The Most exciting players in the nba: Atlantic Division

Photo Credit: Philadelphia 76ers

Written By Cameron Little

The start of the NBA season is right around the corner we are going by division for the next six days to give you all the insight you need into who to expect to take the leap this year.

Boston Celtics 

The Celtics are in a bizarre scenario, as the winners of the division and second in the conference it seems like they have actually got weaker in their personnel since the end of the year but this opens the door for players to step into the spotlight.

Payton Pritchard boosted his stats and involvement with the team last season playing 28 minutes a game and averaging 14 points with much better defence and scoring efficiency in the regular season paired with him being the sixth man of the year with the most 3 pointers off the bench in NBA history, this should cement him with more minutes therefore more opportunity to be one to watch out for.

New York Knicks 

The Knicks had a good season being 2nd in the Division and 3rd in the conference, they were then beaten in game 6 of the Conference finals by eventual NBA Final losers the Indiana Pacers.

The most exciting player for me is OG Anunoby, Knicks fans have a bit of an up and down relationship with OG but last season he had an improved year averaging 18 PPG with much better defensive numbers.

His shooting efficiency was lower but it showed him being more fearless and putting more shots up. The Knicks should do very well this season with OG being in the team on a consistent basis.

 Toronto Raptors 

The Raptors were third in the division last season not a great accomplishment but also not the worst although the standard in the division was sub par, the Raptors however do have an exciting team that could work a lot better this season pushing them into a playoff position.

Grady Dick for me is a brilliant example of a good young player in the modern NBA going into his third season at 21 years old he looks like he has the fundamentals to improve again this season, he has already jumped up to 14 points per game last season from a previous eight which is a significant improvement.

His scoring efficiency however wasn’t too pretty but it was a general struggle for the Raptors as a team, I can however see this improving and making Grady a great asset to a team working to improve.

I would also like to add another player in Brandon Ingram, adding a player predicted to (according to BasketballReference) average 23 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds is a necessary move for this team and his contribution could be a tremendous asset to Toronto going forward.

Brooklyn Nets 

Penultimately we have the Brooklyn Nets under a new head coach they were only able to get to 26 wins last season in a major struggle year for the team as a whole, the desire to get over .500 will be this team’s absolute priority and they need players they can depend on.

Cam Thomas is one of the most polarising players to watch in the entire NBA in terms of pure scoring ability, he is entertaining and brings a swagger to the offense averaging 24 points when he was on the court last season the issue being that he wasn’t on the court very often.

The Nets will be hoping year five Cam will be able to drag a few extra wins out of a struggling team if he can stay fit his predicted stats are fairly aligned with his 2024/25 averages, the Nets will also be hoping for contributions across the board rookie Egor Demin and trade asset Michael Porter Jr. will be at the very top of that list.

Philadelphia 76ers 

Probably the most disappointing year for the Sixers since the start of “The Process” back in 2013/14 most Sixers fans will say they began the season excited to have Paul George come into the team however with injuries derailing the potential that this lineup had and fairly quickly falling apart the one bright spot having Jared McCain be the most exciting player come out of the draft.

However despite all of this the team’s biggest potential in 2025/26 is the 3 exciting guards in McCain, Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, McCain looked very solid defensively but offensively looked like a monster to deal with, multiple 30 point games and averaging 15 points in 23 games as a rookie is brilliant numbers and possibly would have been the rookie of the year if it wasn’t for the Meniscus tear.

Maxey proves year in and year out that he could be one of the best guards in the league his averages keep going up and his morale surely boosts the team, he is a brilliant guard and hopefully doesn’t have to deal with injury problems with his team.

Finally VJ Edgecombe looks the most exciting guard to come out of the draft, which ironically could become a huge asset that they were only able to pick due to failures of last season a romantic silver lining should the 76ers improve in 2025/26.