The Biggest Question For Every Team In The East For The 2018-19 NBA Season


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The 2018 NBA season is less than a month away, and with media days out of the way, training camp has begun around the league.

Training camp is great because there’s palpable excitement for just about every team. Players are talking about all the work they’ve put in over the summer, coaches are happy with the effort level, commitment, and buy-in from the whole team, and general managers think they’ve put together a group that can compete.

A number of those statements will be rendered false before the calendar flips to 2019, but for now, optimism reigns supreme. As always, there are only a few true title contenders, followed by your playoff hopefuls, and then the teams still in the rebuilding phase. But no matter what tier a team falls in, there’s something that will dominate headlines in training camp and the early season. Here, we’re going to explore the biggest question for each team this season, and what it will mean to their success.

To start, we begin with the East, with a look at the West still to come:

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Atlanta Hawks

Can Trae Young be the guy?

The Hawks are expected to be one of, if not the, worst teams in the NBA this season. They are an extremely young group, with the exception of Vince Carter, and the team’s bar for 2018-19 is low. However, Young is not going to be the beneficiary of a patient timeline because the Hawks passed on the chance to take Luka Doncic so they could move back and land him.

Like Markelle Fultz and Jayson Tatum, whether fairly or unfairly, Young and Doncic are going to be compared early in their careers, with each being the barometer for the other’s success. There are plenty of questions for Young to answer about his NBA-readiness, but beyond that, if Doncic looks good as a rookie in Dallas, then Young will need to shine in Atlanta to keep fans from grumbling about whether the Hawks made the wrong move. It’s impossible to judge a trade off one year, but that won’t stop fans and the media from doing it, which will keep pressure on the young Young to be the star early on the Hawks so clearly think he can be.

Young is going to struggle, because every first-year point guard since Chris Paul has, but success for him can be measured by a few things. The first is going to be how he shoots. It’s his primary attribute as an offensive player and he needs to prove he can be a good, reasonably efficient shooter at the NBA level. Coupled with that is going to be showing improved decision-making. He’s going to make mistakes, but if he can show over the course of the year that he’s making strides with shot selection and pass selection — there are times he gets ambitious with both — to make the smart play as the team’s floor general, then that’s a positive. And finally, he’s got to show he can at least be a present and engaged defender. At his size, he may never be an above average defender, but the effort level has to be there for him not to be a disaster on that end of the floor, negating the positives of his offensive ability.

Boston Celtics

How will Brad Stevens handle rotations?

There aren’t a lot of pressing storylines in Boston right now, in all honesty. Things seem to be pretty good in Boston for the Eastern Conference favorites, with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward both full goes for training camp and beyond. What will be most interesting is how Stevens handles rotations and how the players handle sharing the wealth — health pending, of course.

Given how well they all gelled last season and the overall buy-in to the system and culture in Boston from veterans and young guys alike, it’s hard to imagine there will be much drama over playing time or touches. That said, how Stevens handles rotations will be something Celtics fans and media will be keeping their eyes on all season. There is a tremendous amount of depth in Boston, which is to their benefit in the regular season. Stevens can keep most everyone’s minutes down during the year because there’s a capable backup at pretty much every spot.

That, theoretically, will keep them fresh for the postseason. Once they get to the playoffs, that’s when rotations get tighter and that depth matters less, as Boston’s learned in recent years. Those playoff rotations will be very interesting to watch, and there may be some key games during the regular season that we get hints at how Stevens will approach that challenge.

Brooklyn Nets

How good can D’Angelo Russell be?

The Nets are the Bruno Caboclo of NBA teams, in that when they started their rebuild with nearly no real assets, everyone knew they were at least two years away from being two years away from being able to take tangible steps forward. Entering Year 4, it’s about time for the Nets to look to move on up in the world. This isn’t an especially good roster, but they finally have their own draft pick and Denver’s pick, protected 1-12, for this summer.

The plan of Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson is finally, hopefully, going to start bearing fruit soon, and that can begin this year with the play of Russell. Spencer Dinwiddie was the Nets’ breakout star last year and they’d love to see continued improvement for him as he gets set to be a free agent in 2019, but he’s an unrestricted free agent. Russell is their most prized asset and will be a restricted free agent next summer, but an injury last year and general turmoil in Los Angeles during his time there leaves plenty of questions about what his place should be in the Nets future.

