Eastern Conference Power Rankings after the NBA Trade Deadline
East Power Rankings: No. 11-8
All of these teams entered the season expecting to make the playoffs, but one of the three will miss out on the Play-In Tournament entirely. Despite that fact, they all refused to sell at the deadline, instead holding onto their players in hopes of making a late-season run. Someone likely will, but will that be worth holding onto their cores?
The Washington Wizards traded Rui Hachimura before deadline week, freeing up some salary space to re-sign Kyle Kuzma to a big deal this summer. Kristaps Porzingis has been their best player this season and will also be a free agent this summer; their reported interest in Jakob Poeltl suggests they are less confident in keeping him around. They are currently in 10th in the East, tied with Toronto and a half-game up on Chicago.
The Atlanta Hawks should be better than this, but the solution to the problems Trae Young presents is not another on-ball guard. Add in injuries in the forward ranks and you have a team that hasn’t been able to gain momentum this season. They did spend a host of seconds at the deadline to upgrade the roster, and Saddiq Bey and Garrison Mathews are good additions who should help with wing depth and shooting.
The Chicago Bulls have a break-even point differential, same as the Atlanta Hawks, which suggests they should have a .500 record. After outperforming their point differential last year they are under this year, but the true team quality is still nothing impressive. The Bulls were one of two teams not to make a move at the deadline, a fairly shocking development for a team that desperately needs a shakeup. DeMar DeRozan is a player no one wants to see in the Play-In Tournament, but this team will be cannon fodder if they reach the full playoff bracket.
Are the Toronto Raptors any good? They have a decent point differential, 13th in the NBA and seventh in the East. They are also four games under .500 (or two, depending on how you want to look at it) at 27-31, with major pieces of their core hitting free agency this summer. They clearly wanted to get one last look at this group, adding former center Jakob Poeltl instead of selling players at the deadline. Is it enough to push into the Top-6? Probably not given the ground they have to cover (five games back of 6th-place Miami, seven from Brooklyn in 5th) but they can try to make a run from the Play-In.