Southeast things we knew, didn't

This is Double-A ball.

Who is the best player in this Division? Miami's center? Atlanta's point guard? Charlotte's lead guard, who led All-Star votes at the position despite eventually working 231 games through his first five NBA seasons? Miami's shooting guard? For whom Portland's general manager just got a contract extension for not trading for?

The Southeast Division is the abandoned roadside bar, long ago felled by suspicious fire, that lot the city can't annex, can't keep it from being the first thing travelers see when they get off the interstate.

(At least the mayor succeeded in encouraging the owners to tear down that sign. Some of the high school kids we creatively rearranging the letters and frankly it was impressive how many libidinous actions they described with only the letters that go into 'PENNY'S COCKTAILS BAR & FOOD'.)

Every night the League Pass dutiful dials in for NBA basketball, Washington and Miami and Orlando and Charlotte and Atlanta all tipping first. And every night the dutiful has to wait a little bit. Depends on who Orlando suits, who wants to play for the Heat at the time, whether or not the Hawks get any calls in the first quarter. Sometimes the dutiful have to wait until the TNT game, or try to remember if the Pacers are in the Eastern or Central time zone.

These were supposed to be the paragraphs constructed to excite the reader for the entertainment to come, the sports column in hand. Instead, this will be a column for the fans of these five teams. This is the Peter Criss LP, mostly purchased by family members of the studio musicians paid to play on it. This is the Odie doll that your Doll Uncle bought to complete his set.

What, nobody else had a Doll Uncle?

These paragraphs were supposed to make me relatable. How can I be? I watched repeated hours and hours and hours of Southeast Division basketball in 2024-25.

MIAMI

What we knew: Jimmy Butler is resoundingly important.

Butler is, and I don't write this to provoke, a bit like Michael Jordan in his late 30s if MJ's knees hadn't stiffened, if Jordan's wrists and fingers hadn't calcified into that woebegone Wizards state. That's Jimmy on the Warriors.

Jimmy on the Heat spent his time avoiding ankle injuries and the sort of thumb separations (stuck in someone's jersey) they either ask you to play through painfully or take surgery and live in a cast for two months.

This Miami Heat season was sacrificed so that we may watch compelling, championship-level basketball from the 2024-25 Golden State Warriors.

Chris Bosh didn't rock his hardest with the Raptors in 2009-10, Shaquille O'Neal was out of shape and blew a Laker championship in 2003-04, Alonzo Mourning basically bailed on the Hornets. Miami's been on the good end of this, repeatedly. Doesn't take anything away from this year's frustration, fandom on hold while the prima donnas (plural!) battled in the press. Pat Riley won, Jimmy looked like a doofus through most if not all of this.

Andrew Wiggins is absolutely a stretch at nearly $30 million a year over the next two seasons but the Heat want to make this player a certainty through his 30s. The 30-year old is a two-way player and will provide well beyond his contract's value if he retains health and interest. No sure thing with Wiggins thus far, but the Heat bought into the extra year of AW's contract and might be the best place in this league for Wiggins to learn how to play another decade. Might as well be for them.

We once wrote the same for Terry Rozier, not the best turnout so far, right down to the indignation: Miami was the only team in this Division to lose to Charlotte in 2024-25.

I didn't know that a bunch of good players couldn't win half their games in the East.

Maybe there is some outstanding evidence showing that all those possessions sent Tyler Herro's way were a major net negative, maybe that evidence was 2024-25. I kept squinting but didn't see it. The guy made the 23rd-most free throws this year, his Effective Field Goal percentage (56.1) ain't far behind Shai's (56.9). Same turnover rate as Tyus Jones, 18th-most assists in the league, plus the Onions Order of the decade:

Everyone has wanted to do that, thought about, didn't do it, cowards, all.

Cannot think of the last NBA player I saw try that. Do not know if there is one.

Bam Adebayo is not the Defensive Player of the Year, but his moving feet are the reason the Heat are middling defensively. The man had to play next to Kel'el Ware for spots this season, brutal. Had to help for Herro and Terry (when Terry isn't hitting, which is always). At this point Bam Adebayo is glad to see a defender like Duncan Robinson take the floor.

We thought it in him, but did not know Butler would go at half-speed all season, despite watching him go at half-speed with the Bulls and Timberwolves in advance of departure. We did not consider Andrew Wiggins out for nearly half of his games as replacement. Otherwise, the Heat featured sparkling health, lest we think the late-season absence of Nikola Jovic cost the club a guaranteed playoff spot.

It did not, and Miami has its pick, currently slated for No. 11. The pick Miami earns from Golden State (for Butler) is currently slated for No. 20.

Next season the Heat will pay out an entire NBA salary cap solely to Bam, Herro, Rozier, Kyle Anderson, Robinson and Wiggins. It has two rookies coming in and no clear candidates to cut unless the Heat are finished with restricted free agent Davion Mitchell (Miami shouldn't be) or through with (free agent) Alec Burks, who guided more than a few Miami evenings to credibility and/or wins in 2024-25. They don't need to bring Alec Burks back, but they do need to bring back what Alec Burks did.