Brooklyn needs to know if this is a player to build around, and this season could tell them if Russell is a potential cornerstone or if he’s simply a good, but not great, player. Russell averaged 15.5 points and 5.2 assists per game in 48 appearances last season, but there is plenty of room to improve in being a more efficient offensive player and being a more effective defender. The Nets aren’t going to be a playoff contender, but there’s plenty on the line this season for them in terms of learning about their young core, headlined by Russell, as they enter a summer with lots of cap space.

Chicago Bulls

Can the young Bulls stop anyone?

The Bulls are hoping their rebuild doesn’t take long, and they are banking on their two big signings this summer to help pull them along in the next step towards being a playoff contender again. The Vegas win total has climbed over 30 for the Bulls, indicating the — forgive the pun — bullish belief in Chicago by books and bettors.

Winning 27 games a year ago was a minor miracle, spurred on by an unfathomable hot streak early in the season led by Nikola Mirotic, who was swiftly dealt to the Pelicans for being too good and ruining Chicago’s dreams of winning the lottery. Aside from that stretch, the Bulls were a dreadful team, but there’s optimism that a healthy Zach LaVine, who received a huge deal to this summer, and the addition of Jabari Parker can pull the Bulls up.

Both players come with big price tags and big questions, particularly on the defensive end, which is likely to be the side of the ball that makes or breaks this Bulls season … and determines whether bettors cash or shred those over tickets. Chicago is going to score. LaVine, Parker, and Lauri Markkanen are all certified bucket-getters, but whether they can cohesively play defense will be the challenge. Wendell Carter Jr. looks like one of the gems of the draft after a dominant Summer League, but whether he can be that same defensive presence against NBA competition remains to be seen.

The Bulls were third-worst in the league in defensive rating (109.1) and fourth in field goal percentage allowed (47.2 percent) last season, and their big additions don’t figure to help either metric that much. Their 101.3 offensive rating should improve, but that might be rendered moot if they can’t get stops.

Charlotte Hornets

Will the new system in Charlotte yield new results or another mediocre season?

We’ll find out this year if the Hornets’ issues have been due to coaching philosophy or roster construction. The front office and coaching staff have been completely changed, with Mitch Kupchak and James Borrego taking over, and with them they bring the promise of new ideas and a commitment to being an adaptive basketball team to the modern style of play.

That’s probably a good thing, but who knows if that will matter when the roster looks much the same as it did last year. The big additions this offseason were Tony Parker as a backup point guard, Dwight Howard being replaced by Bismack Biyombo, and acquiring Miles Bridges on draft night. None of those are major moves, and for the most part, the core of the Hornets remains the same.

Charlotte will try to run more and feature more ball movement this season, but whether this roster can execute it to break free of the treadmill of mediocrity remains to be seen.

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Cleveland Cavaliers

How committed to the rebuild are the Cavs?

In case you missed it, LeBron James is no longer on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Like the last time he left, that means its rebuilding time for Cleveland. The cupboard is a little less bare this time around, but the cap sheet is ugly and aside from Kevin Love, there’s not a ton of optimism about the top end of the roster.

There are some bright spots and young players that could become core pieces of the roster in the future. They have a new point guard in Collin Sexton, while Cedi Osman was a spark plug off the bench last year and figures to get extended burn to see if he can sustain that energy and effort. Rodney Hood is back on a qualifying offer and will be trying to play his way into a new deal, and Larry Nance Jr. remains an intriguing young role player with some potential.

Then there are the veterans like Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith, and George Hill, who represent road blocks in the way of developing those young players. Dan Gilbert doesn’t seem too keen on the idea of a full-fledged rebuild, and if they are going to try and sneak into the playoffs in the East, those veterans figure to get plenty of minutes. Many Cavs fans are hopeful that the youth movement will be served in Cleveland with an eye to the future, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that instructions from the top are to play the vets and try to compete now, even at the risk of stunting development.

Detroit Pistons

Can Dwane Casey guide Detroit to the playoffs?

It’s playoffs or bust for the Pistons this season. Gone is Stan Van Gundy, who failed to deliver on a postseason berth last year despite taking the major swing in trading for Blake Griffin, and in comes Casey after his ouster in Toronto despite winning Coach of the Year.

