18 NBA Takes: The Most Fascinating Storylines in the East
NBA Substack on the East's epic offseason and what happens now
We asked 18 leading NBA voices on Substack:
After the NBA’s wild offseason, what's most fascinating to you in the Eastern Conference?
Check out their answers and subscribe!
Marc Stein | The Stein Line
Is the East really and truly back? That’s my overriding curiosity. Is the East as good as it looks on paper? I can’t wait to find out.
I feel like the East has been subjected to Leastern Conference jabs — many of them coming from me — ever since Michael Jordan’s second Bulls retirement after the 1997-98 season.
Eighteen of the NBA’s last 28 champions came from the West. The East has posted the better head-to-head record in only four of those 28 regular seasons.
Yet it sure looks like a new day now with the Knicks finally winning it all in June and the 76ers superteaming with LeBron James and Jaylen Brown and everything else that has happened in the Least this summer. I mean EAST!
Mark Whicker | The Morning After
When Minnesota plays Philadelphia, one hopes LaMelo Ball guards VJ Edgecombe. It might be one of the few times Edgecombe sees a Ball.
Edgecombe averaged 13.7 shots last year and 16 points as he finished third in Rookie of the Year voting. That was before Jaylen Brown showed up. Brown and Tyrese Maxey were fourth and fifth in points per game, and LeBron James, passer extraordinaire, will need his buckets too, and that doesn’t even assume Joel Embiid will rise from the muck and play a few games before the playoffs.
Chris Bosh was a master at accepting James’ presence and contributing in the margins. Edgecombe will have to be assertive just to stay on the page.
Bob Sturm | SturmStack
The idea of seeing Giannis in Miami will take quite a bit of getting used to as he certainly will not have use for many winter coats any longer and will join an organization unlikely to essentially let him be coach and GM anymore.
Further, they sort of cleaned out their roster to acquire him, which you would never question — aside from the obvious issues it now presents. How Giannis and Bam can be surrounded with appropriate shooting and ball handling without having their own agency to fill these spots (LeBron joke) will present a fair amount of challenges as well.
For those reasons, I think the all-new Heat are incredibly fascinating and have both a high floor and a potentially disappointingly low ceiling.
Neil Paine | Neil’s Substack
The strong temptation is to say the circus that will be the LeBron Sixers, but I’m actually most fascinated with the Knicks.
After a postseason where basically everything that could go right did, what happens next? They’ll run things back with essentially the same group that won it all, but the market has reverted right back to a state of skepticism with them … and I can’t say that’s necessarily wrong, though it feels like the GOAT playoff run deserves more respect in its title defense.
Katie Heindl | BASKETBALL FEELINGS
The Atlanta Hawks, or should I say Little Canada, are the most fascinating to me in the East right now.
Instead of focusing on the big moves in this conference that might not work, I'm choosing to look forward to the trifecta of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Lu Dort, and Ryan Nembhard under Quin Snyder, with the honorary Canadian vibes of CJ McCollum to boot.
I liked what the Hawks brought last season, and I like the instant lightness of the post-Trae Young era, the lithe and powerful duo of Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson. That team flew firmly below the radar, and once the LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard dust settles (still a bit of an if for the latter) in the East, I don't imagine these Hawks hover below collective attention for long.
And as the most Canadian team in the NBA, I hope it means we get to see more of Coach Snyder's famed, red framed glasses this season.
Shamit Dua | In the N.O.
Is it crazy to pick the Boston Celtics?
While division rivals feature the new-look Sixers, defending champ Knicks, and Kawhi’s expected Odysseus-style return, Boston is betting big on analytics. Trading an MVP candidate yet projecting to improve is basketball heresy — and the source of my fascination.
Will spreadsheets outshine star power? I know I will be tuning in.
Danyel Smith | Shine Bright HQ
My Celtics have been destroyed.
And since I have made the Celtics a full 28% of my personality, I am now barely two-thirds or three-quarters (or whatever) of a person.
What’s crazy is that I am an Eagles buff. I have interviewed Jalen Hurts! I have little reason to hate on Philly. But I can’t move there (professional sports-wise).
I’m actually tempted to go back to my hometown Warriors. That’s how disgruntled I am that Jaylen Brown is gone. And then LeBron follows him? To quote a Raptors fan: Nothing was the same.
Ricardo Brito Reis | Borracha Laranja
Philadelphia solved a talent problem and created a pecking-order problem.
Jaylen Brown finished sixth in MVP voting and Boston traded him anyway. He arrived in Philly convinced he’d be 1A and the smartest man in the room, on a team where Joel Embiid is doubted every spring and where the keys had been handed to Tyrese Maxey.
Then LeBron James signed, and the hierarchy of touches reset overnight. Now Brown is the fourth option and he’ll take the toughest defensive assignment so the 41-year-old doesn’t have to. Hardest job, fewest shots.
Everyone’s watching Embiid’s knees. I’m watching Brown’s Twitch feed.
Jake Fischer | The People’s Insider | Contributor to The Stein Line
I’m ready to see what Indiana looks like with Tyrese Haliburton healthy and Ivica Zubac in at starting center.
