NBA Preview Pt. 1 – Eastern Conference

As the NBA season draws closer and closer, many basketball fans start to wonder, “Will my team be in the top 5 this year?” Worry no more, fans, as the DeMatha Stagline has you covered with the top 5 teams in the Eastern Conference this year.

5. *Brooklyn Nets – There is an asterisk next to the Brooklyn Nets because of the Brooklyn drama that continues to plague this talented roster dating back to last season. Kyrie Irving’s battle with New York’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate, the trade of James Harden (which sent him to Philadelphia), the Ben Simmons drama (Nets received back from Philadelphia along with Simmons: Seth Curry, Paul Millsap, and Andre Drummond for James Harden), and this recent offseason with Kevin Durant’s trade request.

There is hope though for this team during the season, with a healthy Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Ben Simmons the Nets have a chance to not only clinch a top 5 seed but win the East. The only thing holding fans back from fully hopping on the bandwagon is the never-ending drama with the Nets.

4. Milwaukee Bucks – The Milwaukee Bucks last year without Khris Middleton almost beat the eventual Eastern Conference Champions, the Boston Celtics. With a healthy Bucks team this year, not only can they make it to the playoffs, but this Bucks team can win the east.  Why are the Bucks ranked 4th on this list then? This team has no 2 guard, the 3-point shooting for the Bucks last year was 36% this year I predict it to be 38%, why? Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Giannis will get even better from an offensive standpoint and defensively, too. Giannis should and hopefully will make more threes than he did last year. Giannis’s defense will continue to improve too (In 2019-20 Giannis had a defensive rating of 97, that’s really good), last year he had 106 which isn’t bad by any means, but imagine Giannis with a 128 offensive rating, and a 99 defensive rating (he’d be unstoppable), Giannis just might be going for that this year, look out NBA the Greek Monster is on his way.

3. Miami Heat – The Miami Heat have a long way to go before they get back to the success that they had in the 2020 NBA Bubble. The Heat lost their anchor P.J. Tucker this offseason but kept defensive minded players Dewayne Dedmond and Bam Adebayo. Don’t sleep on the rest of this team though, last year the defense carried this Heat team. The only problem with this team this year is keeping Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and Kyle Lowry all on the court.  In total, all three of these men missed 70 games.

There are bright spots though in this team, the young core. Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, and Max Strus were good, but Tyler Herro was one of the biggest surprises in the league, other than Ja Morant and Jordan Poole. Tyler Herro basically led the Heat in scoring as Jimmy Butler missed 25 games last season. The question for this team this year is, what can this young core do? (Bam is 25 by the way, NOT 28).

2. Philadelphia 76ers – What a beautiful off-season for this 76ers team. They got James Harden to take off his fat suit and commit to this team, not only commit to the 76ers but Harden would take a team friendly contract giving the 76ers so much flexibility in the off-season and they did not waste it. Meet the newest additions to the 76ers PJ Tucker, and Montrezl Harrell. PJ Tucker was on the Miami Heat last season (as you can see above), the year before that he was on a championship winning Milwaukee Bucks Both in Miami and in Milwaukee PJ Tucker was a defensive anchor, and the 76ers expect that same PJ Tucker.

Montrezl Harrell started off the 2021-22 season hot. As a Washington Wizard, he would lead them to a 15-11 start on the season until he was placed in Covid Protocol December 28, 2021. Later on in that same season he would be traded to the Hornets where he’d finish off that year. Montrezl Harrell in the offseason of 2022 would face a felony charge on possession of 3lbs of marijuana charges. The 76ers are poised to do big things this year, they have the talent, stars, and all they need now is the mindset.

1. Boston Celtics – Coming off of a NBA Finals appearance the Boston Celtics had proved everyone wrong, shocked the world even. The crazy thing about it is that this offseason the Celtics somehow got even better, it seems like all these teams in the top 5 have all improved (even the Nets). The Celtics made the biggest leap as a top 5 team in the offseason.

How do you get better after an NBA Finals appearance? Ask general manager Brad Stevens as he made huge moves for an already good Celtics team, which now propels them to becoming a great Celtics team by adding on new key additions, unfortunately the Celtics will have to go through this season without one of their key additions, Danilo Gallinari. Gallinari is going to miss the 2022-23 NBA season recovering from his left knee surgery. Boston will also be without Robert Williams, one of their best defenders a season ago, as he recovers from his own surgery after an injury in the NBA finals last year. The good news is that Williams will not miss the season, but he will miss 4-6 weeks on IR (according to Woj).

The Celtics are still primed to win the east as they have one of the, if not the, best bench in the NBA as the Celtics kept their core with Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum, along with adding Malcom Brogdon to command the secondary unit. Speaking of their secondary unit the Celtics didn’t make many changes to that part of the team either. Overall, this is one of the best teams in the NBA, a team ready to win the east, go to the finals, and win the big one.