The start of the 2024-2025 NBA season is here and every team has a reason to be excited and every team has a reason to be concerned. That’s the great thing about a new season! Hype up the reasons to be excited and ignore the concerns until your team starts to struggle. Let’s go over every team’s reason to be excited and reason to be worried for the Eastern Conference.
A Reason to be Excited and Worried for Each Eastern Conference Team
Atlanta Hawks
- Excited: The team belongs to Trae Young again with Dejounte Murray, who they got two first-round picks for, being traded away and they have the number one overall pick from last year’s draft in Zaccharie Risacher.
- Worried: The team seems directionless. Apart from an ECF appearance, they didn’t have too much success when it was Trae’s team and even with the number one pick and two future first-round picks, it feels like they aren’t sure what to do with this team.
Boston Celtics
- Excited: They still look like the best team in the NBA and still seem to have the best roster.
- Worried: How long can they play with that chip on their shoulder? Jaylen Brown won the Larry Bird Award and Finals MVP, Jayson Tatum didn’t play much in the Olympics but when he did he didn’t play well, and the whole league seems to respect them and be well aware of how dangerous they are to repeat.
Brooklyn Nets
- Excited: The NBA draft is much deeper this year than last year with the likes of Cooper Flag, Ace Bailey, and Dylan Harper.
- Worried: Despite having four first-round picks this year, Brooklyn could end up outside of the top ten in the draft.
Charlotte Hornets
- Excited: A full year with a healthy LaMelo Ball, Tre Mann, and Brandon Miller sounds incredibly fun.
- Worried: Making the Play-In is no longer a sense of accomplishment for this team, but I don’t think their ceiling is any higher than that.
Chicago Bulls
- Excited: Lonzo Ball has returned and seems to be healthy from his knee issues. Maybe that can exorcise the demons that have plagued the Bulls since Derrick Rose.
- Worried: I have no idea who on that team will attempt to play defense let alone be a good defender.
Cleveland Cavaliers
- Excited: Donovan Mitchell is around for, hopefully, three more years. If not, they can at least trade him.
- Worried: I still don’t know if Darius Garland can work well with Mitchell and if Evan Mobley will finally take that step offensively that they need him to take.
Detroit Pistons
- Excited: It took some digging, but the Pistons roster has eight former first-round picks, seven of which have been drafted within the last four years, and four of which were lottery picks.
- Worried: Will any of those seven first-round picks, four of which were lottery picks, that were drafted in the last four years make at least some kind of leap?
Indiana Pacers
- Excited: Nothing better to get you excited for a new season than coming off a year where you were runner-ups for the first-ever NBA Cup, made a deep run to the Eastern Conference Finals, and probably put up the best fight against the future NBA Champion Celtics.
- Worried: Is Tyrese Haliburton enough to be the number one guy that can win them a championship?
Miami Heat
- Excited: It is a contract year for Jimmy Butler so you can expect him to be more locked in for the regular season than he normally is.
- Worried: The “Heat Culture” is not enough to get them to a championship. At some point, Jimmy Butler needs to be Jimmy Buckets, Tyler Hero needs to be the Sixth Man of the Year type player he is, and Bam Adebayo needs to be a dominant force like he can be. “Heat Culture” isn’t enough to win games or championships.
Milwaukee Bucks
- Excited: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have had a full year to get accustomed to each other and it seems like Dame is handling life better now.
- Worried: Their defense has taken a massive dip in the last two years and relying on Giannis to be their entire defense isn’t going to work.
New York Knicks
- Excited: The Knicks front office looked at their roster and, despite how good it was, went out and made some trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns that seem to have improved their offensive power even more.
- Worried: Will the KAT trade ruin the defensive presence they had last year combined with the loss of Isaiah Hartenstein?
Orlando Magic
- Excited: Paolo Banchero took a big step in his sophomore season and it is expected that he’ll take another step in his third season in the NBA. It’ll be exciting to see him and Franz Wagner continue to develop together.
- Worried: Was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope enough to address their three-point shooting issues from last year and will Jalen Suggs be able to contribute to that three-point shooting consistently?
Philadelphia 76ers
- Excited: Their final piece to their big three is no longer Tobias Harris because they went out and traded for Paul George.
- Worried: Their final piece to their big three is just as inconsistent in the playoffs as Harris because now it is PG. Then add in Joel Embiid’s inconsistency in the playoffs and I’m not sure how far this team can go.
Toronto Raptors
- Excited: They have seven draft picks in the next three years with a decent chance at some top-ten picks.
- Worried: They are relying heavily on some young players in different positions to take that next step and develop, but their veteran status is extremely lacking with their only “team veteran” being Kelly Olynyk.
Washington Wizards
- Excited: No matter how weak the draft class was, it is always exciting to have the number two overall draft pick on your team in Alex Sarr. Especially when there is a chance to have another top-ten pick after this year that has another Frenchman that you can pair with Sarr and Bilal Coulibaly.
- Worried: I honestly have no idea what they’re doing or even know if they know what they’re doing. It was a fun idea to give Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma a chance and Kuzma even turned down a trip to the NBA finals to stay on the team, but we all knew that it wouldn’t work. Now they keep adding on busts, large contracts, or old and outdated players. I’m just not sure. I guess the worry should be that you’re still a Wizards fan at this point. I’m so sorry.
What do you think? Did I miss something? Do you disagree with something? Comment below and see you next week for the Western Conference!
Main Image: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
