The NBA regular season is finally here, and Sixers fans have not been able to contain their excitement for months. The offseason seemed to fly by, yet the wait to see LeBron James and Jaylen Brown team up with the homegrown talent felt endless. It all starts tonight against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, where they will be raising their long-awaited championship banner, one the Sixers can only hope will be theirs at this time next year.
This year's Eastern Conference is incredibly deep. There are no teams that stand clearly above the pack like Oklahoma City and San Antonio in the West, but there are going to be at least 10 teams fighting for the six spots above the play-in line. Every game is important, and wins are not going to come easily. It should be an incredibly fun season ahead.
Here are the Eastern Conference power rankings as the season gets underway:
For the first time in 13 years, the Bucks do not have Giannis Antetokounmpo, or any of his family members, on their roster. They have a very strange collection of talent, headlined by Tyler Herro, who came over from Miami in the trade for Giannis this past offseason. The Bucks did have two of the top 13 picks in this year's draft lottery, and they need to figure out if Brayden Burries and Nate Ament can lead the franchise into the future.
The Nets are just a mess. They have an incredibly bleak outlook for the present and future. Nobody knows what they are trying to accomplish, and honestly, the people within the organization probably don't either.
Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr. are proven players in this league, but will they both be on the team for the whole season? Draft lottery reform may affect the Nets the most this season, as being awful will not necessarily yield the best odds of winning the top pick in next year's draft.
For the first time in a long time, the Bulls have a fun roster that should at least be enjoyable to watch through all the losing they are about to suffer. Five years ago, this exact team could have been contending for a top-four spot in the conference, but with the way this year's East is shaping up, they have no chance. All eyes will be on tantalizing rookie Caleb Wilson and what he could become for a city that deserves a superstar.
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The Wizards have a chance to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference if all goes right for them. No. 1 overall pick AJ Dybantsa could hit the ground running and make an immediate impact in the NBA. If Trae Young and Anthony Davis stay healthy and are not used as eventual trade chips, there is a path for the Wizards to be much better than expected.
The Hornets are looking to build off the success they found down the stretch last year, when they were one of the winningest teams in the league over the final third of the season. This season, though, they will have to do so without LaMelo Ball, their best player from last year, who is now a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
They just signed Brandon Miller to a rookie-scale extension, Kon Knueppel is looking to build off a great rookie year, and they have an ascending head coach in Charles Lee. But they probably don't have enough to navigate a very deep and crowded East.
The Magic feel stale after years of trying but never quite making the leap into the upper echelon of the East. One reason for hope is new head coach Sean Sweeney, who has been around the block and helped construct NBA Finals-caliber defenses, most recently with the Spurs last year. If Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner can ever stay on the floor together for an extended stretch and develop more chemistry, maybe the Magic can figure it out. But until that happens, it is hard to see their offense being able to keep up.
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The Heat are in a precarious position entering this season. They put all their eggs into the Giannis Antetokounmpo basket, pairing him with Bam Adebayo to form what should be one of the league's strongest interior defenses. Giannis is still capable of carrying the scoring load, and he is going to see a lot of time at point guard this season for head coach Erik Spoelstra.
But where is the shooting and spacing coming from? Klay Thompson is not what he once was, and Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell do not instill fear in defenders. A lot of their points are going to have to come from the interior with Giannis and Bam. But if Bam proves this year that he can be a respectable three-point shooter, it will open things up completely for them.
Seven years later, the Raptors traded for the same guy, hoping he was the missing piece to make a good team great. With Kawhi Leonard now back in Toronto, the Raptors' already strong foundational defense gets stronger, and they get the high-volume, efficient scoring they desperately needed if they were going to take the next step.
Scottie Barnes is one of the best two-way players in the game and is only getting better. Collin Murray-Boyles will keep ascending as well heading into his sophomore season. The big question with any Kawhi Leonard team will be whether he can stay healthy, but the last time he was healthy for an entire playoff run, he lifted a trophy for the Raptors.
The Pistons could be a regular-season dynamo again this year and prove this ranking meaningless, but it feels like they missed their best chance last year. Even without a secondary offensive creator next to Cade Cunningham, they had everything lined up for them heading into the postseason as the East's top seed. Cunningham showed up, but his running mate, Jalen Duren, was unrecognizable from the All-NBA Third Team selection he received for his play in the regular season, and the Pistons got sent home in the conference semifinals.
Not much has changed this year. They did add some shooting and a former champion in Isaiah Joe, as well as John Collins, who could be a nice lob threat for Cunningham. But they did not add anybody who can realistically take any of the offensive pressure off Cunningham, and that will ultimately hold them back again in a stronger conference.
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The Hawks have the best chance of being the pleasant surprise team in the East, but that speaks more to this year's East than the current state of the Hawks. Jalen Johnson keeps growing as a basketball player, and this could be the year he takes the superstar leap. Re-signing CJ McCollum was crucial for their offense, Nickeil Alexander-Walker was the Most Improved Player last year, and they traded for two former champions from the Thunder, Lu Dort and Aaron Wiggins, who should both slot into the rotation nicely.
The Hawks were the only team in last year's playoffs to win multiple games in a series against the eventual champion Knicks. They held a 2-1 series lead after Game 3 of the first round before the Knicks unlocked the formula that would carry them the rest of the way, losing only once more en route to the title. They are going to be a better team than they were last year in a tougher conference, but that does not always show up in the standings.
The Pacers were on the doorstep of winning the championship in 2025 when Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles in Game 7. Not only did the Pacers lose that game and the Finals, but it began the long road through a completely lost 2025-26 season in Indiana. They did not even get the full benefit of how bad they were last year because they had to give their No. 5 overall pick to the Los Angeles Clippers in some draft lottery misfortune.
The trade that sent their pick to the Clippers did yield Ivica Zubac, though, and now the returning Haliburton has the best pick-and-roll partner he has ever played with. The bones of the team remain largely the same. Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith are tenacious on the court and are playoff risers. Pascal Siakam is one of the best all-around players in the league and is a perfect change-of-pace co-star next to Haliburton. They also still have one claim in the East: The Knicks may have the trophy, but they have never beaten these Pacers in the playoffs.
The Celtics have as good a chance as any team to be the top seed in the East. Head coach Joe Mazzulla has a proven system that produces regular-season wins. Not even Jayson Tatum missing the majority of last season could slow the Celtics down. Now Tatum is back and is going to have as much freedom as he wants.
With Jaylen Brown gone, this is now officially Tatum's team. Getting Paul George back in that trade is a seamless scheme fit for Mazzulla's catch-and-shoot, three-point-heavy emphasis. If Tatum returns fully healthy and looks like his pre-injury self, the Celtics are going to win a lot of games.
The Cavs are coming off their first Eastern Conference Finals run since LeBron James was on the team and are perfectly constructed to navigate the long regular season. James Harden is still a very valuable regular-season player, and his arrival took a lot of the offensive responsibility off Donovan Mitchell's shoulders. They were a better basketball team for it. They still have their twin towers in the paint in Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen to anchor their defense.
The trade they made with the Denver Nuggets to acquire Peyton Watson raises their ceiling. Watson will slot perfectly into their starting lineup and provide great perimeter defense, elite athleticism and a blossoming offensive skill set. What he brings to this team, coupled with Evan Mobley taking his game to the next level, could be what catapults the Cavaliers into the Finals.
The Sixers ended last season on a relatively high note, even after getting swept by the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals. They had finally overcome the Celtics in the first round; they had their established backcourt of the future after a successful rookie campaign for VJ Edgecombe, and Joel Embiid still showed flashes of his dominance. Fast-forward just a few months, and they are now gearing up for a season filled with expectations that nobody could have predicted in June.
The Sixers traded Paul George for Jaylen Brown, which was enough to reenergize the fan base. Then LeBron James signed on board, and the focus shifted to winning a championship. If Embiid can stay healthy with a decreased workload, and Maxey and Edgecombe continue improving, the Sixers have an argument for the best starting five in the East and have a great shot at overcoming their conference finals and Finals droughts.
The Knicks ended their 53-year championship drought by going on a torrid run through last year's playoffs, amassing a total record of 16-3 en route to hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy. They return the same starting lineup this year, and the only real key departure they suffered was Mitchell Robinson, who went to Boston. This team has years of built-up chemistry and battle scars, and it has turned into championship DNA.
Jalen Brunson has an argument now for best point guard in the league not named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and is the best crunch-time player in the league. Mikal Bridges is an ideal 3-and-D wing. Josh Hart and OG Anunoby are two of the best dirty-work players in the league, and Anunoby in particular is a superstar in his role. Putting the ball in Karl-Anthony Towns' hands more was the key to their championship run, and now they have a full year to perfect that version of their offense that already bore the greatest fruit.
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