Right smack dab in the middle
Another day another division. Since we've looked at two from the Western Conference and I'm all for equality and balance, it's time to look at another division from the east and since we're saving the Atlantic for last and we've already done the Soutleast that means it's time to look at the central. This is most likely the most competative division in the east and will likely produce the most playoff teams of any eastern division. So without any further delays lets take a look at the central.
CENTRAL DIVISION
Chicago Bulls: Da Bulls should be pretty good. Last year they finished 41-41 and went 21-20 at home and 20-21 on the road, yay for balance. The bovines of the midway made a big splash on the free agent market this past year, signing four time defensive player of the year Ben Wallace away from division rival Detroit. The Bulls are hoping Wallace, along with PJ Brown, acquired in a trade will make an already tough defense even tougher. Supplying some shot blocking off the bench is rookie Tyrus Thomas who is uber athletic and has springs in his legs where his calves should be. Adrian Griffin is a do everything guy off the bench who is capeable perimeter defender. Same deal with Chris Duhon, who is a nice back-up point guard and plays some solid defense. So defense shouldn't be their issue, it's putting the ball in that could present some problems. Kirk Hinrich runs the offense and he runs it well. In fact he seems to be just as comfortable playing in transition as he does in the half court and he has a decent jump shot which is always a plus. Some of the offensive burden will also fall on Ben Gordon and he has the ability to fill up a stat sheet in a matter of minutes, it's just a matter of him being consistent. There are some nights when he could throw a pea into a straw and other nights he would have a hard time getting a tennis ball into the Grand Canyon. If you're looking for a guy to have a breakout year it could be him....in fact it would help the Bulls a great deal if it was him. Luol Deng is another interesting player. If he can get his jumper to be consistent, he could ease some of the offensive pressure on Gordon. Deng is very lanky (I can't say long, I don't wanna feel like Jay Bilas) and that helps him get seperation on his jumper. They don't really have much in the post offense department, well actually they have quite a bit if you take that in the literal sense. Mike Sweetney, a back-up power forward actually has a nice post up game, problem is he takes up a little too much of the post. He's listed at 6'8" and 270lbs. The height I buy, the weight, well if he's 270lbs then Chris Farley in his prime was only pushing 185 and we all know that's not true (Yeah, Chris Farley reference.....couldn't think of a famous fat person right now). This team would actually be really well served if they got out and ran. Gordon, Deng and Thomas can all score in transition and Hinrich is more than capeable of running a break. They should have plenty of opputunity to run if they play defense like they did last year (lots of missed shots = lots of chances to rebound and run). They've got the bodies to rebound and hell, Wallace's best shot (only) is finishing off a lob pass, so he'd be better served to get out in transition too. They've got all the makings of a playoff team, even one that could make a run in the east. And while defense will carry them a good ways, they still have to put the ball in the hole on the other end as well. Should be fun to watch.
Cleveland Cavaliers: This is everybodies favorite "it" team in the east and with somewhat good reason, because of, you guessed....Ira Newble. Alright, that's obviously not it, it's LeBron James. Even if you don't follow basketball you know who LeBron is, which is good and bad. Good because it might get casual people interested in the NBA, bad because well we live in a world of overkill. I've got nothing against LeBron, he's a great player, could be transcendent, I'm just tired of hearing about him every waking moment of every waking day. I'm tired of people call him Bron-Bron and treating him like some kind of diety. But that's the world we live in and I like sports too much to get out of it, so here I be. He does everything well, except play defense and he's obviously in the elite of the league. So he goes, so go the Cavs. Another key cog in all of this is Larry Hughes. Brought in to be the Pippen to LeBron's Jordan, injuries never let such a thing materialize last year. Hughes, if healthy will give the Cavs another option on offense, which they need and he gives them a solid defender....essentially what Pippen was on the Jordan Bulls. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, when healthy can be a very effective center. The problem with him is two-fold however. Issue one is he doesn't provide much intertior defense because he has all the agility of a street lamp. Issue two is that he also has the speed of a street lamp, so he can really slow down the offense when he's on the floor. In the power forward slot they have Drew Gooden who is downright confounding. Some nights he looks like an All-Star other nights he looks like he's confused by the concept of basketball, let alone what he's supposed to be doing on the court. They do have a lot of perimeter threats with Donyell Marshall, David Wesley and Damon Jones, the problem is they don't really have a point guard. Eric Snow was respectable a few years ago, notice the past tense in that and draw your conclusions as to what he is now. Damon Jones really isn't a point guard, he just plays one on TV. That being said, they'll be running the majority of the offense through James and Hughes, so the point guards are essentially there to be a fifth body on the floor. A fun guy to watch is Anderson Varejao, not only because he just seems to do good things when he's on the floor, but his hair looks like a cotton ball exploded on his head. Scott Pollard will also get some minutes down low for this team and I'm just wondering how many different hair styles he'll sport this season....I'm putting the over/under at 3....in fact I wonder what number will be higher this season, Pollard's scoring average or his number of hair styles....I'm hoping for hair. They'll be a playoff team, that's for sure, a contender in the east for sure....I have no way to finsh this, so lets just agree that we're done.
