Time to look at the Central Division of the NBA and see what we can divine for the future prospects of teams and players.

LeBron James

Might as well start with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Shaq is the 4th leading rebounder and 3 leading scorer in the Cavaliers and not playing a heck of a lot of minutes. Of course, Shaq will quietly tell you that he is saving himself for the playoffs. Cleveland does lead the Central Division, but there is not much competition in the Division and you would have to favor Orlando or Boston in the Eastern Conference right now.

Milwaukee lives in second place and the fans are consumed with the legend in the making of Brandon Jennings the smoking hot rookie. The problem with that is that rookies don’t win you titles, unless they go by the name of Magic Johnson.

Get this Milwaukee has lost 8 out of their last 10 games. The Detroit Pistons have lost 7 out of their last 10 games. The Chicago Bulls have lost 8 out of their last 10 games. Not to be out done the Indiana Pacers have lost 9 out of their last 10 games.

You could either say the Bucks are a balanced team or they are so bad that you could not tell me which players are their starting 5 and which players are the backup 5.

The Pistons are depending on a new lineup of youth tied together with oldsters Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins.

Derrick Rose is a bright spot on an otherwise lusterless roster for the Chicago Bulls.

In spite of an unknown superstar called Danny Granger, we don’t even want to discuss the Pacers and their victory total of 6.

Can Shaq be saving himself for the playoffs?

So that leaves us only with the Cavaliers. Can Shaq help LeBron win a NBA title?

If you took one look at O’Neal’s stats without having seen the Cavs play, it would seem like he’s not having a good season. In 14 games — he missed six games with a shoulder strain — O’Neal is averaging a career-low 10.9 points on career-low 52 percent shooting, a career-low 6.6 rebounds in a career-low 23.4 minutes.

Shaquille O’Neal has been limited by injury and the Cavaliers’ depth at the center position. But his performance against Orlando’s Dwight Howard in an early-season victory in Florida indicates that his biggest contributions are likely to come in the postseason.

Several different publications have quoted scouts or executives saying that O’Neal clogs the lane and prevents penetrators like Mo Williams and James from getting to the basket and makes it impossible to space the floor properly. The other criticism is O’Neal is a defensive liability.
All of these statements, frankly, have proven not to be true so far.

O’Neal does help clog the lane, for the opposition. With O’Neal, the Cavs have three different center options with Anderson Varejao and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. This allows for a crisp rotation depending on the opponent and makes sure the Cavs have size in the game at all times.
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Photo source Newscom

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Scott Skiles ramblings

It is time for your intrepid author to keep you updated on all the trivial, ..er, important happenings in the NBA. How about that really important Piston vs. Bucks game?

Scott Skiles is suspended for the game.

Skiles will miss the Bucks’ road game at Detroit on Friday, and Jim Boylan will serve as the team’s coach.

Skiles was whistled for two quick technical fouls by referee Sean Wright with 29.7 seconds left in the first quarter on Wednesday. The Bucks coach went out on the floor to dispute a non-call after Hakim Warrick went to the basket and scored. Skiles wanted a foul called on Wizards center Brendan Haywood.

An angry Skiles was hit with a technical by Wright, then quickly was whistled for a second technical foul and an automatic ejection.

The NBA said in a statement Friday that Skiles was suspended for one game without pay “for his actions directed at a game official and for not leaving the court in a timely manner.”
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Why does your intrepid author want you to know about Scott Skiles exhibiting a temper? Isn’t that like Tiger looking at a blonde girl that is not his wife? Ohh, cheap shot there, my apologies. No, it was interesting because Jim Boylan coached as an assistant for Tom Izzo who coached as an assistant for Jud Heathcote, both at Michigan State University. Scott Skiles played at MSU for Jud, while Tom was the assistant coach. Also, starting guard Charlie Bell played for Tom Izzo.

Scott Skiles with one of his best friends

And if that is not remarkable enough, then how about this, your intrepid author, NBAObsessed himself, went to MSU during the Magic Johnson years and was at the MSU victory over Wofford tonight. Yes, the mighty Wofford Terriers.

Skiles suspension is symbolic as MSU is going through a series of suspensions on their football team right now and Scott got in a lot of trouble at MSU, mostly for drinking.

Charlie Villanueva

In a return to Milwaukee, Charlie Villanueva had to send out tweet.

Villanueva did not play in the Pistons’ 92-85 loss in Chicago on Wednesday after suffering a broken nose in a game Sunday against Atlanta.

