the draft to the Philadelphia 76ers for the third pick plus a future first-rounder. The Jays win Banner 18 together.

Now the Sixers might have their revenge. The NBA world certainly thinks so. Reaction has been pretty much unanimous.

Even frequent Celtics critic Kendrick Perkins got this right.

This appears to be the first time the Celtics have traded away an all-NBA talent who’s undeniably in his prime. To be fair, we don’t yet know why the Celtics took this deal. Was it a financial decision because Brown is in line for a massive contract extension? Also, why could they not get a better return? We can only hope there’s a second trade lined up that will take the sting out of this one. But until more is revealed, all we can do is compare this deal to the most notable trade failures.

• Paul Westphal – Auerbach drafted the athletic point/shooting guard in 1972, and two years later Westphal helped the Celtics win their first title since Bill Russell had retired. However, a year later, possibly because Westphal was up for a new contract, Red traded him to the Phoenix Suns for guard Charlie Scott, who was on the downside of a Hall of Fame career. The Cs won one title with Scott, but he was gone less than two years later. Meanwhile, Westphal hit his prime, made all-NBA four times, and also was voted into the Hall of Fame.

• Joe Johnson – Like Westphal, Johnson was drafted by Boston, who already had Paul Pierce. They might’ve become the precursor to The Jays, but Johnson didn’t even last his rookie year before being shipped to the Suns by impatient general manager Chris Wallace. The Celtics received rotation players Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers, but Johnson played 18 seasons and scored more than 20,000 points.

• Chauncey Billups – Yet another young talent traded too soon. Billups was the third overall pick in 1997, but Celtics president Rick Pitino gave him just a half-season in green before exiling him to Toronto for point guard Kenny Anderson and others. Billups ultimately played for seven teams, but he also was named multiple-time all-NBA and all-defense, plus a Finals MVP with the Pistons.

• Kendrick Perkins – At the 2011 trade deadline, Danny Ainge gambled and lost. The Celtics were leading the East with a 41-14 record when Ainge surprisingly sent Perkins to Oklahoma City for short-term rental Nenad Krstic and talented wing Jeff Green. The justification was that Boston had enough other bigs (including the aging Shaquille O’Neal) to continue their run – but that backfired. The deal disrupted team unity, Shaq missed virtually the entire second half of the season with various hip and leg injuries, and the post-trade record was just 15-12. The Cs fell to third in the East and suffered a second-round playoff exit. Green also missed the entire next season due to a heart condition.

• Bob McAdoo – In 1979, the Celtics were rebuilding, and they had a new owner, the volatile John Y. Brown. Auerbach had collected three first-round picks for that year’s draft, but Brown impulsively traded them to the New York Knicks – without consulting Red – for the high-scoring McAdoo. Problem was, the forward-center didn’t hide that he had no interest in playing for Boston. Ultimately, McAdoo appeared in only 20 games in green and white, and the Celtics finished with what was then their worst record ever, 29-53. Fortunately, Auerbach salvaged the bad trade by sending McAdoo to the Detroit Pistons for the draft picks that became Parish and McHale, as described above.

That brings us back to Jaylen Brown.

All of this happened so quickly. It was just a few days ago when the Milwaukee Bucks traded Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat, rendering moot the speculation that the Celtics had offered a trade package led by Jaylen. The basketball arguments against trading Brown for Antetokounmpo included Giannis being two years older, his injury history, and not wanting to see JB suit up for a conference rival.

But what’s come to pass is worse on each of those levels. Paul George is seven years older than Brown, has played more than 56 games just once in the past seven seasons, and now Brown will be on the side of Boston’s oldest and most bitter divisional rival. The fact that this comes just after the Celtics blew a 3-1 lead and lost to Philly in the playoffs for the first time since 1982 makes the situation infinitely worse.

While this deal has similar vibes to the McAdoo trade, it remains to be seen if Stevens can imitate Auerbach and find a way to turn this L into a W. If he can’t, the unfortunate judgment here that this trade will indeed turn out to be the worst one in the 80 seasons of Boston Celtics history.

Celtics roster reset: Depth chart, contracts and more after Jaylen trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The 2026-27 Boston Celtics will be almost unrecognizable to those who have followed the team closely over the last decade.

After 10 memorable seasons with Boston, superstar Jaylen Brown was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday in exchange for Paul George, two first-round draft picks, and two second-rounders. The move was met with stunned reactions across the NBA world as Brown will continue his career with a storied Eastern Conference rival — one that ended Boston’s season in the first round of the 2026 playoffs.

The Celtics also were criticized for bringing in George, who turned 36 in May and will be owed about $57.7 million in 2026-27. It’s hard to believe Boston couldn’t have gotten a better return for someone of Brown’s caliber.

Nonetheless, the C’s will move on without their 2024 NBA Finals MVP and with a new-look roster already taking shape. They addressed their need for frontcourt depth by signing ex-New York Knicks big man Mitchell Robinson in free agency and added guard depth with veteran Mike Conley Jr.

Here’s a full breakdown of the Celtics’ roster, contract situations, and more following the Brown trade:

Updated depth chart

A Celtics depth chart without Jaylen Brown will take some getting used to. Paul George replaces Brown in the C’s projected starting lineup.

Mitchell Robinson gives Boston much-needed frontcourt depth behind Neemias Queta. Mike Conley will provide the Celtics with guard depth behind Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, while bringing a respected veteran voice to the locker room.

Draft picks Chris Cenac Jr. and Dillon Mitchell will almost certainly spend the season in Maine.

