The Boston Celtics just handed the Philadelphia 76ers a top-15 NBA player. For Paul George. And a handful of picks. And the internet has not been kind.
Shams Charania broke the news Wednesday night: Jaylen Brown is headed to Philly. Paul George goes to Boston along with two first-round picks and two second-round picks. The trade is official. The shock is not wearing off.
Let’s be clear about what Boston gave up. Brown was the 2024 Finals MVP. He carried the Celtics to the second seed in the East while Jayson Tatum rehabbed a torn right Achilles suffered in the 2025 playoffs. The league wrote Boston off after that injury. Pundits predicted a play-in ceiling or worse. Brown responded by playing the best basketball of his life.
He averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists last season while playing 71 games. In the first-round series against these exact 76ers, Brown put up 25.7 points, 5.7 boards and 3.3 assists on 45 percent shooting and 40 percent from three. Game 7: 33 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks. He went 12 of 27 from the field. Not efficient. But he never quit. Even in his last game as a Celtic, he left everything on the floor.
And now he’s a Sixer.
Boston Celtics: F+
There is no gentle way to say this. Brad Stevens and the front office just dumped a five-time All-Star in his prime to a division rival that eliminated them in the playoffs. The logic is thin. The optics are worse.
The bet here is that Tatum returns from his Achilles tear at full strength. That is a massive bet. Achilles injuries have ended careers and derailed primes. It is also a bet that more moves are coming. But right now, the Celtics traded a 1A talent for an aging Paul George and draft capital that might never match what they gave up. George is 36. Brown does not turn 30 until the start of the season.
The trade looks like a salary dump dressed up in playoff jargon. Brown never asked out. He wanted to be in Boston. They shipped him out anyway.
Philadelphia 76ers: A+
Daryl Morey just pulled off the kind of trade that gets you treated like a genius in every bar in Philly. The Sixers added Brown without giving up Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey or rookie V.J. Edgecombe. They sent out Paul George and some picks. That is a steal by any measure.
Injury insurance was a problem for Philadelphia. Embiid played only 38 games in 2025-26 and missed the first three games of the Celtics series. He came back in Game 4 and helped engineer the upset, but the team cannot count on him for 70 games anymore. Brown has played at least 70 games in three of the last four seasons. He can raise the floor when Embiid is out.
The Sixers just got younger, more durable and better at the wing. They also weakened a team that has owned the East for years. Boston will have to scramble to stay competitive. Philadelphia can now build around Brown, Maxey and an aging but still dominant Embiid. That is a three-man core that can hang with anyone in the conference.
Nobody is calling the Sixers championship favorites. But they are right there in the conversation. And if Brown keeps playing like he did last season, Philadelphia might look back on this trade as the moment the East shifted.
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