The Boston Celtics have been accused of blowing this offseason. Of course, they have the Philadelphia 76ers to thank for that.
In Bleacher Report’s rundown of five teams that struggled to improve as contenders, the Celtics joined a class that includes the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans Pelicans, and the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Jaylen Brown trade says it all
You’ll have a hard time finding a Boston Celtics fan who is satisfied with the return for Jaylen Brown. While the masses didn’t want to see the star go, most understand that Brown and the organization were approaching a point of no return. For a brief moment, it seemed the Celtics could get Giannis Antetokounmpo out of Brown. Instead, they scooped up Paul George, who just turned in a disappointing two-season stretch with the 76ers.
A reminder: The Celtics got older, just slightly cheaper ($3.7 million to be exact), and landed a player with availability concerns. Not to mention, George is a player without an NBA Finals victory on his resume, while Brown is a recent NBA Finals MVP. The Celtics’ front office is one of the best in the NBA, which makes it difficult to question them. However, this one is still puzzling, but you can bet the 76ers aren’t complaining.
More contributions from the Sixers
The Brown trade obviously headlines the Sixers’ contributions to Boston’s supposed flop of an offseason, but there’s more. It all started with the shocking 1-3 comeback in the first round of the playoffs. Sure, Paul George’s solid series convinced the Celtics he’s a better fit for them than Brown at this stage, but Joel Embiid’s work in the frontcourt confirmed Boston’s biggest fears throughout the 2025-2026 regular season—they didn’t have enough power in the frontcourt to actually compete.
The in-season trade for Nikola Vucevic was a solid effort. I’ll admit, I thought that one could be a needle-mover for Boston. The forgotten former Sixer has been turning in some solid production for the Chicago Bulls over the years, but it turned out that Vucevic’s production might’ve benefited from a lousy Bulls roster.
In 48 games with the Bulls, Vucevic averaged 16.9 points and 6.9 rebounds last season. When he landed in Boston, Vucevic turned in 9.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. In the playoffs, the numbers dropped to 6.2 points and 4.3 rebounds. Joe Mazzulla didn’t even think about rolling him out for Game 7.
Credit to the Celtics for realizing they needed an upgrade, but the Mitchell Robinson move is pegged as a problem as well, due to the cost for a guy who “can't play more than 20ish minutes per game or both ends of back-to-backs.” Robinson has played well against the 76ers in the past, but the workload increases for him in Boston.
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