Contracts

• Jayson Tatum: $58.5 million for 2026-27 (contract expires after 2028-29; includes player option for 2029-30)
• Paul George: $57.7 million (player option for 2028-29)
• Derrick White: $30.3 million (expires after 2027-28; player option for 2028-29)
• Mitchell Robinson: $15 million (expires after 2028-29)
• Sam Hauser: $10.8 million (expires after 2028-29)
• Payton Pritchard: $7.8 million (expires after 2027-28)
• Ron Harper Jr.: $3 million (expires after 2028-29)
• Hugo Gonzalez: $2.9 million (team options for 2027-28 and 2028-29)
• Luka Garza: $2.8 million (expires after 2026-27)
• Dalano Banton: $2.8 million (expires after 2026-27)
• Baylor Scheierman: $2.7 million (team option for 2027-28)
• Neemias Queta: $2.7 million (expires after 2026-27)
• Jordan Walsh: $2.4 million (expires after 2026-27)
• Mike Conley Jr: $2.4 million (expires after 2026-27)
• Amari Williams: Two-way

George’s contract includes a 15 percent trade kicker, bumping his $54.1 million salary for 2026-27 up to the 35 percent max of approximately $57.7 million. His bloated contract makes acquiring him in exchange for Brown even more of a head-scratcher, as Boston’s cap situation remains virtually unchanged.

Harper re-signed with the Celtics on a three-year, $9 million contract. Boston exercised Banton, Queta, and Walsh’s team options.

Robinson signed a three-year, $47.4 million contract in free agency. Conley joined on the veteran minimum.

Rookies

• Chris Cenac Jr. (27th overall pick in 2026 NBA Draft)
• Dillon Mitchell (40th overall pick in 2026 NBA Draft)

Cenac and Mitchell are expected to sign two-way contracts and begin the 2026-27 season with the G League Maine Celtics.

Unrestricted free agents

• Max Shulga
• John Tonje

Shulga, a 2025 second-round pick, didn’t get his team option picked up and is now an unrestricted free agent. The VCU product appeared in 11 games for Boston last season.

Tonje was acquired by the Celtics in exchange for Chris Boucher and a future second-round pick at the NBA trade deadline in February. He signed a two-way contract with the C’s on March 1.

Tonje appeared in six regular-season games for the Celtics, including a season-high 13 points against the Magic in the regular-season finale. Boston didn’t pick up his team option this summer.

Draft picks and TPEs

Future first-round draft picks

• 2027: Own
• 2028: Top-1 protected first-round pick swap with Spurs
• 2028: Most favorable of Sixers or Clippers
• 2029: Traded away (will go to Blazers or Wizards)
• 2030: Own
• 2031: Own
• 2031: Unprotected Sixers pick

The Celtics received a 2028 first-rounder and a 2031 unprotected first-rounder from Philly in the Brown trade. They also acquired two second-round selections.

Notable traded player exceptions

The Celtics created a huge $27.7 million TPE in the Anfernee Simons trade, which expires at the 2027 trade deadline.

They also have an $8.4 million TPE from the Georges Niang trade and a $4.7 million TPE from the Jrue Holiday trade.

On Wednesday, the Mavericks made their first big splash of the summer in trading for Grizzlies forward Santi Aldama. In a deal in which the Mavericks also acquired the rights to draft Turkish sharpshooter Tarik Biberovic, Dallas sent A.J. Johnson, a 2030 first-round pick (via Golden State), and two second-round picks to Memphis. The move gives the Mavericks more scoring off the bench and a big man who can space the floor.

Why Dallas did it

There’s no doubt the Mavericks need more scoring, especially from the perimeter. New team president Masai Ujiri has an affinity with big, scoring forwards, and Santi Aldama is exactly that. During Ujiri’s tenure with the Toronto Raptors, he drafted names like O.G Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Scotty Barnes. He loves a forward who can put the ball in the hoop. Aldama was drafted by the Utah Jazz 30th overall in the 2021 NBA draft and later traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, where he’s spent his entire career. He’s a known Dallas killer, so at bare minimum, he’s one less problem to worry about in the four meetings with the Grizzlies during the regular season.

For the Mavericks, adding a 25-year-old scoring big for what they had to give up is a win. A.J. Johnson wasn’t going to be a long-term piece for Dallas, and the Golden State pick won’t be great (top 20-protected). If this is the return for Aldama, you have to pull the trigger. But it does create a traffic jam at power forward/center for the Mavericks. It’s been widely speculated that some other names potentially on the move could include P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford. There are still some uncertainties in the frontcourt for Dallas. This week, the Mavericks extended a qualifying offer to Moussa Cisse, but he can seek a better deal elsewhere, and Marvin Bagley III has agreed to a one-year deal with the Denver Nuggets. But the Mavericks drafting Morez Johnson Jr. signaled a change for Dallas in the frontcourt, and more moves are likely to be made. Dallas will absorb Aldama’s $17 million per year into its $20 million trade exception from the Anthony Davis trade

What Aldama brings

Cooper Flagg needs scoring around him. The Mavericks just need scoring in general. Santi Aldama brings that and with size. In the 2025-2026 season, the 7-foot, 215-pound Spaniard averaged 14.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists on 47.9% from the floor and 35% from three in 28 minutes. Until last season, in which he only played 43 games due to knee surgery, Aldama had three consecutive seasons of playing at least 60 games. So as a general statement, he’s durable, and the Mavericks desperately need that from their frontcourt. For his career, Aldama has averaged 10.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists.

Although he’s not great defensively, Dallas shouldn’t be a weak defensive team, so you can still have him guard the four. His weakest link is guarding in space, so if he has to guard a forward who can operate from the high post or put the ball on the floor, it could be a problem, but overall, not a major concern. For what Aldama brings as a three-level scoring threat, you take the bad with the good.

Memphis received financial flexibility, and Dallas got more scoring. Both sides won.

Looking ahead

As we continue to charge through the offseason, in what has been a very bizarre offseason for many teams, very few things are off the table for the Mavericks to consider. There will likely be more names on the move, but for now, the Mavs added a scoring big, and in today’s NBA, that’s not a bad thing.

As President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, Brad Stevens has spent years building up a healthy trust bank.

The Derrick White trade was a hefty deposit. Kristaps Porziņģis for Marcus Smart? Ouch, but ultimately, cha-ching. Jrue Holiday was maybe the biggest down payment in recent memory, one that also led directly to Banner 18. Even the smaller moves over the years helped drive up the balance, one smart decision at a time, hitting singles until “In Brad We Trust” became less of a slogan and more of a reflex.