The Griffin-Andre Drummond duo never really got things going after the trade, but with Reggie Jackson healthy, they hope that having an effective trigger man for the offense can open up the potential of that big man duo. The rest of the roster looks about the same as last year, so they’re really banking on Casey being the necessary change. If there’s one thing that was almost always true of Casey’s Toronto teams, its that he got the most out of role players, and Detroit will need that to get much-needed contributions out of guys like Stanley Johnson, Langston Galloway, and Luke Kennard.

There are no excuses for a team capped out in the way Detroit is, and they simply have to make the playoffs. Casey knows the way there and Detroit is banking on him extracting the most out of this group to make a return to postseason basketball.

Indiana Pacers

Can the Pacers avoid the letdown year?

The Pacers were the NBA’s surprise team last year, finding their way into the playoffs as a five-seed and pushing LeBron and the Cavs to seven games in their first round series. Victor Oladipo was a dynamo, earning an All-Star nod and Most Improved Player, and has catapulted himself into the pantheon of star-level players in the NBA after being an afterthought from his time in Orlando and Oklahoma City.

Now, it’s time to find out if Indiana can stay in that spot as one of the East’s top teams, or if they’ll take a step back in 2018-19. Fans and media alike enjoy projecting linear growth and development, because if someone is good one year, it stands to reason that an offseason of work will make them even better the next year. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works, and teams like the Bucks, Pistons, and Hornets can serve as cautionary tales in the East of teams that looked primed to become perennial contenders only to stall out or fall back.

The Pacers will look to avoid joining that group and seem to have recognized that this offseason. They’ve made moves to bolster their roster, like adding Tyreke Evans and Doug McDermott on the wing, and bringing in Kyle O’Quinn to help out in the frontcourt. Those seem to indicate that the front office realized they couldn’t simply bank on internal improvement to carry them to the next step (or even a repeat performance) this season. It all starts with Oladipo, but the new additions and young core in Indiana could be what pushes them from a feisty young squad to a contender in the East.

Miami Heat

What move is Pat Riley going to make to shake up this roster?

Hassan Whiteside told us Miami feels they’re getting some pieces back that missed time last year with injury and are ready to take a step forward. That’s nice, but I have a hard time believing Riley looks at this roster and cap sheet and decides to stand … pat (sorry).

There are rumblings that the Heat are frontrunners in the Jimmy Butler sweepstakes, but it remains to be seen what package they can put together to pry Butler from the Timberwolves. However, the fact that they’re being aggressive indicates to me that even if they can’t land Butler, the Heat will make some kind of major move this season.

Will it be trading Whiteside? Maybe, but that’s a tricky proposition with where his value is right now. Will Riley have to part ways with one of their few young assets to make a deal work? Possibly, although you can bet he’ll fight tooth and nail to keep Josh Richardson and Justise Winslow if he has his way. The “who” is hard to answer, but I have very little doubt that it’s a matter of when, not if, Miami makes a move this year.

Milwaukee Bucks

Will anyone not named Giannis or Khris step up?

The Bucks were supposed to take the leap last season. Instead, they tread water as a seven-seed, pushing the Celtics to seven games to inspire hope, once again, that this will be the season the Bucks are players out East.

The known commodities in Milwaukee are Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. The former is arguably the best player in the East now that LeBron’s gone, but still, terrifyingly, boasts untapped potential. The latter has emerged as one of the league’s most underrated wings, someone who can have huge nights and is perpetually a steadying hand alongside a superstar. However, beyond those two, it’s hard to figure what you’re going to get night in and night out with this Bucks team.

That’s why Mike Budenholzer is there now, and it’s his job to bring Hawks University — which created borderline stars out of role players in Atlanta — to Milwaukee to do the same with the Bucks role guys and reserves. Getting Eric Bledsoe to buy in and extracting consistent productivity out of him, Tony Snell, Thon Maker, and others is at the top of the priority list for Bud and his staff.

Whether he can do that will be the determining factor in whether this is the season the Bucks finally start performing to their potential, or if this is just another year where Milwaukee frustrates everyone with tantalizing talent and mediocre results.

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New York Knicks

Who, other than Kristaps Porzingis, is good?

It’s simple in New York. This year is about evaluation and figuring out who the Knicks should build around going forward. Porzingis may miss a significant portion of the year as he recovers from a torn ACL, and in the meantime, it’ll be up to the rest of the Knicks to prove their worth and potential.

