The Philadelphia 76ers got a quick reminder of what an elite NBA team looks like in their 108-97 loss to the Boston Celtics. Even though they were without budding superstar Joel Embiid, the Sixers managed to put up a solid fight against the first-place Celtics.

Although the Sixers ultimately came up short, they continue to show promise as they get deeper into the 2017-18 NBA season. For head coach Brett Brown, he would like to develop his team in the same fashion as the Celtics have over these past few years, according to ESPN's Chris Forsberg.

“It’s funny, I’m always looking at the Celtics over my shoulder. I’m always paying attention and we, as an organization, very much respect them and they’re a few years ahead of us with their sort of version of a rebuild.”

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There are plenty of reasons for the Sixers to want to emulate a team like the Celtics. Boston's return to relevance has been somewhat of an anomaly after scraping the bottom of the Eastern Conference just three years ago.

Meanwhile, the Sixers have largely been rebuilding for longer than the Celtics have. However, “The Process” may finally be nearing completion with the emergence of Joel Embiid and rookie phenom Ben Simmons as they take the league by storm.