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The Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics were the biggest winners of the offseason.
The Celtics were quite aggressive right out of the gate, with Brad Stevens swapping Marcus Smart to get Kristaps Porzingis.
Then, he doubled down on that by acquiring Jrue Holiday in a potential league-altering deal.
Likewise, the Bucks gave Giannis Antetokounmpo a 30-point scorer and one of the best shooters in the league by trading for Damian Lillard, putting the two best teams in the Eastern Conference even more over the top.
With that in mind, Bill Reiter of CBS Sports reports that both the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers have a “real fear” of falling behind after the moves made by their conference rivals (via Dru).
“There’s real jealousy in what the Bucks and Celtics pulled off, best epitomized in the Miami media’s manic anger over the Heat not landing Lillard. And the real fear, in both Philly and Miami, that falling behind too far can have far-reaching consequences.” – @sportsreiter https://t.co/wyJOQB0sgL pic.twitter.com/tqMA4qLnq6
— Dru (@dru_star) October 11, 2023
Both the Heat and Sixers were interested in acquiring Lillard, with the Heat trying to get a deal done for weeks.
Miami let some key pieces of their rotation walk in free agency, hoping to land the multi-time All-Star and accommodate his salary.
As for the Sixers, their months-long standoff with James Harden pretty much kept them from making any actual moves.
They could’ve spent the offseason trying to get the best deal possible for Harden and revamp their roster around Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, but that’s not the way Daryl Morey operates.
In the meantime, the two alpha dogs in the East got significantly better, and it will be very hard to see any other team in the Eastern Conference standing in their way to the Conference Finals.
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