NBA Eastern Conference.
I Wanted To Release These Pre-Free Agency But Got Caught Up. The Boston Celtics Ran Roughshod Over The League And Eastern Conference During The Regular Season. They Turned Their Powers To The Playoffs, Winning All But Three Games On Their Way To Holding Up The Larry O'Brien Trophy As The Dallas Mavericks Lay Helpless, Nothing But A 38 Point Game Four Blow Out As Sign They Even Competed In The Finals. With The Title Concessions And The Parade Behind, The Rest Of The NBA Can Begin To Assess The Field Of Free Agents, Construct a Cap Strategy With The New CBA Set To Take Effect, Further Ironing Diffusing The Talent Across The League's 30 Teams(Or At Least Attempting To permeate The Talent Equally).
Atlanta Hawks— the Atalanta Hawks Of The NBA Have Made Themselves The Picture Of Consistency In The NBA, And By Consistency, I mean Consistency Mediocre.
For The Third Straight Season, The Atlanta Hawks Ended The Regular Season, Season Qualifying For The Play-In Tournament This Time At The Bottom As The Tenth Seed And The First Time, Failing To Make Playoffs Upon Losing To The Chicago Bulls. The pendulum Of The Hawks Franchise Had To Swing In Some Direction. Unfortunately, The Odds Swung Backwards. The Hawks Have Season Decisions To Make, Starting with Exploring Trades Surrounding The Guard Duo Dejounte Murray and Star Guard Trae Young. With The Number One Pick In Hand, The Media Continues To Push A Trae Young Trade For The Hawks, Considering He's The Team's Most Coveted Player Who gets the Most Talent In Return. No Matter The Return Moving Off, Young Seems Like A Mistake, Considering Transformational Players Like Young Don't Fall Out Of The Sky, Even If The Hawks Leapfrogged Multiple Teams To Rise From 36-46 To The Number One Pick.
Orlando Magic—
The Magic Present The Model Image Of A Team Transitioning The Right Direction. A Young Team—4th Youngest In The NBA—Fresh Off Forcing The Cleveland Cavaliers To Seven Games As A Fifth Seed. Truthfully, The Magic Could've Secured The 2nd If Not For A Late Season Collapse. The Magic has some serious free-agent decisions, starting with two key players from rookie deals, Guard Jalen Suggs and Forward Franz Wagner. Suggs Made All-NBA First, And Franz Finished 2nd On The Team In Points, Rebounds, Lead The Team In Assists And Tied For First In Blocks. Both Should See Massive Increases To Their Salary On The Next Extension, If Even Close To The Max. The Magic Also Have Free Agents Markelle Fultz And Gary Harris On Top Of An Unyielding Need To Improve Their Three Point Shooting.
Washington Wizards—The Washington Wizards Play The 2023-24 NBA Season In Mostly Anonymity And Displayed All The Tell Tale Signs Of A Team Near The Edge Of Disparity. The Team Fired Head Coach Wes Unseld Jr. In Jan, Then Finish The Season 8-31 Under Interim, Now Full Time, Head Coach Brian Keefe. The Wizards Saw Improvement From Former Lottery Pick Dani Avdija, Who Played The Most Games Of His Career, And Now The Wizards Have To Make An Extension Decision; maybe Heights Gets A Year Deal To Give Washington Another Year To Look At The 6'9, 210 Lbs Israeli Forward Or Dani Moves On. The Wizards Also Have Jordan Poole's A Sunken Value Contract To Work Into The Rotation or Off of The Books.
Miami Heat—Watching The Miami Heat Volley From One Existential Point To Another Makes Me Feel Confused. Just A Year Ago, The Heat Shocked The NBA As The First Play-In Team And 8th Seed No Less To Make The NBA Finals, Only To Again Make The Eight Seed But Get Bounced In The First Round. The Heat have a salary situation like very few teams in the NBA, as Miami projects pushing up against the second apron, with the league Not Haven'tdetailing the salary cap. The Heat Have To Make A Decision On Star Jimmy Butler, who Enters The Final Year Of His Contract Before Free Agency. Butler Has Become The Defining Symbol Of This Era Of Heat Basketball; The Heat Feel Different Without Butler, But The Star Has Not Played Better Than 65+ In Eight Years And Apparently Still Desired Max Money. The Heat Would Have To Exchange Butler For Pieces That Could Benefit The Team.
