It is currently Thursday the 9th on the east coast in the United States, your opening round matchup will begin at midnight tonight, and end at midnight of next thursday.Topic: Who will win the Central Division and why will they win the Central Division?
The Central Divison is by far the closest division in the Eastern Conference, teams like the Pistons, Cavs, and Bulls are all neck-to-neck-to-neck. The last remaining two teams, the Pacers and Bucks, have been struggling this year to stick together, and they're having a tough time being consistent. These two teams are the two teams that shouldn't highly be considered as threats to win the Central divisions (especially because Milwaukee is an awful 19-30).Anyways, back to the topic. I believe the Detroit Pistons will win the division in the end because I think they have the greatest cohesiveness of the three teams. Pistons can literally give you an extremely tough time at every position, even without the abscence of Ben Wallace. Their newly aqquired player in Chris Webber has been benefitting their offense greatly and allowing the Pistons to run a smoother type of offense where everyone shares the ball. The Cavs have some nice players, obviously LeBron, Gooden, Hughes, Ilgauskas, and even Gibson. However, the Cavs also are very inconsistent. One night they come out on fire and the next night they play with no passion. LeBron is also pressured to do way too much, even with this fine supporting cast. Some players such as Hughes and Marshall, are also very streaky shooters. The Bulls are so deep, young, and talented. They have Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Andres Nocioni, Ben Wallace, Kirk Hinrich, PJ Brown, and Chris Duhon. Any one of those players can light you up on any given night. Not to mention they still have some quality guys left, such as Sefolosha, Allen, Sweetney, Thomas, and Griffin. The problem with the Bulls is that they're pretty young but they have a leader, and his name is Ben Wallace. They have a nice balanced scoring attack, but sometimes because they're so young they tend to often make crucial mistakes late in the game. The Pistons are the smarter basketball team than both of these teams and rely on fundamentals to win games. They also do not have one superstar, they have plenty guys that can hurt you from anywhere, and contribute about 10-15 points per game.
Well, the Central Division is easily the best division in the Eastern Conference. There are probably 4 teams in that division that are bound to make the playoffs. But the Indiana Pacers are only 2 games above .500 and I do not think they are bound to be any better this season. So I think the 3 teams that are in this debate are the Cavaliers, Pistons, and the Bulls. Let's take a look at all three teams.The Cavaliers are a good defensive team, and they have a top tier player in Lebron James. Their other key players are Larry Hughes, Zyrdunas Ilgauskas, and Drew Gooden. I think one of the problems is that they do not have a good PG on their team, which sort of screws up their offense, and makes them one of the slowest teams in the League. I think if the Cavs went up tempo here and there, it would benefit them. Big Z is definately not an up tempo player, but Lebron and Larry would be good at going up tempo here and there. Their shooters (donyell, Damon Jones, etc..) would also benefit, and hey; I think Drew Gooden would do pretty well too. He is pretty athletic for a Power Forward, and he would be good at getting the O-rebounds. Anyway, back to their current team. They are way too inconsistent. Lebron sometimes doesn't play with a maximum effort, and that sometimes hurts them. The Cavs need Lebron to play his highest level every night if they ever want to be the best team in the League. What also hurts them is their failure to put up a ton of points on the board as well. Also, they are very streaky shooters, which hurts them alot offensively. I think this team is way too inconsistent to win the Central Division.The Chiago Bulls are loaded with young talent. They've got Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Chris Duhon, Andres Nocioni and Thabo Sefelosha. They also have an anchor on defense in Ben Wallace. Their defense is definately above average. THey have an amazing trio of young players in Hinrich, Deng, and Gordon. All of those guys will be great players. Gordon sometimes hurts them with his streaky play. He averages 21 a game. But he is the streakiest shooter in the NBA. Sometimes he'll have huge games and get 30, even 40. But other times he'll miss a ton of shots and just have a crap offensive game. And when that happens, the Chicago Bulls offense sometimes stutters, and they lose games. Also, they don't really have a veteran player that can lead them on offense, so at times they struggle on offense...Bottom line is that they have a great group of young guys, but this year they will not win the Central Division.The Pistons are my favourite to win the divison. They have 4 very good players in their lineup in Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace. And they just added Chris Webber, who has jumpstarted their offense with his excellent passing and his scoring. The Pistons play excellent defense. Everyone except Webber plays very good defense in their starting lineup. They play very smart basketball, they are veterans, they pass the ball very well, they have a ton of players who can shoot the basketball. They're a great team on offense AND defense. They struggled out of the gates, but now they are on a tear. They are leading the Central currently, and they are on a 6 game winning streak. Let's take a look at their starting 5.Chauncey Billups is a top 5 PG in the League. He is very smart. He rarely turns the ball over. He is an excellent shooter, he is a very smart and effective passer, he can get to the line (And when he does, it is lights out)...And he also plays excellent defense for a PG. He is one of the best defenders at the PG position.Rip Hamilton is also an excellent player. He is one of the best pure shooters int he League, he is quick and in excellent shape, he can get inside, he can set guys up, and he plays good defense as well.Tayshaun Prince is long, athletic, he can block shots, he plays excellent defense. He can shoot the ball very well, and he can score inside. Rasheed Wallace is probably the best defender on the Pistons. He can lock big men down. He made Bosh go 5-16 or w/e the other day. He plays punishing defense, and he can shoot the ball, and post up very well also..He has a great turn around jumper, and he can score inside effectively.And Chris Webber will be a good player for the Pistons. He is definately not the player he used to be. His legs kind of gave out, and now he settles mostly for jumpshots. But hey, the guy used to be a superstar, so he will be decent until the day he retires. He can hit the jumpshot, and he is an excellent passer for a big man..Anyway, that's my argument. I think the Pistons will win it. Okay, here's what I have against Zards debate. Since we both picked the same team, we can't really debate, but I will pick the things I didn't like in his initial post, and the things I disagree with him on...Okay, first of all. I agree with you on most of your points, but you really didn't go into that much detail with the teams you discussed. I think that's is the major con in your debate. You mentioned some things, but you didn't really go in-depth.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>They have Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Andres Nocioni, Ben Wallace, Kirk Hinrich, PJ Brown, and Chris Duhon. Any one of those players can light you up on any given night.</div>Any of those guys can light you up? I'm sorry, but "lighting a team up" usually means scoring wise. Ben Wallace MAY BE the WORST scorer in the League. He has no offensive game except grabbing rebounds, and putting them back up. PJ Brown won't give you that much offensively either. He's averaged only 5-6 ppg this season.