A strange move would happen, and eventually it made sense.

A painful move would happen, and eventually the gains outweighed the pain.

Something would feel uncomfortable, and the Celtics would usually end up better for it.

That is how trust works. You do enough smart things over enough time, and people start lending you patience they would not give to others.

Then, Stevens traded Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.

I’m still trying to find a reasonable way to process that sentence, but every time I look at it, my brain makes the same dial-up internet sound. Jaylen Brown. To Philadelphia. For Paul George and a handful of picks.

This was not some routine withdrawal from the trust bank.

This was Brad walking into the lobby wearing a ski mask, handing the teller a note that said “I can explain,” and sprinting out with a duffel bag full of every ounce of goodwill he had been methodically building up over years.

Fans deserve to know what, why, and how this just happened.

The first read is ugly

For starters, this is not a “Fire Brad Stevens” column. That feels too simple, and frankly, too soon.

Stevens has earned more than that. Since he was handed the keys in 2021, he was able to build a champion and turn a roster that needed something different into one that could actually finish the job. If anyone in Boston has earned a minute to explain the part of the plan we can’t see yet, it’s probably him.

The problem is that the surface read of this trade is undeniably brutal.

Boston didn’t get younger. Brown is 29. George is 36.

Boston didn’t get better in any obvious way. Brown just averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists while carrying a heavier load than anyone expected after Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury. He led a team projected by many to take a step back to 56 wins and finished sixth in MVP voting. George averaged 17.3 points and 5.3 rebounds last season, and played 37 games. Yes, he had his moments in the playoffs, primarily at the Celtics’ expense, but he’s not Jaylen Brown.

Boston didn’t get that much cheaper. The Celtics saved just $2.9 million this season, which feels equivalent to finding a twenty in your jeans. Nice? Sure. Franchise-altering? Please. George will make $54.1 million next season and has a $56.6 million player option for the year after that. Brown’s contract ran longer and carried bigger long-term implications, but this was not a clean financial reset where the Celtics suddenly opened the windows and let the fresh cap space breeze roll in.

Then there are the picks.

Two firsts and two seconds aren’t nothing. The unprotected 2031 Philadelphia first could be enormous if the Sixers eventually Sixer themselves into the sun, which history suggests should at least remain on the table. The 2028 pick situation has upside too, especially with the Clippers involved. Future draft capital gives Stevens more avenues, and Adam Himmelsbach reported that the Celtics still intend to build around Tatum.

Earlier on the same day Brown was traded, the Jazz reportedly got two unprotected firsts and two swaps from the Lakers for Walker Kessler. I like Walker Kessler. I would have talked myself into Walker Kessler in Boston in about two minutes. I also do not remember him winning Finals MVP or spending the last decade as one of the faces of a franchise.

That is where the confusion starts to curdle into anger.

You can understand why Boston may have wanted to move Brown’s money. You can see why his leaguewide market may have been more complicated than fans wanted to believe. You can even justify why Stevens might prefer George’s shorter contract, a couple of firsts and future flexibility over years of trying to thread the same expensive needle.

Understanding the ingredients does not mean the meal tastes good.

Right now, Celtics fans are staring at the plate like a waiter brought out lasagna with a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream on top. All things I like, but it may warrant a chef’s explanation. I would love to hear it. Until then, I’m not going to pretend this looks appetizing.

The unique pain of losing Jaylen Brown

The hardest part of this trade is that Brown was never only a contract, a market value, or an on-off debate waiting to be won by the loudest person on Twitter.

He was a Celtic in the way very few players get to be anymore.

Fans watched him get booed on draft night, then watched him grow from an athletic swingman with a questionable handle into one of the most decorated players in franchise history. They watched him become an All-Star, then an All-NBA player, then the Eastern Conference Finals MVP, then the NBA Finals MVP. They cheered him on as he locked up Luka Dončić in the Finals. They celebrated him as he helped deliver Banner 18. For almost a decade, Brown gave Boston deep playoff runs and real stakes nearly every spring.

Jaylen could also be maddening. Anyone who watched him dribble into traffic knows this. There were possessions where the ball seemed to turn into a live fish in his hands. The passing reads could come late. The advanced numbers have never fully known what to do with Brown, and honestly, neither have a lot of people watching him.

Still, he meant a lot to Boston.

That part feels obvious if you lived through the last 10 years of Celtics basketball instead of viewing Brown as a contract to move rather than a player who helped define the era. Brown was imperfect, expensive, complicated and deeply human. He was also one of the reasons this whole era felt worth believing in.

I keep thinking back to Game 7 against Philadelphia, which is probably a terrible idea for my mental health but here we are. Tatum was out. The Celtics were trying to hang onto a season that had already started slipping away. Brown showed up, blocked shots, attacked Embiid, scored through contact, and for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, it felt like he might drag everyone back from the edge by force.

They never got over the top. The season ended. Philadelphia won the series. A few months later, Boston sent Brown to go play for the team that just embarrassed them in the first round.

If the basketball gods wanted Celtics fans to be reasonable about this, sending Brown to Philadelphia of all places was a strange place to start.

Trading Smart hurt, but the return made sense quickly enough. Porziņģis changed the geometry of the team, Jrue did Jrue things, and Banner 18 gave the pain somewhere to go.

This feels different. There is no immediate emotional landing spot. George is not nothing, but he arrives as an older star with injury questions and a giant price tag attached to him. The picks are useful, but abstract. Flexibility is great in theory, though it has never hit the floor for a loose ball, guarded the other team’s best player, or stared down a hostile crowd in May.

Jaylen Brown did all of that.

So if the Celtics were going to move him, especially to Philadelphia, the explanation needed to be obvious enough for fans to hate it and still understand it.

We are not there yet.

Brad has to earn back the trust he just spent

There are reasonable basketball arguments buried somewhere inside this deal.

