Ranking The Sixers’ Biggest Threats In The Eastern Conference

For the first time in roughly forever, the Eastern Conference appears to be loaded this year. The reigning champion New York Knicks are atop the conference for now, but the Sixers and others will be nipping at their heels all season as they vie for East supremacy.

The Sixers loaded up by adding LeBron James and Jaylen Brown this offseason, but they were hardly the only East team to make a major splash. The Miami Heat landed Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Toronto Raptors landed Kawhi Leonard (we think?). The Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers didn’t make any additions on that level, but Mitchell Robinson, Peyton Watson and our beloved Kelly Oubre Jr., respectively, are notable adds nevertheless.

Now that the dust has (mostly) settled on the offense, how does the new-look East stack up, and who’s the biggest threat to the Sixers this year? We’ve ranked the top five based on their current rosters and the potential matchup problems that they could present.

TBD: Toronto Raptors

Assuming the Kawhi trade eventually goes through at some point, the Raptors could be a sleeping giant in the East.

Scottie Barnes is already one of the NBA’s most versatile young forwards. He finished fifth in the Defensive Player of the Year race last season and averaged a well-rounded 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game. He might be miscast as a No. 1 option, but he should be a strong No. 2 alongside Leonard.

Between Barnes, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, the Raptors would have plenty of supplemental scoring around that duo. But the truly terrifying prospect is the three-man combination of Leonard, Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles. That type of length on defense could give the Sixers’ guards and wings plenty of trouble.

Jakob Poeltl is the wild card for Toronto, particularly with Sandro Mamukelashvili now with the Los Angeles Lakers. Poeltl has missed at least 25 games in each of the past three seasons, and his balky back limited him to a career-low 46 games last year. The Raptors don’t have much (any?) proven frontcourt depth behind him, which perhaps makes this a matchup tailor-made for Embiid in particular to dominate.

If (when?) the Leonard trade goes through, the Raptors figure to be one of the Sixers’ biggest threats. However, Marc Stein of The Stein Line recently reported that the Clippers’ delay in consummating the trade “has naturally led some league observers to wonder aloud whether the Clippers are holding off—or considering something even more drastic—to spite Leonard for so readily accepting the league’s punishment rather than invoking his right to pursue an appeal.”

Therefore, they land in the TBD category for now.

Honorable Mention: Miami Heat

Any team with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo can’t be dismissed outright. But with all due respect to Simone Fontecchio, the Heat don’t have much else for the Sixers to fear.

Could the Heat patch together a half-decent rotation with Giannis, Bam, Fontecchio, Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, Tim Hardaway Jr., Klay Thompson, Bobby Portis and Nick Richards? Sure. Is their rotation a house of cards that will collapse if either Giannis or Bam miss significant time? It sure seems that way.

The Giannis-Bam pairing should give the Heat a formidable defensive backbone, but it’s fair to wonder how they’ll fit together offensively. Bam began firing threes at a relatively high volume last year, but he knocked down only 31.8 percent of them, and Giannis isn’t a great three-point shooter either. Can they avoid getting in one another’s way?

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is the right man to figure out that problem, but the loss of Norman Powell and Tyler Herro could cramp Miami’s offensive spacing, barring a turn-back-the-clock type of season from Thompson. If the Heat and Sixers clashed in the playoffs, the Heat’s best chance to win might be turning the series into a rock fight.

5. Cleveland Cavaliers

Is this disrespectful to the reigning NBA Analytics Champions, who are fresh off an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals? Yes.

But until Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson shows that he’s willing to bench James Harden in high-leverage moments, it’s hard to have much faith in his squad as a legit threat this year.

The Cavs held a 22-point lead over the Knicks in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Then Jalen Brunson started playing Hunt The Bozo with James Harden, and the rest was history. The Cavs wound up getting swept even though Donovan Mitchell averaged 27.3 points per game while shooting 47.5 percent from the field in that series.

The Cavs did add Watson this offseason, but they also lost Max Strus, Dean Wade and Dennis Schröder, all of whom played roles off the bench for them in the playoffs. Their starting five is solid, and Sam Merill and Jaylon Tyson are nice to have off the bench, but their depth beyond that is largely unproven.

Maybe this is the year that Evan Mobley actually takes The Leap that’s been promised for the last few years and the Cavs are much more of an actual title threat than anticipated this season. But Harden has nowhere to hide defensively against the Sixers in particular, and Atkinson doesn’t have a ton of great options off the bench to replace him, either.

