The New York Knicks or the field?
That’s the biggest question in the Eastern Conference entering the 2026-27 season. New York’s dominant postseason — one of the most potent in NBA history — resulted in a league championship for the first time in 53 years.
But other teams are hungry for their own hardware, and offseason acquisitions by the Philadelphia 76ers (LeBron James, Jaylen Brown), Miami Heat (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Klay Thompson), Cleveland Cavaliers (Peyton Watson) and Boston Celtics (Paul George, Mitchell Robinson) have helped reshape the conference.
In an NBA awaiting its first repeat champion since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors, it will be interesting to see how competitive the East will be as the Jalen Brunson-led Knicks size up their opponents during their title defense. Can LeBron win in Philly and get title No. 5? Can Giannis bring a ring to Miami? Or can a conference dark horse continue the league-wide trend of a new champ?
To provide insight on what to expect from teams in the East, The Athletic’s David Aldridge, Hunter Patterson, Eric Nehm and Joel Lorenzi answer questions as the regular season nears.
This could be the best the East has been in … how many years?
David Aldridge: I’m going to be curmudgeonly at the outset and question the framing of this topic. Eastern Conference teams have won four of the last eight NBA Finals since 2019. (The Celtics were the better team in the 2022 finals, but the Golden State Warriors won the series.) The East has gone toe-to-toe with the West for a while now. I do think the conference will be deeper top to bottom than it’s been in a while.
Other than the Brooklyn Nets and the now-Giannis-less Milwaukee Bucks, no one remains in pure rebuild mode. The Charlotte Hornets made the Play-In; the Washington Wizards have AJ Dybantsa, the first pick in the 2026 draft, as a new cornerstone; and the Indiana Pacers will be back in the mix with Tyrese Haliburton returning.
Hunter Patterson: The Knicks, the 76ers and potentially the Heat could all win in the ballpark of 50 to 60 games. The last time the East had three teams winning 60 games was 1981 — Boston (62 wins), Philadelphia (62) and Milwaukee (60) — and it nearly happened in 2009 with Cleveland (66), Boston (62) and the Orlando Magic (59).
That’s a long way of saying this could be the most competitive we’ve seen the East in nearly two decades. The Cavaliers, Celtics and Detroit Pistons have each won at least 60 games in one of the last two seasons and can’t be overlooked, either. I definitely understand D.A.’s point, but I do think it’s fair to ask since it’s been so long since we’ve anticipated the conference being this tough to come out of.
Eric Nehm: I covered one of the NBA champions D.A. mentioned (the Bucks), so I’d like to echo his initial point pushing back on the perception of Western Conference dominance. But overall, this is the deepest I can remember the East looking at the start of the season in my nine years at The Athletic.
For most of the last decade, the top teams in the East could count on relatively easy matchups as the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, and most teams that thought they could contend to start the season didn’t have to worry about being anywhere near the Play-In Tournament. That might not be the case this season. For example, while the Heat may be grateful to have finally gotten a superstar in Antetokounmpo, five East teams — the Cavaliers, Celtics, Knicks, Pistons and 76ers — have a higher over/under win total than the Heat at 46.5, according to odds from BetMGM.
Joel Lorenzi: It feels like the best Eastern Conference in as long as I can remember. I get D.A.’s point, and I think the East has housed some heavyweights in the past decade. But the number of A-list East squads feels higher than in recent seasons. The second tier of playoff teams, which in my mind features the Kawhi Leonard-led Toronto Raptors and Indiana, is also legitimate. It feels as if more teams can do real playoff damage compared to the regular-season fronts some of these East squads have put on in recent memory. Even the teams with real question marks — Washington and Miami, for example — should be, if nothing else, entertaining. It feels like the first time in a while when the conference is good enough and balanced enough that the teams can beat up on each other and hold their weight during the postseason.
A healthy Jayson Tatum and the Celtics could challenge OG Anunoby and the Knicks. (Lucas Boland / Imagn Images)
Will the Knicks repeat?
Aldridge: I’m going to say no, mainly because it’s really hard to get on the kind of heater the Knicks had for a second straight postseason. Brunson played with a wrist injury throughout the playoffs, and it’s a testament to him that no one noticed. New York can’t expect that to happen again. Every button Mike Brown pushed in the postseason worked; the Knicks can’t expect that, either. Add to that the East is going to be a lot more competitive, and there won’t be many nights off for the Knicks during the regular season.
