Jaylen Brown isn’t interested in carrying old Celtics baggage into Philadelphia, and he made that plain the moment the conversation drifted toward “alpha” talk.
That’s the kind of label that can swallow a team whole before camp even gets going. Brown, though, moved right past it.
After spending years in Boston with the “whose team is it anyway?” noise hanging around him, he seems intent on leaving that debate behind with the 76ers.
And maybe that’s the right approach for this group. Philadelphia has plenty of high-end talent already, which makes the whole idea of crowning one player this early feel unnecessary.
Tyrese Maxey is an All-Star. Joel Embiid owns seven All-Star nods and an MVP trophy.
LeBron James is one of the most accomplished players in league history. Even VJ Edgecombe is projected to become a star.
Brown, for his part, is a multi-time All-Star and an MVP candidate in the right situation.
The bigger point is that the Sixers don’t need a hierarchy lecture right now. The offseason chatter about too many mouths to feed was always going to follow a roster like this, but Brown’s response was simple: “Next question”.
That lines up with the tone the 76ers want to set as camp opens Tuesday. They’re talking patience.
They’re talking sacrifice. They’re talking about figuring out how all this talent actually fits together.
Assigning a leader by label before the group has even had time to settle in would be forcing the issue.
This season also figures to change shape depending on health, which makes any early identity debate even more premature. Joel Embiid has dealt with his share of problems over the years, and there’s no telling how his knee will hold up.
Tyrese Maxey hasn’t worn the injury-prone tag, but he has had setbacks over the past two years. With Brown and LeBron James in the mix, Philadelphia has a different look already.
The rest will come over time.
Brown knows what it means to be a fixture. In Boston, he started for nine of the last ten years. He made his first All-Star team in his fifth season and then returned to the roster in four of the last five years.
The scoring ceiling may look different now than it did in his biggest Boston stretch, when he averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.1 assists in the season that put him in MVP conversation. But that doesn’t make him any less important. If anything, Brown looks set to be a central piece of what the 76ers become in 2026-2027.
In Other News...
Anfernee Simons Just Sent The 76ers Bench A Clear Message
Anfernee Simons has already given the 76ers a glimpse of what they can expect from him in his new setting, and it starts with a willingness to fit in. He spoke with clear admiration for LeBron James while also making it plain that he understands the value of leaning into his role, especially as a secondary scoring option off the bench. For a Philadelphia team that will lean on more than just its starters, that kind of mindset matters.
The message for the second unit is pretty simple: stay engaged, stay ready, and keep a team-first approach no matter how the rotation looks from night to night. Simons made it clear he sees an opportunity not just to produce, but to learn and grow within that structure, which is exactly the sort of buy-in the 76ers will need from their depth if they want their bench to hold up over the course of the season. [Read more 🡒]
Paul George Just Revived An Uncomfortable Sixers Reality
Paul Georges latest comments have only sharpened an awkward conversation around his Philadelphia tenure, because he spoke warmly about the Boston Celtics and said he wished he had gotten there sooner. For a Sixers team that brought him in to be a major piece of its future, that kind of sentiment lands hard, especially when it arrives after a stretch defined by uneven availability, injury interruptions and the kind of off-court suspension issues that kept the pairing from ever feeling fully settled.
The larger picture is even trickier for Philadelphia because the move that sent George to Boston also changed the direction of both franchises. Georges run with the Sixers never quite matched the optimism that followed his arrival, and now the trade invites an obvious comparison to the other side of the deal, where Jaylen Brown gives the Celtics a different kind of stability. For the Sixers, the uncomfortable part is not just losing George's production, but watching the return shape up as the sort of foundation they may have hoped to build all along. [Read more 🡒]
Joel Embiid Just Gave The Sixers Their Best Camp Sign Yet
Joel Embiid took part fully in the 76ers training camp session, a welcome sight for a team that has spent far too much time navigating his health. Nick Nurse said Embiid was a full participant and looked great in the first practice, which is about as encouraging a start as Philadelphia could have asked for after another offseason of questions about how much the star center would be available.
The challenge now is turning a strong first day into something sustainable. The Sixers know Embiids injury-prone history makes caution essential, so his workload will be managed carefully as camp continues and the schedule starts to tighten. For a team built around him, the real news is not just that he was out there, but whether this can be the beginning of a more steady stretch. [Read more 🡒]