I don't know where the next Heat superstar comes from, but I'd like to watch the Heat try to swing for another one, like Kenny Rogers sang in 'The Gambler,' because every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser, and the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.

WASHINGTON

Tweaking needs doing on the tanking. I like the idea of awarding the teams with the two worst records the No. 4 and No. 5 pick in the draft, just ruining the fun for everyone. See what you get? Now nobody gets to take a ball out during recess!

Every NBA season has a second and third-worst team, every season has to have a last place, and I'm not deluded enough to think the NBA can arrange the rules and encourage parity to point where the worst teams in the NBA won't drop any more than 50 games in an 82-game season. There will always, for whatever reason, be NBA teams who win three times per month, on average. Many of those teams had the same phone number: 1-800-BUY-NETS.

The NBA's current run of parity is as much a lucky happenstance – individual personalities seeking unexpected paths – as it is a result of the NBA's careful planning. The same provisions could encourage a giant gulf in years to come, six 65-winners and nobody else, the market is fluid, watch where you step.

The league's recent lottery stich-ups under Adam Silver, brilliant. February and January still stunk sometimes, dispiriting and enervating to tune in and watch midseason Wizards and Jazz and Hornets teams repeatedly put themselves past position to lose, and into a position to cinch a loss. NBA teams can't guarantee a win but they sure as hell can light the path toward an L.

Fans of each team wanted these losses, Wizard fans especially. I know because I read their voices online, same as I spied in the first months of RealGM's message board in 2001, Wiz fans giddy for the Mitch Richmond/Rod Strickland buyouts, Knicks fans begging for a reload once it became obvious Chris Webber would not be making his way to New York, pushing against the instinct toward Allan Houston's extension. NBA fans aren't dumb, they may not be able to spot a winner all the time, but they can sure as hell sniff out a loser.

Making sense of it all are the Wizards, trying not to blow a draft or three after The Last Guy plunked a lottery pick on Johnny Davis. TLG also drafted but then gave up on eventual two-way terror Rui Hachimura in favor of three second-round picks because, I guess, ex-GM Tommy Sheppard thought he was starting the trend of getting out ahead of restricted free agency?

Moves were made, Kisperts were retained, and I did not know Alex Sarr would be this smooth, this soon.

At this moment Alex isn't the dominant defensive performer we envisioned either, less squared shoulders than Evan Mobley at the same age, but Sarr is his own guy, potent and far from stiff. Washington would be mighty fine if Sarr settles into life as a slicker (if not superior) version of Myles Turner. But Alex is his own dude, a little like a taller Derrick McKey. Yet, make no mistake, Alex Sarr developed his own creation (self-aware cohesion of Alexis Ajinca and Vladimir Stepania). Unlike anyone else, most importantly Kwame Brown.

The Deni Avdija trade still ranks as a win-win, Deni wasn't bowling over plumbers and firemen down the stretch of much-maligned March NBA basketball, he is very good and we do not underestimate him. Plus, the prevailing pick Portland owes Washington hits in 2029 will be but the "second-most favorable" of three (Bucks, Blazers, Celtics) picks. Split three into two, plus Bub Carrington (bad as a rookie but blowing past geezers all season at age 19) and Malcolm Brogdon's backstage guidance, win-win. Avdija is three and a half years older than Bilal Coulibaly.

The next step is turning cuddly. Pair the next lottery pick with a cat of Jordan Poole's selection and watch Washington become my new favorite team (in the Southeast Division).

CHARLOTTE

We knew they'd stay irrelevant. After buying the Hornets, the owners may not have enough money to spend on actual new players, and will be relying upon the NBA draft for a while. Might as well rely on the best picks available.

We didn't know it would be this miserable. Mine eyes could not spot the silver lining with this club.

Charlotte improved its defense in 2024-25, mostly because its core continued to sit: LaMelo Ball still gets by on the least amount of effort, he played 47 times, Brandon Miller injured himself again and hoped-for veteran sage Grant Williams tore his ACL a month into the season.

What was left? Lot of Seth Curry. Lot of Josh Green, doing the best he can from the corner after banishment from Dallas. Josh Okogie and Jusuf Nurkic down the stretch, looking far, far more competent and put-together than anyone on the Hornets. They came from the Suns.

We thought we'd get a push, a pulse, a response, a give back to the community which sat through yet another playoff-free season, not even close. Defense improved under a first-year coach, nobody knocked themselves out for 2025-26 with some horrific injury, the Hornets lost enough games to be in the mix for Cooper Flagg.

We still had to sit through all of it. Knowing Curry's clever buckets were no part of Charlotte's future, observing Tidjane Salaün and concluding that he wouldn't be making his NBA career out of hustle plays. Moussa Diabaté was the most consistent player on the Hornets, I wouldn't trust him to leave an elevator without knocking four people over. There are three people in this elevator.

Our privileged stint with Miles Bridges stuck within this NBA irrelevance, is soon to end. He was the Hornets' best player and signed to be traded, we're not going to be able to ignore him any more, when "left-leaning" owners from the Clippers and Bucks are already on record as welcoming ex-abusers so as long as they can provide swingman depth.