Patterson: They had an amazing run last season, but so much had to go right for them to come out on top. The Knicks didn’t lead at the end of any first quarters in the finals, miraculously overcame a 29-point deficit and needed an OG Anunoby Game 4 tip-in to walk away victorious.
That’s not to take anything away from New York, because it was impressive to watch as a basketball fan. But it’s been nearly a decade since we’ve seen back-to-back champions, and I don’t see the Knicks being able to run it back in a much more competitive East.
Why the road to this Knicks title was long and painful
Mike Vorkunov
Nehm: In any situation where I am asked to pick between Team X or the field, I am almost always going to select the field. The Knicks are a spectacular team, and they deserve credit for the unbelievable postseason run they put together, but repeating has always been difficult, and it feels nearly impossible in the parity era as the rules make keeping a team together even more complex.
In the end, I think the loss of Robinson and the improvements made by the rest of the East will keep the Knicks from repeating as champions.
Lorenzi: I think two things are true. The Knicks bottled up something this past postseason that they hadn’t previously resembled: a perfect storm of chemistry and continuity and experience fueled by a momentum that feels difficult to recapture given another chance. But they’re also deserving of being considered an A-list contender moving forward. Besides the loss of Robinson (a significant one), they’ve retained their core, including an alpha widely considered a top-10 player in Brunson. That’s much of the equation.
They have the makings to run it back. They just face more (and better) foes this time around for me to bet against the field. The San Antonio Spurs will be back and presumably better as a group. The Oklahoma City Thunder, if healthy, probably should go the distance. Philadelphia is impossible to ignore. I believe Boston, if Jayson Tatum returns to form, still deserves a seat at the table in the East.
How seriously should the 76ers be taken, and what could be their Achilles’ heel?
Aldridge: Significantly. I think Brown impacts winning in a big way, and he doesn’t have to score 30 a night to do so. Add to that the two decades of James not being fazed in the least by a rough patch during the regular season, and understanding the habits that championship teams have to build, and I think Philly will be much tougher mentally in the postseason than it’s been in recent years.
I don’t see the Sixers collapsing if New York or Boston or someone else comes into Xfinity Mobile Arena and takes a game. (I also can’t see the stands full of Knicks fans again if the two teams meet for a third straight postseason.)
Patterson: Underestimate them at your own risk. I think everyone on this team understands this is the best shot they’ve got to win a championship in quite some time — excluding Brown. Joel Embiid is 32 and has been injury-riddled since 2023, James could retire at the end of his contract and Brown should have something to prove after being traded. Not to mention, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe both seem eager to excel in the postseason.
Their Achilles’ heel, without a doubt, will be health — with Embiid being the biggest wild card. James has played in at least 55 games for the last five regular seasons, and Brown has never played fewer than 57 games a season for his career. A healthy Embiid could result in Philly really doing some damage with this lineup.
Nehm: I thought the addition of Brown made the 76ers a far more serious contender in the East, and then they added LeBron on top of it. I think they should be taken very seriously.
There will always be concerns about what Philadelphia is going to get out of Embiid because of his significant injury history, but from my perspective, he just feels like a bonus for the team. And as he showed last postseason in the 76ers’ first-round upset over the Celtics, that bonus is significant enough to swing a playoff series. The quartet of Brown, Edgecombe, James and Maxey should be good enough to do much of the heavy lifting during the regular season, which should allow Philadelphia to focus as much time and energy as needed to give Embiid a chance to be healthy when it matters most.
Lorenzi: I don’t think there’s a team with this much on-ball creation in NBA, particularly across multiple positions. The offense, once the new cogs get up to speed, should rarely die.
No hot take here, but Embiid’s durability is the possible Achilles’ heel to me. Sixers fans have gotten used to not hinging their hopes on his health, which is why I can understand them shrugging their shoulders at him as the leading factor to their ceiling. But he’s still the clear difference between being an omega-level threat and pulling off a deep East run. Not only because of his availability or the ambiguity of the version you’re getting, but because there’s a sizable drop-off at his position that other contenders can’t speak to. Their center depth is questionable at best. While New York should sweat a little more than a year ago after losing Robinson, neither Oklahoma City nor San Antonio has that issue.
Dependable fives matter for lineup versatility, even if James helps you get more creative. This is nitpicking an obvious contender, though.
Which offseason move will have the biggest impact in the East race?
