The Central Division has all the potential to be the most highly competitive division in the league this season. But who will come out on top?
Detroit Pistons
What’s Hot: Results from the annual NBA GM Survey were released earlier this week, and the men in charge of building the league’s 30 teams believe the Pistons would be the most improved squad of 2013-14. However, 10.3% of them also said if they could start a franchise with any player, they would choose somebody not named LeBron James. So there’s that.
Still, GM Joe Dumars has his Pistons in position to make a return trip to the postseason. They dealt America’s favorite punching bag — Brandon Knight — to a division rival in exchange for Brandon Jennings. The young pieces on this team (dare we say) actually have people excited about Detroit! Outside the impending release of Eminem’s new album, this was not believed to be possible.
All kidding aside, the Pistons youthful duo of Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond (a player who we’ve been a fan of since before last year’s draft) make for an intimidating front line. Then they went out and shocked the NBA by landing Josh Smith as a free agent (who averaged 18 points and 9 boards per game the last two seasons). Add to that a sharpshooting two-guard named Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (that’s a quality name right there) with their lottery pick and new coach Maurice Cheeks has a lot to work with.
What’s Not Hot: New coach Maurice Cheeks has a lot to work with…which means he could easily struggle to find the proper rotations for this squad out the gate, if not outright botch them altogether. As talented as the Smith-Monroe-Drummond trio is, it’s hard to imagine them playing a ton of minutes together. They can rebound, block shots and dunk, but they wouldn’t be able to guard anyone on the perimeter or shoot outside of 10 feet.
Sidebar: Have you seen Drummond shot free throws?
Moreover, their offense will now have to function with Brandon Jennings running the show, a man who’s never seen a 25-footer he didn’t like.
What The Future Holds: The Pistons will make the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoffs this year, but unless their young talent (basically everyone mentioned above, outside of Smith) really elevates their game, Detroit could be dangerously close to the staying in NBA purgatory (not a legit contender, but not at the bottom of the standings, aka the top of the lottery, either) for longer than they’d care to be there. If things get tough, look for them to try to deal Charlie Villanueva and or Rodney Stuckey, each of whom have expiring contracts.
Milwaukee Bucks
What’s Hot: After Larry Sanders and John Henson, the pickings get slim pretty quick. These two players can really get off the floor and protect the rim. They acquired the aforementioned Brandon Knight and lost Monta Ellis to free agency, thus officially ending the Brandon Jennings/Monta Ellis experiment (And wasn’t that fun? Who didn’t see that crashing and burning?), which ultimately was for the best.
What’s Not Hot: It’s hard to say what GM John Hammond is trying to do with this team. They spent roughly $38 million on Caron Butler, OJ Mayo and Gary Neal, which wouldn’t have been a horrible strategy if they were a team of the cusp of contending for a title. Essentially, they are either trying to build up the role players on this team in the hopes of landing a star through free agency (not happening) or trade, or they spent this money only in an attempt to get up to the league’s required minimum team salary.
What The Future Holds: The lottery. And a guaranteed last place finish in the Central Division. The good news is Gary Neal and OJ Mayo will each get to take 20 shots per game. Welcome to Milwaukee.
Cleveland Cavaliers
What’s Hot: This Cavaliers team will make a major push in 2013-14. Power forward Tristan Thompson made significant strides in the second half last season. He finished the year averaging just under 12 points and 9.5 rebounds per night, and is now shooting with his right hand, with encouraging results so far. Thompson also finished second in the league in total offensive rebounds last year, trailing league-leader Zach Randolph only by four. The constantly underrated Anderson Varejao is back from injury (averaged 14 points and a league-leading 14 boards per game until he got hurt in 2012-13) and the Cavs have added #1 overall draft pick Anthony Bennett — who looks like a young Z-Bo with range — and free agent center Andrew Bynum to solidify the frontcourt.
The backcourt is led by the incomparable Kyrie Irving— recently named the eighth best player in the league by ESPN (somehow after two years we’ve yet to see Kyrie and Derrick Rose square off in an NBA game. Finally getting to see this dream matchup four times per year will be fun). We heavily praised Uncle Drew in last year’s preseason column and he’s proved us clairvoyant thus far. Last year, Irving dropped 22.5 points and 5.9 dimes per game, won the Three-Point Shootout, made his first All-Star team and once again lit up the NBA with a slew of clutch performances.
