The Cavs, and Everyone Else: Your 2009 Central Division Preview

It may sound strange to be envious of the Milwaukee Bucks and their fans, but in a weird way, I sort of am. It’s fun to be a team with absolutely no expectations. Like, if Milwaukee won 40 games this year, that’d be considered quite a coup, and everyone would feel good about themselves, fans included.

If they lose 60 games, on the other hand, I doubt anyone would be surprised, or even that disappointed. Basically, fans going to the games don’t have to worry about wins, and maybe this stems from the way I was reared (as a diehard Wizards fan, veteran of many losing campaigns), but sometimes that can be more fun.

The heading on SBN’s excellent Blog-a-Bull reads, “Step 1: Cut Payroll, Step 2: Profit, Step 3: There’s Supposed to be Another Step?” And while it’s obviously toungue-in-cheek, it probes at a deeper frustration within the Chicago fanbase that I wasn’t aware of until this summer, when the Bulls let Ben Gordon walk. At the time, the team’s failure to re-sign its best player--regardless of Derrick Rose’s promise, Gordon was still the assassain on that team--spoke to a strategy that, as the Blog-a-Bull headline suggests, cares far more about profits than wins. As Blog-a-Bull wrote then:

Indeed, for what seems like the past decade, the Bulls have been a rudderless franchise, operating in some weird continuum between potential and reality, trotting a roster full of underpaid young players and overpaid “gritty” veterans like Andres Nocioni, Kirk Hinrich, and Ben Wallace. It’d never occurred to me that this was by design.

Responsibilities elsewhere on SBNation.com have made it difficult to give the previews their full attention today, but rest assured, we’ll get there. In the meantime, some thoughts from around the central division.

Indy Cornrows would like to see the Pacers get out and run this year:

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, Lebron James will give 1 million dollars to anyone that can prove he’s ever said anything bad about Cleveland:

There’s only one problem: his game doesn’t fit the mold. If Brandon Jennings were Tyreke Evans on the basketball court, then maybe. But he’s not; if anything, he’s Ricky Rubio from Compton, with a fade instead of a floppy hair. He’s impossibly quick and long, but matches those skills with natural passing instincts that most point guards just don’t possess. He’s so creative with the ball it’s ridiculous, and while his game’s still rough around the edges, he still has the chance to help a team.

I wished the Wizards had drafted him back then, and while there will certainly be some ups-and-downs in Milwaukee this year, I have a feeling that Bucks fans will be pleasantly surprised. Again, he fulfills every aspect of the flashy teenager stereotype—except his game. Someone to keep an eye on.

We’re back, and the previews are really starting to pick up around here, as the it’s time to take a look at the Central Division. First, we’ll start with some of the stated goals for ‘09 from SBN’s bloggers.

From SBN’s Detroit Piston’s blog, Motown String Music: