BY PAUL JONES
sportsnet.ca
Leading up to opening night on Oct. 26, sportsnet.ca NBA analyst Paul Jones gets you ready for the season by asking the burning questions surrounding each division.
In addition, Jones will wrap up the six division previews with a special analysis of both the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors.
To continue, Jones examines the Central Division.
Enjoy.
This division will look vastly different this season all because one player is gone.
With LeBron James taking his act to South Beach the pendulum has swung and the Cleveland Cavaliers won't be near the top of the division for the first time in a while. Look for the Chicago Bulls, if healthy, to emerge but don't count out the gritty Milwaukee Bucks.
Detroit is trying to regain some measure of respectability and Indiana fans will have to wait for a couple more seasons for the Pacers to contend.
Can the Bulls become a serious contender in the East?
On paper the Bulls have a good-looking team, and while they many not have the same size and depth as some of the upper echelon teams such as Miami, Orlando or Boston, you can only play five at a time.
What Chicago possibly lacks in depth they will certainly make up for in effort.
Chicago, who were also in the LeBron sweepstakes and came up empty, did make out OK with new additions Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver from Utah.
They also secured a couple of good role players in veteran Kurt Thomas and Keith Bogans and with that, the Bulls are well put together for this season.
Like every other team in the league, health will be an issue as Boozer will start the season on the inactive list as he remains in a cast thanks to a fractured right hand. But when he returns, a front line with a combination of Boozer, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson is more than able to compete.
The key to the Bulls' attack will be dynamic point guard Derrick Rose. He can do it all and if his outside jumper has indeed improved, he will be even more difficult to stop.
New head coach Tom Thibodeau landed his first head-coaching gig and it's a good one. The one-time dean of the Celtics vaunted defense will have this team ready defensively and if he can settle on an offensive system that best plays to the Bulls strengths, they are going to be a tough out next spring.
Burning Question: With its title hopes for the immediate future gone, can the remaining supporting cast get Cleveland to the playoffs?
There is a new normal in Cleveland.
For seven seasons, there was always the hope of a title because they had a franchise player who was one of the league's best.
I suppose it's like losing a family member, or family pet, or coming back to a house after a fire or natural disaster, or in this case, to some in Cleveland, they might say a burglary, with LeBron James stealing their hopes for a title.
It's just not the same and for the foreseeable future, normal is life without James as the rest of the team is left behind under a new coach to try to put it together.
But nobody in the NBA is going to feel sorry for you.
The Cavs have a few good pieces left in Antawn Jamison and Mo Williams. They have some good role players in Anderson Varajao, Anthony Parker, Daniel Gibson and Leon Powe, while J.J. Hickson and Ramon Sessions have played well in the preseason.
New head coach Byron Scott knows a thing or two about winning as a player and as a coach having won a title as a Lakers player and having taken the New Jersey Nets to back-to-back NBA Finals as a coach.
His job is to try and devise a system that gets this team to the playoffs.
It will be a challenge for Scott, but it's the start of a new era in Cleveland and many are predicting the Cavs could slip into eighth and face LeBron James and the Heat in the first round.
I bet they would love that chance.
Burning Question: How do the Pistons turn it around so the franchise starts to regain respect?
Let's face it: this blue-collar, once proud championship franchise was reduced to irrelevancy in the NBA last season.
Why?
First off, injuries made it very difficult for them to field a strong enough lineup.
And guess what? The injury bug just bit them again at the start of this season with Jonas Jerebko going down in the first pre-season game with a ruptured Achilles tendon. But hopefully the others stay healthy and can come together as a unit.
Rodney Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince, Richard Hamilton, Ben Gordon and Ben Wallace all know what it takes to produce a winner.
Young Austin Daye has played well in the pre-season and could be ready to contribute consistently and there is more promising potential in first round pick Greg Monroe.
General Manager Joe Dumars rolled the dice last season picking up Gordon and Charlie Villanueva in free agency and so far it has not paid dividends.
This season he took another chance in picking up veteran Tracy McGrady. If T-Mac can play and more importantly help mentor the youngsters, Dumars may get his money's worth.
It's a long road back as the city of Detroit can attest, but the Pistons need to take the first step and that starts with this season.
Can the Pacers win enough to pique the interest of the fans as they rebuild their team?
It's been a few tough years in the heartland of America where basketball is king. The game is just not being treated very regally in Indiana at the professional level.
The Pacers managed only 32 wins last season, just four wins shy of the previous season's total, but it sure felt a whole lot worse than that to some.
But the Pacers aren't just struggling on the floor: One of the league's best venues, Conseco Field House, is half empty on most nights when the Pacers are playing at home. Regardless of their record at the end of this season, Indiana has to play hard enough and well enough to have some measure of success and put some butts in the seats.
They will try to do that with the help of new acquisitions James Posey and Darren Collision.
| Paul Jones: Predicted Order of Finish: | |
| 1. | Chicago |
| 2. | Milwaukee |
| 3. | Cleveland |
| 4. | Detroit |
| 5. | Indiana |
Posey is a veteran with championship experience and Collision is a young point guard that the team can mature with going forward.
The Pacers are positioned nicely for whatever happens next season, work stoppage or not. Although he will probably be re-signed, Mike Dunleavy's big contract is coming off the books, as is T.J. Ford's.
Indiana will have flexibility in its salary cap going forward (with the exception of Danny Granger), no contract that will be more than a rookie deal after next season. But they have to keep interest up.
It's at the point where Roy Hibbert is taking a page from Andrew Bogut in Milwaukee and establishing Area 55 at Conseco, a raucous group that will make at least a bit of noise at home games.
Can the Bucks get back to the playoffs or was last season's performance an anomaly?
Alright, put your hand up if, at the start of last season, you saw the Milwaukee Bucks one home win from the Eastern Conference semi-finals?
But that's what the Bucks did thanks to talented first-year point man Brandon Jennings, Andrew Bogut and tough, hard-nosed play that was demanded from head coach Scott Skiles.
Milwaukee set a franchise mark for fewest points against and came out ready to grind and outwork opponents every night, and it worked.
It could and for Milwaukee should, be more of the same this season. There are still some question marks around Bogut's health as he played in only three preseason games while still suffering lingering effects from last season's nasty elbow injury.
But the Bucks postseason run came without Bogut, so they are capable if they have to play without him.
Milwaukee has added some scoring firepower to go along with John Salmons with the offseason acquisition of Corey Maggette. Drew Gooden will bring rebounding to the front line and Keyon Dooling and Earl Boykins will be there to back up Jennings in the back court.
With this bunch playing the same way last season's team did under Skiles, they're out to show last year was no fluke.
