Eastern Conference Power Rankings: Cavs leap after Mitchell trade

4 of 6

Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks and Fred VanVleet, Toronto Raptors. Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images /

Eastern Conference Power Rankings: Play-in Favorites

7. Toronto Raptors

The Toronto Raptors are going to be good this season, as they have a deep and versatile group of players who will almost certainly be healthier this time around. They also didn’t improve much this offseason, adding the injury-prone Otto Porter Jr. and a rookie project center. The internal growth of Scottie Barnes may be enough to propel them up this list, but all of the rumored “big splashes” this team looked into fell short.

8. Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks and their fans have to be disappointed with this placement, but looking around the Eastern Conference this is realistically as high as they can go. They traded for an All-Star in Dejounte Murray, just as the Cavs did, but Murray is not considered a top-24 player in the league and his fit with Trae Young is questionable. If Young buys into off-ball movement and De’Andre Hunter takes a leap this team suddenly gets interesting, but we’ll need to see it to believe it.