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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Post from: NBA Obsessed

Danny Granger is for real. There, it is out there for everyone to see and if you have not seen this guy play then you are missing one heck of a player.

My first introduction to Danny Granger was last year when Granger was scoring at will against my Pistons. Now Indiana had nobody on their team including this Granger guy and yet, there he was driving and scoring, pulling up and shooting, draining free throws and just being an offensive pest.

This year Danny made the All Star team and just notched Most Improved in the NBA.

Danny Granger is one of the bright young NBA stars!

Maybe the highest praise came from Larry Bird.

A first-time All-Star, Granger realized how far he’s come after Larry Bird’s comments this morning.

In introducing the Pacers forward as the NBA’s Most Improved Player this season, Bird referred to Granger as “a hell of a player.”

“I watched Larry play probably when I was in diapers,” Granger said with a laugh. “It’s a great honor to have him congratulation you on the type of success you have. It speaks wonders.”

Granger, the NBA’s fifth-leading scorer this season with a 25.8 average, reiterated his desired to become an elite defender.
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Now if Larry Bird could just surround Danny Granger with some other talented players.

Photo source Newscom

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed