Central Division

Detroit Pistons

The pistons had their custom solid regular season that we’ve grown to expect from them since the addition of Rasheed Wallace. Many people expected them to get to their third finals in four years setting a rematch against the San Antonio Spurs, but they were ripped apart by Lebron James in the conference finals and were sent home early. If you listen to Rasheed, he’ll blame it on the referees – but that’s all in Rasheed’s head. The Pistons were unable to contain Lebron James, and in the deciding game they let second round pick Daniel Gibson torch them. They have nobody to blame but themselves, and I think everyone has a good grasp on this aside from Rasheed.

The biggest issue of concern for this team is the lack of depth. At the center spot they sorely miss Ben Wallace as they brought in Nazr Mohammed to replace him – but he was benched just before the playoffs. The hope is that second round pick Amir Johnson steps up in his third year and takes control of that spot. Amir dominated the development league last year and earned himself a solid contract despite doing very little in the NBA so far. They still have workhorses behind Rasheed in McDyess and Maxiell. If Johnson doesn’t step up, these two undersized players could see time at the center along with Rasheed.

While Carlos Delfino was not particularly successful in his time with the Pistons, he was depended on to spell guys like Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton. This duty will now fall on the struggling Jarvis Hayes and rookie Aaron Affalo. If Hayes can find his game that made him a top 20 pick out of college that will be an added boost to this Detroit squad that really needs their bench to produce.

They’ve still got the talent to win this division, but Flip Saunders control on the locker room is definitely in question. If they come out to a slow start, things could begin to get ugly for Flip Saunders because the championship window for this team is beginning to close.

Chicago Bulls

Chicago continued to improve last year as their talented young core accomplished the team’s first playoff series victory since Michael Jordan retired for the second time. Scott Skiles has done a tremendous job with this team and despite a shaky start with star center Ben Wallace, come late in the season they appeared to be on the same page.

With very little size in the back court and absolutely no low post scoring outside of Aaron Gray (Yeah, it’s that bad) it is very possible that this team has hit their plateau. That’s why you heard their name in potential Garnett deals, and continue to hear them regarding Kobe Bryant. This team as currently assembled is not a championship squad. Their small guards and no low post scoring will be exposed when they go against the likes of Detroit and Boston.

If the goal in Chicago is to win a championship and not be a perennial playoff team – a deal must be made. They don’t need to blow the team up in order to complete a Kobe Bryant trade, but if they could make a run after Jermaine O’Neal or another low post scorer to put alongside Ben Wallace they would see immediate results. They don’t have to answer both of their major weaknesses right now, but certainly one of the needs to be met. Gordon’s ability to score the ball make him a valuable part of what this team does, and if defensively he’s getting exposed they can put in second year man Thabo Sefalosha – who did an admire job on Dwayne Wade last year in the first round.

They have the potential to win this division and another playoff series – but this is not a team that can contend for a title unless some move is made.

Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland had their best year in franchise history last year as they reached the finals for what many hope to be just the first time of many in the Lebron James era. They were swept by the overpowering Spurs, but just getting there was an accomplishment in itself for the Cavaliers that had gone through some really down years before drafting Lebron. Last year was really a best case scenario for the Cavaliers, I don’t’ think there was any scenario where they could have won the championship. Dallas, Phoenix, and Utah all would have beaten them in a seven game series.

The off season did not bring very good news for the Cavaliers. Up until today they were in a stalemate with Sasha Pavlovic, but they were able to sign him to a three year deal just today. Sasha will come in with no training camp or workout with the team, just be thrown into a fire. Anderson Varaejo remains unsigned. While both of these players are not high level players by any means – they were intricate parts of the Cavaliers success.

Cleveland may have come to terms with the fact that they can’t resign Anderson and brought in the athletic, but raw Cedric Simmons. Simmons is an intriguing prospect, but it’s far-fetched to think that he’ll contribute at the rate Anderson did last year. They’ll look for Devin Brown to have a flashback to his San Antonio days when he was a lethal scorer alongside Tim Duncan and company.

