Eastern Conference contender tiers: Pistons deserve respect but Celtics in a class of their own

We're sorting through the contenders in the East with the NBA postseason fast approaching

John Gonzalez

Mar 24, 2026

1:16 pm ET

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7 min read

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We're roughly three weeks out from the conclusion of the NBA regular season and the start of the playoffs. With that, it's time for another installment of Contender Tiers.

This round will be slightly different than our last edition. Eastern Conference Contender Tiers are featured today, followed by the Western Conference tiers tomorrow.

As always, a note that this is not a power ranking of the entire conference. Only teams that have a chance to make a run in the postseason appear here, though your mileage may vary on who qualifies.

Tier 1: Don't Call it a Comeback

Boston Celtics

To borrow the rest of the line from the poet LL Cool J, they've been here for years. And yet this wasn't supposed to happen. We were led to believe that this would be a gap year for the Celtics, a season to hit reset on the fly and then compete again moving forward. Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles in the postseason. And then during the offseason, president of basketball operations Brad Stevens jettisoned Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porziņģis, Al Horford and Luke Kornet to avoid paying roughly half a billion dollars for an aging roster that was supposed to be without its best player for the entire season. No chance those guys could compete, right?

Wrong. They've competed. And then some. Without Tatum, Jaylen Brown stepped forward and is having a career year. Derrick White has remained one of the best and most versatile defenders in the NBA while being asked to do more on the offensive end than ever before. And Joe Mazzulla reached deep into his coaching bag, regularly playing 11 or more of his guys upwards of 15 minutes per night. Go through a Celtics box score on any given evening and you're as likely to see a big line from Luka Garza or Jordan Walsh as Payton Pritchard or Sam Hauser. (The egalitarian approach has led some of the addled Celtics fans in my life to sweat about playing time for Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman now that Tatum is back.)

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Brad Botkin

And oh yeah, Tatum is back. After missing just 10 months, he's averaging close to a 19-point double-double with 3.3 assists and a steal in just under 30 minutes per game since his return. He still needs to knock a little rust off and shoot with better efficiency, but with approximately three weeks left before the postseason, he still has plenty of time to find his form.

There's a reason the Celtics are the betting favorites to win the conference on FanDuel at +185. They're second in offensive rating and have climbed to fourth in defense. And -- with apologies to newly acquired center Nikola Vučević, who is out several weeks with a broken finger -- all their most important pieces are healthy. This is the team no one in the East wants to play in the playoffs.

Tier 2 — Show Some Respect

Detroit Pistons

Despite leading the conference for almost the entire season, the Pistons have only the fourth-best odds to advance to the NBA Finals at +700. Not surprisingly, that number has steadily inched up since Cade Cunningham suffered a collapsed lung. Without him at the controls, it's hard to imagine the Pistons generating enough offense to do damage in the postseason. And even with Cunningham, some cracks were beginning to show for the Pistons.

But to their credit, they've won all four games without their All-NBA lead guard, including a home victory over the red-hot Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night that snapped LA's nine-game win streak. That victory increased the Pistons' lead over the Celtics to five games for the top slot in the East. They also have the second-best point differential in the league; only the Oklahoma City Thunder have been better.

The question for the playoffs is, how soon will they get Cunningham back and what condition will he be in? Jalen Duren has taken the leap and is headed for a handsome payday this offseason, but he's obviously at his best when Cunningham guides the way for him and everyone else. J.B. Bickerstaff has done a masterful job getting his guys to buy in, especially on the defensive end -- but will that be enough for them to white-knuckle their way to the finals?

For all their flaws on offense -- a shortage of 3-point shooters and a glaring need for consistent playmakers and shot creators beyond Cunningham -- the Pistons are still ninth in offensive rating. They leverage their great positional size to dominate down low, where they're first in points in the paint and third in opponents' points in the paint. It's not always pretty, but there's something to be said for remaining atop the standings this long.

Tier 3 — The Other Two

New York Knicks

The Knick