It’s long, it’s exciting and it’s as anticipated now as it’s been in several years. No, this isn’t any type of clever innuendo. We’re talking about the 2014-15 NBA Season! The champs are out West, the depth is out West, but all the intrigue is in the East, specifically in the Central Division. Why?
LeBron James is why.
And Kevin Love. And Kyrie Irving. And Derrick Rose. And Jabari Parker. And Paul George’s leg. And Andre Drummond’s social-stalker tendencies.
Sidebar: Note to Mr. Drummond: It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, if you can Google “your name + stalk” and actually get a result, you’re letting Nas down.
We’ve covered the summer for the Cleveland Cavaliers at great length at HHSR— from King James’ return to his rightful kingdom, to the Kevin Love trade and the real unsung heroes who made it all possible. Yet flying under the radar is the return of another former MVP to his hometown team.
Chicago Bulls
The whole Chi-City hopes Derrick Rose’s return goes much more smoothly this time around (I mean, he’s all out of knees to blow out!). One more significant injury and D Rose will officially become this generation’s Penny Hardaway, but even Penny made the Finals once before his body failed him. Like Penny, for the first time in his career Rose has a legitimate offense post threat on his team in the form of former Lakers center Pau Gasol. The question is how much does the 34-year-old have left in the tank?
Even if he’s not the offensive force he once was, Rose stands to benefit greatly from the Spaniard’s presence, as Gasol’s passing, rebounding and length allow him to be highly-effective without the ball. He’s clearly an upgrade over Carlos Boozer — who ironically is now a Laker — and trying to drive the lane and finishing over Gasol, and 2014’s Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah, will be a tall task for anyone. Best believe, this squad will again be hanging their hat on their top flight defense, and with Gasol, their size.
Chicago also retained Mike Dunleavy and traded for a Mike Dunleavy clone on draft night. You probably know him as Dougie McBuckets— Doug McDermott actually balled out in summer league though.
The Bulls can absolutely contend for the Eastern crown this year if Derrick Rose can stay healthy and return to form, but that “IF” might as well be the size of Lake Michigan. And the guy who shot .273 during the FIBA World Cup tournament has not yet come close to “returning to form”.
Sidebar: Seriously, it took Rose one year of college and like four years in the NBA before he learned how to shoot, and now he’s back to square one.
Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers season unfortunately was sabotaged before it ever got off the ground after the aforementioned injury to Paul George’s leg. That said, this team’s window appeared to be shutting at breakneck speed anyway. The tough, defensive-oriented “blue collar, gold swagger” Pacers never had their breakthrough, which would’ve only come through defeating the Miami Heat in the playoffs. Three times the Pacers attempted to slay Goliath, three times they failed— twice in the conference finals. If you can’t beat a team once in three straight tries in the playoffs, it just ain’t meant to be. Even if the George injury doesn’t happen, the Pacers wouldn’t have escaped their destiny as this generation’s version of the New York Knicks of 20 years ago (or to a lesser extent, the Sacramento Kings of 10 years ago).
Indy went all in last year, which was the correct move, however Larry Legend’s decisions couldn’t get them them over the top. Andrew Bynum barely played (shocker), Evan Turner played but had roughly the same impact as Andrew Bynum, and losing locker room-leader Danny Granger seemed to put an hex on this team, which was ultimately a deathblow to an already emotionally unstable bunch. Now Lance Stephenson is gone, PG is down, George Hill is still the starting point guard and Roy Hibbert (if not traded), will be forced to shoulder much more of the offensive burden.
Rodney Stuckey won’t save you, Indy…the Pacers are in trouble.
Detroit Pistons
The Pistons meanwhile may have lost Stuckey, but they did retain the services of Greg Monroe, a move which was somewhat befuddling. Granted, they only gave Monroe a one-year qualifying offer for $5.5M, but pairing him with Andre Drummond and the out-of-place Josh Smith made for an awkward front line that HHSR pointed out in last year’s preview probably wouldn’t work. The Pistons did bring in Stan Van Gundy to run the show and coach the team, replacing Joe Dumars and (some dude named John Loyer) at the same damn time!
