The 2024-25 NBA season is creeping up on us, so now's the perfect time to look at the biggest question facing each team in the NBA. We've taken a look at the Atlantic and Central divisions already, focusing on everything from wondering how the Bucks will tighten up their defense, to how much the Knicks will miss Isaiah Hartenstein. For a deeper dive in both of those divisions you can find them here:
Now we're going to take a look at the Southeast division. We've got the Magic, coming off a playoff appearance and hoping they did enough in the offseason to get further this season. The Hornets are probably crossing their fingers that LaMelo Ball can stay healthy, while the Heat are facing a crossroads with Jimmy Butler. There's also the Hawks and the Wizards, who may not be all that competitive this season, but have questions worth addressing. Some of these questions may not get answered until the end of the season, or even a couple years from now, but they're worth thinking about as the 2024-25 season nears.
Hawks: Is the Trae Young era ending?
Atlanta pulled the plug on the Trae Young-Dejounte Murray duo this summer by trading the latter to the Pelicans. Murray needed to be dealt, him and Young just didn't work together, and the Hawks got a good haul for him with Larry Nance Jr. and Dyson Daniels, while acquiring two first-round picks. But without upgrades to immediately help this team, could we be nearing the end of Young's time in Atlanta? After this season, Young will have two years left on the rookie max extension he signed in 2021. There wasn't a trade market for Young over the summer when there were reports of Atlanta trading him or Murray, and while some of that is due to him being a defensive liability, it's also likely because of the $138 million he's still owed over the next three years.
Could a trade market materialize at the deadline if a team gets desperate, or maybe next summer when Young will have one less year on his deal? There's nothing suggesting that the Hawks want to trade Young now, or that the All-Star guard wants to leave Atlanta, but it feels like Atlanta is slowly heading towards another rebuild. They landed the No. 1 overall pick and selected Zaccharie Risacher, and have some promising young pieces in Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu and now Daniels too. There's plenty of veterans on the roster who could be dealt, like Bogdan Bogdanovic, Clint Capela and Nance so it would make sense for Young to be on the trading block as well. He's about to enter the middle of his prime at 25 years old, and would probably like to be on a steady title contender rather than a team that seems to be reshuffling guys around him every couple years.
If the Hawks overachieve this year, this question may be pushed further down the line, but if the losses start to pile up and the focus shifts towards developing the young guys, Young could either push for a trade, or the Hawks could initiate it.
Hornets: What's Charlotte's ceiling with a healthy LaMelo Ball?
It's obvious that the Hornets go nowhere without Ball being healthy. He hasn't eclipsed 60+ games played the last two years, but when he played 75 games his sophomore season, the Hornets made the play-in round and were on the verge of capturing the East's final playoff spot. He's struggled with ankle injuries in each of the last two seasons, and there's no telling if that will once again be his undoing. But if he is healthy and is able to play at least 60 games, how high can this Charlotte team rise? They quietly had a pretty decent offseason, adding a solid defender in Josh Green thanks to a six-team trade. They re-signed Miles Bridges, which is probably an overpay, but he's coming off a season where he averaged 21 points. That's in addition to adding Grant Williams and Seth Curry at last season's deadline.
Then there's Brandon Miller, who is coming off a strong rookie campaign, averaging 17.3 points and got to develop his game as an on-ball threat with Ball out for so long. Seeing how he and Ball build chemistry will be crucial in assessing how far this team can go, but in the short stint we saw last season, the results were promising. In the 19 games the two shared the floor together, the Hornets posted a 113.6 offensive rating, which is a plus-5 improvement to what they averaged over the course of the season.
When you look at Charlotte's roster on paper, they have better depth than they did a season ago. So if Ball's healthy, it's not unrealistic to think this team could capture the final playoff spot in the East. That's how much he swings the trajectory of this team. But we haven't seen him fully healthy for two years now, so that "if" is carrying a ton of weight right now.
Heat: Will Jimmy Butler be traded?
There were faint whispers during the height of the offseason about the Heat possibly trading Butler, exacerbated by Pat Riley's public comments about one of the franchise's cornerstone pieces. Riley voiced reluctance in giving Butler a contract extension right now, highlighting his injury history as one of the factors. In five seasons with the Heat, Butler has missed 100 games during the regular season, or a little over a quarter of the possible games during that span. That would be a bigger concern if it wasn't for Butler always flipping a switch in the playoffs, as he's led the Heat to two NBA Finals appearances in those five seasons. Butler's undoubtedly amongst the league's best players on both sides of the ball when he's at his best. But his availability isn't always a guarantee, so the hesitancy in extending him makes sense.