Charlotte Hornets—
The Hornets Performed Promising, Considering They Finished Ranked Amongst The Worst Teams In The NBA, But With Little Expectations To Start A Season That Showcased The Heights Of Their Young Talent. With Lamelo Ball Out For Most Of The Season, Brandon Miller, The Number Two Pick Overall, Pick Got A Chance To Showcase For Hornets Fans The Future Of The Franchise. Miller Finished Third In Rookie Of The Year Voting and made First Team All-NBA Rookie After Averaging 17.3 Points Per Game. The loss of Melo And The Trading Of PJ Washington Freed Up A Ton Of Room And Opportunities For Forward Miles Bridges To Return From His Season Suspension And Enter Into The New Contract Discussion—Bridges projects to Earn a Contract of Around $26 million per season. The Hornets Should least consider Exploring Trading laMelo, Their Best Player, Giving He Might Not Be The Best Fit, And Maybe Move Forward With Brandon Miller At The Forefront. Melo Produced One Of The Better Real Plus Minuses On The Team, But He's A Leadership Question On A Young Team.
Boston Celtics--
The Boston Celtics Put Away The World Championship In Four Quick Episodes, Winning The Least Challenge Championship Since Maybe The '17 Warriors. Last Summer, The Celtics Made Jaylen Brown The Most Expensive Player In The League, And With An NBA, Nod Brown Delivered When The Play mattered most. The Celtics Now Shift From Hunters To Hunted. Brad Stevens And The Front Office Strive To Sustain The Stability Of The Roster As Composed Will Require The Celtics To Stretch the Limits Of The New CBA.
New York Knicks--
The Hot Hand Of Jalen Brunson Couldn't Overcome Injuries And Some Lackluster Supporting Play As The Knicks Fail To Breech The Final Round Of The Eastern Conference Playoffs. New York Got The Offseason Off To A Rousing Start After Extended Talks With The Nets. The Knicks Secured Nets Forward And Fourth Component To The "Vilanova" Knicks, Adding Mikal Bridges For A Hefty Fee. According To ESPN, The Knicks Send Forward Bojan Bogdanovic, four unprotected first-round picks (2025, 2027, 2029, 2031), a 2025 protected first-rounder via the Milwaukee Bucks, a 2028 unprotected pick swap and a 2025 second-rounder to the Nets. Mikal led the Nets In Scoring. The Knicks Will Now Add One Of The Better Wings In The League In Mikal. Mikal Performed Last Season Compared To 2022, But The Knicks Believe In The Combination Of The Quartet Of The Vilanova Boys Rather Than Just Any Star. Mikal's Presence Doesn't Make Knicks Guard OJ Anonuby Expendable.
Brooklyn Nets--
A Little Over A Decade Ago, The Brooklyn Nets Helped Build The Celtics Championship By Shipping A Boatload Of Draft Stock To Boston, Essentially Mortgaging Their Franchise On Players Long Past Their Prime In Hopes Of Making an Immediate Impact On The League After The Team Moved To Brooklyn. After Tuesday night's Deal To Move Mikal Bridges To New York, The Deal Follows Moves Like The Trading Of Kevin Durant Trade, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. The Nets May Also Move Guys Like Ben Simmons And Cam Johnson. As Simmons's Rookie Contract Extension Expires Finally Looks Palatable In Respect to His Waning Career. Cam Johnson Could Add A Necessary Defender And Shooter To Any Roster Hunting A Championship. The Nets Embrace A Full Rebuild Around Leading Scorer Shooting Guard Cam Thomas And Defensive Center Nik Claxton Whom Theo Nets Gave $25 Million. The Nets Also Free Up Money To Prod Free Agency and The Trade Market This Summer.
Philadelphia 76ers—
The Sixers Nearly Watched A Banner Season For The Franchise Derailed After Joel Embiid Missed Nearly Half The Season, And Theo Sixers Make the Season As A Play-in Team Super Seventh Seed Before Getting Buzz-sawed By The Knicks In The First Round. The Sixers Have Their Star Duo In Tyrese Maxey And Joel Embiid, Though No One Can Say If Embiid's Durability Will Improve As Passed Theo Wrong Sir Of Thirty This Season. The Sixers Have 50 Million In Cash To Use On Options In Free Agency. Theo Sixers Could Opt To Retain Their Free Agents Like Kelly Oubre Jr. and Add A Second Or Third Offensive Punch In With Demar Derozan Or A Younger Fire Power Like Gary Trent Jr.