Brown’s contract was always going to make the next stage of team-building harder. The second apron was already squeezing the Celtics. Tatum’s recovery changed the timeline. Porziņģis, Holiday, Al Horford and Luke Kornet were already gone. If Boston looked at all of that and decided the cleanest version of the Jays era had already passed, that would be painful, but not impossible to understand.

The league may have viewed Brown differently than Boston fans did, too. His résumé says star, as does his production last season. His playoff history says winner. At the same time, the analytics conversation around him did not come from nowhere, and his contract was always going to make teams think twice. Add in the failed Giannis pursuit, the reported frustration and whatever the Celtics heard behind closed doors, and maybe his market was never going to match what he meant here.

Fine.

That can all be part of the story. It still is not a sufficient explanation.

In my article yesterday about the Celtics’ quiet start to free agency (take me back, I beg you), I wrote about the sign Stevens said he keeps above his desk. It reads, “What do you want? What’s true? And how do you get there?” At the time, it felt like the right framework for a quiet offseason. Brown’s future was unclear, the Celtics had not made the big move yet, and the rest of us were nervous but confident in Brad’s vision, despite having questions.

Now we have the first real answer.

The Celtics traded Jaylen Brown.

That tells us something, and yet not nearly enough.

The “what do you want?” part still seems simple enough. Boston wants to win with Tatum. Himmelsbach reported that the Celtics still intend to build around him, and the additions of Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley Jr. point more toward reshaping than bottoming out. George, assuming health does not turn this whole thing into a Babe Ruth-esque curse, can still help a good team.

“What’s true?” is where it gets harder. Brown apparently never requested a trade, but had grown frustrated with how Boston handled the situation. Stevens had recently called him “a big part of us” while also refusing to predict the future. Celtics brass reportedly agonized over the decision before deciding George and the picks gave them their best path forward.

That is a lot of context. Still, it leaves fans waiting for the rest of the receipt.

Then comes the hardest part of Brad’s sign.

How do you get there?

If the answer starts with trading Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia, Stevens has to walk people through the rest of the plan. He does not need to reveal every private conversation or turn the front office into a group chat with the fanbase. That has never been his style, and it would be strange if he started now. But this trade is too big and too illogical for the usual silence.

Fans shouldn’t ask Stevens to apologize for running a front office. They just want him to explain why this was the move that had to happen, why this return was the best haul available, and why the franchise is better positioned now than it was before trading away one of the most important Celtics of this century.

I am open to the idea that there is a plan here. George may be healthier than the internet wants to believe. Those picks could become something bigger. The shorter money may matter more than we can see today. Maybe Stevens chose the least bad door in a hallway full of bad doors.

I can hold those possibilities in my head.

I can also look at this trade and think it makes very little sense from where I’m sitting.

That is why “In Brad We Trust” cannot be the whole argument anymore. Not after this.

Whatever trust Stevens had built up did not disappear completely, but it is hard to pretend there is much left sitting untouched. A vault that once felt packed to the brim now looks like it has a couple of loose pennies rolling around the floor, and Celtics fans are standing outside wondering how the guy who filled it up is the same guy who emptied it.

Maybe Stevens can earn that trust back. Maybe George stays healthy, the picks turn into players as good as Brown was, and the next move makes this one easier to stomach. But that is work he has to do now. The benefit of the doubt is no longer a lifetime pass.

He spent more trust than he ever has before.

The bank is still standing. The vault is open. The alarms are screaming.

Now Celtics fans deserve to know where the money went.

Paul George was traded again on Wednesday in a blockbuster deal that brought Jaylen Brown to the Sixers. It’s been widely panned from Boston’s side, with our own Ricky O’Donnell noting that the Celtics have taken a step away from contention by taking on one of the worst contracts in the NBA, and losing a superstar in the process.

The trade means that George will have suited up for five teams, with three massive trades centered around the three-level scorer. Now that the Celtics deal is in the rearview mirror, we can look back at these staggering deals to see everything that has been given up for PG-13 over the years.

George was traded from the Pacers to the Thunder in 2017 for Victor Oladipo, who seemed destined to become a star — and Domantas Sabonis, who Oklahoma City took with the No. 11 pick the year prior. This was the smallest haul for George, but represented two young talents that were supposed to be cornerstones of the Pacers for years to come.

Next up was the mammoth trade to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2019, when the Clips were trying to build a big-two contender with Kawhi Leonard and George as the centerpieces. The NBA-shaping deal sent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, FIVE first-round picks, and two pick swaps from L.A. to OKC.

George declined his player option with the Clippers in 2024, and signed a max-deal with the Sixers.

That brings us to Wednesday, when the 76ers traded George to the Celtics for Jaylen Brown, as well as a 2028 1st round pick/swap (whichever is more favorable), and two second-round picks. Brace yourselves for everything that Paul George has become over the years, because it’s WILD.

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Jaylen Brown
• Jalen Williams (2022 draft pick)
• Cason Wallace (2021 draft pick)
• Domantas Sabonis
• Nikola Topić (2024 draft pick)
• Tre Mann (2021 draft pick)
• Thomas Sorber (2025 draft pick swap)
• Aday Mara (2026 draft pick swap)
• Victor Oladipo
• Danilo Gallinari

Oh, and OKC still has one more 1st-rounder coming in 2027. So, you could either have Paul George, or literally everything needed to build an NBA franchise.

Jaylen Brown bids farewell to Boston in heartfelt social media post originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jaylen Brown has spoken.

On Thursday, one day after being traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, the former Boston Celtics superstar took to social media with an official goodbye to the city he has called home for the last 10 years.

Read the full statement below:

First and foremost, thank you to the most high, even in the midst of adversity. I’m here with gratitude

I”m still processing how this all went down. I’m excited and disappointed at the same time. I earned my respect from this city. I never asked for shortcuts or special treatment. I simply showed up every day, put my head down, and accepted every challenge.

