One piece missing? The roster fix needed for each of these five top East teams

What will it take to make a deep run in the NBA playoffs and dethrone the defending champion Boston Celtics?

For several top teams in the Eastern Conference, it’s about addressing key weaknesses heading into the 2024-25 season. There are less than three weeks before training camp begins on Sept. 25, and despite some big summer moves, teams like the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks could still improve their rosters.

They’re not the only ones. The Milwaukee Bucks may need to freshen up an aging squad if they want to return to the NBA Finals, while the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers could surely shore up their defenses to go along with their potent offenses.

As the offseason winds down, here are the roster holes for five East contenders, how they could impact the playoff race and what each team can still pull off with the start of the season looming.

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Cavaliers | Pacers
Bucks | Knicks | 76ers

Roster hole to fill: Two-way wing

The Cavaliers have 99 wins over the past two regular seasons — fifth most in the NBA — and last season won a playoff series without LeBron James on the roster for the first time in 30 years.

This summer, Cleveland re-signed star guard Donovan Mitchell, big man Jarrett Allen and 2023 Rookie of the Year runner-up Evan Mobley to hefty contract extensions, leaving the roster largely intact for new coach Kenny Atkinson. (Forward Isaac Okoro, who is a restricted free agent, remains the only unsigned player from Cleveland’s top 10 in minutes played last season.)

There’s been plenty of focus on how much Atkinson, long considered one of the league’s top player development coaches, can elevate Mobley and guard Darius Garland. Another major question is how the Cavaliers can improve their 3-point defense after finishing 21st in the NBA in opponents’ shooting percentage from beyond the arc at 37.1. When Garland and Mitchell shared the floor, that number jumped to 38.2, which would have ranked 28th.

Okoro, meanwhile, is a quality defensive wing who has struggled to be a consistent 3-point threat when it matters. He shot 39% on low volume during the regular season last year but managed 13-for-48 shooting (27.1%) from 3-point range across the past two playoffs for Cleveland, and the Cavs signed Max Strus last summer following Okuro’s poor shooting performance in their first-round defeat against the Knicks.

Mobley and Allen are one of the best defensive tandems in the league and automatically give Cleveland a strong baseline over the course of the season. But who is guarding Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown when the Cavs play the Celtics? Or Khris Middleton when they play the Bucks? Or Paul George when they play the 76ers?

No matter how good those two big men are, Cleveland will, at some point, need to address how to better protect the perimeter. Simply bringing back Okoro won’t be enough.

Roster hole to fill: Perimeter defense

The 2023-24 season was a success in Indiana. Guard Tyrese Haliburton exploded into superstardom to make his first All-NBA team despite a hamstring injury that limited the two-time All-Star in the second half. Indiana made a surprise run to the championship game of the inaugural in-season tournament, then beat the Bucks and Knicks en route to the Eastern Conference finals after missing the playoffs the previous three seasons.

But the Pacers made it clear throughout last season that things are still a work in progress. The team allowed the most 3-pointers per game last season (10.7) while Haliburton has openly talked about improving that phase of his game.

Aaron Nesmith might be the closest to a defensive stopper on Indy’s roster. The Pacers have developed Nesmith into a credible two-way wing after the former Celtics lottery pick arrived in the Malcolm Brogdon trade two years ago. The 24-year-old Nesmith has the size and strength at 6-6 to take on the conferences’ bigger perimeter scorers.

Indiana, which hasn’t gone into the luxury tax since 2006, used some creative maneuvering to trade for Pascal Siakam in January and inked him to a four-year max contract in June. But during a summer where free agent targets such as Derrick Jones Jr. (LA Clippers) and Naji Marshall (Dallas Mavericks) signed for less than the full midlevel exception, Indiana chose to use its flexibility below the tax to re-sign Obi Toppin to a four-year, $60 million deal.

Toppin, a former slam dunk contest champion, averaged career highs (10.3 points and 3.9 rebounds) as part of Indiana’s run-and-gun scheme but is a 6-9 backup power forward who doesn’t defend the 3 or protect the rim, making it difficult to slot him at center in small lineups.

The last time a team with an emerging star point guard made a surprise run to the East finals after missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons was in 2021, when Trae Young and Atlanta Hawks fell to the eventual NBA champion Bucks. Indiana, after losing to the eventual champion Celtics last season, will look to avoid a fate similar to Atlanta, which haven’t reached the second round since.

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Roster hole to fill: Dynamism

Giannis Antetokounmpo led the NBA last season with 251 dunks. The only other player on Milwaukee’s roster with more than 25? Brook Lopez, who is 35 years old, had 42. (The Bucks joined the Portland Trail Blazers as teams to have only two players make at least 25 dunks.)

The lack of dunks is just one stat, but it illustrates the age issue across Milwaukee’s roster. Lillard is 34 entering his second season with the Bucks. Khris Middleton is 33, has played a combined 88 games the past two seasons and is coming off surgery on both ankles this summer. Seven of the team’s nine projected rotation players, including offseason minimum signings Delon Wright and Taurean Prince, are at least 30.