Butler will be 35 when the season starts, and has a $52.41 million player option on the table for the 2025-26 season. Giving him significant money past that contract would be risky. If he continues to be hampered by injuries into a new contract, it would put the Heat in a tough spot financially going forward. They already have been rather conservative when it comes to adding quality talent around Butler and Bam Adebayo, as they've mostly relied on the diamond in the rough finds over the years like Max Stus, Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin and Duncan Robinson. All but one of those guys remain on the team now, with Robinson falling out of the rotation the last two years. Even when they were considered to be the favorites to land Damian Lillard two summers ago, they haggled over including Jaime Jaquez Jr. in the deal. Jaquez had a really strong rookie season, but their championship window is now with an aging Butler. That is, unless they do plan on parting ways with the veteran guard either via trade or at the end of his contract in 2026.
There's a world in which the Heat could pivot to fully build around Adebayo, trading Butler while his stock is still high and recouping assets. Adebayo has been the Heat's best player for a couple seasons now anyway, and at 27 years old he's in the midst of his prime. It makes far more sense to try and pair Adebayo with someone whose on a similar timeline as him right now, rather than wait to see if Butler can stay healthy enough and waste the height of Adebayo's career. Butler will probably have some extra motivation this season to try and get that extension, so maybe he does show Riley enough to get that new deal. But if we reach February and he's already missed chunks of time, we may be firing up the trade machine for Butler.
Magic: Will Orlando have enough 3-point shooting?
The Magic were one of the fun success stories from a season ago. They made the playoffs for the first time since 2020, and took the Cavaliers to a seven-game series after falling behind by 2-0. It was all thanks to a defense that finished third in the league, and at one point was the best around. They have one of the top five defensive units entering this season, thanks to Jalen Suggs, who rightfully earned All-Defensive honors for his performance last season. As well as Jonathan Isaac, who despite suffering countless injuries at the start of his career, has turned himself into one of the best bench defenders in the league. The Magic doubled down on defense this summer by adding veteran and NBA champion Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to bolster things up on that end of the floor, as well as knock down 3s on the other end.
KCP is the ideal 3-and-D wing the Magic needed, but I'm not sure he'll be enough to address their need for more outside shooting. Orlando ranked 29th in the league in 3-point attempts last season, while also ranking 24th in 3-point percentage. Caldwell-Pope certainly helps in that arena as a career 36.9% 3-point shooter. But he's not a high volume 3-point shooter, no one on Orlando's roster is. It seems like they're going to rely on some internal improvements in that area to bump up their efficiency, which of course could happen. Franz Wagner could bounce back from the 3-point slump he found him in a season ago. He averaged 35.8% on 3s in his first two seasons, then took a steep decline in Year 3 at 28.1%. Paolo Banchero marginally improved in each of his first two years, so maybe that trend holds and he'll be an average shooter from beyond the arc.
Orlando doesn't need to be the best 3-point shooting team, but getting to around average would do wonders for an offense that severely lagged behind an elite defense.
Wizards: This won't be as bad as last year, right?
Contrary to popular belief, the Wizards can both position themselves to get a good shot at landing Cooper Flagg, and positively help the development of their younger players. They should be tanking, but that doesn't mean we should be seeing Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma making unserious basketball plays, like throwing alley-oop passes off the backboard down 20 points. Or stepping out of bounds as soon as your teammate inbounds the ball. I get it, the season feels doubly long on a losing, rebuilding team. That's probably why Evan Fournier reportedly turned down a contract to play for the Wizards because he didn't want to mentor young players on a "losing team."
But the Wizards don't need to be that bad. Not only is it unsightly to watch, it's not helpful to younger players who should be learning proper habits. Guys like Bilal Coulibaly and Alex Sarr are going to need the space to adequately develop and learn, and they need to be doing it in an environment that's not going to have the same level of silliness that took place last season. Maybe we see the Wizards make some trades to fully hit the reset button. Kuzma has had several suitors, and Jonas Valanciunas would probably be attractive to contending teams. If both players are jettisoned, it would certainly still keep the Wizards in the hunt for that No. 1 pick next summer, while also fully turning things over to the young guys which would excuse some of the truly bad basketball we saw last season.