Aldridge: Having noted how James and Brown will make the 76ers better and tougher, I’ll look elsewhere for this exercise and say … Kawhi? A healthy and engaged Leonard definitely raised the Raptors’ floor and could give them a puncher’s chance with the top teams in the East in a potential postseason series.
Patterson: We’ve already given the Sixers their flowers, so I’ll say Antetokounmpo being shipped to the Heat. Miami has added Tim Hardaway Jr. and Klay Thompson in an attempt to space the floor around him, so we could see Antetokounmpo look to push the Heat to the top of the East by the time the postseason rolls around.
Factor in Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins, the latter of whom averaged 15.4 points per game last season on 41.4 percent from 3-point range, and the Antetokounmpo move could look colossal. This also could be the longest partnership of any of the new offseason moves, which is something I considered with this choice, as well.
Can Tyrese Haliburton return to form after in his comeback from a torn right Achilles tendon? (Kyle Terada / Imagn Images)
Nehm: I feel like the accounting behind saying trading for Brown led to the 76ers getting James is a little too convoluted and defeats the purpose of this exercise, so I will instead go with Haliburton’s return.
The last time we saw Haliburton on an NBA floor, he had nine points in the first five minutes of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, and the Pacers were one win away from their first-ever NBA championship. Then, he tore his right Achilles tendon and missed the entirety of the 2025-26 season. It is impossible to say that he will be the same player he was before the injury, but his playmaking turned the Pacers into one of the most difficult teams to beat in the East.
Last season, the Pacers won 19 games. If Haliburton comes back and turns them back into the machine that made back-to-back East finals, I’m not sure any one move could be viewed as more impactful.
Lorenzi: My non-Sixers selection is New York losing Robinson. As much as the Knicks are still worthy threats, Robinson’s presence felt like one of the unique components of any contender. He allowed the Knicks to change the way they spaced the floor, be aggressors on the glass and get 48 minutes of competent play at center between him and Karl-Anthony Towns. It directly impacts the number of avenues the Knicks have to win.
Oh, and he now plays for their rival.
Which East team could surprise?
Aldridge: Don’t know if this qualifies as a surprise, but I think a lot of people are writing off Boston way too prematurely. They are getting Tatum back for a full, presumably healthy season. They took Robinson from the Knicks in free agency, not only hurting a division opponent but also shoring themselves up greatly with Robinson and Neemias Queta providing a strong one-two center punch. I’m not sold on 36-year-old Paul George packing the wallop he did earlier in his 20s, but he doesn’t have to for the Celtics. He just has to guard his yard defensively and do the things on offense he’s done well throughout his career.
Let’s assume (a fairly easy assumption, I’d say) a return to form from Derrick White this season, along with the usual solid contributions from Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and company. Boston has a trough of institutional memory of excelling in the playoffs, playing great defense and finding new people who become stars in their roles. You ignore the Cs at your peril.
Patterson: It wouldn’t shock me to see the Pacers claw their way to a top-four seed. They have the nucleus that took the Thunder to seven games a couple seasons ago with Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith.
The addition of Ivica Zubac (although that deal cost them a lottery pick) could really make them an intriguing team. As Haliburton progresses from his torn Achilles and starts to get back to the caliber of player he was when we last saw him, I could see the Pacers being a sneaky threat in the East.
Nehm: We often view surprises positively, so most of these answers will likely be about teams that might be better than projected. I’m a bit of a pessimist, so I’m going to go in the opposite direction.
The Pistons won 60 games. J.B. Bickerstaff finished second in Coach of the Year voting. Cade Cunningham, at 24, put together the first top-five MVP finish of his young career. And yet, the vibes coming out of Detroit are not just sunshine and rainbows heading into this season.
The contract stalemate between the team and Jalen Duren seems destined to extend all the way to the start of training camp. Tobias Harris, one of the team’s veteran leaders and the team’s second-highest per-game scorer (18.1 points) in the playoffs, now plays for the Spurs.
Detroit was likely not going to win 60 games again this season, but just how far could the top seed in the East fall? Could they end up being on the road to start a first-round playoff series? I’m not sure, but I have not liked this offseason in Detroit and find myself worried about them heading into training camp.
Lorenzi: I don’t have a ton of conviction in this take, but the Atlanta Hawks might win a surprising amount of games. Their ceiling is dependent on a Jalen Johnson leap, but they’re built like a sufficient regular-season team. They’ve got solid guard play, several solid defenders and a bench that got notably deeper.