NBA Atlantic Division Rotation and Roster Battles

Keith Smith
Keith Smith, Resident NBA ExpertOctober 18, 2024
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#nba #atlantic division #boston celtics #brooklyn nets #new york knicks #philadelphia 76ers #toronto raptors
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NBA teams are wrapping up the preseason, with the regular season just days away.

NBA preseason doesn’t come with the excitement of NFL camp or MLB preseason. Nor does it come with the competition for roster spots. Smaller rosters and more guaranteed money mean that NBA squads are generally set when camp opens.

However, all across the league battles for rotation spots are playing out. Incumbents are trying to hold off newcomers. Young players are trying to break through. Vets are trying to hang on for one more season. In some cases, there are roster spots up for grabs too.

We’re going team by team and looking some of the most interesting battles to monitor as we close in on the regular season. We previously covered the Southwest Division,  Northwest Division and Pacific Division out west. Then we headed east to cover the Southeast Division and Central Division. Now, we wrap up with a look at the Atlantic Division teams!

Boston Celtics

Big Rotation While Kristaps Porzingis Is Out

The Celtics are going to be without Kristaps Porzingis for the first couple of months of the season. Most expect Boston’s starting center to return sometime around Christmas or New Year’s Day. That means Joe Mazzulla has to figure out how to cover for Porzingis for the first 30 games or so.

Al Horford is back, and he’s the easy answer. Horford started 33 regular season games last season, then 15 of 19 playoff games when Porzingis was out. But it might not be that simple.

Boston knows how important Horford is to their team. They liked having him in a more limited role during last regular season. That kept him fresh and really productive throughout the team’s title run.

In the preseason, the Celtics started Luke Kornet alongside the other set starters. That may carry over to the regular season. That would keep Horford in a reserve role, where he’ll play around 25 minutes or so per game. Kornet has proven perfectly capable of being a productive player since joining the Celtics.

Horford also isn’t going to play back-to-back games this year. That means Boston will need more than Kornet. That’s where Xavier Tillman Sr. and Neemias Queta come in.

Tillman had a rough start to his Celtics tenure. He was injured when he arrived in Boston, then he sadly lost his father very unexpectedly. But the Celtics saw enough in Tillman to re-sign him this summer. He’ll be a part of things, especially if the corner three he’s been flashing proves to be a real thing.

Queta is a big bundle of energy whenever he hits the floor. He’s chaotic, but that’s valuable for a team where the other bigs play a more stable style. Queta is going to get into the mix simply because of his all-out hustle.

Mazzulla is going to have to piece it together until the playoffs. Even after Porzingis returns, the Celtics aren’t going to push him or Horford very hard. Boston’s goal is to be playing in June. That means getting a lot from Kornet, Tillman and Queta from mid-October through mid-April.

Brooklyn Nets

Forward Rotation

Brooklyn is leaning hard into rebuilding. They traded Mikal Bridges for a bundle of picks. They made an associated deal to reacquire their own 2025 first-round pick from the Houston Rockets. And Sean Marks isn’t done dealing either.

As it stands, the Nets backcourt looks fairly set…at least for now. Dennis Schroder and Cam Thomas look like the starters. Some mix of Ben Simmons (he’s healthy and looks good so far), Shake Milton and maybe Keon Johnson and Dariq Whitehead will handle the backup minutes.

Center is similarly settled, at least when everyone is healthy. Nic Claxton starts, Day’Ron Sharpe backs him up and Noah Clowney gets the remaining minutes at the five.

It’s the forward group that is a jumbled mess. Cameron Johnson has a long-term contract, and he’s a good shooter/scorer, so he’s going to be a starter. Dorian Finney-Smith is one of the team’s best defenders, and the Nets wants to keep his trade value high, so he’ll start too.

That leaves Bojan Bogdanovic (who Brooklyn wouldn’t mind boosting the trade value for), Trendon Watford (always productive when he gets minutes), Ziaire Williams (the kind of no-risk flyer that has paid off Marks in the past), Jalen Wilson (closed last season strong) and Simmons and Clowney for backup minutes.

That’s eight players who should see some minutes at the forward spots. Even if you take Simmons and Clowney out of the mix, that leaves six guys. Injuries will leave some guys unavailable at time, so it’ll probably sort itself out. But when everyone is available, new coach Jordi Fernandez has decisions to make.

It’s also worth noting that what will ultimately break up this logjam is Marks making a trade or two. It’s a decent bet that Finney-Smith and Bogdanovic won’t finish the season with the Nets. And it’s possible that Johnson – who other teams like quite a bit – could be on the move too.

New York Knicks

Bench Minutes

The Knicks had a big summer. The trades for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns were blockbuster deals that came from out of nowhere. While those were two terrific acquisitions, those trades did sap New York of a lot of their depth.

Bridges and Towns will join Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart in a very good starting lineup. Behind them, Miles McBride and Precious Achiuwa will have key rotation roles. Then…who knows?