It starts with the last two draft picks. Frank Ntilikina has shown he can be an above-average on-ball defender as a bigger guard, but as he enters his sophomore year, the Knicks want to see if he can be a capable offensive player as well. There’s room for Andre Roberson-type players in the NBA, but you have to be the elite of the elite on defense to make that work. Ntilikina likely won’t be on the ball as much this season, but when he has it, he needs to show more decisiveness in attacking and facilitating, as well as an improved jumper.

This year’s first round pick, Kevin Knox, is under a different sort of pressure. Knox looked solid in Summer League, but questions remain about whether he can consistently be the two-way player the Knicks expect. He’s saying the right things and embracing the challenge Fizdale’s giving him, but for a team that doesn’t figure to factor much in the postseason conversation, it’s up to the young guys to shine and keep hopes up as they enter a crucial summer.

Orlando Magic

Will they get anything out of the point guard position?

D.J. Augustin and Jerian Grant are the only point guards on the roster right now. That seems less than ideal.

Orlando has some fun players. Aaron Gordon is quite good, and everyone’s excited to see what Mo Bamba looks like as a rookie. However, it’s a bit of a problem if no one can initiate the offense. Maybe there’s a plan in place that we don’t know about, but it sure seems like the Magic have a serious issue in the backcourt that has gone mostly unfixed this offseason.

One would expect Evan Fournier to be on the ball a lot, but the lack of balance between the frontcourt and backcourt on this roster is jarring. Grant had a decent year in Chicago last year and has gone from a combo guard to mostly playing point, but Augustin and Grant isn’t a very inspiring point guard tandem. For a team that has long had pieces without a clear plan, the point guard situation in Orlando is just the latest in a long line of confusing roster decisions.

Philadelphia 76ers

How much can Markelle Fultz help them this season?

The Sixers are bringing back most of the same players from last year’s squad that reached the second round of the playoffs. Their biggest move outside of re-signing J.J. Redick was to trade for Wilson Chandler, who should bolster their wing rotation in a sneakily good move.

However, the biggest question will be what Fultz will bring to the table. Fultz hit reset on his jump shot this summer and seemingly has that figured out, at least to a reasonable extent based on the footage and updates we’ve seen. Bigger than Fultz’s jumper is his confidence, which we saw come back a bit when he made his return late in the season, even though he wasn’t able to factor in Philly’s postseason run.

Philly needs Fultz to be a factor this year if they’re going to take a step forward. Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons can only improve so much given how good they were last year, and without much else in the way of change, it’s clear they’re banking on a big bounce back season from last year’s No. 1 overall pick.

Toronto Raptors

Is Kawhi Leonard still a top-5 player in the NBA?

There are a ton of questions about Leonard’s upcoming year in Toronto, but the biggest — and most important to the Raptors’ success — is whether he’s still one of the game’s elite players. Leonard was a top-3 finisher in MVP voting two years ago, but his mysterious quad injury and its lingering effects are still unknown.

If he’s still that dude, then Toronto should be better than a year ago. With all due respect to DeMar DeRozan, Leonard, at his best, is a much better player. However, if he doesn’t play at an MVP level, then Raptors fans will have questions for Masai Ujiri, who broke up a happy home and ruffled the feathers of Kyle Lowry by trading his cloe friend.

The other questions, chiefly whether Leonard stays, will only be answered after we see Leonard on the floor. The risks inherent in a deal like this were hugefor Ujiri, but if the Raptors are getting the 2016-17 version of Kawhi and can entice him to stay, then it was an undoubted success.

Washington Wizards

Will the Wizards hate each other or band together to prove the doubters wrong?

The magic of the Wizards is that they could be one of the East’s best teams, or they could be on the fringe of missing the playoffs altogether. There’s always some kind of drama in D.C., and this year, they’re throwing Dwight Howard and Austin Rivers into the mix. What could go wrong?!

It’s possible that this team implodes on itself due to the combustible nature of that locker room, or they might play to their full potential and be one of the East’s top seeds. I’d believe just about anything with regards to Washington. They have a tremendous amount of talent, which sometimes gets forgotten. While they’re led by John Wall and Bradley Beal, Washington also has Otto Porter Jr. and Markieff Morris, while Howard, for all his Dwight-ness, is still a productive big man. If it all gels together, they could be dangerous.

There are certainly on-court questions, like can Kelly Oubre Jr. bounce back from a shaky season and will Porter be able to sustain his scorching hot shooting from a year ago. But more than anything, health and happiness are the biggest factors in Washington, and that’s really hard to project.

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