Detroit Pistons: Last year the Pistons got off to a blistering start. Halfway through their schedule last year they were 36-5 and on pace to challenge the 70 win mark. Well they didn't finish with 70, they ended up with a league best 64, nothing to sneeze at. Perhaps the biggest move they made in the off season was not re-signing Ben Wallace....well not so much that they didn't sign him, rather Chicago signed him away but I digress. Wallace's calling card is of course his defense. The Pistons defened well as a team, but they don't really have any great individual defenders. Tayshaun Prince is pretty damn good though and Chauncey Billups will also qualify as good. Rasheed Wallace is a decent defender in this teams' scheme and Richard Hamilton is athletic enough to stay with people on the perimeter. The problem with no Wallace is that leaves a glaring lack of a presence in the middle. Wallace not only blocked shots, he altered a lot as well. He was their stop gap in the middle and he allowed the perimeter defenders to take chances because they knew he would have their back. Also, while he didn't put up a lot of points on offense, he did something well on that end, rebound. He average just over 3 1/2 offensive rebounds a game and accounted for over 1/3 of the Pistons entire offensive rebounding. Offensive rebounds add up to a lot of 2nd chance points and while I'm not saying those 2nd chance points will make or break Detroit, it'll hurt them. Nazr Mohammed was brought in to man the middle for the Pistons. He's pretty capeable offensively, even has a nice face up jumper from 10-12 feet. Just don't count on the rugged inside play of Wallace from the past few years. It seems like after making defense their calling card under Larry Brown, the Pistons are sliding to more explosive offensive approach under Flip Saunders. Makes sense, Saunders is a more offensive minded coach then Brown. That being said, they will really need to generate their offense on the perimeter. Rasheed Wallace can play with his back to the basket a little bit, but he likes to hang around the three point line more than the kids from Saved By the Bell liked to hang out at the Max. Prince is also a more perimeter oriented player, but can drive when needed on occaision. Billups is, you guessed a perimeter player and Hamilton is something of hybrid. He works on the perimeter, but slashes a lot to get open. I love watching him play because he could run all day, plus he posesses the lost art know as the mid range jumper. His range is also starting to expand some, a reason for excitement. Flip Murray was brought in during the offseason to come off the bench and well, it looks like a damn good move. Murray can play on the perimeter some, but he also can get to the hoop. He'll provide a change of pace off the bench that'll be good for this team, some one who can go to the hoop to score and force opposing defenses to collapse when he does, leaving his teammates open on the perimeter. The rest of the bench is pretty thing though, outside of Antonio McDyess who is not spectacular, but is certainly steady. Then again, the Pistons of the past have relied on pretty much 6-7 guys to win, so if it aint broke....ah but there's the beauty, the Pistons haven't broken. In the past three seasons the Pistons core ( Hamilton, Billups, Prince, B. Wallace, R. Wallace) never missed more than 10 games in a season. Last season, their starting line-up missed a grand total of five games amongst the five players (Hamilton - 2 Billups - 1 R. Wallace - 2) and their six man, McDyess appeared in all 82 regular seasons games. That's not great health, it's astounding. The question of course is what happened if one of them went down. Hasn't happened yet, have a feeling they are overdue. The thing I'm looking forward to the most this season is how many technical fouls Rasheed Wallace can acrew. He lead the leauge last year with 17 techs and is always a candidate to do so, but this year especially. Wallace seems to erupt worse than Mt. Vesuvious when a call doesn't go his way and this year NBA officials have been told to crack down and call T's when players either whine to much of become over animated in whining about a call. So Rasheed has a choice, either to tone down his antics or get whistled up like he's woman in a short skirt walking by a construction site. My guess is that he'll tone it down a little, well he'll have to if he wants to play at all. Last