For our final last division look, we take on the most competitive division in the league, home to four current playoff teams and three teams vying for home court advantage in the first round. Let’s go to the tape! Note: This was written before the NBA shut down on Wednesday… [ Midseason Division Rankings | Preseason Central Preview ]
CHI, Tad (121-57-2)
After starting the season off with a WK1 loss to DET, CHI ripped off six straight wins, only halted in WK8 by PHI. From there, they only lost two more games the rest of they way — to GSW in WK13 and NOP in WK17 -- giving Tad the second best regular season record in the league, and home court advantage all the way till the potential Finals. That’s pretty impressive stuff for CHI’s first year out.
Almost all of CHI’s roster has stayed intact this season as well, speaking to how wisely they drafted. Jrue Holiday was the franchise, acquired at $75, and then it was Danilo Gallinari, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, and Delon Wright in the $40 range. They also hit on a pair of young point guards, Terry Rozier and Bruce Brown later in the season. Most of Tad’s four trades were small tinkers with the roster, as they build out for a deep playoff run. Doug McDermott (for Harry Giles), Rudy Gay (RD1), Nicolo Melli (two RD2s), and Kelly Olynyk (for John Henson) were CHI’s big moves this season, giving them plenty of future picks still in the larder.
For the past month, CHI has ODE splits of 3/9/8, making them have a net rating even higher than the vaunted NYK team. On the season, they are 2/6/8, which is even better, and it’s all due to their tremendous balance.
For the entire season, they are top five in PTS, REB, AST, STL and top ten in 3PT, FG%, FT% — that’s seven out of the nine categories. Their only “weakness” is a league average in BLK, but even there they aren’t bad. Another not-so-secret sauce to CHI’s success is their second ranked Games Played, which was through a combination of not suffering any major injuries and Coach Tad hitting all the right buttons. Great job!
Overall, CHI is tremendously deep and talented! If they take care of business and lock up the number two overall seed in a WK21 matchup versus division foe DET, CHI can look forward toward being a title favorite.
DET, Tony (118-59-3)
Nipping at CHI’s heels, with a chance to take the division in the last week of the regular season, DET has been similarly rock steady all year long. Their big three of Nikola Vucevic, Pascal Siakam, and Buddy Hield — all acquired for $70+ — have been quite the combination, and with Collin Sexton’s emergence, it’s been a pretty smooth ride for DET for 2019-20.
DET started off their inaugural RDA season with six straight wins, before getting 0-2-1 versus BKN, TOR, and NYK. After that though, it was domination time as they went 10-1 over the last two months — that one loss was to GSW WK12 — and they are currently riding an eight game win streak heading into their big WK21 regular season finale game versus CHI. So yeah, DET has been one of the hottest teams in the back half of the season and is currently third in the East and fifth overall.
And also like CHI, DET’s season long ODE is impressive, with top ratings in PTS, 3PT, FT%, and STL. They’ve even gotten better of late, adding top ten REB and AST to their repertoire. Their relatively lower ratings in FG% and BLK are about league average, with the addition of a not terrible TOs rate as well. And as with most winning teams, they’ve had excellent Games Played as well, ranking in the top six. For the last month, DET team has ODE splits of 4/11/11, giving them a top four showing in net rating. Impressive stuff!
While the depth of the team doesn’t jump off the page, clearly it’s all working out great. DET has participated in five trades this season, mostly shipping picks around, but managed to pick up Damion Lee, Ben McLemore, and their biggest trade of the season: Gorgui Dieng and Check Diallo for Jalen Brunson and a future RD1. With a youngish roster and the one-two combo of Vucevic and Siakam leading the way, DET will hope to take a division title and then make a deep run into the playoffs.
IND, Zac (114-63-3)
Okay well, this is weird. IND has suffered five losses on the season and all of them are to their Central division mates. WK2 and WK20 to DET, WK4 and WK18 to CHI, and once to CLE in WK6. If IND just had to play the rest of RDA, they would be undefeated! Still, IND has been good enough to be the sixth best team in the league so far, but CHI and DET seem to have their number. Isn't that the weirdest stat ever? Five losses, all to teams from the same division!
Also, despite those fifteen wins, IND has been a bit topsy turvy this season. Their overall ODE is fantastic, with 5/5/27 splits, marking them as powerful on offense and defense. On the season, they are top seven in PTS, REB, AST, STL, and BLK, with a top ten showing in 3PT. Their only weak points are a terrible TO rate and about league average percentages. However, looking closer at the numbers, we see that IND has been slipping of late, as those sterling rankings have dropped, and now they are just stellar in STL, with a downturn in every other category and a corresponding ODE drop to 13/6/22. There’s a hidden reason for all this, but we’ll get to it later...
