Chicago Bulls
Starters:
Derrick Rose
Kirk Hinrich
Luol Deng
Drew Gooden
Joakim Noah
Bench:
Ben Gordon*
Tyrus Thomas
Larry Hughes
Andres Nocioni
Aaron Gray
Thabo Sefolosha
Cedric Simmons
Out of town:
Chris Duhon
Ben Gordon is still a restricted free agent. The Bulls brought back Deng, but even if they don’t bring back Gordon, look at all those guards! Duhon goes to the Knicks and it’ll be interesting to see what they do with Ben Gordon, who was the team’s leading scorer last season. The past 2 seasons the Bulls flipped flopped wins and losses. After going 49-33 in 06-07, they were picked to be one of the best teams in the East, and went a disappointing 33-49 missing out on the playoffs. They got rid of what was left of Ben Wallace (horrible pick up to begin with), but they still have a lot of problems. Is Hinrich going to be a 2 guard? Front office has made some bad moves, and they were bailed out by getting the #1 pick. Look for some kind of trade to bring in a big man in place of some of these guards. Names like Brad Miller and Kenyon Martin have been talked about.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Starters:
Delonte West*
Wally Szczerbiak
LeBron James
Ben Wallace
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Bench:
Daniel Gibson
Joe Smith
Anderson Varejao
Sasha Pavlovic
J.J. Hickson
Darnell Jackson
Out of town:
None: Devin Brown and Dwayne Jones = unrestricted
Looks like more of the same for LeBron and the Cavs. I didn’t like the move they made last year to bring in all those guys. Didn’t help them last year and in don’t think it will this year. Delonte is a free agent, and apparently he wants a 5 year deal, the Cavs have offered 4. I think he eventually comes back and plays for them next season regardless. Once again how far can LeBron carry them. He’s gone as far as the NBA Finals, but even then the ”supporting” cast was better. Perhaps the young rookie out of N.C. State, J.J. Hickson can provide a little life into this squad.
Detroit Pistons
Starters:
Chauncey Billups
Richard Hamilton
Tayshaun Prince
Rasheed Wallace
Antonio McDyess
Bench:
Rodney Stucky
Jason Maxiell
Amir Johnson
Aaron Afflalo
Trent Plaisted
Out of town:
Jarvis Hayes
Lindsey Hunter, Theo Ratliff, Juan Dixon, Walter Hermann = unrestricted
Flip Saunders
Rumors were flying around about a complete shake up of the Pistons. Billups and Sheed to the Warriors for Baron Davis. Well that clearly isn’t going to happen now, but Detroit feels as though they need to do something else. 6 straight years to the Eastern Conference Finals is great, but one 2 trips to the NBA Finals, with 1 Championship. They’re one of the Top 5 teams in the NBA every year, but they want to be the best. The starters continue to get older, but they’ve drafted well of late (post Darko), and have brought in some productive players. Flip Saunders it out, it’s now Michael Curry’s job. This team can coach itself to the playoffs, with the question being, how far can they go?
Indiana Pacers
Starters:
T.J. Ford
Mike Dunleavy
Danny Granger
Troy Murphy
Jeff Foster
Bench:
Brandon Rush
Jamaal Tinsley
Marquis Daniels
Shawne Williams
Travis Diener
Out of town:
Jermaine O’Neal
Kareem Rush
Did you know that Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy combined for 38.7 points per game last season? Probably not. The Pacers are never on TV and no one talks about them. With Jermaine O’Neal gone to Toronto they don’t have anyone people have heard of. They have a grand total of 0 All-Star appearances on their roster. With that said, they could surprise some people this year. In the East, Indiana could even find themselves in the playoffs. Not sure if they’ll leave Tinsley on the team as a back up, but their starting 5 is sneaky good and I loved the pick of Brandon Rush. He won’t, however, play along side his brother Kareem who went to Philly.
Milwaukee Bucks
Starters:
Mo Williams
Michael Redd
Richard Jefferson
Charlie Villanueva
Andrew Bogut
Bench:
Tyronn Lue
Desmond Mason
Joe Alexander
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
Ramon Sessions
Charlie Bell
Out of town:
Yi Jianlian
Bobby Simmons
I love the move to pick up Richard Jefferson. He may not love leaving New York City for Milwaukee, but on the court it could be what he needs. He is no longer playing with Kidd and more importantly Vince Carter. Reports were that Jefferson would obsess over making the All-Star team and just try to pad his stats on the offensive end. RJ would try to be better than Vince rather than making his team better. The Bucks now have one of the best scoring wings combos in the league with Jefferson and Redd. It’s not Ray Allen and Pierce, but it’s still good. Milwaukee also drafted Joe Alexander and signed Tyronn Lue in the off season. All of that makes sense to me. But giving Bogut (career 11.9 pts, 8.5 rebs per game) $76 million. I don’t get it. Two steps forward, one step back. In the end I think the Central Division could be competitive this year.
Next: Southeast Division
-Keefe
No comments:
Post a Comment