The relationships I built here, the battles we fought together, the championship we brought to this city, and the connection I shared with the fans, I’ll carry on with me.

Saying goodbye isn’t easy when you’ve invested your heart into something.

I’m big on respect and actions speak louder than words. To the people of Boston, thank you. To the community I built here I love you, and to the shiftaz we are locked in for life.

As one chapter closes, another begins.

I’m excited for what’s ahead and grateful for the opportunity to join Philadelphia. Every city has its own identity, its own passion, and its own expectation. I respect that, and I’m looking forward to earning that respect the only way I know how – through the work.

PHILLY #THROWTHEBALLUP LET’S GET IT!

The Celtics selected Brown with the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. The 29-year-old developed into an All-NBA talent alongside co-star Jayson Tatum, leading Boston to six Eastern Conference Finals appearances, two NBA Finals berths, and one championship. He was named MVP of the 2024 East Finals vs. the Indiana Pacers and the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

In this year’s playoffs, the Sixers erased a 3-1 series deficit to defeat Brown and the Celtics in the first round. Now, Philly will include Brown in a loaded projected starting lineup that also features Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Dean Wade, and Joel Embiid.

Boston received Paul George, two first-round picks, and two second-rounders from Philly in exchange for Brown.

I have this thing happening to me. Every day I go to bed, and without fail, I always find myself waking up at around 4:30 to 5 a.m. Funny thing is, the stuff tends to work in waves; sometimes it disappears and stays that way for a month and I sleep uninterrupted nightly, then it might come back for a week, or two, or eight, or whatever. Must be about aging. Whatever.

I woke up earlier today and checked the time exactly at 5:00 am. There was a notification on the phone; it was Russell Richardson in the P&T Slack letting us boys know about the infamous Jaylen Brown trade.

I checked it, was surprised, couldn’t really believe it, but that was it. Turned to the other side of the bed to try and catch some more sleep till the alarm sounded around an hour later, fully knowing my destiny was not to earn a single extra second of unconscious rest. It’s always the same.

With all of our crew sleeping overseas, I tasked myself with covering the trade in the early morning here in Spain after reading a bunch about it to get the full picture of it. You can read about in my earlier post linked above. And if you read that little story, you know I cut it short of where I wanted it to go because I have to admit I was going to go overboard. Hence, this new (Part II?) post.

With the near-factual feeling across the NBA world regarding how unexpected and ridiculous and hilarious and nonsensical (so much so Brad Stevens extinguished his Instagram account) Boston’s decision to flip Brown — coming off his best NBA season — for a 36-year-old human and four dubious draft picks, it just hit me that while this was ludicrous, the truth is that we’ve been watching similar stuff unfold in front of our eyes for a full week and change.

So consider this post your “how does Brown’s deal affect the Knicks?” silly breakdown, only expanded to the full Eastern Conference and linked to the beaten-to-death concept of parity.

Too much has been written and said about the new NBA Parity Era. And hey, it might be true, because there have been eight different champions in eight consecutive years — including your reigning, defending, undisputed NBA Champions of the World, the New York Knicks. But also, hey, it might be just the damn whole lot of roster-building randomness the NBA is dealing with these days, isn’t it?

After nine days of offseason transactions, from the draft to the first two days of free agency, the Knicks are the only team that can claim to have something no other team in the Eastern Conference can confidently say: ridiculous continuity. Yes, New York has lost Mitchell Robinson (RIP) and has a bench featuring a whole lot of guards, one unproven forward, and… no centers at all. As I type this, pending further moves, it’s a reason for concern.

But the East, simply put, is utterly unrecognizable these days. You don’t need to come out of a ten-, five-, or two-year-long coma to spot the differences. Just a little week-long trip to a hospital without Wi-Fi could have your head spinning as you read this.

• Miami landed Giannis Antetokounmpo but lost Norman Powell and a bunch of rotation players.
• The Hornets followed by sending their two best players away in LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges to the Western Conference, taking a step back and looking forward to a brighter future.
• Philadelphia answered the Heat’s blockbuster by acquiring Brown in the most shocking trade since Luka Doncic went to LA.
• Toronto brought Kawhi Leonard back, but sent two starters in Brandon Ingram and Grady Dick the other way.
• The Pistons have lost J Cole and could whiff on bringing Jalen Duren back, although even if they do, they are just going nowhere, so don’t worry.
• Indiana flew under the radar and was awful last season, but they will have Tyrese Haliburton back and nearly all of the roster that graced the 2025 NBA Finals.
• Cleveland is perhaps the closest to the Knicks in terms of staying the same, only they might have the biggest FA signing of the year coming their way in LeBron James.
• Atlanta, Orlando, and Chicago mostly stood pat but they don’t scare anybody.
• You already know Washington is my dark horse for ECF, but all they did was luck into the No. 1 pick.
• Then there’s the Nets.

In four words, it’s all a mess. That said…

Miami still needs to build half of its roster with pocket money. Philadelphia has one of the highest ceilings in the conference, but Joel Embiid’s health won’t hold, and we’ll see how the Maxey-Edgecome-Brown trifecta meshes. Toronto looks better defensively, but again, the chem might not be there for them to contend. Boston will be kinda good anyway, but they will lack the ultimate punch come killing time. The 2025 Pacers were a mirage. Cleveland is Cleveland. And the Pistons are the biggest lie in recent history.

The Knicks enter the season knowing exactly who they are. That doesn’t guarantee another trip to the Finals, but it’s a much better place to be than trying to build chemistry around another blockbuster trade coming off a championship.

But again, when it comes to parity, and while the reigning champs are the one team keeping the core together and running it back for the most part, it’s just impossible to bet on them against the field for the 2027 NBA title, given how much the league has changed in a matter of days. How can you expect any consistency when one whole damn conference has changed entirely, and the other one has done the same, as this business is a zero-sum game?

