NEW YORK (AP) — In the Atlantic Division home of the NBA champions, two longtime rivals made big moves in hopes that they can have their time at the top.
New York and Philadelphia are conceding nothing to the Boston Celtics. They are loading up for a run at them.
Both teams added top wing defenders to match up with the Celtics' tandem of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, with the Knicks acquiring Mikal Bridges from Brooklyn and the 76ers signing perennial All-Star Paul George.
The Knicks then addressed a hole in the middle by landing All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns from Minnesota in a blockbuster move as training camps were opening.
“Obviously Knicks are on the rise as well as ourselves and a couple other teams out East,” George said, “so they definitely made a splash with that pickup.”
The offseason moves could put the top three teams in the Eastern Conference in the Atlantic, with the Toronto Raptors and Nets further down in various stages of rebuilding.
Aggressive plays were needed to close the gap with the Celtics, who rolled to an NBA-best 64-18 record last season before a dominant 16-3 run through the postseason en route to their league-record 18th championship.
With Tatum and Brown taking turns carrying the scoring load, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White combining to make one of the toughest defensive backcourts in the league, and Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford manning the middle, the Celtics seem to have everything they need to repeat after winning their first championship since 2008.
The droughts are much longer in New York and Philadelphia — and the teams have rarely gotten close to ending them.
The Knicks haven't made the conference finals since 2000. They felt they could get there last season after winning 50 games and earning the No. 2 seed in the East, then knocking off the 76ers in the first round. But injuries caught up to them and they were beaten by Indiana in Game 7 of the East semifinals, one game before they would have matched up with the Celtics.
The 76ers haven't gone beyond the second round since reaching the 2001 NBA Finals. But with former NBA MVP Joel Embiid in the middle now flanked by George on the outside, there's the same belief in Philadelphia going into the season that there is in New York. George left Monday’s preseason game against Atlanta with a hyperextended left knee. There was no immediate update how much time George might miss following his injury.
“I know Philly’s passion. I know New York’s passion, so I know both sides demand greatness and they want to win,” said Bridges, who played in college at Villanova. “So I mean, we both got better but we’re in preseason right now. Just trying to take it one game at a time, one practice at a time and just try to be the best team we can be when it’s all said and done.”
A look at each team in the Atlantic Division, in predicted order of finish:
Boston Celtics
The health of the oft-injured Porzingis is probably the only major concern for the champions.
The Celtics certainly didn't feel any urgency to change things up, bringing back their top 11 scorers from a team that topped the NBA with 1,351 3-pointers in 2023-24. With Brown, the NBA Finals MVP, seemingly getting better every year and Tatum with some added motivation after a couple games benched during the Olympics, it's hard to see much if any drop-off in Boston.
New York Knicks
The Knicks gave up a lot in their big trades, sending three-time All-Star Julius Randle to Minnesota along with Donte DiVincenzo, who set their franchise record for 3-pointers in his lone season in New York. They traded four first-round picks to Brooklyn in the deal for Bridges after carefully stockpiling for years.
Those kinds of moves are only made if a team really thinks it can win now and the Knicks have developed that belief after reaching the East semifinals in both seasons since the arrival of Jalen Brunson, who finished fifth in the league in MVP voting last season after averaging 28.7 points in his first All-Star season.
Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers constantly walk the fine line of having Embiid on the floor enough to get a good playoff seeding, but not wear him down before the postseason. Philadelphia tumbled all the way to the play-in tournament after he missed two months last season.
The 76ers should be better equipped to handle the times they have to play without the two-time scoring champion thanks to the addition of George and the development of Tyrese Maxey, last season's Most Improved Player after scoring 25.9 points per game.
Toronto Raptors
The Raptors have a star on the rise in 2022 Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes, who followed his first All-Star season by signing a contract extension over the summer. But there's not enough around him to contend in an East that appears much stronger than when the Raptors won the NBA championship in 2019. They might be good enough to improve on last season's 25-57 finish, though.
Brooklyn Nets
By trading Bridges in the first deal between the Knicks and Nets since 1983, Brooklyn signaled the beginning of a rebuilding era. General manager Sean Marks said it doesn't need to be a long one, but at least for now the Nets are expected to be one of the worst teams in the league. The only thing that could prevent that, perhaps, would be a return to form for three-time All-Star Ben Simmons, who has been largely inactive and unproductive since the Nets acquired him from Philadelphia in 2022 and is entering the last season of his contract.
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Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press
