Everything You Need To Know To Get Ready For The NBA Season: Central Division

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

We roll on with our Season Preview series, this time talking about the Central Division. You can catch up on our first preview of the Pacific Division here. As a reminder since everything is way more condensed this offseason, we're doing this by division instead of every team getting an individual blog so everyone can be caught up by the time games start in about two weeks. History tells us that this division usually gives us at least two playoff teams, so let's dive in to what you can expect this upcoming season.

Milwaukee Bucks

2019-20 record: 56-17

Key Offseason Additions: Jrue Holiday, DJ Augustin, Torrey Craig, Bobby Portis, Bryn Forbes

Key Offseason Departures: Eric Bledsoe, Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez, George Hill

Playoff Performance: Lost in 5 games in the second round

For the past two seasons, the Milwaukee Bucks have been historically good in the regular season. That's not hyperbole, that's a straight up fact. A historic point differential in back to back years, a historic net rating, this team has been the very definition of a juggernaut in each of the last two years. Again, in the regular season. If you allow them to build a 10 point lead, it's a wrap. They were 38-8 when they built at least a 10 point lead. Their 17 wins were tied for the most in the East against teams over .500. When it came to playing the shitty teams? The Bucks didn't play with their food and went 39-4. 

But at this point, nobody cares about the regular season anymore when it comes to the Bucks. Not when you have the postseason underachievement they've had these last two years as the #1 seed. They were up 3-1 against the Raptors in the ECF two years ago. They blew it. Then last year in the bubble, they were down 3-0 with a mostly healthy Giannis before ultimately losing in 5 in the second round. That's brutal, especially when the cloud of Giannis' pending free agency hangs over this franchise. Make no mistake, that's really the only thing that matters right now. As of the writing of this blog Giannis still hasn't' signed his extension, and the Bucks basically put all their chips on the table this offseason to show Giannis they are committed to winning. Whether or not it'll be enough is the giant question.

Jrue Holiday is really good. Let's get that out of the way now. A player you hear talked about a lot from other guys as being one of the best on ball defenders in the entire league. He's certainly an upgrade over Eric Bledsoe. He's also been so underrated for so long that maybe he's starting to get a little overrated. But here's what I do know. Adding someone like Holiday to a team that already had the #1 defense in the entire league is only going to make things tougher for opposing teams. The problem is Holiday only has 1 guaranteed year left on his deal. After this, it's a player option. If Giannis bounces, why the hell would Holiday stay in MIL? There are going to be a ton of other contenders with cap space in the summer of 2021. That's why giving up 5 picks and trading all those pieces was extremely risky, even though the Bucks basically didn't have a choice.

I can assure you, the offseason plan was not Jrue Holiday/DJ Augustin/Torrey Craig/Bobby Portis. They wanted to pair Jrue Holiday and Bogdan Bogdanovic with Giannis. Those two combined with Giannis/Middleton is a legit foursome. But they cheated, got caught, and that deal fell apart. It's not the end of the world though. The Bucks should still be the #1 seed in the East if everyone stays healthy. Giannis could very well win his 3rd straight MVP. But it's all about the playoffs for this team. They can be as dominant as any team we've ever seen during the regular season, but until they show they can get over the hump in the playoffs nobody will really give a shit. 

It'll be interesting to see how their second unit performs this season given who they've lost. Torrey Craig is a serviceable wing and I really like Bryn Forbes game, but I do worry about that group defensively. It usually doesn't matter since Giannis builds a 15 point lead in a blink of an eye, but it is something to keep an eye on as this team enters the postseason. You could argue their depth may have taken a step back.