But Villanueva sent out a tweet a few hours ago that said, “Watch for the mask man in tonight game against the Bucks.”

Villanueva will have to wear a mask to protect the injury, which he sustained on a play in the fourth quarter of the Pistons’ 94-88 victory over the Hawks. He was fouled by Atlanta’s Zaza Pachulia and as Villanueva fell to the floor he collided with teammate Ben Wallace.
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Image: Zuma Press

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Maybe if you have been following the events surrounding Allen Iverson for the past few years then his impending retirement would not leave you stunned, just the same, it does. And why should the retirement of Allen Iverson leave you stunned? Because Allen will be back. Mark my words, Allen Iverson will play in the NBA again this year.

Iverson was in his 11th season with the Sixers when they traded him to the Denver Nuggets in December 2006. Denver dealt him to the Detroit Pistons last November.

He averaged 27.0 points per game in his career.
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Stephen A. Smith broke the story Wednesday on his web site. You can watch the interview of Smith on the following YouTube.

As for my thoughts about Allen Iverson being back, turns out in the video, that Stephen A. Smith came to the same conclusion.

Can you imagine the Cleveland Cavaliers dialing up Allen in time for the playoffs? You are talking Shaq, LeBron, and AI. That would be one of the top 3 little guys to play the game, one of the top 5 big guys to play the game, and a player that may end up being one of the top 3 players of all time! You can debate those levels, but cannot debate the fact that it would be a very interesting team.

What if Orlando signed him? Could you have both Vince Carter and Allen Iverson on the same floor on the same team at the same time? Would Dwight Howard ever see the ball?

Allen Iverson has a fan

Maybe the biggest supporter of Allen Iverson is his old coach George Karl.

“I think he still has something left to give some team out there. If that’s his decision, he’ll go down in history, I think, as the greatest little guard ever to play the game of basketball,” Karl said.

“I was happy to have him for a couple years and hopefully our paths will cross. But I have a sneaky feeling that somewhere along the way an injury or a circumstance with a team will open that window back up.”

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So will Allen be back or are teams afraid of the baggage he brings with him? You think about it and let me know!

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Amare Stoudemire is getting his act together after last year’s injury plagued season and getting back into the form that has made him one heck of an offensive ballplayer playing in an offensive system. When you have Steve Nash at point guard you can put up the points.

This is Amare Stoudemire’s 8th year and he has been pretty consistently around 20 points and 9 rebounds per year. This season Amare is playing the power forward position now that Channing Frye is at center and this only creates a bigger mismatch at that position.

Amare Stoudemire is helping the Suns to hold back the Lakers

The Suns and Stoudemire are holding a half game lead over the NBA finals favorite Los Angeles Lakers and are sharing the best record in the NBA with Orlando and Atlanta.

Their latest victims were the tired offense only Pistons.

Phoenix Suns 117 Detroit Pistons 91

Now in fairness to the Pistons, they were on their 4th game in 5 nights and still do not have Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince in the lineup which leaves them with a lot of young guys on the court.

The Suns didn’t care, because when you are trying to stay ahead of the Lakers, every game counts, so they went ahead and pounded the Pistons relentlessly.

Phoenix regained a share of the NBA’s best record (11-3) Sunday, starting better by making its first eight shots in a perpetually moving offense that clicked consistently in 3-point shooting (11 for 18), shooting (season-best 57.5 percent), tempo (season-best 24 fast-break points) and defense (Detroit shot 42.7 percent).

“They pretty much had their way with us,” said Detroit guard Ben Gordon, who had his lowest-scoring game (10 points) against Phoenix since he was a rookie in 2004.
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The Suns are one of the bigger surprises in the NBA this year. You knew they would be good, but not this good and Amare Stoudemire is one of the reasons why they are this good!

Image: Zuma Press

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Ahh, remember those warm nights in college when girls would streak across the softball field? Whatever happened to those days? Sorry, getting a little off the subject.

Tayshaun Prince

Tayshaun Prince has started 439 games in a row, which in the modern NBA with all the travel, is quite a prodigious streak. Painfully, especially for Tay, it will come to an end tonight.

His games-played streak was second among active players, trailing Andre Miller, and his games-started streak of 439 was the longest active run.

The bad news was compounded by the fact that coach John Kuester said that shooting guard Rip Hamilton definitely will miss the Toronto game and is unlikely to return Friday.

