Paul George may have left Philadelphia with a messy label attached to his name, but the idea of him landing in Boston could be the part that ends up bothering the 76ers the most.
The swap that sent George’s contract to the Celtics in exchange for Jaylen Brown was widely viewed as a win for Philadelphia. Getting out from under that deal mattered. Still, the bigger basketball question is whether George’s game fits so cleanly with Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics that Boston’s Eastern Conference push gets a major lift.
That possibility starts with the shot-making. George, 36, put together a useful regular season after serving a 25-game suspension in 2025-26, averaging 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.6 assists while knocking down 39.2% of his 3-point attempts. Then he turned it up in the playoffs, where he buried 49.3% from beyond the arc.
That kind of perimeter production is exactly the sort of thing Boston leans on. Mazzulla’s teams are built around toughness and consistency, but they also live and die with shots from range. When the Celtics are hitting, they become a brutal team to keep up with.
George also brings more than just shooting. He has shown he can fit into a hierarchy where he is not the primary option, and that matters in Boston.
There was already concern about whether Brown would handle that dynamic once Jayson Tatum was back to full strength. George, by contrast, has done it before.
The defensive side helps too. His perimeter work remains elite, and his mix of experience and basketball IQ gives Boston another player who can make life harder for opponents trying to score from deep.
And the Celtics are not suddenly short on talent around him. Payton Pritchard and Derrick White will be looking to get back to their offensive efficiency next season, while Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez will be trying to earn Mazzulla’s trust and expand their roles.
So while Philadelphia did clear out what the source calls George’s “ludicrous contract” and did so in a move described as a stroke of genius by Mike Gansey, the Celtics’ end of the deal may be the part that matters most on the floor. If George brings that playoff shooting to Boston, the 76ers could have a real problem on their hands.
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