Van Gundy will provide much needed stability in the front office and on the sideline because — as Jeezy once said — he ain’t gonna fire himself. Dumars’ failures since the Pistons glory years of the mid 2000s have been well-chronicled, but it’s up to Super Mario (aka Stan Van) to sift through the debris of personnel mistakes. Dumars’ last draft pick was Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a second-year shooting guard who showed flashes late last season and killed it in Summer League play this past July. The problem is his greatest obstacle may be standing right next to him. Until Brandon Jennings learns either how to shoot consistently (.390 from the field for his career, and in decline two straight years), or how to become an effective pass-first PG (fat chance), he’ll undoubtedly stunt Kentavious Caldwell’s growth.
The East is still by far the weaker conference, but this Detroit team still doesn’t fit. If Van Gundy can’t at least make the playoffs this season, he’ll need to blow this thing up ASAP. In fact, if they’re out of it by late January, everybody sans Drummond should be in play be moved by the trade deadline. But much like Flip Saunders out west, will Stan be willing to properly construct a young team from the bottom up, AND coach it too?
Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks don’t have to worry about none of that. They have the fourth lowest payroll in the NBA (one spot ahead of Detroit actually), which is reflected by the lack of talent on this team. What exactly did the Bucks do this offseason? They drafted Jabari Parker, a can’t-miss prospect who could average close to 20 ppg this season, they sent a cute blonde girl to the draft lottery and they drove the getaway car for Jason Kidd as he hightailed it out of Brooklyn like a thief in the night.
Not a bad way to press the reset button on your franchise.
Always resourceful, Kidd somehow parlayed one underachieving year coaching the Nets into a brand new deal between $4M and $5M annually (yes, this was a raise for him) to coach Milwaukee. Now the “win-now” pressure is off, and Kidd can take his time grooming a young nucleus of Parker, John Henson, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Larry Sanders blunt-rolling, dog-freezing, fist-fighting ass. But this team is at least a good two to three years away from making the postseason…in the East.
Sidebar: Remember when Jason Kidd used to rap? I tried to forget. I really did.
Cleveland Cavaliers
In the weeks leading up to the start of this season, you’ll hear a ton of talking heads, and members of the Cavs organization themselves, say things like, “This will take time, the Cavs will need to gel first, the Cavs have to learn how to play together and learn David Blatt’s system…yadda yadda yadda.”
STOP IT! JUST STOP!!!
Sure, the Cavs turned over 2/3 of their roster, and therefore won’t have enough collective experience or, to quote Doug Collins, “sweat equity” to win the NBA championship in November. Fortunately for them, the NBA Finals ain’t played in November. The truth is, this Cavaliers team can roll out of bed and win 60 games and make the Eastern Conference Finals. Anybody that says anything otherwise is just trolling, or hating. The ’09 Cavs won 66 games with a team whose second banana was Mo Williams, and was led by Mike Brown and a far less refined LeBron James. So miss me with all the “Cavs need time to gel” talk.
That doesn’t mean it will be easy. But the talent on this roster, even without a dominant rim protector or a ton of players known for their defensive prowess, should overcome these deficiencies to win the Central Division and earn the top seed in the East.
These issues will become real problems once Cleveland is up against the league’s elite deep in the playoffs. The experience factor though will probably have less of an impact than many realize. Not that it isn’t a real thing (ask any Cavs fan about Mo Williams and the pressure of playing on the big stage), but the lack of playoff experience possessed by Love, Irving, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, and even Blatt will be buoyed by the knowledge of LeBron, Anderson Varejao, Mike Miller, Shawn Marion, James Jones and even Tyronne Lue.
Sidebar: Has an NBA team ever had assistant head coach before? Lue may be the first.
The biggest key for this team is health. Three key components, Irving, Love and Varejao have constantly battled injuries over the years. If this trio is forced to miss significant time, it will obviously hamper their chances at a top seed in the playoffs, and the cohesiveness of this group will surely improve as long as everyone can stay on the court. From a pure basketball perspective though, the Cavaliers should be great. They should lead the league in scoring and rebounding (or come close) from day one. And pick and roll combinations are endless: Irving & James, James & Love, Irving & Love, Waiters & James, Waiters & Love, James & Thompson, Irving & Thompson, Irving & Varejao, or the classic…James & Varejao.
The Cavs will win the Central, but the Bulls will definitely make their presence felt. The renewal of this rivalry will be fun, but the division’s other three teams will struggle to make the playoffs. Ultimately, the difference is only one organization can say LeBron James and Kevin Love…and Kyrie Irving play on the same team our team. Everybody else is simply a Cav-not.