NBA Series: The Central Division

Injuries and Roster changes should make things interesting in the Central division
2024-2025 Season Recap

The Central Division did pretty well last season. 

The Cleveland Cavaliers had a 60-win season (64-18), easily clinching the top Eastern conference seed. The last time the Cavs did such a thing was during the 09-10 season, when a 25-year old LeBron James was wreaking havoc in the league. A lot of pundits were actually expecting the Cavs to reach the Finals, and it looked that way when they swept the Miami Heat in the first round. But in the second round, they fell short because a lot of the players got hurt–Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Deandre Hunter, and eventually, Donovan Mitchell, who was consistently not 100% healthy throughout the season. Their season ended when the Pacers beat them 4-1.

The Indiana Pacers made it all the way to the NBA Finals. The clutch plays by Haliburton, the 3-point flurries by Nesmith, and the hustle by Nembhard and Siakam are just beautiful basketball. Hali’s “choke sign” tribute to Reggie Miller was definitely and instantly an NBA classic, and the series with Oklahoma was already one. The way it ended was tragic–Haliburton, who has been so great during the post-season run after being doubted since his inclusion in Team USA, writhing in pain on the court with a season-ending achilles tear. 

The Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons both won more than 50% of their regular season games, and both teams clinched playoff spots. Identical results, but their trajectories are not.

The Bucks have made a string of bad decisions which seemingly compromised their future–breaking up the championship team by sending Jrue Holiday away; paying a fortune to acquire an aging Damian Lillard, among others. After everything, Giannis still had very little help as they got knocked out of the first round.

After 2 seasons of winning an abysmal 17 and 14 games, the Pistons seem to be finally shaping up to be a good team, led by first-time all-star Cade Cunningham. They have a good balance of young up-and-comers and veteran savvy.

Only the Chicago Bulls did not make it to the playoffs. Their guard-heavy line-up (8 out of 10 players in the top minutes played per game are all under 6’7”) did not fare well against the competition. Top player Zach Lavine was also out for much of the season.

2025-2026 Season

The Cavs are still poised to be at the top of the Eastern Conference–all they need to do is be a better defensive team. Sure–they swept the Heat in the first round of last season’s playoffs, but they had no answer to the blitz by the quick guards and wings of Indiana. Injuries were certainly a factor, but their defense has to be better–recent acquisitions Larry Nance and Lonzo Ball can help them in that regard. They did not lose anyone who is a major part of their rotation (only lost Isaac Okoro and Ty Jerome) so it can be exciting to watch Lonzo throw those long transition passes.

Things are looking grim for the Pacers. This is still a solid team (Nembhard, Siakam, Nesmith), but whether or not the system can run without Haliburton is too big of an issue. They lost Myles Turner to the Bucks, and got Jay Huff, which is arguably an asset if they want to hunt for threes. Another Finals appearance? Maybe not.

The Bucks still has Giannis, who is arguably still in his prime. Milwaukee fans can be hopeful again as the team had a major roster shake-up. They lost Damian Lillard, who is a defensive liability; they lost Brook Lopez but got a better one in Myles Turner; they lost Pat Connaughton but got two dynamic guards, Cole Anthony and Gary Harris. Still no Middleton which sucks, but they have Kuzma. They most likely will improve defensively, and they’d have better chances of bucking the trend of getting kicked out in the first round of the playoffs, which happened in the last three seasons.

The Pistons lost Dennis Schröder, Malik Beasley, and Tim Hardaway Jr, who are all significant parts of their rotation; but added Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson into their lineup. If Cade Cunningham can take better care of the ball and avoid all those turnovers; if Ausar Thompson improves and if Jaden Ivey can return to form–then they could have a good season. If also they could stop committing fouls, it would be great too, as they rank 27th for opponent free throw rate.

The biggest question for the Bulls is this: can Matas Buzelis be their franchise star? Demar DeRozan and Zach Lavine are already gone, and Matas could very well be option number 1. The Bulls will probably not make the playoffs again this season, unless 6’10” Matas drops 30 and 10 consistently.

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