season, the leauge also put in a rule that calls for a player to receive an automatic one game suspension after receiving their 16th tech. After that, every other T they get (18,20,22, etc.) would result in a one game suspension. So if Sheed can't keep his cool, he won't be on the court. Should be fun to watch. See, you don't have to like basketball to be entertained by the NBA. Anyways, this will be a good team. Strong vets who know how to play together and win. That being said, I think that void in the middle is going to hurt more than they might think....maybe not so much in the regular season, but come playoff time they could be hurting. So yeah, playoff team beyond a doubt, how far do they go in the playoffs? Well that's where the doubt comes in.
Indiana Pacers: The Pacers have something old, something new, something borrowed (or playing on borrowed time methinks) and all they need is something blue and they can have themselves a wedding. My guess is that a wedding is unlikely and that they'll prefer to play basketball instead, so lets look at that. In the something old category is Jermaine O'Neal. Though only 28 this year, this will be O'Neal's 11th season. While not old, you can see that the clock and windo for winning in Indiana is getting smaller. Health has been one of his biggest issues as he missed 31 games last year and 38 games the year before. If he can stay on the court then the Pacers could make some noise in the East, it's just a matter of him staying healthy. The new for the Pacers is two fold and well, one of the new things is something old. Al Harrington was drafted by the Pacers in 1998 and played for them for six seasons before going to Atlanta. A sign and trade brought Harrington back and the Pacers are hoping that he can pick up some of the scoring void that will be left from the departure of Peja Stojakovic, who the Pacers picked up for in exchange of Ron Artest last season. Harrington, while not the Stojakovic is, should provide a more well rounded offense game and some defense as well. Something borrowed, with my best guess is Stephen Jackson. There is not doubt the guy can play and is a legit NBA scorer. The only issue seems to be is that he is a few eggs short of a dozen. While the classic kind of crazy, he is quite simply crazy, as evidenced by him running into the stand during the brawl at the Palace a few years ago and throwing haymakers as if he were fighting to get out of the gates of hell. During the pre-season he was charged with felony criminal recklessness, battery and disorderly conduct for discharging a firearm outside a strip club at 3 in the morning after he was assualted by and individual outside the club. It's important to note he shot the gun as the car carrying his assailant was leaving the scene and he claimed he fired the gun in self defense. Usually when some one is leaving the scene of an altercation there is no more need for defending yourself, but apparently Mr. Jackson feels otherwise. I just have feeling he's going to get shipped out before all is said and done. I think that will really help the Pacers eliminate all memories of the brawl and truly move on. Plus, if he's gone, they can shift Harrington to the small forward spot and open up some playing time for Danny Granger and David Harrison in that spot. Both are a little rough around the edges, but both posess a lot of physical ability and could certainly blossom given enough time. They also picked up Marquis Daniels in a trade with Dallas and he should bring them a good perimeter presence on defense. His offensive numbers should also increase now that he'll have more and more consistent playing time. Jeff Foster is a solid back-up who can play either the 4 or 5 spot and he rebounds very well and puts up good rebounding numbers despite his limited minutes. I really like this team and while it's hard to call them a sleeper since they should be making the playoffs, I really feel they could do some damage. I don't know why I feel this, just. That is of course if they can unload Jackson. I know they'll take a hit offensively, but it'll do so much for their peace of mind it won't matter. That being said, I don't know who the hell would take him, but as long as Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale are running teams in this league, well then anything is possible. Good team, they'll make the playoffs and maybe, if everything falls right for them, they'll make some noise too.
