Our offseason grades for every team in the NBA’s Western Conference turned out so perfectly — without a single complaint — that we decided to be nice and give you an inarguable list of grades in the East, too.
The conference took a pair of haymakers to its face in the playoffs, as the 2024 and 2025 East champion Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers, respectively, lost Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton to torn Achilles tendons. It was already a watered-down conference that sent its sixth seed to lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.
Advertisement
It stood to get worse if Giannis Antetokounmpo had requested a trade, which he did not, if only because his Milwaukee Bucks made one last (wild) attempt to satiate his championship desires. Presumably, we can expect Joel Embiid to rejoin the Philadelphia 76ers, though his health perennially remains a concern.
The Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic made significant upgrades, capitalizing on the absences of Tatum and Haliburton and joining a list of legit challengers to the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks. The conference looks a lot different, and we are now here to hand out grades for how it got to be that way …
Atlanta Hawks • Boston Celtics • Brooklyn Nets • Charlotte Hornets • Chicago Bulls • Cleveland Cavaliers • Detroit Pistons • Indiana Pacers • Miami Heat • Milwaukee Bucks • New York Knicks • Orlando Magic • Philadelphia 76ers • Toronto Raptors • Washington Wizards
Win totals from BetMGM
(Hassan Ahmad/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
Atlanta Hawks
-
Key additions: Kristaps Porziņģis • Nickeil Alexander-Walker • Luke Kennard • Asa Newell
-
Key subtractions: Clint Capela • Larry Nance Jr. • Georges Niang • Terance Mann
Advertisement
The Hawks paired four-time All-Star point guard Trae Young with do-it-all center Kristaps Porziņģis, and all it really cost them was Georges Niang. Porziņģis can efficiently score anywhere from 30 feet to the basket. He protects the rim well and defends better in space than you would think for a 7-foot-3 unicorn.
It is a low-cost, high-reward bet on the availability of Porziņģis, who has rarely been healthy.
In between Young and Porziņģis, Atlanta padded its depth on the wing, where rising star Jalen Johnson, Most Improved Player Dyson Daniels and 2024 No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher already formed a solid young core. The Hawks signed Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the 26-year-old cousin of NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a versatile guard himself, and Luke Kennard to round out a playoff rotation.
Grade: A
Boston Celtics
-
Key additions: Anfernee Simons • Georges Niang • Luka Garza • Hugo González • Josh Minott
-
Key subtractions: Kristaps Porziņģis • Jrue Holiday • Luke Kornet
Advertisement
The Celtics entered the summer knowing they needed to get under the second apron and are well on their way to getting it done. It cost them Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday, a pair of impactful veterans. Luke Kornet left for more money from the San Antonio Spurs, too. The return for Porziņģis and Holiday — Anfernee Simons and Niang — was as underwhelming as expected for what amounted to a salary dump.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season]
They drafted Hugo González, whose work showed in summer league, and they added a pair of under-utilized former Minnesota Timberwolves, Luka Garza and Josh Minott. None of it will steal headlines, but all of it was necessary, and they came out on the other side of it about as flexible as they could. In the end, following Tatum’s injury, everything Boston does is with championship contention in 2027 in mind.
Grade: C
Brooklyn Nets
-
Key additions: Michael Porter Jr. • Terance Mann • Nolan Traoré • Egor Demin • Ben Saraf • Danny Wolf • Drake Powell
-
Key subtractions: Cam Johnson • D’Angelo Russell • De’Anthony Melton • Trendon Watford • Maxwell Lewis
Advertisement
The Nets entered this offseason with more picks in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft and more salary cap space than any other team. This forewarned us of a summer of significant change, or so we thought.
Brooklyn used each one of its draft picks, not consolidating any of them and even adding another one, absorbing Terance Mann’s contract into cap space in exchange for a fifth first-rounder. Who knows if there is a star among them. There will certainly be plenty of competition for the ball among five rookies.
The ball might be available to them more often, too, if the Nets cannot come to terms with restricted free agent Cam Thomas. They also traded their second-leading scorer, Cam Johnson, turning the two years and $44 million left on his contract into two years and $79 million worth of Michael Porter Jr., the oft-injured former Denver Nugget. And they picked up another first-round pick in 2032 for that trouble.
Advertisement
Grade: D
Charlotte Hornets
-
Key additions: Kon Knueppel • Liam McNeeley • Collin Sexton • Pat Connaughton • Spencer Dinwiddie
-
Key subtractions: Jusuf Nurkić • Mark Williams
Your 2025 summer league champions, starring the title game’s MVP, Kon Knueppel! He and fellow rookie Liam McNeeley should provide shooting for a team that desperately needs it around LaMelo Ball.