• If you don’t recognize the LA Lakers roster above, you’re not alone. It’s the same story out West. Los Angeles parlayed LeBron’s departure into literally $450 million, all of them spent in a 15-minute flurry of moves.
• The Timberwolves are putting all their money in a fun LaMelo-Ant backcourt that might equally win games or force Minny’s fans out of the arena out of frustration.
• The Blazers don’t have money for their coach or their G League team, but they just traded for Ja Morant.
• Phoenix is now linked to an awful person forever.
• The Clippers are back to where they belong in Los Angeles sports lore.
• Golden State might soon lose the G from its name.

Shouts out to the Thunder and the Spurs — even though they’ve made a few moves — for nearly keeping their squads together, barring blatant dumpings and hiring a rapper.

So with all of the above written, how does the NBA or any fan out there expect anything else than “parity” or, better said, just plain dumb randomness? Who can really predict the outcome of a system whose variables change massively from one iteration to the next?

And again, even if the same suspects and longest-running teams will always at least be considered to be in the picture once again—your Knicks, Spurs, Thunder—there is nothing you can really do if you’re dealing with 15 different, new teams every year. As Knicks fans, we know it from the inside. New York slowly started to put together a team to beat the Celtics (which they did a year ago), but ultimately didn’t even meet Boston on their way to the title, and now the C’s look nothing like they did in 2024.

The Wolves appeared to be locked into building a tank to stop the Nikola Jokic Nuggets (which they achieved), only now they have flipped their roster entirely, while Denver remains nearly the same. Get back in time, and you’d find the Rockets attempting to build the anti-KD-GSW machine, only for Durant to bolt out after the 2019 title. The Big 3 Celtics (for the young lads, the ones featuring Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen) were built for countering LeBron James before he even moved out of Cleveland to form his own Voltron in Miami.

Who’s to say how the Eastern Conference picture will look come April? If you ask me this very minute (I have scheduled this story to publish five hours from now, who knows how the picture will look by that time…), this might be it compared to how things were by June 15 (not a per-se standings table, just a perception).

Long story short, you can plan and make moves for the present, but as is the case with our brains and attention spans, rosters are so much in flux and long-term planning is shrinking into a yearly affair that it just doesn’t make any sense to think more than two springs ahead. You can keep your team together (good), but you can plan for chaos elsewhere. And even if you get better or worse, there are still a thousand pieces moving around and out of your control that can swing your position up or down in the table at a moment’s notice.

These days, the League looks like a snow globe in the hands of a wicked two-year-old with erratic hand-shaking tendencies.

Parity, randomness… who cares? It will all have changed again before you close this page.

In order to understand the Jaylen Brown trade, its associated outrage, the mass confusion about how little Boston got back and the surrounding circus about how good Jaylen Brown may or may not be, we need to talk about another (in)famous trade. 

On Wednesday, the Celtics sent Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul George and two future first-round picks. That is shockingly little for an All-NBA, Finals MVP and borderline face-of-the-franchise level player not even in his 30s. But before we talk about Brown, George, the Celtics, the 76ers, Brad Stevens, Bill Chisholm, any of them, we need to talk about, you guessed it, Luka Doncic. 

After the Luka trade, there were a lot of takes. Most of them the same (“this is the worst trade in NBA history”), though some of them were stupid or just intentionally clickbaity (“the Mavericks won the trade”). But the best one, by far, was the nuanced counterpoint, made memorably (to me at least) by Chuck Klosterman. Loosely paraphrased: If you thought that that trade meant you could win the NBA Finals this year, then you can rationalize it. It’s not necessarily a correct diagnosis of your situation, but it would be a rational decision.

That is, to date, the only contrarian opinion on the Luka trade that I felt actually was fair to the parties involved. Every other formulation of “the Mavericks were going nowhere with Luka” or “defense wins championships” was either in bad faith or simply naive. But the view that treated Nico Harrison and the Mavericks as rational actors rather than visionaries or idiots was my favorite. 

The same may, eventually, be true for the Jaylen Brown trade: the return did not line up with his reputation, no, but it is likely that the Celtics made a rational decision based on their evaluation of the player and the market. And while the return is disappointing, arguably shocking, for Celtics fans (myself included), the trade should not be treated as patently insane. 

There are three possible explanations for why Boston pulled the trigger on such a flabbergasting lowball return: first, that Brown had demanded a trade and the two sides’ relationship had soured beyond the point of no return. This story has been repeatedly debunked by those with information from inside the Celtics organization. Second, that new owner Bill Chisholm is cost-cutting in order to make the team more profitable for his private equity partners. And while the influence of private equity in sports is a fascinating tale to tell, this version of events is an unnecessary and unlikely conspiracy theory; Boston offered Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player they would have immediately signed to an extension that would have exceeded the remaining value on Brown’s deal. Total team cost is not the reason.

That leaves reason number three, essentially the only one that makes any sense if we’re trying to be rational: the Celtics and Brad Stevens had decided, at some point in the past year, that it was impossible to win another championship paying Jaylen Brown a supermax contract. 

As was a topic of serious discussion on social media this week, Brown’s advanced metrics suggest he is an inefficient player whose team actually performs better when he is off the court. And while this is an impossibly prickly debate to wade into, let’s just skip the wading, put on a hazmat suit and cannonball in.

Jaylen Brown has been a winning player in his career. The Celtics have won an absurd number of games this decade. He was instrumental to their run to win the 2024 NBA Championship, and will perhaps be the last man ever to wear number seven in Boston. He has also been a frustrating player to watch and to root for. His persistent issues with clumsy dribbling seemed to create problems for the Celtics out of thin air. His free throw shooting, which majorly improved the last two seasons, is still below 75 percent for his career. But he has declined as a three-point shooter and has never been especially efficient from the floor. None of that is contradictory; Brown is incredibly talented and has been very successful — he is also not Jayson Tatum, the Celtics’ utterly non-negotiable cornerstone, nor are the two on the same level. 