Milwaukee Bucks: Is there a more non-descript team than the Milwaukee Bucks? Yeah, I didn't think so either. You look at them and wonder how they won 40 games last year and you wonder how they'll do it again, if they can do it again that is. Well, I think they can do it again, but I think they're going to have one hell of a time doing it and a hell of time making the playofs because every other team in their division is better than them. This is not to say the Bucks are a bad team, they're actually pretty decent. Hell if they were in the Atlantic I'd probably have them challenging the Nets for the division title. Their kind of like the Honets in the regard that they are in the wrong division. No one on the Bucks really jumps out at you. Their biggest name is Michael Redd who strokes it better than a 15 year old with a Playboy. (Let that one sink in for a second) Seriously though, the guy can shoot....he's almost on a Ray Allen like level. Mo Williams takes over the point for the Bucks for the departed TJ Ford. While not a true point guard Williams can get up and down the floor a lil bit and his jumper is much more reliable than Ford's. Ford left by way of the trade to Toronto and in return the Bucks received Charlie Villanueva a rangy 6-11' player they'll plug in at power forward. Villanueva showed some good signs last year with the Raptors, he just needs to be more consistent. Case point, after scoring six points in two consecutive games last year, he went off for 48 points against the Bucks and followed up that performace with two games in which he scored 13 points and then 4.....might be a dramatic example, but you get the idea. If he can develop into a viable number two scoring option that should help the Bucks dramatically. In the small forward spot is Bobby Simmons who is just solid for lack of a better term. He plays nice defense, can shoot a little bit, just seems to not to do one thing outstanding, just a little bit of everything well. Same for Andrew Bogut in the middle. Bogut is more rugged down low than most people though he would be and has a little bit of range on his jump shot (side note - Bogut is expected to miss the first month or two of the season with a leg injury or as Al Michaels would say, ..."he'll be missing 6-8 weeks with a leg,"....and yes I'm aware I stole that bit from Bill Simmons, but he's not the only person who has made that observation, moving on). Their bench in all honesty isn't that great, but it isn't tha bad either. It's essentially made up of guys that are great NBA back-ups. Ruben Patterson, despite having a rap sheet that if it were red could double as a carpet for a movie premiere, does give them a hard nosed presence off the which all teams need. Charlie Bell can also play either wing position and Steve Blake will take care of the ball when he runs the point and help guys in the 2nd unit find shot even if he does look like a clown that just took off its make up. Dan Gadzuric is the ultimate back-up center. He can run the floor, block a couple of shots and just provide some energy off the bench. So while there are no stalwarts off the bench at least it's solid and 3-4 people deep. The Bucks are just a very likeable team and I wish I could pick better things for them to do, I just can't. Their division is just too tough and unless something catestrophic happens to one of the teams ahead of them, I just don't see how they end up ahead of any of them, which means the playoffs could be tough to come by for the Bucks. Tough luck for the Bucks.
And there you have it the NBA's Central Division. Might be the most competitive good division in the east. Notice the use of competitive and good. The Atlantic will be competitive, just not good. So without wasting a lot more time, lets get onto some division finishes.
1. Detroit - I know a lot of peolpe are picking the Cavs in this division....I just feel the Pistons have one more division crown in them, then it's the Cavs turn....unless some one goes down for Detroit, then it's Cleveland's division to lose.
2. Cleveland - They'll make it close, wouldn't be surprised if they won, I just don't know if they will over take the Pistons this year....if they met in the playoffs again I'd lean towards Cleveland...it'll be a fun race to watch.
3. Chicago - I think they're going to make a leap this year, in fact if the Pistons falter I wouldn't be surprised if the Bulls grabbed a second place finish in the division.
4. Indiana - I really want to put them higher but I can't, not yet at least, kind of like.....
5. Milwaukee - .....the Bucks. They'd be higher most anywhere else in the east, unfortunately this is where they reside, but dems da breaks.