The Hornets also targeted a pair of veterans, Collin Sexton and Spencer Dinwiddie, as capable backups to the oft-injured Ball. Basically, a lot is being done to both build around Ball and prepare for his absence, which is a harsh reality for the Hornets and not one in which a lot of other teams would want to exist.
Charlotte is, however, better off than it was at summer’s start, other than its apparent plan to begin the season without a starting-caliber center. That seems like something the Hornets would want for Ball, too, but they sure did not want it to be Mark Williams, whom they jettisoned (again) for draft compensation.
Advertisement
Grade: B
Chicago Bulls
-
Key additions: Noa Essengue • Isaac Okoro
-
Key subtractions: Lonzo Ball
Talk about underwhelming. A once-great franchise in a major media market, the Bulls entered this offseason after another mediocre campaign with little ambition beyond making a late lottery selection. They took France’s Noa Essengue, an 18-year-old project, to join Matas Buzelis as Chicago’s latest hope.
Their only other move of any real consequence (as negotiations with restricted free agent Josh Giddey are at a standstill) was trading Lonzo Ball — a good player (when healthy) who meaningfully impacts what the Bulls are capable of — for Isaac Okoro, a wing who fell out of favor with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Okoro and Patrick Williams, both top-five picks from the 2020 draft class, will make a combined $58.8 million over the next two seasons, a price tag no other team would assume.
Advertisement
Grade: F
Cleveland Cavaliers
-
Key additions: Lonzo Ball • Larry Nance Jr.
-
Key subtractions: Ty Jerome • Isaac Okoro
The Cavaliers are a 64-win team that is spending into the second apron, so they expected to lose Ty Jerome, their Sixth Man of the Year candidate. As Jerome signed a three-year, $27 million contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, Cleveland swapped Okoro for Ball, who replaces the playmaking off the bench. Re-signing old friend Larry Nance Jr. was also a nice bit of business for a front office with zero flexibility.
Grade: B
Detroit Pistons
-
Key additions: Caris LeVert • Duncan Robinson
-
Key subtractions: Dennis Schröder • Tim Hardaway Jr.
As free agency opened, news came down that Malik Beasley — Detroit’s Sixth Man of the Year candidate — was under federal investigation for a gambling-related infraction. That altered everything the Pistons were trying to accomplish, as they were also set to lose reserves Dennis Schröder and Tim Hardaway Jr.
Advertisement
In their place Detroit signed Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson for a combined $31 million annually. Neither the Cavaliers nor the Miami Heat made much of an effort to retain LeVert and Robinson, which should tell us that neither of them can replace what Beasley provided for the Pistons last season.
Grade: D
Indiana Pacers
-
Key subtractions: Myles Turner
In a move the Pacers did not see coming, the Bucks created enough salary cap space to sign Myles Turner away from their rivals, robbing Indiana of one of its key cogs en route to the NBA Finals this past season.
Losing Haliburton to an Achilles injury for the entirety of the 2025-26 season was bad enough. But to also lose Turner for nothing was devastating. It turned Indiana into just another team in the immediate aftermath of the franchise exceeding all expectations. It is an unfortunate set of circumstances that could not be rectified by the addition of Jay Huff, who has played well in spot center duty for Memphis.
Advertisement
Grade: D
Miami Heat
-
Key additions: Norman Powell • Kasparas Jakučionis
-
Key subtractions: Duncan Robinson • Kyle Anderson • Kevin Love
Miami, one of the best destination cities in the entire NBA, enters every offseason with high hopes for major improvements. The Heat once again fell short of those expectations, as Giannis Antetokounmpo and other major stars never became available. Not that the Heat had enough to trade for them anyway.
Instead, Miami turned the expiring contracts of Kyle Anderson and Kevin Love into Norman Powell, a 2025 All-Star snub for the Los Angeles Clippers. He gives them another quality player, along with Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins and a cast of prospects, which now includes Kasparas Jakučionis. The Heat are better than they were at last season’s end and still nowhere near where they want to be.
Advertisement
Grade: B
Milwaukee Bucks
-
Key additions: Myles Turner • Vasilije Micić • Gary Harris
-
Key subtractions: Brook Lopez • Damian Lillard • Pat Connaughton
Oh, man. The Bucks waived and stretched the remaining nine figures left on Damian Lillard’s contract to make enough room to sign Turner from the Pacers. It equates to a $50 million annual bet on Turner as a partner to Antetokounmpo, whose long-term commitment to Milwaukee remains in serious question.
