Jaylen Brown didn’t waste time pretending the LeBron James news was anything other than huge.
After spending his entire career seeing James as the opponent, Brown is now preparing to share a locker room with him in Philadelphia after James joined the 76ers in free agency and Brown was traded out of Boston. The two had plenty of history as rivals, including those Eastern Conference finals meetings in 2017 and 2018, when James and the Cavaliers knocked Brown’s Celtics out twice on the way to the NBA Finals. James later moved on to the Lakers, but the rivalry never really disappeared.
Brown’s first public reaction came Monday night on a live stream, and his focus was clear: this is a chance to learn from one of the game’s best.
“I’m super excited for this upcoming season,” Brown said on Twitch. “Yo, we got ‘Bron!
What an opportunity that is. Obviously everybody is going to say whatever they want to say, and there’s going to be a bunch of media this whole entire season.
But for me, what an opportunity it is to learn. One of my favorite things to do is to learn ...
I love learning. To have the opportunity to learn, one, from one of, if not the greatest player of all time.
I get an opportunity to, on the court, off the court, learn and gather experiences that can accumulate to my own knowledge base.”
That’s the part that matters most for Brown, because being around James means access to the stuff nobody sees from the outside - the preparation, the recovery, the way he reads and manipulates the floor, the habits that have helped define his career. Brown won’t become LeBron by proximity, but he can absolutely pick up details that sharpen his own game.
That attitude should play well in Philadelphia, too. Star pairings do not always come with instant comfort, and plenty of big names have bristled when asked to share the spotlight. Brown, though, sounded eager to absorb whatever he can from James, which is exactly the kind of mindset that helps a team settle in faster.
Brown also gave a hint about how he’s approaching the season physically. He said Monday night that he has dropped about seven pounds this offseason compared with his playing weight from last year.
“I think I lost about seven pounds,” Brown acknowledged. “Just to be a little bit more fast and nimble.
I gotta keep up with [Tyrese] Maxey and [VJ] Edgecombe and LeBron this year, so I did lose about seven pounds. I feel great.
I’m jumping higher, running faster.”
That lines up with what the Sixers are likely to need. This isn’t shaping up as a full-throttle, pace-every-possession kind of group, but transition offense should still matter a lot.
Brown’s weight loss points to that reality, especially with the kind of company he’ll be running with. Brown, Maxey and James all ranked top-five in transition points per game during the last regular season, and each brings a different kind of threat in the open floor.
Brown has elite burst, Maxey is the fastest player in the NBA and James remains one of the best transition scorers the league has ever seen.
With a slimmer frame and fewer ballhandling responsibilities, Brown should have more room to do what he does best in those easy-run opportunities. That kind of setup is different from what he had with Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum, and it gives Philadelphia another path to points if the fit comes together the way it hopes.
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Nick Smith Jr., Keaton Wallace and a few other names fit the basic profile of players who could draw consideration for that spot, each bringing a different blend of recent production and developmental appeal. Mike Gansey and the front office have a chance to target upside here, and while it is hardly the biggest item on Philadelphias summer checklist, these are the kind of quiet moves that can still end up paying off if the fit is right. [Read more 🡒]