Central: The Pistons have the best roster in the division and will comeback with mostly the same core to beat their divisional rivals Cleveland in the playoffs this time. They resigned C Jalen Duren to a five year deal and signed F John Collins to help form a top starting five that already has All-Star G Cade Cunningham, G Duncan Robinson and F Ausar Thompson who also signed a five year deal.
Their bench will have G Kevin Huerter who they resigned, traded for G Isaiah Joe and F Taurean Prince; the only question will be who backup Cunningham and Duren on consistent basis.
The Cavaliers will have a full season of the guards James Harden and Donovan Mitchell combination as both signed multiyear deals to stay.
The question will be can it work as they were swept in the second round by the Knicks and keep trying to find the answer at SF as Peyton Watson is the latest frontcourt addition to a strong core of C Jarrett Allen and F Evan Mobley. They lost six players in the offseason and didn’t do much to fix the bench this offseason except sign former 1st round pick Mario Hezonja.
The Pacers bottomed out last season missing PG Tyrese Haliburton for the whole season and getting a top 10 pick in the draft; they used it to trade for a new center in Ivica Zubac to pair with PF Pascal Siakam.
With Haliburton back with those two frontcourt players it will be a potential playoff team since they have a good cast of roles players in offseason additions Larry Nance Jr, Kelly Oubre Jr, returning players F Obi Toppin, guards TJ McConnell, Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard.
The Bulls finally fired their general manager, their head coach resigned and at the deadline finally woke up and tore this team down which they should have done the previous offseason. In is GM Bryson Graham, HC Tiago Splitter and two first round draft picks forwards Caleb Wilson and Dailyn Swain. They signed G Norman Powell, traded for C Nic Claxton and G Buddy Hield plus let allot of the crap they got at the deadline leave.
Those new additions add to their core of PG Josh Giddey, F Matas Buzelis and role players G Tre Jones, F Isaac Okoro and C Zach Collins which makes Chicago have some positivity going forward.
The Bucks finally did it they traded away franchise player F Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat along with Bobby Portis.
They got back G Tyler Herro, F Jamie Jaquez Jr, C Kel’el Ware, traded for G Caris LeVert and they fired HC Doc Rivers. F Kyle Kuzma, G Gary Trent and C Myles Turner are core players who are still there for new HC Taylor Jenkins.
Atlantic: The New York Knicks are the reigning NBA Champions a sentence no one would have believed or long suffering fans were still hoping would happen but it did happen beating the San Antonio Spurs in 5 games.
HC Mike Brown is back with finals MVP PG Jalen Brunson, C Karl-Anthony Towns, forwards OG Anunoby, Miles Bridges and G Josh Hart to form one of the best starting fives. Their bench is still deep as they resigned guards Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson, Landry Shamet. They did lose C Mitchell Robinson and F Jeremy Sochan leaving their frontcourt a little thin with only C Andre Drummond signed for the bench.
Well the 76ers made it to the conference finals losing to the Knicks so they decided they needed to do more than a C Joel Embiid and PG Tyrese Maxey with Paul George core because that wasn’t enough.
They traded George to the Celtics for F Jaylen Brown and signed F Lebron James plus G Kentavious Caldwell Pope to the core. They also hope G VJ Edgecombe takes another step in year two plus added guards Dean Wade, Anfernee Simons and drafted Labaron Philon.
This season will be different for the Celtics not just because it will be a full season of F Jayson Tatum healthy but also because they broke up the duo by trading Jaylen Brown to the 76ers for F Paul George.
They also brought in PG Mike Conley, stole C Mitchell Robinson away from the Knicks but lost C Nikola Vucevic. Their role players still always come up big for them in guards Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Ron Harper Jr. Their frontcourt depth will be tested so hopefully the moves made by Brad Stevens come back to haunt them since they did win a few seasons with that duo.
The biggest story for the Raptors is they traded for F Kawhi Leonard again and extended him. In order to get him they traded away Brandon Ingram and Gradey Dick. They signed F Kyle Anderson to the core of players led by F Scottie Barnes, G Immanuel Quickley, C Jakob Poeltl and G RJ Barrett.
The Nets are still bad and
keep landing top 10 picks so they have an identity to keep going young. They
got F Julius Randle in a multi-team trade and still have F Michael Porter Jr so
look for them to be traded this season. Also added to the team was Moritz Wagner who helps them out but their whole entire team is young and not ready
for prime time.
Southeast: The Miami Heat finally got that superstar that every offseason or deadline they were close to landing in PF Giannis Antetokounmpo and F Bobby Portis. They will work with C Bam Adebayo and G Klay Thompson who they signed.
To get the superstar they gave up Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr and Kel’el Ware plus lost Norman Powell in free agency. The other additions were also C Nick Richards and G Tim Hardaway Jr. plus re-signed F Andrew Wiggins. The only weakness will be at the PG spot so Eric Spoelstra will have to figure that out.
The Magic definitely disappointed so many people as they could have been a top five seed but instead played in the play in tournament and lost in 1st round causing them to get their HC Jamahl Mosley fired.
Their core is still forwards Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, guards Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane and C Wendell Carter Jr. They lost Moritz Wagner but added Nikola Vucevic for a second go around.
The Hawks will start a season with a new identity as PG Trae Young was traded at the deadline last season so this team is now led by forwards Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson.
They re-signed G CJ McCollum and traded for three useful role players in guards Dorian Finney Smith, Aaron Wiggins and Lu Dort to pair with Nickeil Alexander-Walker. It looks now like a bad draft decision on taking Zaccharie Risacher with the 1st pick in the draft as they traded him this offseason and let Jonathan Kuminga leave in free agency.
The Hornets thought they were a playoff team last season so they made moves at the trade deadline as they made the play in tournament. This offseason they made a bunch of moves as well; trading away franchise star Lamelo Ball, role players Josh Green, Miles Bridges, Buddy Hield and Tre Mann away.
The success of this team will be on F Brandon Miller, guards Kon Knueppel and Coby White who they re-signed. In those trades they got F Naz Reid, G Dennis Schroder, F Royce O’Neale and G Grayson Allen who are better suited for being on a playoff team.
The Wizards are one of those what if teams because they have PG Trae Young and PF Anthony Davis for a full season if they can stay healthy.
The mix of those two veterans, F Khris Middleton for a second
stint and also adding C DeAndre Ayton and G Tre Mann is an intriguing core of
veterans and young players. They still have C Alex Sarr, guards Bub Carrington,
Kyshawn George and forwards Bilal Coulibaly and #1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa.