Part of that inconsistency has injury related of course. DeAndre Ayton and Jaren Jackson have been in and out all year, as has Eric Gordon and a touch of $1 value meal hero Aron Baynes. The only steady hand for IND has been Ricky Rubio, who has a shaky injury history himself. But hey, IND has been pretty damn good considering.
GM Zac mostly kept quiet through the trade season, selling off E’Twaun Moore, picking up Mike Muscala, turning Tristan Thompson into a future RD1, that kind of thing. But then they made a mega-deal before the deadline, sending off thirty-one year old Russell Westbrook and thirty-five year old Carmelo Anthony (in contention for best FAAB gamble right?) for twenty-two year old John Collins and twenty-six year old Elfrid Payton. Whew!
That move gave IND a frontcourt of Collins, JJJ, and Ayton! While Westbrook has been incredible lately in Houston — and HOU — we should all live in fear of their combined talent and length for future years. IND already was a semi-serious contender, but now they’ve gotten younger too. If they can solve the mystery of why they can’t beat their Central division rivals, we could be looking at a championship favorite for years to come.
CLE, Michael (91-89)
With one week to go, CLE should have their playoff spot locked up, as they are two games up on CHA, and with nobody closing from behind them. Congrats on being the fourth team from the Central in the postseason! Will we ever see that record broken? I think not.
From a straight W/L perspective, CLE has gone 11-9 so far, which is a pretty good 0.500+ record. However, their wins have mostly been against weaker teams, as we’ve seen them beat up on all the non-playoff opponents on their schedule. Their only wins versus winning teams is a WK6 victory over IND and a WK8 win over fellow low playoff seed CHA. Still, eleven wins is nothing to sneeze at and all the other divisions would love for four competitive teams!
CLE has been very active on the trade market, with ten trades under their belt. They started off with a bang, as they moved Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Sekou Doumbouya for Josh Richardson and Jaxson Hayes back in mid-October. Assuming SGA hits All Star status eventually, Michael may regret that one. But no matter because a few weeks later, CLE found a new point guard of the future by flipping Draymond Green for Markelle Fultz, Davis Bertans, and Ky Bowman. Fultz has flashed tons of promise this season and Bertans later brought in two future RD1 (and Jeff Teague who was turned into Admiral Schofield and two RD2s). Actually CLE has a bundle of future RD2s — nine to be exact — and five RD1s still.
For a pre-deadline finale, Michael moved four RD1s, four RD2s, and Jaxson Hayes for Myles Turner and Mo Bamba! An oral history of the biggest volume trade in RDA history will appear soon… Is your head spinning yet? That leaves a first season final roster of Fultz and Zach LaVine in the backcourt, Richardson, Andrew Wiggins, and Kyle Kuzma on the wings, and then Turner and Bamba to hold down the middle. That’s quite an intriguing lineup no?
With the newly constituted team not having had that much time to play together, CLE’s ODE splits haven’t changed much from their season averages. While they only excel in BLK, they are slightly above average in five other categories: PTS, 3PT, REB, AST, and STL. They definitely have an efficiency problem, as they are very bad in the two percentages and turnovers, but that dead last rating could improve with time. It’s the pretty decent offense and defense we’re excited about here, and as Michael has proven, he’s not afraid to swing big! While see foresee a quick playoff exit for CLE, we are very excited for their future and want to thank them for their part in making the Central the best division in RDA.
MIL, Zev (45-133-2)
The last team in the division has been doing exactly the opposite. From almost the very beginning, MIL has been engaged in a tank job, and they’ve got two beautiful wins to prove it — versus LAC WK11 and SAC WK13. We won’t even have to dig into their stats but suffice to say they are last in offense, last in defense, and eight in efficiency, probably owing to their last place showing in Games Played. They put up 20.3 GP per week, versus a 29.5 average for the league, and 35.4 for the best GP team, MEM. So yeah, great tank job MIL!
Along the way they’ve participated in twelve trades — tied for fifth highest — emerging with six total RD1 and three RD2. And it hasn’t all been for youth either, as Dr. Zev has brought on young and old alike, buying low on everyone from Draymond Green to Brook Lopez and Thomas Bryant and turning over more than half their roster.
Going into the season, MIL’s strategy was to wait on the returns of Klay Thompson, Jusuf Nurkic, and John Wall next year, but they also ran out of patience with Victor Oladipo — for Bryant and Bojan Bogdanovic (since moved for Lopez) — selling him right before he was going to make his long awaited return.
