The Most Interesting Player On Each Team In The Eastern Conference


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The 2019 NBA offseason has been arguably the craziest in history, as just about every major contender made a significant move this summer in the form of a free agent signing, trade, or both.

The league is going to look very different next year, and with that is an air of excitement for the regular season we haven’t had in recent year thanks to the ever present feeling that the outcome is, at least to an extent, predetermined. This year, there is no super team lording over either conference as the clear big boss, as the era of superteams has apparently given way to dynamic duos throughout the Association.

With so many new faces in new places, and with intrigue for the regular season at an all-time high, we decided to take stock of the most interesting player (or, in some cases, players) on each team entering the 2019-20 season. Some of these are big signings with something to prove, young players hopeful to take a leap into superstardom, or simply the player/players that have the most to prove to determine their future with that team.

We start in the Eastern Conference, where the reigning champs lost their top star, the reigning league MVP resides, and, much like a year ago, things feel wide open for the taking.

Atlanta: Trae Young

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The Hawks are a very interesting young team as a whole, but the runner-up for last season’s Rookie of the Year award remains their player to watch this season. After early struggles, Young was spectacular offensively once the calendar flipped to 2019, and with more young pieces around him — and key veterans removed from the roster — it’s going to be a year where Young has to take a leap as a leader and player in 2019-20. He’s a dynamic playmaker and passer, and if he can be a more consistent shooter/scorer, he could have a special offensive season. The coaching staff wants better effort defensively and conditioning as they try to get him to 35 minutes per game, but Atlanta feels they have a star in the making.

Boston: Gordon Hayward

We can debate for days if the Celtics got any better by swapping out Kyrie Irving for Kemba Walker — Irving is better, but the apparent drama that consumed Boston because of him won’t exist with Walker around. What we cannot debate is that if Hayward plays up to the max contract he was handed by the team back in 2017, it’s quite possible the drop-off in productivity from Irving to Walker won’t matter. It’s been somewhat lost since he got injured, but Hayward is really, really good, a high-scoring, playmaking wing who gives Boston a second All-Star next to Walker (or, potentially, a third All-Star next to Walker and Jayson Tatum, should he make a leap). If he can’t be that post-injury, that’s fine, but there’s a reason the Celtics were at their best last year when Hayward looked like his old self.

Brooklyn: Caris LeVert

The narrative around the Nets all offseason was that they got two stars, one of whom probably won’t play this season. This means there is a window for someone to be the team’s second star this season and third star when Kevin Durant gets back, and no one fits that bill better than LeVert. Prior to his dislocated right foot last season, LeVert was on the verge of a monster year, averaging 18.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.2 steals in 29.7 minutes per game.

Brooklyn needs someone to be the second banana to Kyrie Irving — who, if his first year in Boston will be any indication, will thrive in a new setting. LeVert will get the first opportunity, and if he takes a small step forward, he has what it takes to give the Nets a special, homegrown piece.

Chicago: Otto Porter Jr.

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After being the third wheel in Washington, Porter flourished in his brief post-deadline stint with the Bulls last season. He’s become an elite three-point shooter, managing to hit a preposterous 48.8 percent of his threes in Chicago last year, and this coming season, he has a chance to vault into the All-Star level in the East. If Porter can maintain his efficiency on a much higher usage (as he did in 15 games last season), he has a chance to put together some eye-popping numbers. Chicago has an intriguing young core with Porter, Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen, Coby White, and Wendell Carter Jr., but Porter is the one that is in line to break out as the top star in the Windy City next year.

Charlotte: Terry Rozier

We broke these up by randomly selecting players for each of us to write about. However, for Rozier, we both would have just written, “The Charlotte Hornets gave Terry Rozier $59 million after lowballing Kemba Walker,” so this one is, truly, co-authored. The Hornets are going to be bad, but Terry Rozier got the bag and now will try to prove he deserves it. That, in and of itself, will be fascinating to watch.

Cleveland: Kevin Love

The intrigue with Love stems from two questions, the first of which potentially makes the second way more interesting. Number one, can Love stay healthy and play at the All-Star level of which we all know he’s capable? Number two, in the ostensibly likely event the Cavs trade him, what can they get back? After LeBron James left Cleveland, Love was viewed as the single most important player for the organization going forward. That’s still the case, and he’s still a very good basketball player, but now, his importance very well could stem from who the Cavaliers get back for him on the trade market.

Detroit: Blake Griffin

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Once again, Griffin is spending his offseason rehabbing an injury, but he remains the most intriguing player on the Pistons by a healthy margin. He was sensational to end the regular season a year ago, all but carrying Detroit to the postseason. In a summer in which the middle of the East didn’t change all that much, the Pistons will once again figure to be jockeying for a playoff berth next year. Griffin will be the catalyst for that, and hopefully his health will allow for a better payoff than last year.

Indiana: Domantas Sabonis/Myles Turner

The Pacers’ offseason was interesting in that they let Bojan Bogdanovic walk, choosing to be aggressive in targeting Malcolm Brogdon in a sign-and-trade instead and heaping money on Jeremy Lamb to take up residence on the wing. Victor Oladipo’s health looms over everything in Indiana, as they hope to get their All-Star guard back during the season. They spent money and there’s a question of whether they got better, worse, or just tread water, but the most interesting thing about the Pacers remains their frontcourt situation.

Turner and Sabonis are two of the best bigs in the East, but as we learned last year, they cannot play together for extended periods of time. Sabonis was a legit sixth man of the year candidate as a terrific scorer and rebounder behind Turner, who remains a fearsome rim protector and has stretched his range to the three-point line offensively. And yet, the two simply don’t work offensively when they share the floor, as Indiana’s offensive rating cratered to 102.4 in the 429 minutes they played together.

If those two cannot gel, Indiana has a fascinating decision to make. Do they continue playing their two very good big men 25-28 minutes each in an effort to stagger their minutes as much as possible, or do they have to consider moving one of them? If it’s the latter, which one is on the way out?

Miami: Jimmy Butler

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Jimmy finally has what Jimmy wants, which is a team that is, at least for now, all his. Butler pushed for a sign-and-trade to Miami, with a nudge from his old buddy Dwyane Wade, and now he’s tasked with lifting the Heat off the treadmill of mediocrity. Miami has positioned themselves to have some flexibility in the future and missing out on Russell Westbrook could be a bit of a blessing in disguise, but there are serious questions about how good this team can be in the immediate.

Butler’s proclamation that he “just wants to win” will likely be thrown back in his face all year if the Heat continue to live in the bottom half of the East this season, but it’s clear he wanted to win on his own terms and as the main guy. We’ll see just how big of an impact he can make as the lead star this season in Miami with a team that fell short of the playoffs last year.

Milwaukee: Eric Bledsoe

Man, the Bucks are in a tough spot if Playoff Eric Bledsoe™ is a thing. Bledsoe is a really good basketball player, and when he is on his game, he’s physical, tenacious, and a gigantic problem for opponents on both ends of the floor. But with Malcolm Brogdon now gone and George Hill serving as the team’s only other point guard, Bledsoe cannot fall into the playoff slump in which he has found himself in each of the last few seasons, because he turns into a gigantic problem for Milwaukee. The Bucks might be the favorites to win a title this year due to an easier path than any team will have out West, but heavy is the head that wears the crown, and as we’ve seen each of the last two years, the possibility of wearing said crown has caused Bledsoe issues.

New York: Julius Randle

The Knicks effectively kicked the can down the road for a year or two with veteran signings on bloated two-year deals (most of which include either a team option or non-guaranteed second year). However, the one player they bet on with a semi-long term deal this summer was Julius Randle. After putting up huge numbers in New Orleans, he cashed in on a “big” three-year deal in New York and, if anyone is going to stick around long term from this summer, it’ll be him.

New York’s frontcourt is a bit of a log jam, but Randle will be featured prominently and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he posts a 20/10 season to get Knicks fans fired up about his potential as a cornerstone piece. To actually be that, he’ll need to be better defensively, but expect Randle to have a pretty spectacular offensive year as the Knicks’ primary option.

Orlando: Mo Bamba

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A recap of Mo Bamba’s NBA career so far:

1. The Magic selected him sixth overall in the 2018 NBA Draft.
2. He looked like a rookie for long stretches of time.
3. He got injured, suffering a stress fracture in his left tibia.
4. Nikola Vucevic became an All-Star, while Khem Birch was a steady hand off the bench.
5. Both of those dudes hit free agency.
6. Both came back, and in the case of Vucevic, came back for a whole lot of money.

Where does Bamba fit into this rotation now? Can he unseat Birch and become Vucevic’s backup? Can he justify the team selecting him sixth overall and take a big step forward in his second year? If he does, what happens to Vucevic after he got a four-year, $100 million deal? If not, what does the future hold for him? If Steve Clifford and the Magic’s front office want to go for broke, does Bamba even get enough of a chance to show what he can do?

Philadelphia: Tobias Harris

The Sixers have now locked all their core pieces up for the foreseeable future, with Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Al Horford, and Harris all on huge contracts for the next four-plus years. Simmons still has plenty to prove, but he’s also 22 years old, so the expectation is for him to still have room to grow. Embiid is the MVP candidate of the group, and Horford has long been the secret team MVP of whatever squad he’s on. Harris, however, has the most to prove after being given a five-year, $180 million deal.

Philly bet big on Harris by giving up a lot in a trade to get him, and now with this contract, his performance will likely determine how far Philly can go with this core group. He didn’t have a great playoff run last year, and they will desperately need him to hit shots this season given their potential spacing issues. The Sixers are a fascinating team as a whole, but even with as much star power as they have, Harris seems like the most important player to reaching their full potential.

Toronto: Pascal Siakam

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It makes sense with how Siakam’s career has gone so far that he takes another step forward and establishes himself as a superstar in 2019-20. It is also very easy to see why this is a huge deal for Toronto. On the heels of the first title in team history, the Raptors lost their best player, Kawhi Leonard. With all due respect to Kyle Lowry, Siakam is the guy best equipped to take the reins. If he does, Toronto should be a very good team again this year — perhaps not a championship contender, but still, really good.

If he does not, that means a lot for both himself and the bevy of veterans on the team’s roster. For Siakam, it means he is a great second banana who can’t be The Man on a team with major aspirations. For guys on expiring contracts like Lowry and Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, it means that it’s awfully easy to see how they get flipped for young players and picks by the time the trade deadline rolls around. We know what they all are. We do not know if Siakam can be the guy who brings it all together.

Washington: Bradley Beal

Beal is an excellent basketball player. Beal is also on a tremendously weird Wizards team, one that could really use a breath of fresh air. Considering John Wall’s … let’s call it less than ideal contract, Beal is the guy who would net them the most in some type of deal. He’s also slated to be an unrestricted free agent following the 2020-21 season, when he would only be 28 and in line to make a ton of cash. With a new front office on the way in Washington, it’s not hard to justify hitting reset and starting with Beal. Or maybe he just goes supernova alongside a healthy Wall and helps them get back to the playoffs. Who knows?

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