Atlantic Division Preview (with Es Baraheni)

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All right, welcome to RealGM Radio. Today it's our Atlantic Division preview. I'm gonna be joined by Es Baraheni from the Athletic NBA Daily podcast. We're gonna talk about which teams in the Atlantic Division got better, which teams got worse. We're gonna try to rank these teams at the end of the season one through five. We're gonna talk about moves that stood out to us, what rookies we think could make a major impact and the most impactful newcomers to this conference. LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Paul George, a bunch of guys and a bunch of players moving around. A ton of great storylines and nobody better than us to help me break it all down. Very enjoyable episode. It's coming up next.

All right, we are continuing our division preview series. We are talking about the Atlantic Division today. I'm going to be helped by Es Baraheni. You know him from the Athletic NBA Daily, a frequent guest here on RealGM Radio. One of my favorites to talk to. Es, thanks so much for jumping on, man. This is your division.

Es Baraheni (2:36)

This is my division. Yes, I own this division.

Danny Leroux (2:39)

It's crazy.

Es Baraheni (2:40)

It's funny that divisions, you know, I wish they mattered more. They do kind of matter. You know, you got to play the teams more often. You know, you definitely have to play these teams four times throughout the year, but it's just, I wish it mattered a little bit more in the NBA, you know.

Danny Leroux (2:58)

It does feel like the thing that they matter the most for are things like this. It's for us content makers to just break up our previews a little bit more.

Es Baraheni (3:09)

Yeah, yeah, and which to that point, I thank them. But also, you know, I will say, as you were going through these previews, I would wager that this is, if not the hardest division, at the very least the second hardest division in the NBA.

Danny Leroux (3:27)

Next to?

Es Baraheni (3:29)

I would say the Northwest Division is the hardest division in the NBA, I think.

Danny Leroux (3:33)

So, I just did this last week with Bryce Simon over at Motor City Hoops for the Central Division.

Es Baraheni (3:39)

Nice.

Danny Leroux (3:40)

And he and I concluded that the Central Division is like right up there with these. When you really look at it, it was actually, I don't know if it's hard at the top, but it's definitely as difficult to figure out as I think the Atlantic Division is. But that is what we're going to try to do today. So, it's going to follow our usual division preview format for my listeners here. We're going to talk about who got better, who got worse. A move could be anything that stood out to us for any particular reason. The most impactful newcomer and the most impactful rookie, and then we're going to make some predictions at the end of the show. But let's start with who got better, who got worse.

I think there's a couple of teams that obviously got better, and maybe a couple that stayed the same and or got worse. But when I ask you which of these teams got better, where do you want to start?

Es Baraheni (4:32)

I think we have to start with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Danny Leroux (4:35)