Turner represents an upgrade from the outgoing Brook Lopez. That much is not in question. However, paying Lillard an average of $22.5 million over the next five seasons not to play for the Bucks is a serious hindrance to team-building in the future. Sooner or later, Antetokounmpo will come to accept this as a roadblock to his next championship, but for now the Turner signing seems to have kept him satisfied.
Advertisement
Grade: C
New York Knicks
-
Key additions: Guerschon Yabusele • Jordan Clarkson
-
Key subtractions: Precious Achiuwa • P.J. Tucker
The Knicks had nothing more than a taxpayer’s mid-level exception and minimum contracts to upgrade a rotation that was only seven men deep in the postseason. They smartly identified Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson as capable contributors from teams that failed to make the playoffs last season.
Their biggest move of the summer, however, swapping head coach Tom Thibodeau, who led them to the Eastern Conference finals, for Mike Brown, remains a question mark. Who knows if his offensive schemes can squeeze more from a roster that Thibodeau mostly maximized around Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson, despite their built-in defensive limitations. At the very least, Brown should be able to enter this coming season’s playoffs with a more rested roster, thanks to their offseason additions.
Advertisement
Grade: B
Orlando Magic
-
Key additions: Desmond Bane • Tyus Jones • Jase Richardson • Noah Penda
-
Key subtractions: Cole Anthony • Kentavious Caldwell-Pope • Cory Joseph • Gary Harris
No team in the East took a bigger swing at contention in the absence of Tatum and Haliburton than the Magic, who swapped Cole Anthony, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and the rights to four first-round draft picks with the Grizzlies for Desmond Bane, one of the most underrated shooting guards in the league.
Orlando was a pesky out in the first round of the playoffs, as both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner flashed their worth as max-contracted players. It was clear the Magic lacked talent in the backcourt, where Jalen Suggs was injured for the postseason. He will return to a corps that now includes Bane, Tyus Jones and rookie Jase Richardson. That is a sizable upgrade for a team in desperate need of shooting.
Advertisement
Grade: A
Philadelphia 76ers
-
Key additions: VJ Edgecombe
-
Key subtractions: Guerschon Yabusele
The 76ers stunk last season, which is how they ended up with the No. 3 overall draft pick, which they used to select VJ Edgecombe, prioritizing his dependability over the upside of Ace Bailey. Edgecombe joins Tyrese Maxey and a rehabbed Jared McCain in what is a young and talented backcourt. It could get even more talented if Philadelphia comes to terms with restricted free agent Quentin Grimes.
The Sixers should not stink as bad as they did last season. Then again, their success hinges almost entirely on the health of Joel Embiid and Paul George, both of whom are still nursing knee injuries. The loss of either to an extended absence would make Philadelphia feel Yabusele’s departure a little more.
Advertisement
Grade: B
Toronto Raptors
-
Key additions: Collin Murray-Boyles • Sandro Mamukelashvili
-
Key subtractions: Chris Boucher
The Raptors, who fired longtime executive Masai Ujiri, replacing him with longtime general manager Bobby Webster, entered the offseason with a salary cap sheet full of overpaid players and did nothing to assuage those concerns. They are on the hook this season for about $156 million for Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl, and I am not sure any other team would want to pay any of them what they are owed. That makes it hard to make moves in the summer.
So, instead they made an annual pick around No. 9 in the draft, taking Collin Murray-Boyles, who prognosticators liked. How he develops in the presence of so many players who are trying to earn their contracts is anyone’s guess. Most likely he will be joined by another pick around No. 9 next season.
Advertisement
Grade: D
Washington Wizards
-
Key additions: Tre Johnson • Cam Whitmore • CJ McCollum
-
Key subtractions: Jordan Poole • Marcus Smart • Saddiq Bey
The Wizards entered the offseason with the league’s second-worst record, one win better than the Utah Jazz, and somehow fell to the No. 6 overall pick. They still scored Tre Johnson, who impressed in summer league. They also took a flier on Cam Whitmore, an under-utilized talent on the Houston Rockets, and all it cost them was a couple of second-round draft picks. Add Johnson and Whitmore to a young core that now includes Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly and Bub Carrington, among other recent first-round draft picks.
Oh, and the Wizards shed $77.5 million worth of Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey in favor of CJ McCollum’s $30.7 million expiring salary, bringing in one of the league’s most respected veterans and opening up even more salary cap space for next summer. They are doing smart things in Washington for once.
Advertisement
Grade: B
Read the full article here