The Pacers shopped around the entire league looking for a title-caliber big man in the wake of Myles Turner’s departure, and clearly targeted Zubac with aplomb.
You know by now the Clippers landed the No. 5 pick in June’s draft by way of that deal. Will Zubac prove worth it? I’m so curious to see his fit with Haliburton, because Zubac is neither a traditional pick-and-roll lob threat nor a stretch 5 like Turner, the two archetypes we’ve seen Haliburton thrive with the most.
How will Zubac’s short-roll playmaking fit within all this? The Pacers surely see themselves as contenders in the East after a gap season. Will this all add up to that? I’m fascinated …
Molly Morrison | Moll Don’t Lie
I’m still haunted by the image of Tyrese Haliburton crumpled to the ground minutes into Game 7 of the 2025 Finals. Watching that Pacers run felt like basketball nirvana, and seeing it end that way was a tragedy. In a single postseason, Tyrese produced four or five plays that would’ve been remembered as the defining playoff moment in almost any other year.
A lifelong WWE fan who embraces the heel role with a smile, he brings a joyful sense of showmanship to the game that’s intoxicating. I can’t wait for him to return. In an Eastern Conference that keeps getting deeper, I’m fascinated to see whether Indiana can recapture that magic.
Yossi Gozlan | Third Apron
The Western Conference has dominated the NBA in the last two decades. The East’s inferiority is the primary reason we’d never get enough votes to eliminate conferences for playoff seeding.
That’s expected to change this season with 11 teams in the East shaping up to be playoff-viable and a ton of uncertainty in the West after the top six.
The NBA is expected to see some form of conference realignment in two years if we get two new teams. If multiple good East teams miss the playoffs, could we see the tide turn with East teams looking to eliminate conference seeding?
Lottery flattening is helping form the type of parity the league has wanted recently, and the East will only get tougher if the Minnesota Timberwolves change conferences.
Kike García | NBA con Contexto
The Hornets have made some of the most surprising moves this summer, trading Miles Bridges and, most notably, LaMelo Ball, in what looks like an attempt to fix the team’s culture.
On paper, they should take a step back after a solid season of growth, but let’s not rule out the possibility that this step back could be minor or even nonexistent.
LaMelo was very important, but his departure will free up minutes and opportunities for other players who seem ready to step up.
Jacob Sutton | JSuttHoops
The Bulls are putting out a team of gazelles this season, and I have no idea if it’s going to work.
They have a median height of 6’8” and can present a lineup of Josh Giddey (6’7”), Matas Buzelis (6’8”), Noa Essengue (6’8”), Caleb Wilson (6’10”), and Nic Claxton (6’11”) if they want to.
Cheers to trying to break the NBA with young and (maybe not) dumb lineups!
Keith Smith | The Basketball Bulletin
What’s fascinating to me is how deep this conference is, for the first time in … decades?
The only “bad” teams in the conference are the Bulls, Bucks and Nets, and none of them look truly terrible (thanks, lottery reform!).
Meanwhile, the Knicks and 76ers are legit title contenders. The Pistons, Celtics, Cavaliers, Raptors, Magic and Hawks are all still around. The Pacers should be back. The Heat, Hornets and Wizards are all going to be better.
Twelve teams for eight playoff spots? Watchable ET hoops? Let’s go!
Hardwood Paroxysm | Hardwood Paroxysm
Toronto was really interesting last year, a tale of two teams: a starting unit that couldn’t defend and a bench unit that couldn’t score. But Darko Rajaković showed a real capacity for finding the right lineups in the playoffs.
Jamal Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes, and CMB would be a small-ball lineup straight from the depths of Hades. This team could win the Atlantic.
Ray LeBov | Basketball Intelligence
Have the Nets become the new Sacramento Kings East, replacing the Bulls?
Compare:
Last season: Kings and Nets each a bottom-5 team on both offense and defense.
Over/under this season: Kings 21.5 wins; Nets 22.5 (each worst in their conference).
Former Kings with the Nets: Coach Jordi Fernández and now Keon Ellis.
Rookie point guards taken in the mid-lottery: Darius Acuff Jr. (7th pick, Kings) and Mikel Brown Jr. (6th pick, Nets).
Top returning players — Domantas Sabonis (age 30) and Michael Porter Jr. (28) — out of sync with each team’s developmental timeline.
Madeline Hill | Impersonal Foul
In an era obsessed with tall, athletic wings, my eyes are on the good old-fashioned playmaking point guards.
Can Jalen Brunson repeat the magic of last year or go up another level?
Will Tyrese Maxey make even more of a leap and get into the MVP convo (I said what I said) while potentially helping to lead a team to at least a conference finals?
And finally, how is Tyrese Haliburton going to look after that injury?
Mike Shearer | Basketball Poetry
The great tank commanders of old can finally stand down: Almost everyone in the East has clear incentive to win, and almost everyone has the talent to do so.
No more wondering how many Leastern Conference teams will rack up more than 60 losses on purpose (it was three last year). There will be early-evening fireworks on a nightly basis for the first time in far, far too long. My toddler-oriented sleep schedule is already grateful.
The most thorough of these compilations that we've seen yet. Thank you Rolls Royce!