One move that did land Milwaukee a quality young player was when the Bucks signed Gary Trent Jr., 25, on a minimum deal in what could become one of the best value signings of the summer. Milwaukee will be hoping he has a similar impact to the one Kelly Oubre Jr. did in Philadelphia on a minimum deal last season.

But while the roster’s continuity will be a positive heading into the team’s first training camp under coach Doc Rivers, a full season with Lillard and Antetokounmpo together and what the team hopes will be healthy seasons for Lopez and Middleton, the Bucks lack the youth and explosiveness of other elite East teams. This summer is also a reminder of how boxed in Milwaukee is with its current roster.

Because the Bucks were well into the second apron under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, they couldn’t sign a free agent for more than a minimum contract nor combine multiple players in a trade to supplement the roster. And Milwaukee’s prior moves have depleted their future draft picks, leaving the team with just a 2031 second-rounder to use in a trade.

A healthy starting lineup of Lillard, Trent, Middleton, Antetokounmpo and Lopez could take on anyone in the East, including the defending champion Celtics. Bucks general manager Jon Horst has been aggressive in trying to improve the team throughout his tenure — finding a way to add another versatile player during the season could go a long way in keeping Milwaukee in the title hunt.

Roster hole to fill: Another option at center

The Knicks had one of the NBA’s busiest summers, as two-way wing Mikal Bridges became the fourth member of the “Nova Knicks”, All-Star guard Jalen Brunson signed a team-friendly extension that provides $113 million less than if he waited until 2025 and OG Anunoby re-signed for more than $200 million.

But New York couldn’t match the three-year, $87 million deal starting center Isaiah Hartenstein received from the Oklahoma City Thunder as a free agent, which was far more than what New York was allowed to offer via early Bird rights.

Unlike the Cavaliers and Pacers, the Knicks have an abundance of two-way stars. But if there is a position of need for coach Tom Thibodeau’s team, it’s at center. Starting big man Mitchell Robinson is back, but ankle injuries limited him to 31 games last season.

Thibodeau, one of the league’s elite defensive tacticians, has consistently stressed rim protection, and Hartenstein played a critical role in the Knicks finishing with the No. 7 paint defense and No. 2 seed in the East last year. Individually, Hartenstein ranked No. 8 in the NBA in field goal percentage allowed at the rim among players with at least 200 attempts.

Precious Achiuwa had impressive moments after coming over with Anunoby from Toronto during the season, but at 6-8 isn’t a rim protector like Hartenstein. Jericho Sims has prototypical center size at 6-10 but has yet to become a reliable rotation player for a team expected to contend for a conference title. However, the Knicks have options.

Despite unloading much of their draft capital to land Bridges, New York still has enough to chase another big man via trade and can also still float Julius Randle. The former All-NBA forward, who has a player option for 2025-26, could be on a $28.9 million expiring contract that could be used to balance out the roster with more size in the paint.

Thibodeau could also turn to more small-ball lineups featuring Randle or Anunoby at center, taking advantage of the depth across the rest of the roster between Brunson, Bridges, Miles McBride, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo.

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Roster hole to fill: More frontcourt size

After positioning itself with max salary cap space, Philadelphia formed arguably the NBA’s best big three by signing All-Star swingman George to join All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey and 2023 Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid. The Sixers weren’t done, re-signing key contributors in wing Oubre and veteran guard Kyle Lowry and adding depth in center Andre Drummond, wing Caleb Martin and sharpshooter Eric Gordon.

For a team that technically began the summer with only Embiid under contract, it was as good of an offseason as president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and his front office staff could have envisioned. But holes remain on the roster, most notably at power forward.

Philadelphia will likely begin the season with Maxey, Oubre, George, Martin and Embiid as its starting five. That lineup provides plenty of defensive versatility and shooting around Embiid but features just the 6-5 Martin next to Embiid in the frontcourt. Martin would be the shortest starting power forward in the NBA this upcoming season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Philadelphia took a swing at 6-8 forward Guerschon Yabusele on a one-year minimum deal after he impressed for the French national team in the Olympics. Yabusele, the former 16th pick by Boston in the 2016 draft, played sparingly in 71 games across two seasons for the Celtics before heading overseas but has been a key contributor for Real Madrid while improving as a 3-point shooter.

Morey also has several draft picks at his disposal to move in trades, and the 76ers signed KJ Martin to a two-year, $16 million deal — including a non-guaranteed second year — which could be used midseason to add another rotation piece.

Considering the conference’s stars at the four — Tatum and Brown in Boston; Randle in New York; Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee; Siakam in Indiana; Mobley in Cleveland; and Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner in Orlando — finding more size could be paramount to Philly’s quest to dethrone Boston.

ESPN Stats & Information’s Matt Williams contributed to this story.