And that boys and girls is the Central division, probably the East's best. It'll be tight and hotly contested all season long, kinda makes me wish I lived an hour to the left. Anyway, two more divisions to go, one of them will be up soon, but until then.....
CENTRAL DIVISION
Chicago Bulls: Da Bulls should be pretty good. Last year they finished 41-41 and went 21-20 at home and 20-21 on the road, yay for balance. The bovines of the midway made a big splash on the free agent market this past year, signing four time defensive player of the year Ben Wallace away from division rival Detroit. The Bulls are hoping Wallace, along with PJ Brown, acquired in a trade will make an already tough defense even tougher. Supplying some shot blocking off the bench is rookie Tyrus Thomas who is uber athletic and has springs in his legs where his calves should be. Adrian Griffin is a do everything guy off the bench who is capeable perimeter defender. Same deal with Chris Duhon, who is a nice back-up point guard and plays some solid defense. So defense shouldn't be their issue, it's putting the ball in that could present some problems. Kirk Hinrich runs the offense and he runs it well. In fact he seems to be just as comfortable playing in transition as he does in the half court and he has a decent jump shot which is always a plus. Some of the offensive burden will also fall on Ben Gordon and he has the ability to fill up a stat sheet in a matter of minutes, it's just a matter of him being consistent. There are some nights when he could throw a pea into a straw and other nights he would have a hard time getting a tennis ball into the Grand Canyon. If you're looking for a guy to have a breakout year it could be him....in fact it would help the Bulls a great deal if it was him. Luol Deng is another interesting player. If he can get his jumper to be consistent, he could ease some of the offensive pressure on Gordon. Deng is very lanky (I can't say long, I don't wanna feel like Jay Bilas) and that helps him get seperation on his jumper. They don't really have much in the post offense department, well actually they have quite a bit if you take that in the literal sense. Mike Sweetney, a back-up power forward actually has a nice post up game, problem is he takes up a little too much of the post. He's listed at 6'8" and 270lbs. The height I buy, the weight, well if he's 270lbs then Chris Farley in his prime was only pushing 185 and we all know that's not true (Yeah, Chris Farley reference.....couldn't think of a famous fat person right now). This team would actually be really well served if they got out and ran. Gordon, Deng and Thomas can all score in transition and Hinrich is more than capeable of running a break. They should have plenty of opputunity to run if they play defense like they did last year (lots of missed shots = lots of chances to rebound and run). They've got the bodies to rebound and hell, Wallace's best shot (only) is finishing off a lob pass, so he'd be better served to get out in transition too. They've got all the makings of a playoff team, even one that could make a run in the east. And while defense will carry them a good ways, they still have to put the ball in the hole on the other end as well. Should be fun to watch.
Cleveland Cavaliers: This is everybodies favorite "it" team in the east and with somewhat good reason, because of, you guessed....Ira Newble. Alright, that's obviously not it, it's LeBron James. Even if you don't follow basketball you know who LeBron is, which is good and bad. Good because it might get casual people interested in the NBA, bad because well we live in a world of overkill. I've got nothing against LeBron, he's a great player, could be transcendent, I'm just tired of hearing about him every waking moment of every waking day. I'm tired of people call him Bron-Bron and treating him like some kind of diety. But that's the world we live in and I like sports too much to get out of it, so here I be. He does everything well, except play defense and he's obviously in the elite of the league. So he goes, so go the Cavs. Another key cog in all of this is Larry Hughes. Brought in to be the Pippen to LeBron's Jordan, injuries never let such a thing materialize last year. Hughes, if healthy will give the Cavs another option on offense, which they need and he gives them a solid defender....essentially what Pippen was on the Jordan Bulls. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, when healthy can be a very effective center. The problem with him is two-fold however. Issue one is he doesn't provide much intertior defense because he has all the agility of a street lamp. Issue two is that he also has the speed of a street lamp, so he can really slow down the offense when he's on the floor. In the power forward slot they have Drew Gooden who is downright confounding. Some nights he looks like an All-Star other nights he looks like he's confused by the concept of basketball, let alone what he's supposed to be doing on the court. They do have a lot of perimeter threats with Donyell Marshall, David Wesley and Damon Jones, the problem is they don't really have a point guard. Eric Snow was respectable a few years ago, notice the past tense in that and draw your conclusions as to what he is now. Damon Jones really isn't a point guard, he just plays one on TV. That being said, they'll be running the majority of the offense through James and Hughes, so the point guards are essentially there to be a fifth body on the floor. A fun guy to watch is Anderson Varejao, not only because he just seems to do good things when he's on the floor, but his hair looks like a cotton ball exploded on his head. Scott Pollard will also get some minutes down low for this team and I'm just wondering how many different hair styles he'll sport this season....I'm putting the over/under at 3....in fact I wonder what number will be higher this season, Pollard's scoring average or his number of hair styles....I'm hoping for hair. They'll be a playoff team, that's for sure, a contender in the east for sure....I have no way to finsh this, so lets just agree that we're done.