Mitchell Robinson will play – and possibly start in a jumbo lineup that pushes Hart to the bench – when he’s healthy. But that won’t be until some point in January. Until then, Jericho Sims will likely see the backup center minutes behind Towns.

Landry Shamet (coming off an Exhibit 9 training camp deal) looked like he was going to earn minutes as a backup wing. That’s now in question due to a shoulder injury suffered late in the preseason. As of this writing, we don’t have any clarity on how much time Shamet might miss. That makes him even cracking the regular season roster a question mark.

In the course of adding Bridges and Towns, the Knicks find themselves hard-capped at the second tax apron. As of now, New York is about $3.6 million under that second apron with three open roster spots. That means they can only fill one with a veteran minimum deal. That was going to be Shamet, but if he’s out for a lengthy period, the Knicks can’t keep him. They simply don’t have the depth to ride out a long-term absence.

The bench is going to be a series of test-and-adjust trials for Tom Thibodeau. We can make all the jokes about how he’ll just play the starters 45 minutes per night, but Thibodeau needs to cobble together some form of bench. They’ll get there, but it might be a little bumpy until the Knicks figure it out.

Philadelphia 76ers

Wing/Forward Rotation

The Sixers are stacked at center with Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond. It’s hard to find many starter-backup combinations at the five that are better than that one.

Philadelphia also has a bunch of good ballhandling options. Tyrese Maxey is a star. Kyle Lowry is fading, but still getting it done. Eric Gordon remains an efficient scorer/shooter. Reggie Jackson has been a capable backup for years. Ricky Council IV and Jared McCain are good developmental players. And, of course, Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr. and even Caleb Martin will play as bigger guard options too.

That leaves Nick Nurse with figuring out his wings and forwards. George, Oubre and Martin are all probably going to start. That’s pretty good, even if one of them will have to masquerade a bit as a four. But George and Martin can both handle that, as they have in the past.

It’s behind them where things get a little complicated. Guerschon Yabusele is returning to the NBA to give the 76ers a true power forward. K.J. Martin is super athletic and motived to prove he’s more than just a tradable salary. But that’s about it for forward depth.

Philadelphia can afford to go a bit smaller at the four, because Embiid and Drummond will hold down the paint. Nurse has also been really good at making funky, non-traditional lineups work. There are only a couple of teams who might be able to hurt Philadelphia in their likely one-big, one-ballhandler, three-wing lineup construction. And the Sixers will be able to give it back just as good in those looks. That’s the bet Daryl Morey made when building this roster.

Toronto Raptors

Wing/Guard Rotation

Rebuilding is no longer a dirty word in Toronto. No better a source than Masai Ujiri said so. As such, the Raptors roster is a bit unbalanced right now.

Jakob Poeltl, Kelly Olynyk and Chris Boucher have the big spots handled. Scottie Barnes will start and play most of his minutes as a do-everything, playmaking power forward.

Barnes sliding up to the four full time might be natural progression, but it’s been hastened by the rest of the Raptors roster. This team has a lot of guards and wings.

RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley are both going to start alongside Barnes and Poeltl. Quickley will be the team’s point guard, while Barrett will fill one wing spot. That other perimeter spot is wide open.

Bruce Brown would have been in the mix, but he’s out to open the season after a knee cleanup surgery. Rookie guard Ja’Kobe Walter suffered a preseason shoulder injury and will also be out to open the year.

Even after taking Brown and Walter out of the mix, the Raptors still have Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, Davion Mitchell and 2024 second-rounders Jonathan Mogbo and Jamal Shead.

Dick looks like he’s in line to start. After a rocky start, Dick shot 39% from behind the arc over the season’s last four months. That’s the kind of shooting this team is begging for around Barnes, Barrett and Quickley as playmakers.

Agbaji is at a bit of a crossroads. He flashed at time with the Utah Jazz, but was a mess in Toronto. Agbaji is also 24 years old as a third-year prospect. That suggests he might be closer to a finished product than a still-developing player. Still, Agbaji is going to have a chance at a rotation role, but he needs to make shots to keep it.

Mogbo is the kind of guy who is unassuming at first, but always doing positive stuff when he plays. He’s probably best as a four right now, which means he may soak up whatever minutes are left behind Barnes. Eventually, as his game rounds out, Mogbo should be a nice combo forward off the Raptors bench.

Mitchell and Shead are both bulldogs on defense, which Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic will love. Shead is also a pretty solid playmaker. The big question, like with too many other Raptors, is if they’ll shoot well enough. One of the two will win the backup point guard spot behind Quickley. Bet on Mitchell early, but Shead is going to push him.

In a rebuilding year, none of this overlap in positions is a problem. It’s quite the opposite, as Rajakovic will have great competition for minutes. However, it does mean having some tough conversations with some guys who are used to playing a lot. And when Brown and Walter return, unless Ujiri has swung another trade or two, things will only get more crowded on the perimeter.

 


#nba #atlantic division #boston celtics #brooklyn nets #new york knicks #philadelphia 76ers #toronto raptors
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