Insider: A post-free agency look at the Eastern Conference

With the frenzy of free agency slowing down, most Eastern Conference teams have solidified their rosters. The moves should help some teams move up from last year’s standings, while others take a fall. Teams are listed in order of finish last season and an indication of how they did this summer:

  ATLANTA

Key Losses: DeMarre Carroll, Pero Antic, John Jenkins

Notable Additions: Tiago Splitter, Tim Hardaway Jr., Justin Holiday

Superstars don’t play in Atlanta, and the Hawks are perfectly fine with that. Last season, they played the kind of team ball that pleased the purists and tormented the conference all the way to 60 wins. Best way to prove that this all-for-one, one-for-all style wasn’t just a fluke would be if Atlanta still wins with an altered cast.

Carroll might have been the only Atlanta starter not awarded an All-Star roster spot but he embodied this superstar-lite formula. In losing Carroll to free agency, the Hawks have lost their best defender and beating heart. Through trades, the Hawks have picked up a steady frontcourt rotational player (Splitter) and a young, streaky shooter already looking for a fresh start (Hardaway) but not enough for the team to rise again to the top of the conference.

 CLEVELAND

Key Losses: Who cares, they’ve still got LeBron

Notable Additions: Re-signed LeBron James, Kevin Love, Timofey Mozgov

Each Central Division team faced a staggering injury: Derrick Rose (Chicago), torn meniscus in right leg, missed 20 games; Brandon Jennings (Detroit), ruptured Achilles tendon, missed 41 games; Paul George (Indiana), broken leg, missed 76 games. Cleveland had the misfortune of experiencing an injury in the first round of the playoffs when Kevin Love needed surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder. Love may be the third wheel, but a healthy Love would’ve gone a long way when Cleveland sent out a skeleton crew to the NBA Finals.

Expecting to be healthy and whole with Love, and other re-signed supporting castmates Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova, the Finals runners-up look better than before. But let’s stop wasting words: LeBron James plays for the Cavs, and that’s all they need.

CHICAGO

Key Losses: Zilch

Notable Additions: Re-signed Jimmy Butler, Aaron Brooks, Mike Dunleavy, Kirk Hinrich

When a nearly retired Nazr Mohammed remains your only unsigned free agent, then you’re having a pretty decent summer. The Bulls liked the talent already in house and, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, the team shelled out approximately $110 million to get the band back together.

Butler is approaching star level, Brooks will fill in nicely whenever the inevitable — albeit unfortunate — injury befalls Rose, and Dunleavy and Hinrich still perform as solid veterans. Rookie Bobby Portis may very well represent the Bulls’ lone big addition from the outside, but sometimes you can still improve by standing pat.

TORONTO

Key Losses: Amir Johnson, Lou Williams, Greivis Vasquez

Notable Additions: DeMarre Carroll, Luis Scola, Corey Joseph

Before the playoffs, Paul Pierce trolled the Raptors, saying he didn’t “feel they have the ‘It’ that makes you worried.” Ouch. But Pierce, whose Wizards swept Toronto in the first round, spoke no lies. For consecutive years, the Raptors have not responded in the playoffs. It shouldn’t be enough to win the Atlantic Division when a team features an All-Star in Kyle Lowry, a steadily improving big in Jonas Valanciunas and a 20-point-per-game scorer in DeMar DeRozan.

After ranking 21st in the league in points allowed, the Raptors entered the summer with defensive question marks, and answered them by signing Carroll and Bismack Biyombo, an athletic big man adept at guarding the rim as well as defending pick-and-rolls. While those additions should certainly improve the Raptors’ defense, and 35-year-old Scola can be an offensive improvement to reserve power forward Tyler Hansbrough, Toronto still didn’t seem to find the ‘It’ this summer to get over the hump.

WASHINGTON

Key Losses: Paul Pierce

Notable Additions: Jared Dudley, Alan Anderson, Kelly Oubre.

The one-year rental of Pierce legitimized the Wizards. Pierce imbued the young stars with more than swagger — a grown man’s confidence. And even though Pierce has left for the West Coast, the best of the Wizards remains in tact. Continuity is alive and well in the nation’s capitol and there could be four (!) more (!) years (!) of Brad Beal if the sides agree to an extension before the start of the season. Throw in Otto Porter, who emerged in the playoffs averaging 10 points and eight rebounds in 10 games, and All-Star point guard John Wall, and the Wizards have the strongest young core in the East.

When Pierce left this summer in free agency, Washington did not make a splashy signing. Yet with little cap room, the Wizards still plugged a bench scoring hole with Dudley (a career 39.6 percent 3-point shooter) and Anderson.

