Kawhi Leonard might not have made a decision yet, but free agency is well underway. How do the moves at the top of the Eastern Conference impact the Toronto Raptors?
Free Agency has officially started, although you wouldn’t be able to tell by watching the Toronto Raptors. For now, the team is completely beholden to Kawhi Leonard and his decision of where he will be playing next summer. The Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Clippers, and Los Angeles Lakers all are frozen, waiting for the Klaw to make his decision.
But while he’s been mulling his options, there have been fireworks throughout the league. Adrian Wojnarowski has dropped bomb after bomb, crushing the NBA like a German blitzkrieg. Half of the NBA seems to be on a different team, and we’re not finished yet.
The amount of movement is one thing, but where the movement is at is just as important. Every team in the Eastern Conference –except for the Raptors for the moment — saw at least one of their top three players leave. Most of them were replaced by another player of similar caliber. Rarely do teams at the top of the league make wholesale changes. This Summer didn’t follow normal rules.
The Milwaukee Bucks cheaped out, the Indiana Pacers swapped out more than half of their rotation, the Boston Celtics avoided disaster, the Brooklyn Nets added two huge superstars, and the Philadelphia 76ers did something crazy.
The NBA looks completely different from just one day ago. The entire league seems to be making moves, as the Toronto Raptors sit and wait (by necessity).
So how does the East shape up now? We went through every team’s offseason moves so far and how it will impact their ability to contend next season (and beyond).