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When you look at Tayshaun Prince he seems so thin and so frail that no one would have guessed that he would become one of the league’s leading iron men.

NBA factoid: Robert Parrish played in 1,611 games in his career an NBA All Time record.

Tay last sat out a game in his rookie year and last did not start in his second year. Prince had trouble winning the confidence of Rick Carlisle in his rookie year and frankly did not show up until the playoffs. It was in the playoffs that Carlisle discovered that Tayshaun could back his man down and score with an odd looking twisting left handed shot. It was almost unstoppable due to the fact that it had never been seen during the regular season.

Tayshaun will be among the missing for tonight's game

Tayshaun has played in 537 games and another 118 games in the playoffs.

NBA factoid: A.C. Green played in 1,192 straight games and NBA All Time record.

The injury has come at a bad time for the Pistons with Rip Hamilton out as well. This Piston team does not have the depth or number of veterans that the Pistons teams of recent past.

Photo source Newscom

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It is the impossible world of exhibition basketball where teams have veterans with years of pounding on their bad knees that won’t bother to really run up and down the floor and teams also have rookies just dying to make a big play or provide some extra hustle.

Yesterday we discussed how Dwyane Wade lead the Miami Heat in scoring against the Detroit Pistons, but we failed to go into a play that made Detroit Piston’s rookie Austin Daye’s day.

The Heat star had just taken an outlet pass and was going to glide in for an emphatic dunk late in the second quarter of the exhibition opener for the Pistons and Heat.

But midway through the glide, Pistons rookie Austin Daye came over to block the dunk and knock it out of bounds, eliciting a cheer from the sparse Palace crowd.

Wade looked around and grinned.

Later in the possession there was a Pistons foul, and Wade just joked and laughed with the Pistons’ bench — particularly Tayshaun Prince — telling it that it was a great play.
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Dwyane Wade is a superstar and does not feel the need to be offended by Daye’s’ block of his dunk, so he took it in the spirit of fun and gamesmanship. Meanwhile, Daye could barely contain himself knowing what he had accomplished. If he wanted to be noticed, it worked.

Dwyane Wade laughs and has fun with Pistons Austin Daye

The new Pistons are a younger group with a long way to go to win anything and just don’t seem to be as serious as the old Pistons. It remains to be seen if that translates into victories.

Dwyane Wade is probably in the same boat, just waiting for the players to arrive to give him a good enough supporting cast.

Image: Zuma Press

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How strange it felt last night flipping through the channels on the big screen while waiting for my wife to come downstairs. We were going to watch the season ender for Warehouse 13 that was recorded on the DVR. Then there it was, a NBA basketball game. The Detroit Pistons against the Miami Heat. It did not seem right. The game was only exhibition and it just seemed too soon. Pro sports seasons are so long the off seasons seem too short.

Most of my friends don’t even watch basketball until January, when football switches over to the playoffs and bowl games. But there it was.

Dwyane Wade led Miami in scoring

It was a nothing game and Detroit and Miami are two teams that are going to race up and down the court to make up for some defensive deficiencies and some lack of height and that is what they were doing.

It was a good night for Dwyane Wade.

Dwyane Wade led Miami with 18 points.

The Pistons led by as many as 17 in the second half, but Miami came back in the fourth quarter. The Heat comeback was helped by a mistake by the replacement officials with 1:21 left. Bynum made two free throws to apparently put Detroit up 87-78, but the Miami players pointed out that Bynum hadn’t been fouled on the play.

After a discussion, the points were taken off the board and Maceo Baston was sent to the line, where he missed both shots.
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Chris Wilcox and Ben Gordon each scored 11 points and will play a big part in the Pistons this season.

The game was hard to watch, because there is just no intensity in a preseason game.

Photo source Newscom

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You have heard it by now. Allan Iverson is claiming the Detroit Pistons lied to him about his role with the team. Allan claims the Coach Michael Curry, now fired, said to Allan Iverson, now a Grizzlie, that he would start Allan and would never disrespect Allan by bringing him off the bench.

Allen Iverson claims Detroit lied

Hmm, not sure about you, but how many coaches go around guaranteeing a player a starting job, especially when he has a former All Star and current team leading scorer in Rip Hamilton already at that position? Did you say zero? Thought so.

“They told me, straight up, ‘Allen we would never disrespect you or your career like that’ by making me come off the bench,” Iverson said in an interview with ESPN.com. “That’s what they told me to my face. And after that, I never thought about it again. I just went back to playing. Then, they came to me saying that they felt it would be in the ‘best interest of the team’ if I came off of the bench behind Rip (Richard Hamilton).