 MILWAUKEE

Notable Losses: Ersan Ilyasova, Zaza Pachulia, Jared Dudley

Notable Additions: Greg Monroe, Khris Middleton (re-signed), Chris Copeland

Every now and then, a young team emerges as the Next Big Thing. Indiana once owned this title. Now, Milwaukee appears to be anointed as the one to watch.

Though the trio of Dudley, Ilyasova and Pachulia appeared in 203 games last season for the Bucks, there should be no tears shed for their departures because Milwaukee landed one of the best centers of the free agency class in Greg Monroe. Copeland can be in the mix for rotation minutes early as Jabari Parker works back from an ACL injury and the Bucks have only added to an already exciting and developing young roster.

BOSTON

Key Losses: Brandon Bass, Phil Pressey

Notable Additions: Amir Johnson, David Lee

In spite of team president Danny Ainge’s persistent reshaping of the roster on the fly last season, coach Brad Stevens guided that team to a playoff spot ahead of more veteran teams, Brooklyn and Indiana. So, you’d think a few more pieces and the Celtics step up in the standings.

While Boston did make smart decisions, the moves (including a trade for Perry Jones III) may actually help more in a few years, but not so much in 2015-16. The best thing going for Boston, both Johnson and Lee have two-year deals with team options in the second. Sexy signings these are not, but the contracts give Boston flexibility when the salary cap rises.

BROOKLYN

Key Losses: Mirza Teletovic, Deron Williams, Mason Plumlee

Notable Additions: Brook Lopez (re-signed), Wayne Ellington, Andrea Bargnani, Thomas Robinson

Like a man holding on to his mullet, Brooklyn keeps a grip on the concept of focusing around a big even as the league shifts to small ball. Nevertheless, Lopez remains a highly skilled big with range and not just a plodding center. Though the Nets got younger and more athletic by drafting Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and signing Robinson, the addition by subtraction of Williams may be Brooklyn’s best move of the summer. However, these decisions look like they may pay off in the future and not immediately — Robinson, who should be the third big in the rotation, recently had surgery for a small meniscus tear in his right knee.

INDIANA

Key Losses: David West, Roy Hibbert, Damjan Rudež

Notable Additions: Monta Ellis, Jordan Hill, Rodney Stuckey

As busy as any team this July, the Pacers made enough moves to finish higher in the standings. Although Indiana locked up plenty of veterans, the potential of the young guys will be an accompanying narrative to the season. Rookies Myles Turner and Joe Young impressed through summer league and appear to be steals from the draft.

MIAMI

Key Losses: Shabazz Napier

Notable Additions: Re-signed Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade

The Heat may be yet another team dependent on the health of their stars. Still, Miami must have that much confidence in the integrity of the roster as to not mess with it. The team awarded $20 million to Wade, pretty generous when you consider that he’s a 33-year-old with troublesome knees. But in better news, Chris Bosh returns. In February, Bosh faced a potentially life-threatening ordeal when he developed blood clots in his lungs.

CHARLOTTE

Key Losses: Gerald Henderson, Lance Stephenson, Mo Williams

Notable Additions: Nicolas Batum, Jeremy Lin

The Hornets re-shaped their roster, adding seven new players, most significantly through trades. The haul of Batum, Spencer Hawes and Jeremy Lamb should improve the offense. While Batum prefers to fill the stat sheet in the confines of team play, Hawes and rookie Frank Kaminsky can stretch the floor as bigs. Even so, these additions don’t make an immediate impact on the team’s standing in the East.

DETROIT

Key Losses: Greg Monroe, Caron Butler, Shawne Williams

Notable Additions: Reggie Jackson (re-signed), Aron Baynes

The Pistons lost center Greg Monroe in free agency, a big blow. So to help ease that pain they went with the Buy-A-Spur method and signed the bruising Baynes. Of course, all those Spurs who hit the free agent market this summer were program guys, and not stars. The question will be: Can a player like Baynes perform well enough outside of the armor of black and silver?

ORLANDO

Key Losses: Kyle O’Quinn

Notable Additions: Jason Smith, C.J. Watson

The Magic need another year or two to become that Next Big Thing, but they still found ways to get better by signing veterans to back up the young starters.

PHILADELPHIA

Key Losses: Luc Mbah a Moute

Notable Additions: Their entire 2015 draft class

Good luck, Jahlil Okafor. You’ll need it.

NEW YORK

Key Losses: Cole Aldrich, Alexey Shved, Quincy Acy

Notable Additions: Arron Afflalo, Robin Lopez

After closing out the worst season in franchise history, just about any move this summer would have marked vast improvement. But the Knicks actually made solid deals in bringing in Afflalo and Lopez, two former Trail Blazers who can instantly advance New York’s starting five.

Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.