What the hell happened in the Atlantic Division?

Boston Celtics

IN: Kyrie Irving, Aron Baynes, Marcus Morris, Gordon Hayward, Shane Larkin, Jayson Tatum, Jabari Bird, Kadeem Allen, Daniel Theis

OUT: Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Gerald Green, Demetrius Jackson, Jonas Jerebko, Amir Johnson, Jordan Mickey, Kelly Olynyk, Isaiah Thomas, James Young, Tyler Zeller

Color me intrigued. The Celtics return four players (Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier) from their Eastern Conference Finals roster and are banking on soothing chemistry issues over 82 regular season games in time for mid-April’s playoff push. Anything less than a return trip to ECF should be considered a failure.

In shipping Isaiah Thomas to Cleveland, Boston removed itself from the inevitable awkward free agency talk for the five-foot-nine point guard with hip problems. Probably the smart move.

The loss of wings Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder will hurt defensively but could be outweighed by the offensive prowess of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. Count me as believer in Kyrie. One of the aesthetically pleasing players joins forces with one of the most respected Xs and Os coach in Brad Stevens, should be fun.

Friends of the Program Marcus Morris and Aron Baynes found a good home as dependable rotation pieces and will look to fill the void left by Kelly Olynyk, Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko who all seemingly contributed at the most opportunistic times.

Toronto Raptors

IN: OG Anunoby, Lorenzo Brown, K.J. McDaniels, Alfonzo McKinnie, C.J. Miles, Malcolm Miller

OUT: DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, Patrick Patterson, PJ Tucker

More or less, the Raptors are running it back with the same core which means they’re deadly serious about making it the EC semi-finals. Jokes aside, there is nothing wrong with throwing out Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas for 82 games and hoping for some luck.

C.J Miles is a valuable pickup who shot north of 43 percent beyond the arc last year.

Smart to sign Norman Powell to an extension. The agreement is low enough that even if Powell doesn’t meet expectations, it’s not a cap killer.

OG Anunoby was a reasonable choice with the 23rd pick in the draft in last year’s draft. If the 6’8 forward makes an impact this year it will probably come on the defensive end.

Lorenzo Brown—from Pistons’ Summer league fame—is on a two-way contract with the Raptors and I, for one, will be rooting for him.

Philadelphia 76ers

IN: Markelle Fultz, Kris Humphries, Amir Johnson, James McAdoo, Emeka Okafor, J.J. Redick

OUT: Gerald Henderson, Shawn Long, Alex Poythress, Sergio Rodriguez, Tiago Splitter

Philadelphia couldn’t ask for a better realistic free agency signing than my good buddy (eventually he will be; we have so much in common) J.J. Redick. The former Magic-Bucks-Clippers marksmen will offer spacing on offense and effort on defense and for the low price of $23 million dollars, it’s practically a steal.

Amir Johnson was beloved in Boston and will continue to do important non-box score things nightly with the occasional important box score thing in Philly.

Good for him. ^^

With the signing of Emeka Okafor, clearly the 76ers were thinking....well, I don’t know what they were thinking.

New York Knicks

IN: Michael Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jarrett Jack, Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, Frank Ntilikina, Ramon Sessions

OUT: Carmelo Anthony, Justin Holiday, Marshall Plumlee, Derrick Rose, Sasha Vujacic

Carmelo Anthony finally found a new address and while on the court it’ll take some time to adjust to the Thunder, off the court in Oklahoma City is just like off the court in The Big Apple which should be comforting.

With Melo gone, it’s officially Kristaps Porzingis’ Michael Beasley’s team. Is there anyone whose shtick has become more lovable? I know of at least one not-so-secret admirer:

Didn’t realize Tim Hardaway Jr. made 149 three-pointers last year until about five minutes ago. He’s a wing in a league that values wings but is really worth $70 million over four years? At the very least, he should spend some of his new earnings on suits for his Dad that actually fit.

I couldn’t pick Frank Ntilikina out of a one person lineup and neither could you. New Yorkers are patient by nature so he’s got time to come into his own without the hassle of an entire city on his back.

Brooklyn Nets

IN: DeMarre Carroll, Allen Crabbe, Timofey Mozgov, D’Angelo Russell, Tyler Zeller

OUT: Brook Lopez, Randy Foye, Archie Goodwin, Justin Hamilton, K.J. McDaniels, Andrew Nicholson

For a hot minute there, I was super excited about a certain trade rumor this past summer:

I’m all in on D’Angelo Russell as a reclamation project. I mean, “reclamation project” might be too harsh of a phrase as DLo hasn’t been horrible but hasn’t been great either. On occasion, I’d like to see what he can do playing off-ball and now paired with Jeremy Lin (another one of my favs), he should get that opportunity from time to time.

Sometimes the best dreams are the ones that don’t come true. The above paragraph aside, DeMarre Carroll was on the Pistons’ radar in the summer of 2015 before agreeing to terms with Toronto. Lets just say we dodged a bullet with that one as Carroll seemingly aged overnight.

Andre Drummond can rest a little easier now knowing that—at max—he’ll now face Brook Lopez only twice a year, barring any Finals matchups.