Indiana Pacers

2019-20 record: 45-28

Key Offseason Additions: Cassius Stanley (rookie)

Key Offseason Departures: None

Playoff Performance: Swept in the first round

The Indiana Pacers had a chance to trade for Gordon Hayward, but the front office decided not to match Danny Ainge's asking price. Instead, they are basically bringing back the exact team we saw last season, only now Jeremy Lamb should be back at some point after tearing his ACL. When you think of the Pacers, it's basically the same story every year. They're good. They'll win around 44+ games and make the playoffs, and then they'll lose in the first round. I'm not making that up. Since they missed the playoffs in 2014-15, they've won 45, 42, 48, 48, and 45 games. In each of those seasons, they lost in the first round. 

Now to be fair, injuries have been a real motherfucker for this team. Oladipo was an All Star before his quad injury and he hasn't looked close to the same player since. That's a problem because the team has a decision to make about his future. Either they give him a massive extension, or they have to trade his ass or they risk losing him for nothing. The problem is, no team is going to give up anything good at the moment because he's a huge question mark. Then their other All Star Sabonis hurt his foot right before the playoffs this past season. You take out two of the best players on any NBA team, it's going to limit their ceiling. 

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Now with a new coach in charge, it'll be interesting to see how this team looks. TJ Warren had a great bubble, Myles Turner had his moments and he could be someone we see moved at the deadline since the Pacers are doing everything they can to trade him. Defensively, this team is legit. They came in 9th last season and have a nice group of promising defenders. Their issue is the offense. It stinks. Maybe it bounces back with a healthier Oladipo, but it was 19th last season. For them to take a leap and actually get out of the first round, they have to be able to score. Jeremy Lamb might help there once he's back, maybe a new system will do the trick, but until this team figures out how to score their ceiling is definitely limited. 

I think you can expect this to be a team that once again plays hard and is competitive, but unless their All Stars look like All Stars, it'll most likely be the same old story. They have the potential to finish in the 4-6 range, and with how stacked the top of the East is will most likely have a tough first round opponent. They'll be good, but they probably won't be great.

Chicago Bulls

2019-20 record: 22-43

Key Offseason Additions: Patrick Williams (rookie), Garrett Temple, Noah Vonleh

Key Offseason Departures: Kris Dunn, Shaq Harrison

Playoff Performance: Missed the playoffs

The Bulls are obviously rebuilding. They have a new front office, Billy Donovan has taken over as coach, so their focus is mostly on development than actually winning games. I'm someone that thinks the Bulls will actually be better this year, mostly because they should actually get their good players on the floor. Otto Porter Jr played only 14 games last year. You have another year of development Markkanen, Wendell Carter, and Coby White. Maybe Denzel Valentine will actually give them something. We just saw what Billy Donovan did with a young team in OKC. Zach LaVine has his flaws but he is still a walking bucket. Tomas Satoransky is a legit backup guard. What if I told you that the Bulls actually had a top 10 defense last season? It's true! They came in 9th.

But much like the other team in their division in the Pacers, it's the offense that is a big time issue for the Bulls. Like, the 29th ranked offense in the entire league. That's bad. At the same time, they are super young so it's not all that surprising. Coby White showed real flashes. I'm not really expecting much from Patrick Williams in his rookie season, but I would think the other young guys on this roster would improve now that they have more experience under their belt.

This is going to be a big season for Baby Dirk, because the Bulls have to decide what to do about an extension after this season for Markkanen. I can't imagine they'd give up on him especially with Thad Young being 32, but it'd be nice if he could take a legit leap this season. To me, this season is all about getting familiar with how Donovan wants to run things, play good defense and see where that gets you. It'll probably be a bunch of losses, but why can't this team compete for a chance at the play in game if their young guys develop. 

When you are at this stage of a rebuild, the wins and losses don't really matter. It's mostly just about getting better and having your young guys develop. I trust Donovan's ability to coach up young players, so I think we'll see the Bulls be way more competitive than people think. They may still lose, but they won't be unwatchable.

Detroit Pistons

2019-20 record: 20-46

Key Offseason Additions: Killian Hayes (rookie), Jerami Grant, Saddiq Bey (rookie), Jahlil Okafor, Josh Jackson, Mason Plumlee, Delon Wright, Isaiah Stewart (rookie)

Key Offseason Departures: Christian Wood

Playoff Performance: Missed the playoffs

Look, nobody knows what the Pistons are doing. I'm not even completely sure the Pistons know what they're doing. I thought they had one of the better draft nights out of anyone, and then shit got crazy once free agency opened. They signed about 500 centers in a league that is going small, they decided it was a good idea to pay Jerami Grant $20M a season, they traded Andre Drummond only to not pay Christain Wood but pay every other center under the sun. It's all very confusing. 

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But when you're in the bottom third in the league in offense, defense, and net rating, I suppose you have to change everything up. My guess is they are going to be unloading some of these bigs at the deadline to contenders that need center depth, so if that's the plan then OK I could make some sense of what they did. We also should note that Blake Griffin only played in 18 games last season. This team wins more than 20 games with a healthy Blake and a healthy DRose.

In looking at their roster though, it has all the makings of a seller at the deadline. Rose is an expiring deal. They just drafted his replacement and starting point guard. To me, this is all about obtaining assets for them to flip for future players/expirings as they enter a rebuild. I'm not sure they are going to be able to find someone to take Blake's contract, but we've seen some pretty terrible contracts get traded just this offseason. I'm really interested to see the development of Sekou Doumbouya, even if Jerami Grant will probably cut into his minutes a little bit. 

I hate to say it, but the reality of the situation is we're probably looking at another high lottery season for the Pistons. That's OK. If you're going to stink, you may as well go all in. That's what makes some of their offseason signings a little confusing, but if they're flipped at the deadline it'll make more sense. My guess is this has a bottom 3-4 seed in the East written all over it.

Cleveland Cavaliers

2019-20 record: 19-46

Key Offseason Additions: Thon Maker, Isaac Okoro (rookie), JaVale McGee

Key Offseason Departures: Tristan Thompson, 

Playoff Performance: Missed the playoffs

Much like the Pistons, the Cavs are right in the beginning stages of their rebuild. They are loaded with young intriguing talent with Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr, Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, and Larry Nance Jr. The team rankings last year are about what you would expect from a super young team. They were 26th in offense and 30th in defense with a -7.9 net rating which put them 29th. There are rumors they are looking to flip Andre Drummond and I'm pretty sure Kevin Love has been on the trade block his entire Cavs career.

There's also reasons to be excited about the potential of this group. Especially when it comes to Collin Sexton. Once the Cavs traded Jordan Clarkson, Sexton exploded. In those 46 games, he put up 23.3/3.4 on 49/43% splits. That's not a small sample by any means and should have Cavs fans excited. The next step is getting Garland to make a jump because frankly he was pretty terrible offensively last season. It's clear those two are the backcourt of the future, and everything you read about Okoro tells you he'll make an impact right away. Then you mix in the potential of Kevin Porter Jr and there are a lot of reasons to like the young core of the Cavs.

Much like the Bulls, the Cavs probably won't win many games, but based on where they are in their rebuild, it's not about the wins just yet. It's about the development of their young high lottery picks. If they can flip some of their vets for good future assets, even better. I don't think it's a stretch to think that they can improve slightly from being the worst in the league on both ends. Even a slight improvement would make a world of difference.

I'm also intrigued at what Dante Exum might be able to do. He flamed out in UTA but is only 24. He did shoot 47/35% in his 24 appearances as a Cav last year. That's nothing to sneeze at. 

So when you talk about the Central division, it's basically Milwaukee and a bunch of rebuilds. Nothing tells me there will be any drastic changes from what we saw last season, but that's to be expected when you look at where every team is at. If Giannis bounces we could very well see the Bucks join the Pistons, Bulls, and Cavs in a rebuild, and then it'd be the Pacers division to lose. That hasn't been the case for some time now, but it's certainly possible.