Toronto Raptors—
The Raptors once represented a lineup of heavy-on Switchable, versatile pieces, guards, and forwards who could do enough of everything. A Moment, The Roster Looked Futuristic; however, They had a Critical Component, An Overall Lack of Sense Of Identity. In His Second Year With The Team, Head Coach Darko Rajaković Still Doesn't Have Steph Curry In His Lineup, But I Don't think He's Got All The Pieces He's Looking For To Build His Roster. Former Rookie Of The Year Scottie Barnes Looks More Like A Secondary Star Rather Than A True 'Head Of The Table' Like Former Raptors Star Demar DeRozan Rather Than An Alpha Type Like Kahwi Leonard. Scottie, For All His Go-Go Gadget Abilities, Plays Better As A 1B Complimentary Star, Like Kyrie.
Chicago Bulls—
The Bulls Need To Embrace The Full Motion Of Rebuild, Started With The Inevitable Of Zach Lavine And Possibly Moving On From Head Coach Billy Donavan. The Bulls Have The Option To Field A Competitive Roster With Nik Vucevic and Coby White Still Under Contract And Possibly Bring Back Derozan. Still, A Play-In Tournament, Early Exit Playoff Performance seems Likely For A Team Constructed Of Pieces Of That Likeness.
Indiana Pacers—
The Pacers shocked everybody's internal basketball butler, Themselves, and defeated The Incendiary What Looked Like an Unstoppable New York Knicks. Of Course, the Pacers ran into the brick wall known as the eventual champ Celtics. Pascal SiakiSiakim'sSeason Trade paid dividends as he averaged more than 22 Points On Better Than 50% Shooting From The Field. Indy Has An Unassuming Star In Tyrese Haliburton. Can The Team Build On The Positive Push After Their Strong Playoff Showing?
Milwaukee Bucks—
The Bucks Made The surprise Move Of The Offseason And The In-season. First, Milwaukee emerges from The Shadow Of Damian Lillard's" For" A Trade To Miami To Snatch The Beleaguered Star From Portland. Milwaukee Starts the Season While Ironing Out The Wrinkles Of Adding A New Star; Lillard's Sence Or The Absence Of the Jrue Holiday Cause The Bucks' Defensive Rating To Crater Near The Bottom. If A Massive Roster Shift Wasn'Wasn'tgh, Then Came The Change At Head Coach, Bringing In The Somewhat Beleaguered Head Coach Doc Rivers, And The Bucks's Season Spiral Through Strides Of a Long Losing Streak To a Quick Deceptive Win Before Finishing On a Rollercoaster But The Bucks Secure Home Court In The First. However, the Home Court couldn't deny the Bucks' round loss to the Pacer, which was an injury to Giannis and essentially doomed Milwaukee. Will A Full Season Under Doc Rivers Help The Bucks re-emerge As A Title Contender?
Cleveland Cavaliers—
Two Years Into DoMitchell'shell's Stint With The Cavs and6'1eo 6'1 Combo Guard Has Proven Himself The Star The Cavaliers Have Needed Since The Departure of Lebron James. I've Always Said If Mitchell Were 4, Maybe 5 Inches, THe'sr He's Probably The Best Player In The League With The Skill Set He Possesses. The Cavs have an undersized backcourt with Mitchell and the Uber-skilled Darius Garland, but they still need to post a Top 10 Finish In Defensive Rating. Donavan Mitchell Signed An Extension After His Name Pop Up In Trade Rumors, and The Cavaliers haven't Emerged As Contenders In The Eastern Conference, And they Might Make Shifts To The Roster To Make Those Heights A Reality.
Detroit Pistons—
The Pistons lost 68 games last season, including a record loss of 28 games, and fired head coach Monty Williams at the end of the season. Detroit Locked Up Titular Star Cade Cunningham On A Five Year 226 Million Dollar Contract ExtensioCade'sCade's Play Has Steadily Declined(-2.90 Real Plus Minus Last Season, Not To Mention The Injury ConcHe's, He's Play 138 Of A Possible 246(56%))Since He Entered The League Four Years Ago. Still, He Averaged A Career-best of 22.7 Points Last Season While Playing 62 Games. Detroit Possesses An Amalgam Of Young Talent and, On The Plus Side, Managed A Three Defense In The NBA Last Season, Something To Rest Their Heads On.