Detroit Pistons: Last year the Pistons got off to a blistering start. Halfway through their schedule last year they were 36-5 and on pace to challenge the 70 win mark. Well they didn't finish with 70, they ended up with a league best 64, nothing to sneeze at. Perhaps the biggest move they made in the off season was not re-signing Ben Wallace....well not so much that they didn't sign him, rather Chicago signed him away but I digress. Wallace's calling card is of course his defense. The Pistons defened well as a team, but they don't really have any great individual defenders. Tayshaun Prince is pretty damn good though and Chauncey Billups will also qualify as good. Rasheed Wallace is a decent defender in this teams' scheme and Richard Hamilton is athletic enough to stay with people on the perimeter. The problem with no Wallace is that leaves a glaring lack of a presence in the middle. Wallace not only blocked shots, he altered a lot as well. He was their stop gap in the middle and he allowed the perimeter defenders to take chances because they knew he would have their back. Also, while he didn't put up a lot of points on offense, he did something well on that end, rebound. He average just over 3 1/2 offensive rebounds a game and accounted for over 1/3 of the Pistons entire offensive rebounding. Offensive rebounds add up to a lot of 2nd chance points and while I'm not saying those 2nd chance points will make or break Detroit, it'll hurt them. Nazr Mohammed was brought in to man the middle for the Pistons. He's pretty capeable offensively, even has a nice face up jumper from 10-12 feet. Just don't count on the rugged inside play of Wallace from the past few years. It seems like after making defense their calling card under Larry Brown, the Pistons are sliding to more explosive offensive approach under Flip Saunders. Makes sense, Saunders is a more offensive minded coach then Brown. That being said, they will really need to generate their offense on the perimeter. Rasheed Wallace can play with his back to the basket a little bit, but he likes to hang around the three point line more than the kids from Saved By the Bell liked to hang out at the Max. Prince is also a more perimeter oriented player, but can drive when needed on occaision. Billups is, you guessed a perimeter player and Hamilton is something of hybrid. He works on the perimeter, but slashes a lot to get open. I love watching him play because he could run all day, plus he posesses the lost art know as the mid range jumper. His range is also starting to expand some, a reason for excitement. Flip Murray was brought in during the offseason to come off the bench and well, it looks like a damn good move. Murray can play on the perimeter some, but he also can get to the hoop. He'll provide a change of pace off the bench that'll be good for this team, some one who can go to the hoop to score and force opposing defenses to collapse when he does, leaving his teammates open on the perimeter. The rest of the bench is pretty thing though, outside of Antonio McDyess who is not spectacular, but is certainly steady. Then again, the Pistons of the past have relied on pretty much 6-7 guys to win, so if it aint broke....ah but there's the beauty, the Pistons haven't broken. In the past three seasons the Pistons core ( Hamilton, Billups, Prince, B. Wallace, R. Wallace) never missed more than 10 games in a season. Last season, their starting line-up missed a grand total of five games amongst the five players (Hamilton - 2 Billups - 1 R. Wallace - 2) and their six man, McDyess appeared in all 82 regular seasons games. That's not great health, it's astounding. The question of course is what happened if one of them went down. Hasn't happened yet, have a feeling they are overdue. The thing I'm looking forward to the most this season is how many technical fouls Rasheed Wallace can acrew. He lead the leauge last year with 17 techs and is always a candidate to do so, but this year especially. Wallace seems to erupt worse than Mt. Vesuvious when a call doesn't go his way and this year NBA officials have been told to crack down and call T's when players either whine to much of become over animated in whining about a call. So Rasheed has a choice, either to tone down his antics or get whistled up like he's woman in a short skirt walking by a construction site. My guess is that he'll tone it down a little, well he'll have to if he wants to play at all. Last season, the leauge also put in a rule that calls for a player to receive an automatic one game suspension after receiving their 16th tech. After that, every other T they get (18,20,22, etc.) would result in a one game suspension. So if Sheed can't keep his cool, he won't be on the court. Should be fun to watch. See, you don't have to like basketball to be entertained by the NBA. Anyways, this will be a good team. Strong vets who know how to play together and win. That being said, I think that void in the middle is going to hurt more than they might think....maybe not so much in the regular season, but come playoff time they could be hurting. So yeah, playoff team beyond a doubt, how far do they go in the playoffs? Well that's where the doubt comes in.
Indiana Pacers: The Pacers have something old, something new, something borrowed (or playing on borrowed time methinks) and all they need is something blue and they can have themselves a wedding. My guess is that a wedding is unlikely and that they'll prefer to play basketball instead, so lets look at that. In the something old category is Jermaine O'Neal. Though only 28 this year, this will be O'Neal's 11th season. While not old, you can see that the clock and windo for winning in Indiana is getting smaller. Health has been one of his biggest issues as he missed 31 games last year and 38 games the year before. If he can stay on the court then the Pacers could make some noise in the East, it's just a matter of him staying healthy. The new for the Pacers is two fold and well, one of the new things is something old. Al Harrington was drafted by the Pacers in 1998 and played for them for six seasons before going to Atlanta. A sign and trade brought Harrington back and the Pacers are hoping that he can pick up some of the scoring void that will be left from the departure of Peja Stojakovic, who the Pacers picked up for in exchange of Ron Artest last season. Harrington, while not the Stojakovic is, should provide a more well rounded offense game and some defense as well. Something borrowed, with my best guess is Stephen Jackson. There is not doubt the guy can play and is a legit NBA scorer. The only issue seems to be is that he is a few eggs short of a dozen. While the classic kind of crazy, he is quite simply crazy, as evidenced by him running into the stand during the brawl at the Palace a few years ago and throwing haymakers as if he were fighting to get out of the gates of hell. During the pre-season he was charged with felony criminal recklessness, battery and disorderly conduct for discharging a firearm outside a strip club at 3 in the morning after he was assualted by and individual outside the club. It's important to note he shot the gun as the car carrying his assailant was leaving the scene and he claimed he fired the gun in self defense. Usually when some one is leaving the scene of an altercation there is no more need for defending yourself, but apparently Mr. Jackson feels otherwise. I just have feeling he's going to get shipped out before all is said and done. I think that will really help the Pacers eliminate all memories of the brawl and truly move on. Plus, if he's gone, they can shift Harrington to the small forward spot and open up some playing time for Danny Granger and David Harrison in that spot. Both are a little rough around the edges, but both posess a lot of physical ability and could certainly blossom given enough time. They also picked up Marquis Daniels in a trade with Dallas and he should bring them a good perimeter presence on defense. His offensive numbers should also increase now that he'll have more and more consistent playing time. Jeff Foster is a solid back-up who can play either the 4 or 5 spot and he rebounds very well and puts up good rebounding numbers despite his limited minutes. I really like this team and while it's hard to call them a sleeper since they should be making the playoffs, I really feel they could do some damage. I don't know why I feel this, just. That is of course if they can unload Jackson. I know they'll take a hit offensively, but it'll do so much for their peace of mind it won't matter. That being said, I don't know who the hell would take him, but as long as Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale are running teams in this league, well then anything is possible. Good team, they'll make the playoffs and maybe, if everything falls right for them, they'll make some noise too.
Milwaukee Bucks: Is there a more non-descript team than the Milwaukee Bucks? Yeah, I didn't think so either. You look at them and wonder how they won 40 games last year and you wonder how they'll do it again, if they can do it again that is. Well, I think they can do it again, but I think they're going to have one hell of a time doing it and a hell of time making the playofs because every other team in their division is better than them. This is not to say the Bucks are a bad team, they're actually pretty decent. Hell if they were in the Atlantic I'd probably have them challenging the Nets for the division title. Their kind of like the Honets in the regard that they are in the wrong division. No one on the Bucks really jumps out at you. Their biggest name is Michael Redd who strokes it better than a 15 year old with a Playboy. (Let that one sink in for a second) Seriously though, the guy can shoot....he's almost on a Ray Allen like level. Mo Williams takes over the point for the Bucks for the departed TJ Ford. While not a true point guard Williams can get up and down the floor a lil bit and his jumper is much more reliable than Ford's. Ford left by way of the trade to Toronto and in return the Bucks received Charlie Villanueva a rangy 6-11' player they'll plug in at power forward. Villanueva showed some good signs last year with the Raptors, he just needs to be more consistent. Case point, after scoring six points in two consecutive games last year, he went off for 48 points against the Bucks and followed up that performace with two games in which he scored 13 points and then 4.....might be a dramatic example, but you get the idea. If he can develop into a viable number two scoring option that should help the Bucks dramatically. In the small forward spot is Bobby Simmons who is just solid for lack of a better term. He plays nice defense, can shoot a little bit, just seems to not to do one thing outstanding, just a little bit of everything well. Same for Andrew Bogut in the middle. Bogut is more rugged down low than most people though he would be and has a little bit of range on his jump shot (side note - Bogut is expected to miss the first month or two of the season with a leg injury or as Al Michaels would say, ..."he'll be missing 6-8 weeks with a leg,"....and yes I'm aware I stole that bit from Bill Simmons, but he's not the only person who has made that observation, moving on). Their bench in all honesty isn't that great, but it isn't tha bad either. It's essentially made up of guys that are great NBA back-ups. Ruben Patterson, despite having a rap sheet that if it were red could double as a carpet for a movie premiere, does give them a hard nosed presence off the which all teams need. Charlie Bell can also play either wing position and Steve Blake will take care of the ball when he runs the point and help guys in the 2nd unit find shot even if he does look like a clown that just took off its make up. Dan Gadzuric is the ultimate back-up center. He can run the floor, block a couple of shots and just provide some energy off the bench. So while there are no stalwarts off the bench at least it's solid and 3-4 people deep. The Bucks are just a very likeable team and I wish I could pick better things for them to do, I just can't. Their division is just too tough and unless something catestrophic happens to one of the teams ahead of them, I just don't see how they end up ahead of any of them, which means the playoffs could be tough to come by for the Bucks. Tough luck for the Bucks.
And there you have it the NBA's Central Division. Might be the most competitive good division in the east. Notice the use of competitive and good. The Atlantic will be competitive, just not good. So without wasting a lot more time, lets get onto some division finishes.
1. Detroit - I know a lot of peolpe are picking the Cavs in this division....I just feel the Pistons have one more division crown in them, then it's the Cavs turn....unless some one goes down for Detroit, then it's Cleveland's division to lose.
2. Cleveland - They'll make it close, wouldn't be surprised if they won, I just don't know if they will over take the Pistons this year....if they met in the playoffs again I'd lean towards Cleveland...it'll be a fun race to watch.
3. Chicago - I think they're going to make a leap this year, in fact if the Pistons falter I wouldn't be surprised if the Bulls grabbed a second place finish in the division.
4. Indiana - I really want to put them higher but I can't, not yet at least, kind of like.....
5. Milwaukee - .....the Bucks. They'd be higher most anywhere else in the east, unfortunately this is where they reside, but dems da breaks.
And that boys and girls is the Central division, probably the East's best. It'll be tight and hotly contested all season long, kinda makes me wish I lived an hour to the left. Anyway, two more divisions to go, one of them will be up soon, but until then.....
posted by MC at 3:36 PM
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