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Why Kendrick Perkins believes Jaylen Brown trade makes 76ers Finals contenders
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- Why Kendrick Perkins believes Jaylen Brown trade makes 76ers Finals contenders
Why Kendrick Perkins believes Jaylen Brown trade makes 76ers Finals contenders appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
How much better are the Philadelphia 76ers after the second day of free agency?
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With Kelly Oubre and Quentin Grimes gone, Dean Wade and Ariel Hukporti signed, and… oh yeah, a blockbuster trade that brought 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown to town for Paul George , two first-round picks, and a pair of second-rounders, the team will unquestionably look different when they take the court again in October for Opening Night, but how high is their ceiling?
Well, in the opinion of Kendrick Perkins , who actually played for the Celtics once upon a time, Brad Stevens just handed the 76ers a trip to the NBA Finals, which would be a sight not seen in the City of Brotherly Love in over 25 years .
"First of all, this is a sad day for the Boston Celtics. And as a former Celtic, I do not approve of this trade. If you're going to trade a guy that's a top-10 player, you at least got to get back a guy that's a top-15, top-20 player. And Paul George is not that. Paul George hasn't been consistently good since I was skinny. And that's been a long d**n time," Perkins said.
"When you talk about Jaylen Brown , your former finals MVP, conference finals MVP, NBA champion for coming off his best season of his career, statistically leading his team past, you know, defeating all the odds, they were supposed to be in tanking mode. This team finished second in the East. And I know things didn't work out like it was supposed to, as far as the way that the playoff run ended.
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"But at the end of the day, if you're Brad Stevens, to me, he had already lost when he lost the Giannis sweepstakes to the Miami Heat . If you're going to jump off the porch and you're going to make Jaylen Brown available, you got to make sure you pencil in that deal. This is nothing but sloppy seconds, in my opinion. And the way I see it, he just basically handed the Philadelphia 76ers a trip to the NBA Finals next year."
When was the last time the 76ers made it to the NBA Finals? Well, that would be 2001, when the team's young, exciting guard was Allen Iverson, not Tyrese Maxey . With the Joel Embiid era capped off by multiple Eastern Conference Semifinals appearances but nothing further, if Brown can get Philadelphia to the Finals, he might end up being an even bigger legend in the City of Brotherly Love than in Boston.
Related: Kendrick Perkins goes scorched earth on Celtics' 'sad' Jaylen Brown trade with 76ers
Related: Knicks' Josh Hart hits Ariel Hukporti with cheesesteak threat after signing with 76ers
