Central Division poised for competitive future
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
INDIANAPOLIS — On Sunday, the Pacers seized an opportunity to all but wrap up the Central Division race. The win put them four games ahead and gave them the season tiebreaker over Chicago.
Truth is, the Bulls have no single weapon that will help them catch Indiana. Their scorers are all unreliable after Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer, whose vulnerability to the Pacers this year has been especially damaging. And the bench has dissolved to Nate Robinson and prayer.
The Bulls’ run of two straight division titles wasn’t going to last forever. It just seemed that way after LeBron James bolted Cleveland in 2010 for sandier pastures and Hall of Fame friendship.
Two years ago, the Central was really two divisions. There were the Bulls, who won 62 games in the 2010-11 season. And then there was everyone else. No other team in the division finished above .500.
Since then, the dynamic has changed dramatically. Indiana is the team of the moment, something they hadn’t been since 2004.
The knee-jerk argument when discussing the Pacers and Bulls is to point to the Bulls’ storied history: the titles, the legends of basketball who played in their uniform. The Bulls have won six NBA championships; the Pacers have won none.
And yet this was an intense matchup in the 1990s, a rivalry that featured everything from Michael Jordan to Reggie Miller to a Game 7.
Then came Jordan’s retirement, and the Bulls’ fall, and suddenly a decade went by without the two teams being good at the same time.
Flash to the present. Indiana fought until — literally — the final second for its 97-92 win Sunday night. It’s been that way since the first round of the 2011 playoffs with these teams, never been anything but hard.
“It’s always tough to play against Indiana,” Chicago center Joakim Noah said.
This season, in the Central, the Pacers are deservedly on top.
It still doesn’t mean they will stay there.
What if the Bulls had Derrick Rose? Would they still be four games out of first place, looking more like a playoff one-and-done than a legitimate threat to Indiana?
The question hardly needs an answer.
Rose is such a sensitive subject among Bulls personnel, they’re still insisting they have enough to win without him. But Rose is exactly what the Bulls have lacked this season, and the three lost showdowns with Indiana have underscored his loss.
Sure, the Pacers still don’t have a healthy Danny Granger, who sat out the first 55 games, but Rose — a former MVP — is the superior player, and Chicago has been wrecked with injuries in addition to their star point guard’s continued absence, while the Pacers enjoyed near-perfect health after Granger went out.
Including Granger, Indiana’s regular players have missed a combined total of 63 games to date. Including Rose, Bulls regulars have missed a whopping 116 games, nearly twice as many.
If healthy, the teams are basically level.
Which means a monstrous tug of war looms in the years ahead.
“It’s set up that way,” said Indiana forward David West, the main reason for the Pacers’ resurgence the past two seasons. “We know it’s going to be a dogfight. They play with confidence and are well-coached. We pride ourselves on meeting the challenge and presenting one of our own. Both teams are building good nucleuses, are very prideful.”
For Chicago’s core — Rose, Noah, Deng and Taj Gibson — age is not a concern. Indiana, likewise, has a 22-year-old centerpiece in Paul George and key actors in Roy Hibbert and George Hill who are just hitting their primes.
Suffocating defense is the calling card on both sides. Noah, Deng and Gibson are awesome on that end of the floor. George and Hibbert belong in the defensive player of the year discussion.
The Bulls and Pacers are two of the best offensive rebounding teams in the league.
Add George’s evolution into a star who might counter Rose’s dynamism, and these division foes are morphing into mirror images of one another.
“We know they’re going to have a great team for many years to come,” Hill said. “We know that we can have a great team for many years to come. We’re not like anybody but ourselves. We don’t try to be like anybody. We’re the Pacers. We try to make our own path and choose our own identity.”
Big decisions loom for each front office which could affect those identities.
West is scheduled for free agency this summer, while Granger has one year left on his contract. The expectation is that Granger will be dealt during the offseason because George’s best position is small forward.
Will Chicago use the amnesty clause on Boozer? He has two years and $32 million left on his deal. The Bulls would certainly be fine with Gibson starting in Boozer’s place. Gibson signed an extension in October that pays him handsomely for the next four seasons.
The benches are unsettled. The Bulls let go of Kyle Korver, C.J. Watson, Ronnie Brewer and Omer Asik from last season, keeping only Gibson. Replacements Nazr Mohammed, Marco Belinelli, Vladimir Radmanovic and Robinson are all making the minimum salary. Rookie Marquis Teague is 20 and far from ready. Indiana needs changes, too, with Ian Mahinmi shaping up as the only reserve there for the long haul.
If anyone comes out ahead, however, it won’t be because of a financial advantage. It appears that each team is either unwilling or unable to pay the luxury tax.
The Central may not be the NBA’s glamour division — that’d be the Pacific, or the Atlantic — but it figures to be a juggernaut for the foreseeable future.
Chicago went 50-16 last season, winning the division despite Rose missing 27 games. Somehow, the Bulls went 18-9 without him and, let us not forget, held the No. 1 seed in the conference, not Miami. Indiana finished eight games back in the Central.
“We’ve made strides,” West said. “We’ve been chasing them since they were the division champs last year. We’ve closed the gap. The Bulls have owned it for the last few years. We fought for it. We’ve been able to mature and ascend to the top (this season).”
Still, West acknowledges that little has separated the teams in their three meetings.
“We’ve been able to make a few more plays down the stretch in these tight games to win them,” West said.
That’s where a healthy Rose comes into play. So Chicago and Indiana are right there. But it’s the young talent in the pipeline in other cities that could make the Central a real doozy sooner rather than later.
Cleveland has the NBA’s next great point guard, Kyrie Irving, a tantalizing rookie scorer in Dion Waiters and oodles of cap space in its back pocket. Growing studs Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond and Brandon Knight should return Detroit to the playoffs in a year or two, with the Pistons having secured major financial liberty of their own.
“Young, up-and-coming teams,” Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. “Milwaukee always puts a good product on the floor that is also very competitive.”
Could the Central actually be the NBA’s best division in, say, 2015?
“You just don’t know,” West said. “So many things can happen. I know it’s a solid division.”
Vogel only has one team in his sights.
“The immediate future is about the Bulls and the Pacers,” he said.
When asked whether he considered Chicago a rival, the second-year coach replied, “Absolutely.”
Many ingredients recommend use of the term: geographic proximity, a recent testy playoff series, vibrant game atmospheres.
On Sunday, the crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse contained a strong and vocal Bulls contingent.
“Lot of red,” Hill said. “It felt like a road/home game. We’ve got to expect that (when Chicago visits) and move on.”
Lou Amundson, who signed a 10-day contract with the Bulls over the weekend, competed on the other side with the Pacers a season ago. He said the Chicago-Indiana series is not only a rivalry, but a great one.
“Always has been,” Amundson said. “It was last year and will continue to be.”
So while the Central may not be overly compelling at the moment, just wait until next year. The fun is only beginning.