Delusions that Tatum and Brown were somehow 1A and 1B (or even equals) rather than the clear number one and number two that they actually are, have pervaded Celtics circles since I was a small child. These delusions are what led to the most vitriolic outrage from Celtics Land on Wednesday, but there is no doubt that Brown is a better player than what he was traded for; George is an aging, injury-prone wing with a similarly expensive albeit shorter contract. Even if Boston had long decided to deal Brown, why the Celtics decided to make this move now rather than wait for something better is perplexing. But it is also possible nothing better would ever become available; without a full understanding of the market, we can’t be sure.

Tatum is a supermax player, and he will remain as such for the Celtics into the future. Most likely, the Celtics front office concluded that Brown’s supermax contract made it impossible for them to realistically compete in the next three years. Yes, they won a title with both Tatum and Brown, but that was before they were both on mega-deals and with a once-in-a-generation superteam Boston quickly became unable to pay. It is not feasible for the Celtics to put that kind of talent around Tatum and Brown ever again.  

That meant trading Brown was rational, something I have repeatedly stated on various internet publishing platforms since what feels like the dawn of time but is actually just, like, last May. And even though Brown is an excellent basketball player, the contract appears to have prohibited any real market from emerging. Even I underestimated how little the Celtics and the rest of the NBA thought of Brown as an asset. 

Boston did not wind up with Antetokounmpo because the Milwaukee Bucks did not see a team built around Jaylen Brown as a viable path to contention, now or in the future. Nor did the rest of the NBA, as Brown will now be second or third option on the 76ers behind Tyrese Maxey and maybe Joel Embiid. His reputation was, and should continue to be, far greater than what the Celtics got in return. But the simple reality that he makes too much money for what he actually contributes is probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.

There may be another straw. We will probably get some kind of now-they-tell-us feature story that describes how the front office slowly became disenchanted with Brown and how their relationship frayed. There may be some organizational policy that is not public information, but I will not speculate. And you can read all about why the George-plus-two-picks deal is so lopsided for Philadelphia here by the meritorious Ricky O’Donnell. I’m not here to tell you it’s a good deal.

I’m just here to say that it is, for the most part, a rational decision. We may be tempted to think that teams and players are two individuals, relating on an even playing field with emotions and attachment and associated respect. But teams are not individuals; they are groups, with complex interests and longer-term priorities. Whatever “responsibilities” they have to certain players, fans or to a city often break at the stone of cold logic. It’s not pretty, but trading Jaylen Brown for a pittance may still have been the best, or only, path forward. This is not the Luka trade, which had no bidding war. This trade was the result of the bidding war, and probably reflected his actual market value.

In the end, Brown’s contract may just be too expensive. Paying for past performance is the recipe for NBA disaster, especially in the most restrictive financial ecosystem the league has ever had. It is a bold statement, one I’m not necessarily sure I would make myself, but if Boston had truly decided that Brown was blocking their ability to build a winning team, trading him for the best offer they had, however insultingly low, makes rational sense. 

Goodbye, Tobias Harris. You will certainly be missed. While Jalen Duren’s restricted free agency has sucked up most of the oxygen this offseason, and the rumor mill was stuffed full of potential trades for star players that are unlikely to come to fruition, when I have talked to people who really know the team well, the biggest topic of conversation has been Tobias.

Harris is a former Piston for the second time after agreeing to a two-year deal with the San Antonio Spurs. The writing was already on the wall earlier Wednesday when it was reported that the Pistons signed Harris’ replacement after agreeing to terms with free agent John Collins.

If you want to understand how important Harris has been in his second tenure with the Detroit Pistons, just look at the comments about him from Pistons fans and compare that to the vitriol directed his way from the fans of his previous team, the Philadelphia 76ers.

That was just a quick search. I can tell you from personal experience, the vitriol of Sixers fans that sought me out just so they could vent their frustrations about Harris, even after he’d left the team, was intense.

Compare that to how Pistons fans are reacting to Harris’ departure — a mix of real sadness and immense respect. I know I feel it.

It’s not just that Harris played well for Detroit during the last two seasons here; it is because Pistons fans always knew what Harris was, and more importantly, what he wasn’t. So did Harris. There were no outsized expectations. The contract was still big — the ridicule of a bad team like Detroit giving Harris more than $25 million a season was everywhere. Critics saw a washed player getting a bag from a desperate team. But he wasn’t washed, and the money was right even if it was a sizeable payday.

But it wasn’t $180 million big. It wasn’t star player big. It was the contract given to an iron man, a working professional, and someone who can be counted on game-in and game-out to give what they can.

The Pistons’ offense catered to his preference for a mix of catch-and-shoot opportunities and workmanlike backdown isos in the post. He was never asked to breakdown his defender or score 25-plus a night. He was asked to steady a ship that was only used to rocky seas and to be available when called upon.

Detroit had the big men and wings that meant Harris didn’t need to grab 10 boards, and they had a balanced offensive system that meant his 13 points per game were just fine.

He wasn’t here to do more than that. He was here to be the professional in the locker room. To show a young team what preparation and keeping your body right looked like in practice. He was “Unc” not because he was in his mid-30s surrounded by a rotation was mostly a decade younger.

It was because he was wise.

That is what Detroit is going to miss most. (That and a player who could reliably get his own shot with the shot clock running down).

As sad as it is, the good news is that what Harris helped build in Detroit will outlast him. I know many smart Pistons fans who are worried. Worried about the locker room. Worried about the professionalism.

But that foundation he helped lay will outlive his time in Detroit. The talent infusion over the past two years was vital. The ability to put Cade Cunningham in a modern basketball system was critical. However, I think the most important ingredient to the huge turnaround has been the culture of this team. You don’t go from 14 wins to 44 to 60 just because you finally have three-point shooters on your roster. You get there because you’ve instilled an unshakeable belief and focus on what it means to win.

Someone needed to show the Pistons the way, and that is all Tobias. Now the Pistons know. And it is on them to take the next step. There job is to always remember the lessons “Unc” taught them and carry them forward as the talent gets deeper and the playoff runs get longer.

Thanks, Tobias. The Pistons wouldn’t be the Pistons without you.

Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey didn’t take long to make a big splash, huh? On Wednesday, he agreed to trade Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to the Boston Celtics for Jaylen Brown, according to multiple reports.

That blockbuster deal explains why the Sixers weren’t willing to top the two-year, roughly $17 million deal that Kelly Oubre Jr. agreed to with the Indiana Pacers.

The Sixers hard-capped themselves at the $209 million first apron by spending a portion of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Dean Wade on Tuesday night. That means their payroll cannot exceed that threshold from now through June 30, 2027.

After adding Ariel Hukporti on a reported one-year, $3.4 million deal, flipping George for Brown and agreeing to a two-year, $12.3 million contract with Anfernee Simons, here’s a rough estimate as to where the Sixers stand financially.

The Sixers appear to be splitting the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception between Wade and Simons, while Hukporti’s deal will likely come out of the bi-annual exception.

Agent inflation is common at this time of year, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Wade, Simons and/or Hukporti’s final contract terms come in slightly below what’s been reported. But if the reported terms are correct, the Sixers are now roughly $5.2 million above the $200.4 million luxury-tax threshold and $3.4 million below the first apron.

Remember, they cannot cross the first apron under any circumstance between now and June 30, 2027. That means they can’t offer any free agent—yes, even LeBron James—more than a minimum contract without shedding salary elsewhere first.

That cap picture is still fairly fluid, though. Dalen Terry’s $2.6 million contract is fully non-guaranteed until Jan. 10, and given the hard-cap issues that the Sixers are in danger of running into, it wouldn’t be surprising if they waive him. They could bring him back on a minimum contract and save $135,000.

Adem Bona’s $2.3 million contract is also non-guaranteed until July 7, although there’s no financial incentive for the Sixers to waive him. His salary is about $150,000 less than a standard veteran-minimum deal, so it would behoove the Sixers financially to keep him around this year.

Jabari Walker is the wild card. Like Terry, he’s set to earn $2.6 million this season. Only $250,000 of his contract is guaranteed through Jan. 10, but waiving him and signing a player to a minimum contract in his place would cost about $115,000 more than just keeping him around.

All of that might sound relatively inconsequential when we’re talking about a $200-plus million budget, but teams have gotten aggressive about pushing boundaries with their hard caps. The reigning champion New York Knicks finished less than $240,000 below their second-apron hard cap this past season, while the Los Angeles Lakers were less than $620,000 below their first-apron hard cap. In 2024-25, the Knicks finished exactly $53,349 below their second-apron hard cap.

The Sixers could always choose to leave one roster spot open heading into the season as an homage to former team president Daryl Morey as a way to save a few bucks. Veteran-minimum contracts begin to prorate downward on a daily basis once the regular season begins, so they could look to sign someone midseason and save more than $1 million that way.

Either way, the Sixers are now poised to enter the season well over the luxury-tax line. If they do sign a 15th player to a minimum contract this offseason, they’ll project to be roughly $1 million below the first apron, although that could change slightly depending on what they decide to do with Terry, Walker and Bona.

The Sixers are just about out of spending power, but could they have one more surprise up their sleeve? Based on how Gansey has gotten his Sixers tenure started, we can’t rule anything out at this point.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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The Knicks already took their first steps toward repeating the success of their 2026 championship, locking up their bench backcourt to new deals. Unfortunately, they lost a key ingredient to their run as well, with Mitchell Robinson heading to Boston for three years and $47.4 million.

This was a contract value the front office couldn’t match without going into the second apron, a hard line for this offseason. 

With Robinson gone, the Knicks need to fill the hole left at their center position — here are some ways they can do it:

Kevon Looney

Looney is an unrestricted free agent after playing only 21 games for New Orleans last season. He has championship mettle from his 10 years in Golden State, including time spent under Knicks head coach Mike Brown.

He’s a bit undersized at 6-foot-9 and is now 30 years old, but is a smart defender and offensive rebounder who sets good screens and can make a couple plays in the halfcourt offense. He won’t wholly replace Robinson -- no bench big can -- but he’d be a solid veteran pickup who can easily slide to third string if a better option rises up.

Nick Richards

Richards is a free agent who’s closer to the Robinson mold at 6-foot-11 and sporting strong athleticism and rim-running. He’s only 28 and is a New York local who averaged 9.4 points and 7.6 rebounds on 52.3 percent shooting from the field in his last 20 games with Chicago last season.

The Bulls were his third team in two seasons after the Hornets and Suns both traded him. That's not a shining endorsement, but the right structure could help him find his footing. He’s been linked to the Knicks in the past so it wouldn’t be surprising if they came back around to seal the deal this time. 

Andre Drummond

Drummond is a veteran of 14 seasons, spending his last two in Philadelphia having to play almost 20 minutes per game as Joel Embiid’s backup and stand-in. He would be comfortable in a potential role in New York behind Karl-Anthony Towns and bring high-level offensive rebounding, plus a newly developed three-point shot to the table. 

His defense isn’t great and he’ll be 33 before the start of next season, but Drummond combined with one of the names above or below could help strengthen New York's frontcourt depth. 

Moussa Diabate

This will depend on Charlotte and New York’s appetite for a trade, but a salary match of Miles McBride or a couple of the Knicks prospects could net them a young promising big via the trade market. The Hornets may play ball given they also employ Ryan Kalkbrenner, Naz Reid and newly drafted Hannes Steinbach. 

New York would net a freakish athlete at just 24 years old who averaged 7.9 points and 8.7 rebounds on 63.1 percent shooting in 73 games and 47 starts last season. They’d have to pay him after this season, which could be a risk, but if possible this is their highest upside means of filling the role. 

Drew Eubanks

Not the hottest name, Eubanks has spent the last five seasons on six different squads, culminating in a quiet season in Sacramento. He’s not the strongest rebounder but can defend and finish nicely, bringing toughness to the frontline. 

Eubanks hasn’t been brought up as much as these other names, but could be as effective if not more in making up for some of Robinson’s lost production.