Strangely, MIL moved the rights to their 2020 RD1 — guaranteed to be at least top five if they finish in last place — for two future RD1 and a RD2. With their sights set out of the cellar next season, it could have been their only chance to get a top five pick for years. But clearly MIL has a plan and we’ll see if their last week matchup gives them the title of “worst team in RDA!”
After starting the season off with a WK1 loss to DET, CHI ripped off six straight wins, only halted in WK8 by PHI. From there, they only lost two more games the rest of they way — to GSW in WK13 and NOP in WK17 -- giving Tad the second best regular season record in the league, and home court advantage all the way till the potential Finals. That’s pretty impressive stuff for CHI’s first year out.
Almost all of CHI’s roster has stayed intact this season as well, speaking to how wisely they drafted. Jrue Holiday was the franchise, acquired at $75, and then it was Danilo Gallinari, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, and Delon Wright in the $40 range. They also hit on a pair of young point guards, Terry Rozier and Bruce Brown later in the season. Most of Tad’s four trades were small tinkers with the roster, as they build out for a deep playoff run. Doug McDermott (for Harry Giles), Rudy Gay (RD1), Nicolo Melli (two RD2s), and Kelly Olynyk (for John Henson) were CHI’s big moves this season, giving them plenty of future picks still in the larder.
For the past month, CHI has ODE splits of 3/9/8, making them have a net rating even higher than the vaunted NYK team. On the season, they are 2/6/8, which is even better, and it’s all due to their tremendous balance.
For the entire season, they are top five in PTS, REB, AST, STL and top ten in 3PT, FG%, FT% — that’s seven out of the nine categories. Their only “weakness” is a league average in BLK, but even there they aren’t bad. Another not-so-secret sauce to CHI’s success is their second ranked Games Played, which was through a combination of not suffering any major injuries and Coach Tad hitting all the right buttons. Great job!
Overall, CHI is tremendously deep and talented! If they take care of business and lock up the number two overall seed in a WK21 matchup versus division foe DET, CHI can look forward toward being a title favorite.
DET, Tony (118-59-3)
Nipping at CHI’s heels, with a chance to take the division in the last week of the regular season, DET has been similarly rock steady all year long. Their big three of Nikola Vucevic, Pascal Siakam, and Buddy Hield — all acquired for $70+ — have been quite the combination, and with Collin Sexton’s emergence, it’s been a pretty smooth ride for DET for 2019-20.
DET started off their inaugural RDA season with six straight wins, before getting 0-2-1 versus BKN, TOR, and NYK. After that though, it was domination time as they went 10-1 over the last two months — that one loss was to GSW WK12 — and they are currently riding an eight game win streak heading into their big WK21 regular season finale game versus CHI. So yeah, DET has been one of the hottest teams in the back half of the season and is currently third in the East and fifth overall.
And also like CHI, DET’s season long ODE is impressive, with top ratings in PTS, 3PT, FT%, and STL. They’ve even gotten better of late, adding top ten REB and AST to their repertoire. Their relatively lower ratings in FG% and BLK are about league average, with the addition of a not terrible TOs rate as well. And as with most winning teams, they’ve had excellent Games Played as well, ranking in the top six. For the last month, DET team has ODE splits of 4/11/11, giving them a top four showing in net rating. Impressive stuff!
While the depth of the team doesn’t jump off the page, clearly it’s all working out great. DET has participated in five trades this season, mostly shipping picks around, but managed to pick up Damion Lee, Ben McLemore, and their biggest trade of the season: Gorgui Dieng and Check Diallo for Jalen Brunson and a future RD1. With a youngish roster and the one-two combo of Vucevic and Siakam leading the way, DET will hope to take a division title and then make a deep run into the playoffs.
Okay well, this is weird. IND has suffered five losses on the season and all of them are to their Central division mates. WK2 and WK20 to DET, WK4 and WK18 to CHI, and once to CLE in WK6. If IND just had to play the rest of RDA, they would be undefeated! Still, IND has been good enough to be the sixth best team in the league so far, but CHI and DET seem to have their number. Isn't that the weirdest stat ever? Five losses, all to teams from the same division!
Also, despite those fifteen wins, IND has been a bit topsy turvy this season. Their overall ODE is fantastic, with 5/5/27 splits, marking them as powerful on offense and defense. On the season, they are top seven in PTS, REB, AST, STL, and BLK, with a top ten showing in 3PT. Their only weak points are a terrible TO rate and about league average percentages. However, looking closer at the numbers, we see that IND has been slipping of late, as those sterling rankings have dropped, and now they are just stellar in STL, with a downturn in every other category and a corresponding ODE drop to 13/6/22. There’s a hidden reason for all this, but we’ll get to it later...
