8. Atlanta Hawks

Record: 46-36

Power Rating:6 

While Trae has displayed a continued improvement in his three point shooting throughout his career and reportedly transitions to a more off-the-ball role which maximizes his shooting talents, he’ll have to improve his shooting from deep if the Hawks can scrape through the play-in and into the playoffs as he shot a staggering 18.4 from deep last post-season. 

This is where I started to have a harder time placing teams as this is where I think things are going to get more competitive in the East. However, the same main reason the Hawks were able to make the play-in last year is the same reason I think they won’t break out of competing for a postseason spot this year: Trae Young. Of course Dejounte Murray is a very good guard on both ends who has the potential to compliment Young perfectly, but that’s assuming that Tre is going to be able to smoothly transition to a more off-the-ball roll and I’m not sure that’s going to happen overnight as old habits die hard. In fact, Tre had the fourth highest usage rate last season only behind Luka, Giannis, and Embiid which is absurd because Trae is the only non-top-5 player in that group and is over a half-a-foot shorter than Doncic, let alone the two big men. On the positive, Young shot at a higher percentage from three than those players and only Doncic was tied for him in 3PA per game, highlighting the 24-year-old point guard’s ability to shoot efficiently from deep which is a major reason why the Hawks seem to believe the next step in his evolution as a star is to additionally become a consistent off-the-ball shooting threat.

Beyond just his own career trajectory, Young’s hopeful transition to a lower usage rate is likely also due to how it impacts the other talented players still on the Hawks around him such as Jon Collins who’s already been in just about every Hawks trade rumor ever and has even made it clear in the past he wants a role in which he’s able to have more opportunities with the ball. Bottomline, if Trey wants to really win in the playoffs and eventually a championship, he’s going to need to play in a way which causes the team around him to want to have his back on defense and a good first step is sharing the ball more (I’m not talking about assist stats- I’m talking about letting other guys handle the ball and be driving forces on offense). Despite what seems like an anti-Tre Young rant, he’s obviously very talented and I actually do think him and Murray will be able to figure it out – just not in time to beat the seven teams I have ahead of them in Eastern Conference standings.

7. Brooklyn Nets

Record: 47-35

Power Rating:7

While everyone knows Simmons did not play at all last season, it’s important to remember Kyrie and KD played just 17 games together last year and 44 games together during their time on the nets. Even with the vaccine situation, this has to be an area of concern for the Nets. 

So while the 8 spot is where placing these teams started to get difficult, this is where it got incredibly difficult and I’m sure many may consider this to be a poor prediction. However, my reasoning here after much consideration is simple: The six teams ahead are tentatively all going to have all of their players on board to play together cohesively throughout the regular season and after everything with KD, Kyrie, and Simmons over the past year specifically, that just can’t be said about the nets. At one point I had them ranked third and they could place as high as that if everyone can play close to a full season without any mental collapses, but it’s really impossible to say if that can actually happen.

It’s also important to note here that this team has a power rating as high as the next couple of teams placed ahead of them because of the talent level and it’s important to note that these three also have incredible deep range shooting around them from the likes of Joe Harris and Seth Curry as well as solid role players like Royce O’Neal and Nic Claxton. Even with the shooting talent around it though, the Simmons and Claxton front-court is clunky and extremely exposable offensively and I do think the other kinks in the team chemistry department are going to make it very difficult for this team to figure it all out and play cohesively throughout the regular season. I could go on about the team dynamics here such as Ben Simmons previous mental health concerns  as well as the KD & Kyrie games played together stats, but I for one am sick of hearing about the Nets until we can actually see what they look like this year in the flesh, so I’m taking what I believe to be the safest bet and placing them as the king of the play-in teams in the Eastern Conference for the regular season.