Our offseason grades for every team in the NBA’s Western Conference turned out so perfectly — without a single complaint — that we decided to be nice and give you an inarguable list of grades in the East, too.
The conference took a pair of haymakers to its face in the playoffs, as the 2024 and 2025 East champion Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers, respectively, lost Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton to torn Achilles tendons. It was already a watered-down conference that sent its sixth seed to lose to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.
It stood to get worse if Giannis Antetokounmpo had requested a trade, which he did not, if only because his Milwaukee Bucks made one last (wild) attempt to satiate his championship desires. Presumably, we can expect Joel Embiid to rejoin the Philadelphia 76ers, though his health perennially remains a concern.
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