LeBron is back in Cleveland – and he can propel the Cavs to glory in the East

The NBA season returns on Tuesday, and the landscape is unlike anything we’ve seen before. LeBron James is playing in Cleveland, the New York Knicks made a high-profile coaching change and the USA men’s basketball team swept their way through an international competition.

OK, perhaps they’re not the best examples of radical change in the basketball world. Still, a lot has happened in the months since the NBA finals when the San Antonio Spurs effectively ended a potential Miami Heat dynasty. This two-part preview should help fill in the gaps, starting with the Eastern Conference today and the Western Conference preview on Tuesday.

Atlantic Division

Brooklyn Nets

Motto: Older and wiser – or at least older

What happens when a team designed to win in the short-term doesn’t? We might be about to find out with the Brooklyn Nets who, now that some of the novelty related to their 2012 move from New Jersey to New York is gone, now just look like ... well, the Nets of old. Or just the Old Nets.

Point guard Deron Williams isn’t really an all-star anymore. Kevin Garnett is an injury away from retirement. Joe Johnson has been around a lot longer than you think he has. Even one of the new guys, talented but erratic sixth man Jarrett Jack, is 30 years old.

Those are just the pieces that have stayed. Paul Pierce is now with the Washington Wizards. First-year head coach Jason Kidd forced his way out of town, deciding he’d rather coach the Milwaukee Bucks, although the Nets might have upgraded by landing former Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins. With half the team aging, and a few key figures gone, no wonder owner Mikhail Prokhorov is reportedly already contemplating selling the team.

The Brooklyn Nets as constructed last year are pretty much no more, but the 2014-15 squad might actually end up going deeper in the playoffs if Brook Lopez doesn’t miss significant time. The center, when he can actually play, is the Nets’ best player if he manages to be relatively healthy for a whole season. With him, they’re a force. Without him, they’ll be mediocre.

Toronto Raptors

Motto: More likely to make the postseason than the Maple Leafs

The Toronto Raptors made it to the postseason last year for only the second time in franchise history. Although that was partly due to the inferiority of the Eastern Conference it was still a worthy achievement from a team without much positive history.

The reason for the Raptors’ renaissance? Well, it’s partly because they traded Rudy Gay, which somehow always improves teams, but mostly because Kyle Lowry emerged as an elite point guard and DeMar DeRozan showed off enough skill that he was able to make Team USA’s roster for this summer’s Fiba World Cup.

That Fiba World Cup was also the coming-out party for Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas, who impressed as part of the Lithuanian team that faced the US in the semi-finals. The Raptors who made no big moves during the offseason seem to be hoping for improvement from some of its players. Valanciunas might be their best bet.

New York Knicks

Motto: Please get our owner to stop trying to brand our starters as the Jackson 5

Last season the Knicks, as they often are, were one of the biggest jokes in the league. Yet they still somehow almost made the playoffs, landing in nith place and just a game behind the Hawks. If there’s any better indictment of the terribleness of the 2013-14 Eastern Conference, this writer has yet to hear it.

Late during that season the Knicks hired Phil Jackson, and his many championship rings, as team president. Jackson’s main goals were to replace hopeless, hapless head coach Mike Woodson and eventually install his famed Triangle Offense.

In one quick move he managed to help both causes by replacing Woodson with Derek Fisher. Fisher is very familiar with the Triangle, having worked under Jackson as part of several Lakers championship teams. The only drawbacks are that he has no coaching experience and also could potentially un-retire as a player at any second. (This is only kind of a joke.)

Jackson also managed to lure back Carmelo Anthony, answering the most significant offseason personnel question. Although the team isn’t too happy with having to give Anthony a five-year contract that will be worth at least $122m, there was no way for the Knicks to replace his scoring. Without Anthony, this Knicks team would not be contending this season.

The problem? The defense, which was always bad with this team and might get way worse with the trade that sent Tyson Chandler to the Mavericks. They did get Jose Calderon back, who can help with his offense, but that’s not the real problem. Iman Shumpert seems to be the best defender among potential starters and owner James Dolan seems to continuously threaten to trade him.

So once again, we may be looking at an all-offense no-defense Knicks team hamstrung by a loathed and possibly incompetent owner. Same as it ever was.

Boston Celtics

Motto: At least 20-30 Rajon Rondo trade rumors guaranteed

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: trade rumors continue to swirl around all-star point guard Rajon Rondo, who begins this season hurt and whose return to the Celtics lineup is up in the air. That was basically status quo in Boston last season although the Celtics were keeping Rondo off the court as often as possible not just out of an excess of caution but also because they were clearly playing for the draft lottery.

