Links to the Present: Central Division Edition (and NBA Finals Game 1 Thread)

It’s early July and the NBA Finals are about to be begin. Having outlasted the Durantian fury of Brooklyn, and then stomped all the agility out of the Atlanta Hawks even without their superstar, the Milwaukee Bucks at last represent the Eastern Conference in the promised land. But is that all that they represent? For purposes of this post, Milwaukee is already flying a championship banner, representing that curious — perhaps even almost obsolete — NBA unit, the division.

Here are a handful of stories and links to the present on the rosters and outlook for the Central Division in the coming year, with a few thoughts on how our Cleveland Cavaliers performed against each of their divisional foes in the 2020-21 season.

Milwaukee: From the statistical and metaphorical standpoints, the Cavs look up to this team as if to Olympus Mons: it is not just a towering volcano, but on another planet altogether. Cleveland finished a whopping 24 games back in the Central division standings from Milwaukee. The last time they beat Milwaukee the Cavs were coached by Larry Drew. The Cavs lost their three matches to the Bucks last year by a combined 53 points. It is hard to imagine how the Cavs will etch out a victory, let alone a competitive game, against this team in the coming regular season. On the player movement side of the ledger, one can pray that the Cavs do not look to pick up free agent Jeff Teague as backup point guard; his performance in spot minutes against Trae Young in the conference finals did not inspire confidence.

Indiana: After a little drama in Dallas, Rick Carlisle is now in the East, which is probably bad news for Cleveland. Last year Carlisle’s Doncic-laden Mavs comprehensively dismantled Cleveland in their two games, and the Cavs were 0-3 against the Pacers last year. Domantas Sabonis is probably going to continue to outmatch and frustrate Kevin Love, Malcom Brogdon is seasoned and in his prime, Caris LaVert averages 20 points and 5 assists a night, and Carlisle seems excited to work with Miles Turner. The Pacers also have T.J. Warren (who has shredded Cavs defenses in the past) waiting in the wings after a season nursing a stress fracture in his foot.

Leaving aside questions about size in the roster as a whole, King James Gospel has a reasonably good breakdown on why the Cavs should pursue the 29-year old Pacers backup guard (and Cavs killer) T.J. McConnell and offer him something like $10 million a year or $7 million a year in a multi-year deal. Whether the Pacers will let him go is another matter — he led the league in steals, etc. Doug McDermott, another Pacers free agent who some Cleveland fans might wish to target for some shooting on the wing, played for Carlisle for a few months in 2017-18. A deep dive on Carlisle’s offensive sets indicates that McDermott might still be a very desirable fit in Indy if he doesn’t find another contract to his liking.

Chicago: Chicago’s sheer size and cacophony demands mixed metaphors, oodles of them. After the great orgasm of the trade deadline, Bulls fans seemed convinced they had swung big and would be making noise in the Eastern Conference playoffs. This didn’t happen — Zach LaVine was out for long stretches and Nikola Vucevic could not get them over the top. Having unintentionally tanked, this year they don’t have a first-round pick in the draft, having traded it away like a drunken gambler. In 2020-21, the staggering Cavs managed to beat the irrationally confident Bulls in two of their three matchups, including an instant classic when J.B., having disclosed nothing, stepped out for personal reasons leading to a glorious win for “Coach Buck“, after which the Cavs the Blog squad put together a particularly joyous podcast. The gnashing of teeth in Chicago clashed with the clinking of glasses in Cuyahoga County’s metaphorical peripheries, and Billy Donovan had no answers. The Bulls current roster, like Al Capone’s Chicago, is loaded with mercenaries, featuring no fewer than ten free agents, including the restricted and enigmatic Lauri Markkanen. Markkanen, having lost his starting gig last year, is yet a potent shooter from the corners. And still he seems to be taking it all passively, like the Swedish boxer in Hemingway’s “The Killers,” having gotten mixed up in something in Chicago, lying down staring at the wall, saying only “There ain’t anything to do now.” However, in reality Markkanen is surely hoisting hundreds of jump shots a day and resists the urge to hover over clickbait articles which insist on sending him to San Antonio. Actually, forget the metaphors and the jumble of Chicago — it is probably folly to run too many scenarios for next year vs. Cleveland; at the very least, they do look primed to ink Zach LaVine to a multi-year deal and will be well coached.

Detroit: This team is probably Cleveland’s true peer in the division, as the Cavs finished only a couple of games ahead in the standings and were also at similar points in the grand tankathon. The Cavs went 2-1 against the Pistons last year, winning a barnburner in double-OT near the beginning of the season and then losing a tough game in April in which Saddiq Bey hit six three-pointers in the first quarter and made viewers question the meaning of existence.

Apart from getting the number one pick in the upcoming NBA draft, the news of significance from Detroit is that Jerami Grant has been selected to participate in the Olympic Games, alongside Cavs champ Kevin Love (a placement which is a Very Good Thing for the Cavs organization, hands down). Grant was voted second in most improved player category this past year. Grant faced the Cavs only one time this past season, scoring 26 in a bad game for the Pistons in which they gave up 22 turnovers and he, Grant, was outscored by Collin Sexton. Detroit looks unlikely to trade Grant, although he is making $20 million a year and could, as one survey of the offseason indicated, net a couple of first round picks for the Pistons in a trade from the likes of the Knicks if they wanted to.

Back to the backup point guard theme, the Pistons’ Cory Joseph is a 30 year old backup point guard and the kind of player Cavs might be looking to pick up. Detroit seemed to think he was a good fit, but if they draft Cunningham as expected, there is a possibility Pistons will buy out Joseph for $2.4 million next year (assuming he stays on the roster after 1 August), rather than pay him north of $12 million. Detroit is likely to be over the cap. Speaking of salaries, it has now been about nine months since the Detroit Pistons stopped paying Josh Smith not to play basketball for them. Congratulations to Detroit on having hit this milestone; the Cavs are not quite there yet with J.R. Smith, who is still on their books this year of 2021-22 eating up $1,456,666 in dead cap space.

The Central Division is hardly a perfect crucible in which to forge a championship team, but as Cleveland fans can attest, it’s been done before. Best of luck to the Milwaukee Bucks, and all hail the East.