“… After that, they told me that if I didn’t come off the bench — the team was going to lie down [not play] on me. … When he told me that, that’s when I felt that this was the worst career move I’d ever made and it was the worst year of my career.”
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Geez, the story gets more credible all the time. Now the team, as in the Detroit Pistons, are going to lay down when Allen is on the court, because the only thing on the line is their jobs and the playoffs. This makes no sense at all. What we are most likely getting is the Allen Iverson version of what happened to a player that never fit in with the crumbling Pistons. Allen will remain one of my favorite players, but this just sounds like an excuse for it just didn’t work out.

Photo source Newscom

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Many hoop fans are also big time football fans. Rodney Stuckey has a bit of advice for new quarterback Matt Stafford. Rodney wants Matt to know there will be days and there will be days. In other words the ups and downs will be normal for the first year.

Toss the rookie into the cauldron. He’ll get burned often. He’ll look spectacular occasionally. But more often, he’ll look overmatched by the game’s speed, contributing to moments of internal doubt and the inevitable public lament that the novice may never live up to the hopeful expectations.

Stafford will have those days.

Stuckey had that year.

“I was overwhelmed and confused,” he said Monday during the Pistons’ media day.
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Rodney is ready for year two when things begin to appear to slow down and you do not have to just rely on natural instincts.

Rodney S

With new coach John Kuester devoted to the running game and new teammates Charlie Villenueva and Ben Gordon giving the team more firepower and running ability, it could be a banner year for Rodney. At the very least he will get to show off more of his natural abilities like his ability to run, find the open man, and penetrate with the ball.

There will be plenty of talent and experience surrounding Stuckey, but it will remain to be his ability to harness and direct that talent and experience that will determine if the Pistons are to go anywhere this season.
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They did not pick Joe Dumars as number 1.

So lets step through some of the highlights.
How about Pat Riley at number 8. He built a team in his image, always ready, always tough. He has rebuilt the Heat several times.

But he’s also rebuilt his Heat a few times, he’s been in the playoffs seven times during the last decade, and while his moves during the summer of 2005 may have been pound-foolish, it won the man and his superstar (Dwyane Wade) a ring. Something you can’t say for LeBron James general manager.

Mitch Kupchak at number 6. Hey, its the Lakers, you have to be good or you are gone.

But smart lower-round draft picks, luck (other teams had better packages in place for Pau Gasol, but Memphis didn’t want to deal; by the time Mitch came calling with his package, the Grizzlies were desperate to unload), and the help of Jim Buss (who pushed to draft and then keep Bynum) have had the Lakers in the Finals in consecutive years, with a win in 2009.

You have to like Danny Ainge at number 4. He brought the Celtics back from oblivion all the way to a title. Getting Kevin Garnett was a sweetheart deal that drew other good players.

But this is a decade-long list, and while some of the men at the top of this page may have better futures (and won’t have to pay Kevin Garnett over $21 million in 2011-12), Ainge’s drafting acumen and willingness to take chances make him a winner in my book. If not one in the standings, from 2003 until 2007.

Joe Dumars only checked in at number 2, in spite of living in the Eastern Conference finals.

Dumars started by playing it smart, working with teams in cap hell, leaving things flexible, sometimes acting as if Bird Rights didn’t matter and he had an NFL-styled hard cap to work with. The Pistons were in the Eastern Conference finals every year between 2003 and 2008, and it was only the players’ fault they didn’t win more titles.

Tim Duncan helps R. C. Buford look good!

And the Number one is R. C. Buford of the San Antonio Spurs. It does not hurt to have Tim Duncan, but he always does a good job of surrounding him with unselfish talent.

We don’t know how much impact Gregg Popovich has had on Buford’s wheelings and dealings, and R.C. has had help (current Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti was on his payroll for years). Buford also had nothing to do with the acquisitions of David Robinson (1987) or Tim Duncan (1997).

But there’s no denying Buford’s impact on the Spurs’ rise to power this decade. Even though he technically wasn’t the team’s personnel boss (that would be Popovich) when the Spurs drafted Manu Ginobili (2000) or Tony Parker (2001), he was the man who recommended the franchise take both future All-Stars.

Still for my money, it is Joe Dumars. He made all the moves himself and has never had a Tim Duncan to work into the mix. Make Joe Dumars the number one GM in my book!

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