Dealing Bridges at the draft will go a long way toward making the Hornets a passable watch, but I still can't trust Ball to lead my franchise, and I don't really want to miss Brandon Miller for a half a year, every year. Let's put an NBA team back in Charlotte this summer.

ATLANTA

We knew it would be mediocre not because of jokes, but because there are only so many players.

Five teams tanked in 2024-25. San Antonio went for it, signed Chris Paul. Jerami Grant exists and he's on the Blazers. There is a 250-strong demand for the right now/best we can in NBA labor, the net has never been this large, it is tough to blame any NBA club for not turning a corner in 2024-25. Unless the owners chose to be that way, hiding around that corner and out of view, in order to retain an inheritance.

The Hawks aren't ill-fated, they're built this particular way. The Hawks constantly emerge and re-emerge from the market with just enough to do OK. Even the words we use to chronicle them – mediocre, just enough, OK – are only barely considered.

It isn't a brand or curse or rallying cry, this has been the case through several ownership groups, general managers, president and coach combos. The players aren't letting anyone down, several Hawks turned in career seasons in 2024-25, new additions at the trade deadline kept that trend cloudseeking.

Injuries prohibited what had the potential to be a breakthrough season, the average setback befalling an above-average team, rendering it rather average.

We didn't know it would be so palatable. Maybe it was because the hammer hits this summer. Maybe because we expected far more destructive meddling from the billowing front office. Maybe it was Quin Snyder, still scaring Linas Kleiza from visiting stateside, or that we've grown accustomed to Atlanta's standing.

They're trying, infusing young bigs, giving it all up for midseason additions who barely know the plays. Maybe it was Dyson Daniels – New Orleans was awfully fun to watch last season – or maybe it was because I enjoyed the instinct to provide a quality Hawk night out in spite of what might be best for the timeline. The Hawks lucked into a top overall pick in a notoriously weak draft yet didn't use it an excuse, the Hawks' first go with John Collins and DeAndre Hunter and Dejounte Murray didn't work but Atlanta didn't use it as an excuse. There was no dreariness, here, to the outsider.

Again, probably because everyone is traded this summer. But! Probably because everyone is traded this summer. Even after the Hawks knock Boston out in the first round.

MAGIC

We knew it wouldn't be easy. This team was not going to be the Cavaliers, with good health. It wasn't going to threaten the top tier of the East even with a spot-free season, the team is No. 2 in defense even with lead dog Jalen Suggs sadly only clocking 1002 minutes over 35 games.

There was never enough accuracy from the outside, not enough high-volume creators on the outside, not enough accurate, high-volume outside creators. The Magic were the only team to make a fewer than a third of the team's three-pointers. The Magic were also the only team to make a fewer than 67 percent of its three-pointers. I could keep going, the Magic did, 31.6 percent from deep this year, 17th in attempts per 100.

This is what taking the best player available gets you. A group the city can be proud of, arguably the best defensive team in the NBA, a collection which gave and gave each night despite filling supremely important minutes with Gary Harris and Cory Joseph and Jett Howard.

We didn't know they'd be the Injury Team

Every season has an injury team. Sometimes the Injury Team also has the point guard suspended for repeatedly showing firearms on social media and for slapping some kid during a basketball game.

The Magic didn't have any of that, no mistakes were made here, the Magic were injured. Paolo Banchero isn't supposed to be better or on par with Anthony Edwards or Victor Wembanyama, he's supposed to be the best PB he can be, and he's on his way. The next step is completely reconfiguring his stroke to make it smoother, Paolo pushes in 73 percent from the line and hit 32 percent of his three this season at age 22, 32 percent career. Franz Wagner could stand to improve from outside, he hit 29 percent from deep, but the pair combined for 50 a game, so.

Many, many minutes were given to Tristan Da Silva and Anthony Black because injuries pressed the pair into duty, and because the Magic can't mothball the kids during times of storm and stress. I don't know why the most minutes in a game Jonathan Isaac played all season was 27, and I would expect a slightly punchier campaign from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (34 percent from deep in his first season with Orlando) in the second year of his three-year, $66 million contract.

Throw it all in the pot, plus Cole Anthony, and we have a club that is two points per game worse than the outta nowhere Detroit Pistons. Orlando never thought it would drop out of the top six, especially given Miami's lost season, but the Pistons popped out of the lottery and well past the Magic as the NBA's good vibe crew. I have to use the word "vibe" because cliches represent the times.

Injury upon injury when the team could least afford it, an ACL tear curtailing not only Franz Wagner's brother but Orlando's top three-point shooter (Moritz Wagner parked 36 percent from deep). Paolo at the outset, Franz in the middle, Suggs at the end. Yet the group survived, it will host at least one home game in the Play-In despite an average available roster which would drive Erik Spoelstra to quit.

No, I didn't hear anything about Erik Spoelstra.

The man who owns the Heat isn't in his 40s, so he won't fire him the week before the playoffs.

THE HIPPIES ARE TRYING

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