Along with him a lot of their hope is put in second year guards Daniel Gibson and Shannon Brown. Gibson cannot handle the ball at the level that an NBA point guard can, and because of that he’ll be limited to playing the off guard role. Against bigger guards, Gibson will be exposed on the defensive end of the court relentlessly. Athletically Brown is a high caliber player, but whether or not he can come in and play the point in spurts will determine whether or not he is on the floor.

 Lebron’s name will be in the MVP race this year, and his numbers will be mind boggeling as usual – but this is not a team that is capable of making it to the NBA finals again unless some changes are made.

Indiana Pacers

After having some successful years under Rick Carlisle, the 2007 season ended his tenure as Pacers head coach as they had a 35 win season and decided to move in another direction and bring in Jim O’Brien to replace him. With O’Brien comes an up tempo system that he hopes to install. With this system a lot of pressure will be put on struggling guard Jamaal Tinsley.

Tinsley’s career has hit a bit of decline the past few years after being thought of as one the league’s more talented young guards. While this system does favor him and several of the other Pacers – I do not think it fits the games of Jermaine O’Neal, Troy Murphy, and Mike Dunleavy. These three players, who are also the top paid on this Pacer squad, are better served in the half court. This could work to their advantage though as you cannot run on every play, and when they can’t they have viable half court options in those three.

Couple players along with Jamaal Tinsley are on the hot seat to produce. Ike Diogu enters his third year in the league after being drafted 8th overall by the Golden State Warriors. Ike’s dominant low post game in college has not transferred over very well in the pros yet – although he has been on two teams whose goal was to push the ball.

Danny Granger, who was deemed the only player untouchable by Larry Bird, enters his third season with very lofty expectations. Granger is an intriguing player at 6’9 who averaged 13 points and 4 boards a game last year. As athletic as he is and good as he is defensively they’d like to see the steals per game be above .8 but they will moreso be looking for him to step up and take the iniative as the number one offensive option on the perimeter.

This Pacers team does not lack playoff talent by any means, but they may not have the coaching staff or system in place to do so. Jermaine’s name has been brought up in trade rumors just as recently as last night, and it may be time for the Pacers to trade their talented forward as their championship window is not only closed – it’s locked and shut with strapping contracts like Dunleavy and Murphy’s.

Milwaukee Bucks

Last year was a definite struggle for the Milwaukee Bucks as they started it off by losing their big free agent signee Bobby Simmons for the year, and major injuries continued to keep them from getting anything going the rest of the year. Come the end of the year, they shut it down for both Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva and while tanking accusations occured they did not end up with one of the top three picks. They did end up getting a very talented player at number six in Yi Jianlian after jumping through hoops to get him to sign.

The Bucks are not lacking talent by any means. They have one of the best pure shooters in the league in Michael Redd, a solid guard rotation with Williams and Bell, and two versatile post players in Villanueva and Bogut. Desmond Mason is an explosive player on offense and holds his own defensively. Bobby Simmons is the real wild card on this team. If he can play anything like he did during his contract year with the Clippers than this Bucks team is underrated by me, but this is an awfully tough division and I’m really worried about the amount of question marks regarding this team.

Health is the biggest concern, and while this team has some very good players – they are not a very deep team. I’m not so sure they can rebound from a Michael Redd injury or one to one of their starting big guys. It’s too early to depend on Yi – especially looking at how he handled the strength of lower teir NBA players. They may get off to a hot start – but I don’t think they can keep it up throughout the entire season. They’re a good team, and possibly ranked a spot  too low in this division – but not a playoff team.

Central division standings predictions:

1. Detroit Pistons
2. Chicago Bulls
3. Cleveland Cavaliers
4. Indiana Pacers
5. Milwaukee Bucks