General manager Chris Grant finally found a suitable mentor/backup for Irving in the form of Jarrett Jack, who once backed up Chris Paul did wonders for Stephen Curry’s development. Grant also brought back former Cavs head coach Mike Brown for his second stint with the team in that role, in a desperate and intelligent attempt to boost the Cavaliers atrocious defense from a year ago.
What’s Not Hot: Injuries have plagued the Cavaliers every year since LeBron James bolted for Miami. Varejao and Bynum (more specifically Varejao) needs to get and stay healthy for the Cavs to have any sort of chance. Anything they get from Bynum will be gravy, as a minimal financial commitment was made to bring in the former Laker. Irving too has dealt with more than his share of nagging injuries in college and the pros.
Bennett is also coming off of shoulder surgery this summer— he’ll have to successfully overcome that, and carbohydrates, if he wants to make an immediate impact.
What The Future Holds: After winning less than 25 games each of the last three years, the Cavs, barring injury, will finally breakthrough and make the playoffs for the first time in the post-LeBron era. How far this team will go will depend heavily on health, and if Irving and Dion Waiters (both ball-dominant guards) can learn to play off one another.
Indiana Pacers
What’s Hot: One game. That’s how close the Pacers came to the NBA Finals last spring. Not to many people saw it coming, but the Pacers elite defensive and rebounding performance last season put the entire league on notice that Nap Town was for real. Paul George (known around here as “The Total Package”) signed a five-year max extension that could be worth over $90M when all is said and done. This move officially locked up the Pacers core group of George, Roy Hibbert and David West.
Danny Granger played only five games a year ago, but should be on track to return this season. Indiana also overturned their entire bench — which was absolutely their weakest link — having brought in Luis Scola, CJ Watson and Chris Copeland.
What’s Not Hot: Though the Pacers had one of the league’s top defenses last year, they averaged only 94.7 points per night, 23rd in the league and (even with the new additions) don’t appear to have the firepower to greatly increase that number. Point guard George Hill was wack in the playoffs and will once again be running the offense for Indy; Hill would be better served as a combo guard off the bench as he once was in San Antonio. Lastly, Paul George flourished with Granger out of the lineup. It’s unknown whether or not they will be able to coexist, and if the money won’t cause George to rest on his laurels.
What The Future Holds: Indiana will contend for the the division title, and once again, for the conference. Granger’s $14M deal comes off the books after this year, so it wouldn’t be a total shock if he were traded before the deadline. Regardless, Indy will remain one of the four best teams in the East.
Jimmy Butler (right) should continue to be one of the division’s bright young players…assuming he keeps his head on straight.
Chicago Bulls
What’s Hot: The return of Derrick Rose…and the rest of the Bulls starting lineup.
Chicago brought back most of the critical pieces from last year’s team (sans Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli) and added shooting with Mike Dunleavy and Tony Snell. Chi-City also boasts arguably the league’s best defensive team and with the emergence of the black Bart Simpson (Jimmy Butler) are now in position to return to prominence in the conference.
What’s Not Hot: Several guys are coming off of injury on this team. More importantly, the Bulls still haven’t addressed their largest issue over the last several years: the lack of a consistent scoring threat in the low post. To take that a step further, the Bulls still don’t have much one-on-one firepower beyond #1, especially with Robinson’s departure.
What The Future Holds: D Rose’s return is easily the most compelling storyline of the 2013-14 campaign, even more than the Heat’s quest for three straight titles. Chicago finished the preseason 8-0 (for whatever that’s worth) and Rose has been dynamic. He appears to have the same athleticism and laser focus he’s always had, only now he has a team that was empowered by his absence last season. Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich sharpened their leadership skills and Jimmy Butler has rapidly turned into one of the best young two-way players in the game.
It appears as though Noah will begin this season the same way he ended the last one— banged up. But assuming he can reach 100% again, the Bulls should be able to edge out a Pacers team that is still prone to inconsistency to reclaim the division crown.
To see the HHSR Atlantic Division preview, click here.
To see the HHSR Southeast Division preview and Eastern Conference Champion pick, click here.