November 07, 2025
Kyle Ross/Imagn Images
Boston Celtics rookie Hugo González could be a thorn in the Sixers' side for years to come.
After the first disappointing stretch of the 2025-26 Sixers season – a 1-2 road trip featuring a brutal collapse in Chicago on Tuesday night – the team is back home for a three-game homestand, hoping to regain the momentum it had earned in the opening days of the season.
The main story of the Sixers' next few games: Over the weekend, they will be wearing their black throwback jerseys. The uniforms and court synonymous with Allen Iverson will be used during both legs of the team's back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday.
On the basketball court, though, there remains a lot to digest. The Sixers have three winnable games on the docket, but none of them are close to sure things. They will need the sort of focus they had in Sunday's win over the Brooklyn Nets, but the competition will be much tougher than what they saw that evening.
Previewing the week ahead, focusing on one young player each opponent can utilize to upend the Sixers:
Player to watch: Collin Murray-Boyles
To anyone who spent the early weeks of summer hoping the Sixers would trade down from the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Murray-Boyles should be a familiar name. Eventually the No. 9 overall selection by Toronto, the sturdy and athletic forward out of South Carolina is a brilliant defensive player with burgeoning offensive skills but plenty of holes on that end of the floor.
It is safe to say that, for now, sticking and picking at No. 3 was the right call for the Sixers; VJ Edgecombe has staged a remarkable opening act for his NBA career. But the 20-year-old Murray-Boyles does not just have the chance to be a franchise cornerstone in Toronto moving forward but the ability to overwhelm the Sixers in the frontcourt on Saturday with his incredible physical and athletic tools.
In six games (three starts), Murray-Boyles has started off his NBA career by averaging 9.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game. He is shooting 42.9 percent from three-point range on modest volume; if that holds anything close to where it is now his entire profile as a prospect will shift dramatically.
Depending on who is available for the Sixers on Saturday, Murray-Boyles could stage a breakout of sorts. But even if his offense ends up being nothing to write home about, he will always be a threat to disrupt a possession with his versatile defensive chops. Murray-Boyles is a player the Sixers are going to see at least four times per season for many years down the line, and their first look at him will be an interesting one.
Player to watch: Jalen Duren
Duren is a local product; the fourth-year starting center in Detroit spent some of his high school years at Roman Catholic after being born in Delaware. He has blossomed into one of the better young bigs in the entire NBA, a two-way player who has a tremendous rapport with Pistons star Cade Cunningham. Duran is averaging 17.9 points per game through eight contests; his previous career-best mark is 13.8. He remains a stellar rebounder, grabbing 11.4 boards per game so far in 2025-26.
At 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds, Duren is also an excellent athlete. He would be a challenging matchup for Joel Embiid right now given the former NBA MVP's limited mobility; if less-than-optimal athletes like old friend Nikola Vučević can dominate Embiid in space there should be avenues for someone like Duren to thrive, even if they materialize in different ways:
Joel Embiid's difficulties defending in space were on full display on Tuesday night in Chicago. A pair of examples: pic.twitter.com/R68UffJNoU
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) November 5, 2025
The guess here, though, is that Embiid plays in Saturday's game before resting on Sunday. It would enable him to get multiple days off before the following game on Tuesday, which appears to be the Sixers' main priority when mapping out Embiid's schedule.
So, the likeliest outcome is that Duren's force becomes the problem of Adem Bona and Andre Drummond. Bona certainly has the athleticism to hang in that matchup, but Duren will have a distinct advantage in terms of muscle, which will do him a lot of good on the glass. For the veteran Drummond, the opposite is true: nobody will overpower him, but Duren's athleticism could be too much for the 32-year-old to handle.
On Drummond, it is worth noting that games against the Pistons are special occasions for a player who spent the first seven-plus seasons of his NBA career in Detroit. It is not exactly that Drummond is looking for revenge – the Pistons have emerged as an exciting young team over the last year and Drummond seems genuinely supportive from afar – but there is some extra juice for him on nights like Sunday.
Player to watch: Hugo González
When the Sixers lost to the Celtics at home in their NBA Cup Group Play opener on Halloween, star scorer Jaylen Brown was not the only player to impress. Embiid went as far as to mention after the game that new starting center Neemias Queta and unheralded wing Josh Minott have given the Celtics good minutes. But it was another player – an under-the-radar rookie, at that – who stood out the most: González, the 19-year-old wing selected by Boston at No. 28 overall.
Most mock drafts had González landing in the early portion of the second round by the time names were being called, but the Celtics took a shot on a high-energy player with a motor that, if his appearance in Philadelphia is any indication, never really stops. González absolutely gets after it with no fear in the world, and at one point he paid the price from Embiid:
— Follow @CeltsGlobe (@CeltsGlobeMedia) November 1, 2025
As the Sixers transform their long-term future by investing in high-feel, high-intensity young players, there should be an appreciation for a similar player in another jersey. His per-game numbers might not look all that impressive, but González already has done enough work to earn a highlight reel of his standout defensive plays:
— Follow @CeltsGlobe (@CeltsGlobeMedia) October 28, 2025
Whichever Sixers guard finds a groove with his scoring early on during Tuesday's game, it is a safe bet that Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla will turn to González in an effort to shut the water off.
