With the NBA’s new schedule out, and training camps just weeks away, it’s time to look ahead to the 2025-26 season. What does the future hold for the Eastern Conference? Our writers take an early stab at predicting how the standings will play out.
Which East team will make the biggest leap in the standings?
Ben Rohrbach: The Orlando Magic. I thought they were bound for 50 wins last year, before injuries to Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs, among others, disrupted their rhythm in the regular season. Even when wounded, they looked formidable in a first-round loss to the defending champion Boston Celtics. Now, they bring back everyone healthy, plus Desmond Bane, whom they acquired via trade. This is a team that should not be afraid of the Cleveland Cavaliers in its pursuit of the conference’s No. 1 seed.
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Tom Haberstroh: Orlando. Three of the seven teams ahead of them in last season’s standings are taking big steps backward, so the Magic would improve on their .500 record on that alone. Throw in the additions of Bane and sharpshooter Jase Richardson, and the Magic have a good chance at cementing their first 50-win season since the Dwight Howard era(!).
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Dan Devine: The 76ers. I’m sticking with my previously established intent to speak into existence “A Reasonably Healthy Season in Philadelphia,” because friends, what is the summer if not a time to stupidly tilt at windmills? And, from a more pragmatic bent: When looking for the team set to make the biggest leap, what better place to focus than on the team that just took the biggest plunge?
Philly got a grand total of 60 games and 1,908 minutes from Joel Embiid and Paul George last season. The two maxed-out superstars played just 294 minutes across 15 games alongside All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey. The trio appeared with would’ve-been-Rookie of the Year Jared McCain in only three games. If any of those totals make a significant jump — and if Nick Nurse is able to maximize the value of a perimeter rotation that also now features high lottery pick V.J. Edgecombe and (probably?) 3-and-D wing Quentin Grimes — then so, too, should the Sixers.
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Vincent Goodwill: It would have to be the Magic. Look, someone has to win these available games vacated by the usual suspects, and assuming the Magic have health on their side with Banchero and Wagner being around for a full season, we’ll finally get to see how nice of a coach Jamahl Mosley is. And they’ve added Bane as a floor-spreading shooter with playoff experience. Fifty isn’t out of the question. Wild card here, the Atlanta Hawks (hedging, I know).
Which East team will make the biggest drop in the standings?
Devine: The Celtics. Call me crazy, but I think removing Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porziņġis, Jrue Holiday, Luke Kornet and (probably?) Al Horford from the rotation will likely send Boston sinking from the top of the Eastern standings down toward the fringes of the play-in tournament, if not further.
I know: Pretty tepid take. But as the great philosopher RZA said in the seminal film “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping,” “The higher you get, the harder you fall. I mean, ask any coconut.”
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Haberstroh: Celtics. How the mighty have fallen. Tatum’s career-altering Achilles injury was also a franchise-altering one. In the wake of their best player being sidelined for the season (or most of it), the Celtics downsized their roster quite literally. Their frontcourt rotation consists of … get ready … Neemias Queta, Chris Boucher and Luka Garza. With Anfernee Simons in tow and a patchwork frontcourt, there are going to be a lot of 152-144 losses in their future.
Goodwill: Everybody’s looking at Boston, and for good reason. The Celtics still have Jaylen Brown, who could carry them to at least a play-in, but we’re talking about a 60-win team here taking a big drop, while the Pacers lost Haliburton but had 50 wins last season. Plus, the Pacers have Rick Carlisle, who’s a wizard on the sidelines. Joe Mazzulla, let’s see if he can work magic without Tatum, Holiday and Horford (and oft-injured Porziņġis). Can you go bombs away as Plan A, B and C without the collective know-how of a championship defense behind you? They could surprise, but the sheer number of wins from last season makes this an easy choice.
Rohrbach: The Indiana Pacers. The conference’s reigning champions lost Tyrese Haliburton to injury in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and then lost Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency. I don’t even know what their identity is in the absence of Haliburton, other than to keep pushing pace, but now they must do it without their best rim protector. They should be prioritizing development over their standing in the conference, especially since they recently reacquired the rights to their own first-round draft pick.
Who will finish with the top six seeds in the East?
