Sixers-Celtics Rivalry to Define NBA Eastern Conference Again

LeBron James is in the West Conference. We should start there, because everything about the Eastern Conference depends on that fact. LeBron has been running East for the last decade, reaching the finals each of the last eight seasons with the Heat or the Cavs. The challengers came and the challengers went, but every June LeBron returned to the East, usually against the mighty Spurs and Warriors.

More than anyone else, or even any frankness, LeBron brought the reputation of the conference to his broad shoulders. As a lesser of the two geographical areas, James legitimized the East. His absence leaves a huge power vacuum.

The release of LeBron coincides perfectly with the resurgence of two of the most prestigious franchises of the conference. Philadelphia and Boston have been gearing up for this season for five years and have both declared themselves ready to enter the void.

This is the revival of a rivalry that built the NBA in the '60s, which supported it throughout the' 70s and became particularly vicious in the early '80s. (If you want to watch professional basketball in the blood sport, go see a video of the fourth quarter of the seventh game of the Eastern Conference final of 1981). That the Celtics and the 76ers play for towns that generally despise themselves only adds to the call.

In the here and now, the Sixers process and the Celtics plan are two of the most fascinating mind-building exercises of recent years. While following extremely different paths of reconstruction, the Sixers and Celtics are in charge of star power and led by creative coaches who personify this generation of marginal maestros.

They even recently played in the playoffs. The Cs played their semifinal in five games last May. This series was only a prelude to what should be half a decade of post-season annual battles.

The NBA has certainly taken note. The Celtics and Sixers will be played at the opening night and again on Christmas day at 5:30 pm. ET slot. The four games will be broadcast nationwide. Indeed, nearly half of all their games will be on national television this season. In a time zone without LeBron, it is the rivalry that will set the East Conference again.

That's when the Toronto Raptors would like a word. The Raps have a new coach at Nick Nurse and a new star at Kawhi Leonard, able to work with a solid core of returning talent. An optimistic vision would have them as favorites and not worse than a top-three ranking. These are not the same old Raptor teams because Leonard simply ranks them in a totally different class. He is one of the top 5 legitimate players and is one of two players likely to win the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. (Anthony Davis is the other.)

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In addition to Leonard, the Raps also took over Danny Green from Spurs in the DeMar DeRozan trade. With Green and Leonard on the wing, Kyle Lowry in the ball, Serge Ibaka protecting the rim and Pascal Siakam flying around the pitch, the Raps will have one of the best defenses in the league.

Assuming their health and chemistry are good, these Raps should win 55 to 60 games and compete for the top of the list in the East. These are big assumptions, and confronting Leonard in the last year of his contract was the biggest bet of the off season. Time will tell if they have the power to stay beyond this season to make it a three-headed race.

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To classify the players is very subjective and often imprudent in hindsightBut if you had to have a rough draft featuring Philly and Boston alignments, you'd probably end up taking Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons among the top two. At the last meeting between the two teams, it was thought that the young stars of Philly were ready to play the game of the injury that ravaged C.

What the Celtics did not like Philly was Al Horford, a sublimely talented player whose abilities are more appreciated by experienced coaches and scouts than the general public. As they say, shaking their heads with admiration, this guy is never out of position.

Throughout this series, Horford helped contain Simmons while checking that Embiid was in a crisis period in the post. Very few great men have this kind of defensive versatility and the whole series has evolved in that direction.

While Horford's regular game was the main reason why the Celtics were able to progress in five games, the contributions of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Terry Rozier did not go unnoticed. Maybe the gap between young talent was not so important after all.

What remained largely unnoticed is that Dario Saric has accumulated strong performances after games 4 and 5. Once the Sixers unlocked Saric, they became a much more dangerous team. The Celtics' relief from coming out of Boston with the series in five games was obvious. Embiid, Saric and Simmons present an intriguing contrast to the favorite alignments of small Boston balls.

The X factor in all this Markelle Fultz. We have no idea of ​​the quality of his work or how his shot will be achieved. The fact that he was chosen first after the then Sixers general manager, Bryan Colangelo, traded with Danny Ainge seems to be a pivotal point in the evolution of the composition of each team. Ainge, of course, wrote Tatum with the third choice and pocketed the special swap of the Castillo sauce in the process, uh.

Tatum has a chance to be an NBA player as soon as possible, while Brown's development curve is so broad that it is pointless to set a ceiling or hope his potential is optimistic. Then there is Rozier who could start for most teams but who will be content to compete for the honors of the sixth man of the year.

Teams with young talents are notoriously fragile creations. One minute, they have the world at their feet and the next minute, they passively argue aggressively through intermediaries. Nothing can ever be taken for granted in this league, as evidenced by the trials and tribulations of all the potential dynasties that preceded.

Yet this has all the ingredients of a generational struggle.

Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward are the jokers in the whole equation. If the Celtics could beat Philly in five without their two most accomplished offensive players, what will be the difference with their return to the field? Another way to formulate this question is to ask if all this offensive talent will be part of a single team, especially from the wing where Hayward, Brown and Tatum flourish as creators of throws.

This is the big puzzle that the Celtics have to solve this season. The early indications of the pre-season were not encouraging, but keeping pace with the exhibition games is a dangerous game. What should be clear is that it will not be a linear path. Everyone will need time to find a comfortable work environment.

The Sixers have their own mystery to solve with Fultz. If he manages to get his career back on track, this would give Philly another plan designer on the perimeter to balance their dependence on Embiid and Simmons. The first indications of the pre-season have been encouraging, but you know how it goes.

What we do know is that the acquisitions of Irving, Hayward, and Horford resulted from either a blockbuster trade or free will. This is the essential distinction between the two lists. Although Ainge has managed to tap into the two player acquisition channels, the Sixers and their renewed team of GMs have not been able to take advantage of their assets and limit the space available to star players. (This does not matter to J.J. Redick, who is awesome, if not a star player.)

If the Celtics were able to play for free and easily last spring, the burden of expectations is entirely on them now that everyone is in good health.

Managing expectations is a coaching job, and Brett Brown and Brad Stevens were both hired before the 2012-13 season. Everyone has been instructed to lead his franchises in the wilderness of massive rebuilding efforts.

In their own way, everyone was perfectly suited to the task at hand. Brown's flawless optimism was a beacon during the dark seasons at the bottom of the rankings, while Stevens' steady hand embodied the annual Celtics improvement.

Brown still leads with his chin, like a ping-pong player getting ready for a kill shot. Whether it is to declare with confidence that the playoffs were within reach before last season or to daringly defend the position of a star player, Brown never backs down to establish a high bar and invite everyone to enjoy the ride.

Stevens, meanwhile, is always worried about daily machinations to improve and seldom looks beyond play or practice the next day. His unique niche is to consider each game as a series of adjustments resulting from careful preparation.

The charismatic Brown and the unobtrusive Stevens would seem to be a contrast study, but both possess the qualities the teams are looking for with their main coaches. They both insist on defense while leaving to their young stars a level of offensive freedom that would have seemed unthinking by past generations. In their own way, both are able to communicate positively with their players.

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You should not have to choose between Brett and Brad, so let's not even go that way, except to say that any good rivalry is improved by higher training.

The wonder of the process Can we debate its merits from here to eternity, because we will never really know for sure what would have happened to Sam Hinkie if he had been allowed to carry it out? The horrible thing about the process is that every move in the evolution of the Sixers provokes another debate about its merits.

The brightest vision of Ainge's vision was that there was always something better on the horizon. You could win 50 games, escape from playoffs, and feel rightly like a feat. You could even lose a match 7 at home during the conference finals and still feel good in the future.

All this ends.

The Sixers are far enough away from Hinkie's eviction to see their list through his prism mask the fact that two-thirds of the list has been handed out since the end of his term. They are now in the hands of Elton Brand after slipping between Colangelo's Twitter fingers and crossing the committee that held the ship together during the transition. The way they move forward will tell us as much about their journey as anything that preceded it.

The Celtics are still the creation of Ainge, but they have gone beyond the honeymoon phase. The next step in their evolution is managing the balance between being paid duty-free and changing direction in a game-changing trade. For once, they chose to fully grasp the present moment.

It's a new day, so let's go beyond the old arguments and let's settle for what should be a thrilling revival of a rivalry that will define the current age.