Part of that inconsistency has injury related of course. DeAndre Ayton and Jaren Jackson have been in and out all year, as has Eric Gordon and a touch of $1 value meal hero Aron Baynes. The only steady hand for IND has been Ricky Rubio, who has a shaky injury history himself. But hey, IND has been pretty damn good considering.
GM Zac mostly kept quiet through the trade season, selling off E’Twaun Moore, picking up Mike Muscala, turning Tristan Thompson into a future RD1, that kind of thing. But then they made a mega-deal before the deadline, sending off thirty-one year old Russell Westbrook and thirty-five year old Carmelo Anthony (in contention for best FAAB gamble right?) for twenty-two year old John Collins and twenty-six year old Elfrid Payton. Whew!
That move gave IND a frontcourt of Collins, JJJ, and Ayton! While Westbrook has been incredible lately in Houston — and HOU — we should all live in fear of their combined talent and length for future years. IND already was a semi-serious contender, but now they’ve gotten younger too. If they can solve the mystery of why they can’t beat their Central division rivals, we could be looking at a championship favorite for years to come.
CLE, Michael (91-89)
With one week to go, CLE should have their playoff spot locked up, as they are two games up on CHA, and with nobody closing from behind them. Congrats on being the fourth team from the Central in the postseason! Will we ever see that record broken? I think not.
From a straight W/L perspective, CLE has gone 11-9 so far, which is a pretty good 0.500+ record. However, their wins have mostly been against weaker teams, as we’ve seen them beat up on all the non-playoff opponents on their schedule. Their only wins versus winning teams is a WK6 victory over IND and a WK8 win over fellow low playoff seed CHA. Still, eleven wins is nothing to sneeze at and all the other divisions would love for four competitive teams!
CLE has been very active on the trade market, with ten trades under their belt. They started off with a bang, as they moved Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Sekou Doumbouya for Josh Richardson and Jaxson Hayes back in mid-October. Assuming SGA hits All Star status eventually, Michael may regret that one. But no matter because a few weeks later, CLE found a new point guard of the future by flipping Draymond Green for Markelle Fultz, Davis Bertans, and Ky Bowman. Fultz has flashed tons of promise this season and Bertans later brought in two future RD1 (and Jeff Teague who was turned into Admiral Schofield and two RD2s). Actually CLE has a bundle of future RD2s — nine to be exact — and five RD1s still.
For a pre-deadline finale, Michael moved four RD1s, four RD2s, and Jaxson Hayes for Myles Turner and Mo Bamba! An oral history of the biggest volume trade in RDA history will appear soon… Is your head spinning yet? That leaves a first season final roster of Fultz and Zach LaVine in the backcourt, Richardson, Andrew Wiggins, and Kyle Kuzma on the wings, and then Turner and Bamba to hold down the middle. That’s quite an intriguing lineup no?
With the newly constituted team not having had that much time to play together, CLE’s ODE splits haven’t changed much from their season averages. While they only excel in BLK, they are slightly above average in five other categories: PTS, 3PT, REB, AST, and STL. They definitely have an efficiency problem, as they are very bad in the two percentages and turnovers, but that dead last rating could improve with time. It’s the pretty decent offense and defense we’re excited about here, and as Michael has proven, he’s not afraid to swing big! While see foresee a quick playoff exit for CLE, we are very excited for their future and want to thank them for their part in making the Central the best division in RDA.
The last team in the division has been doing exactly the opposite. From almost the very beginning, MIL has been engaged in a tank job, and they’ve got two beautiful wins to prove it — versus LAC WK11 and SAC WK13. We won’t even have to dig into their stats but suffice to say they are last in offense, last in defense, and eight in efficiency, probably owing to their last place showing in Games Played. They put up 20.3 GP per week, versus a 29.5 average for the league, and 35.4 for the best GP team, MEM. So yeah, great tank job MIL!
Along the way they’ve participated in twelve trades — tied for fifth highest — emerging with six total RD1 and three RD2. And it hasn’t all been for youth either, as Dr. Zev has brought on young and old alike, buying low on everyone from Draymond Green to Brook Lopez and Thomas Bryant and turning over more than half their roster.
Going into the season, MIL’s strategy was to wait on the returns of Klay Thompson, Jusuf Nurkic, and John Wall next year, but they also ran out of patience with Victor Oladipo — for Bryant and Bojan Bogdanovic (since moved for Lopez) — selling him right before he was going to make his long awaited return.
Strangely, MIL moved the rights to their 2020 RD1 — guaranteed to be at least top five if they finish in last place — for two future RD1 and a RD2. With their sights set out of the cellar next season, it could have been their only chance to get a top five pick for years. But clearly MIL has a plan and we’ll see if their last week matchup gives them the title of “worst team in RDA!”