4. Detroit Pistons

The Pistons surged to the top of the East with a 60-win season last year, but they proved to be more of the 82-game juggernaut than the 16-game variety once the playoffs began. They barely squeaked by the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic in the opening round and lost to the Cavaliers in seven games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Jalen Duren, who remains in restricted-free-agency purgatory, went from an All-NBA regular season to looking like Jahlil Okafor 2.0 in the playoffs. His lack of a bag on offense made him a relative non-factor both against Orlando and Cleveland, which could be a major problem against Joel Embiid if the Pistons cross paths with the Sixers in the playoffs.

The Pistons moved on from Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart and Caris LeVert this offseason and brought in John Collins, Isaiah Joe, Taurean Prince and Gary Harris to boost their offensive floor spacing. Those additions should help the Pistons be more well-balanced, but they still may be overly reliant on Cade Cunningham.

Cunningham is one of the league’s best young guards, but Detroit is short on players who can help him generate offense. That could prove problematic against the Sixers in particular since they can alternate between throwing Brown, LeBron, Wade and VJ Edgecombe at him.

3. Boston Celtics

The Celtics have been getting buried all offseason for trading Brown to the Sixers for Paul George and a pair of first-round picks, but you know who isn’t burying them? Oddsmakers. They have Boston with the third-best odds to win the East, trailing only the Knicks and Sixers.

It’s easy to see the rationale. George won’t generate as much rim pressure as Brown, but he’s an accurate, high-volume three-point shooter. He should fit perfectly with Joe Mazzulla’s Math Ball. And while Neemias Queta emerged as a legitimate starting-caliber center last year, the Celtics were short on frontcourt depth behind him. That won’t be the case this year after they spent their non-taxpayer mid-level exception on Robinson.

Jayson Tatum will now be roughly 18 months removed from his Achilles tear once the season tips off, and he already got about a month’s worth of games under his belt last year to shake the rust off. He should be all systems go on opening night. And considering that they apparently have Jalen Brunson 2.0 in Payton Pritchard, the Celtics might not even miss Brown this year.

We might be giving too much respect to Boston here, but 40 years worth of trauma—this past spring notwithstanding—does that to a person. But hey, remember when they blew a 3-1 series lead for the first time in franchise history last year? Good times.

2. Indiana Pacers

The perception of the Pacers heading into this season has me feeling like I’m taking crazy pills. They’re below the Orlando Magic in terms of their odds to win the East. What are we doing here?

Yes, Tyrese Haliburton missed the entire 2025-26 season to recover from the torn Achilles that he suffered in the 2025 NBA Finals. He’ll likely need to spend the early part of this season shaking off rust and getting back into rhythm. But as Tatum showed last year, Achilles injuries are hardly the career death sentence that they once were.

Meanwhile, the Pacers are bringing back almost everyone from the roster that was one game away from winning the 2024-25 NBA championship. Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner are the only key rotation players from that squad who are no longer in Indiana. The Pacers have since replaced them with Oubre and Ivica Zubac, respectively.

It’s fair to wonder how the more half-court-oriented Zubac will fit with Indiana’s preference to push the pace and fly up and down the floor. He’s also a non-factor from deep, unlike Turner, although he’ll be far more of a lob threat for Haliburton in pick-and-rolls.

The Pacers might not have the top of top-end talent as Cleveland or Miami, and they might not finish with a top-four seed in the East. More than anything else, this is a bet on their style of play. They ran teams ragged in the 2025 playoffs by leaning into their pace and depth. If Nick Nurse falls into the trap of shortening his rotation and overplaying his starters, the Sixers might gas out in the fourth quarter of a series against Indiana.

1. New York Knicks

As the defending champions, the Knicks get this spot by default. After all, they’re fresh off one of the most dominant playoff runs in recent history, which made their roller-coaster regular season a distant memory by June.

Jalen Brunson is one of the best guards in the NBA, bar none. Karl-Anthony Towns’ ability to run the Knicks’ offense from the high post was the changeup that unlocked their title run. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges are both excellent two-way wings. Josh Hart is the Swiss-army-knife glue guy who makes everything click into place for New York.

The Knicks did lose Mitchell Robinson and Ariel Hukporti this offseason, although they signed Andre Drummond to replace them. They also have Landry Shamet, Miles McBride, Jose Alvarado and Jordan Clarkson off the bench. However, they don’t have a ton of forward depth behind Anunoby and Bridges, barring a massive leap from Mo Diawara or Pacôme Dadiet.

The Sixers should be far better equipped to combat the Knicks this season than they were in last year’s playoffs, when they got demoralizingly swept out of the second round. If nothing else, the excitement around this year’s team should (hopefully) convince more Philadelphians not to sell their tickets to Knicks fans.

By mid-April, it’s entirely possible that another team will have supplanted the Knicks as the Sixers’ biggest threat in the East. But as the ancient philosopher Ric Flair once said, to be the man, you’ve gotta beat the man. Until further notice, the reigning champions hold that title.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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