For all the trades and free-agent signings that shook the NBA this month, one truth emerged quickly during my short stay in Las Vegas last week: Nothing has really changed.
A number of executives believe June will end with a Cavaliers-Warriors "threequel" — except this time the outcome will be reversed.
Eastern Conference executives polled during summer league believe the entire conference is still chasing the Cavs, and the Cavs will be chasing Kevin Durant and the Warriors for the championship.
"We're all playing for second unless someone (on the Cavs) turns an ankle at the wrong time," one Eastern Conference executive said.
In fact, it's hard to pinpoint which team has done the best job of closing the gap on the Cavs in the East. The Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics kept coming up as the two best teams in the East behind the Cavs, although the Indiana Pacers took a number of votes for the team that took the biggest leap — including the vote of Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, who really liked what the Pacers did this summer.
Raptors
The re-signing of DeMar DeRozan to a five-year, $139 million deal this summer allows the Raptors to remain in the hunt in the East. They lost defensive center Bismack Biyombo to the Orlando Magic and replaced him with Jared Sullinger on an economical one-year deal.
Sullinger, presumably, will be motivated after his weight issues helped lead to his departure from Boston.
DeRozan will make more than double the salary that Kyle Lowry will next season, something that bears watching, although Lowry can become a free agent next summer.
Celtics
The addition of Al Horford is huge for a number of reasons, most notably because it gives the Celtics a legitimate All-Star and erases the idea that free agents won't sign in Boston. It should also cool the ongoing Kevin Love-to-Boston rumors that have circulated for the last couple of years.
Horford brings an inside scoring threat the Celtics desperately lacked last year in the playoffs and he'll fit in nicely to a defensive unit that was already very good. Brad Stevens is still considered one of the best young minds in the game and the Celtics selected small forward Jaylen Brown with the third overall pick.
Since they still have about $15 million in cap space, the Celtics may not be done yet.
Pacers
Perhaps the most polarizing team in the East, folks around the league either loved or hated what the Pacers did this summer.
Larry Bird traded for former All-Star point guard Jeff Teague and forward Thaddeus Young. He signed center Al Jefferson to surround holdovers Paul George and young phenom Myles Turner. He let highly respected coach Frank Vogel walk and replaced him with Nate McMillan, who hasn't been a head coach in five years, but who three times has won at least 50 games in a season.
Lue was among those to give the Pacers' moves high praise, although others questioned how much defense they'll play moving forward. But Bird has remade the identity of his team in one summer.
Field
The rest of the field drew mixed reviews. The Knicks, most all agreed, will be better than last season. But no one polled considered them a serious threat in the East even after adding Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.
The Bulls didn't draw high marks for replacing Rose with Rajon Rondo and adding Dwyane Wade to form a backcourt that can't shoot 3-pointers in this pace-and-space era.
Besides scooping up Mike Dunleavy, the Cavs have remained relatively quiet. That was the plan all along. With no cap space and limited trade assets, just retaining the core of a championship team was always considered good enough.
Judging by the way folks around the league feel now, it should be good enough for another deep run into next June. Where the Warriors will again be waiting.
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