Congrats to the Sixers, who now need to figure some stuff out

Jaylen Brown replaces a high-frequency deep shooter. Does Tyrese Maxey end up in more of a spot-up role? Who's going to sacrifice here?

Good morning. And you thought the NBA was corrupt. Ha! (The NBA should absolutely announce the Aspiration judgment during USA-Belgium.) Let's basketball.

The asset shift from Paul George to Jaylen Brown with minimal draft equity being spent is an easy win and total victory for Philadelphia. Durability is a crucial ability in the modern, capped NBA, and Brown will provide plus basketball for many more minutes than PG can be expected to offer given his age and injury history. But because it's Jaylen Brown – a top-20 player almost certainly, but not a Tier 1 superstar – there will still be some stuff to figure out on both ends for Nick Nurse and the 76ers.

Philadelphia had a weird team in a weird season in 2025-26, and ended up about average on both ends of the floor during a regular season in which Joel Embiid played 38 games and PG played 37. The bench went through a lot of variations, too: 23 players in total got minutes, and 14 different players got starts despite the Sixers fighting for play-in positioning until the very end of the campaign.

When George did play, his role was muted from his prime career highs: he became a wing defender and three-point shooter. About half of PG's shots last season came from deep, and he took almost two corner threes per 36 minutes played. He largely gave up the classic playmaking he offered much of his career as Tyrese Maxey and, when available, Embiid controlled the ball. PG was on the ball on offense about as much as rookie V.J. Edgecombe.

Needless to say, that's probably not viable with JB in that spot over PG.