Goodwill: (1) Cavaliers, (2) Knicks, (3) Pistons, (4) Magic, (5) Bucks, (6) Hawks
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I’m still bullish on the Cavaliers as a regular-season team, even though there’s a lot of questions about them in May. The Knicks will be an October to April machine even without the hard-driving Tom Thibodeau. Detroit, assuming Jaden Ivey is healthy and Ausar Thompson continues his ascent, could be ready for real work. This is also setting up for the Doc Rivers overachieving Coach of the Year campaign he gives us every now and again, even with Prime Giannis.
Rohrbach: (1) Cavaliers, (2) Magic, (3) Knicks, (4) Hawks, (5) Pistons, (6) Bucks
The Cavs are still loaded. The Magic are now, too, since I believe in Banchero as the primary option on a great team. The talented Knicks are biding their time for the postseason. The Hawks and Pistons are two more young teams on the rise. And I have more faith in Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee than I do Joel Embiid in Philadelphia or anyone else.
Devine: (1) Knicks, (2) Cavaliers, (3) Magic, (4) Bucks, (5) Hawks, (6) Sixers
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I’m pricing in a strong start for a Knicks team that should open with a healthy Mitchell Robinson, a deeper bench, thanks to the arrivals of Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele, and a fresh approach on both ends under new head coach Mike Brown, and a slight step back for the Cavs with All-Star point guard Darius Garland potentially missing the start of training camp, at least, following offseason toe surgery. I like both Orlando (which finished .500 despite core trio Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs missing 105 games, and added Desmond Bane) and Atlanta (arguably the biggest winners of the offseason in the conference) to make leaps, too.
Milwaukee in fourth is a bet on Giannis Antetokounmpo continuing to play at the MVP level we’ve now somehow become inured to. Philly in sixth is what we call in the business Committing to the Bit.
Haberstroh: (1) Cavaliers, (2) Magic, (3) Knicks, (4) Hawks, (5) Pistons, (6) Bucks
I have a pretty good handle on those six teams being somewhere in the hunt. What I don’t have any handle on: the Philadelphia 76ers. They could win the East or be top five again on Draft Lottery night. I split the middle and peg them in the play-in tournament.
What’s your boldest summer prediction involving the East?
Haberstroh: Joel Embiid joins Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton as East stars who are red shirting the season. Four-plus months after arthroscopic surgery, the lack of any sort of positive news around Embiid’s knee recovery is concerning. Granted, he’s notoriously private about his injury status so he could just be playing coy. But given his extensive injury history, I’m not bullish about his availability this season.
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Devine: You mean besides “Projecting Belief in the Philadelphia 76ers?” Let’s go with, “The Celtics will drop all the way out of the top 10 in the East.”
That might be impossible if Jaylen Brown and Derrick White play the lion’s share of the games. What this take presupposes, though, is that, maybe they won’t — and that even Payton Pritchard going full “It’s Jordan Clarkson Time” won’t carry a threadbare roster to enough wins to qualify for the postseason … which, in turn, gives the Celtics a crack at a high lottery pick in what’s projected to be a strong 2026 NBA Draft, adding another potential blue-chip talent just in time for Tatum’s return.
Rohrbach: I was trying to talk myself into Embiid playing well enough to become more likely to be traded than Antetokounmpo, and what a hot take that would be, but I’ll go with this instead — a more optimistic spin: Jayson Tatum returns to the Celtics by season’s end. Inspired by a boyhood hero, Kobe Bryant, and propelled by a speedy surgery to repair his Achilles, Tatum will join the Celtics in some capacity, even if it is to get his sea legs underneath him in anticipation of a more formal reintroduction to stardom in 2027.
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Goodwill: Are we sure Joel Embiid will play at all this season? Perhaps there’s been too much atrophy, too much attrition on those knees and back for us to have any expectations for him anymore. And this isn’t being fatalistic. A 7-footer with fluctuating weight and lower leg issues, there’s not a great precedent for that in league history, especially for someone who’s never been a regular-season warrior to begin with. He barely played enough games to qualify for his MVP season (66 in 2022-23), and he’s played just 58 since. Not a betting man, but smart money ain’t on this.