Boston never seems to learn the lesson when it comes to the lottery. Instead of landing an Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker, the Celtics landed the sixth pick of the draft, which they used on Marcus Smart. Smart’s a solid player but not someone who will ever turn the fortunes of this club. He’s also blocked by – guess who! – Rajon Rondo. Yeah, that won’t stop the never-ending trade rumors.

Their biggest offseason moves were re-signing Avery Bradley to a contract big enough (four years, $32m) that even his biggest supporter (this writer) couldn’t fully support it and taking a flyer on the Human Toxic Locker Room Reputation that is Evan Turner.

If there was any good news it was that former first-round picks Jared Sullinger and Kelly Olynyk showed improvement in their scoring during the preseason. Honestly though, the 2014-15 Celtics are looking less like a basketball team and more of a loose assemblage of complimentary pieces, likely trade bait and flotsam.

Philadelphia 76ers

Motto: Daring Adam Silver to introduce relegation to the NBA

Just a week ago the NBA attempted, and failed, to change the NBA draft lottery rules, and it’s pretty much all Philadelphia’s fault.

From the roster they are setting out, it seems like the 76ers are actively trying, once again, to be the worst team in the NBA. In fact, it probably galls them that the Milwaukee Bucks beat them to the bottom of the Eastern Conference last season, especially since the Bucks actually tried last year. The 76ers even struggled to do “being completely terrible” right.

The 76ers are basically a D-League team right now, with their only selling point being the delayed debut of Nerlens Noel unless this year’s pick, Joel Embiid, makes a cameo appearance at the end of the season. If you think it’s a coincidence that the 76ers picked up two top draft picks in a row that would likely miss their first seasons with injuries, think again. It’s all part of their plan to lose their way to the top. It’s basically The Producers but with basketball: “Springtime for Tony Wroten.”

Southeast Division

Miami Heat

Motto: Introducing the Medium-Sized Three

The Miami Heat have made it to the NBA finals in each of the last four seasons, winning twice, but there’s a good chance that’s not going to happen this year and you should have a pretty good idea why.

Without LeBron James, and with Dwyane Wade a shadow of himself, the Heat basically had no choice but to offer Chris Bosh a maximum contract. Wade, of course, is still the linchpin of the Heat but is clearly on the downside of his career, playing as if he were five years older than he actually is. Bosh is going to have to be the team’s primary option like he was during his years with the Raptors.

The offseason wasn’t a complete disaster for the Heat, they did obtain the services of Luol Deng, a two-time all-star and an even better human being. The worry is that Deng already has a lot of miles on him thanks to the ridiculous number of minutes Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau had him play before he was traded to Cleveland last season.

Still, this Heat team is less likely to return to the finals and more likely to be a case study on what happens to one of the best teams in basketball after losing the game’s best player. They’ll compete but it won’t be as much fun, unless you really, really want to see Mario Chalmers unleashed (note this probably means you are, in fact, Mario Chalmers).

Washington Wizards

Motto: A long tradition of great players ending their careers in the wrong uniforms

With the obvious exception of Cleveland, no team is in better position to capitalize from the breakup of the Heat big three than the Washington Wizards. The Heat are weakened and the Cavaliers are going to need time to gel. The Wizards, meanwhile, beat the Bulls in the first round of the NBA playoffs last season, and are primed to go even deeper this round with another year of experience under their belt.

This is presumably why the Wizards picked up Paul Pierce to replace the departing Trevor Ariza. Pierce is nearing the end of the road, but presumably he’ll add veteran experience to a young group of gifted players, most notably the improving 24-year-old point guard John Wall and 21-year-old (21!) Bradley Beal.

Beal, their best player during the playoffs, will be sidelined for the start of the season thanks to a broken wrist. This means Wall’s task will be to keep the team competitive on his own in Beal’s absence if the Wizards are going to establish themselves as the conference’s trendy dark horse contenders. This writer thinks he’s ready.

Atlanta Hawks

Motto: Sorry for this summer – we promise to be boring again

The good news is that for once in its existence, the Atlanta Hawks weren’t boring this offseason. The bad news is that’s because of front-office turmoil that led to an owner selling off his stake of the team and the most likely permanent exile of its general manager.

In case you missed it, controlling owner Bruce Levenson stepped down during the offseason after being busted for writing a racially charged email. Soon afterward, GM Danny Ferry was suspended indefinitely for making racially offensive comments about Luol Deng. The team is now up for sale and effectively in ownership limbo.

So where does this leave the actual team? They have a very Atlanta-esque lineup featuring the likes of Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver and Jeff Teague. These are all fine players, including the underrated big man Horford, but none of them are really dangerous. Their big offseason acquisition was the Thunder’s Thabo Sefolosha, who, with his vaguely familiar name and established but unimpressive skill set, feels like he always was meant to be a Hawk.

What does this add up to? Most likely, a low playoff seed and a first-round elimination you can only watch on NBA TV. Yet again. This is an organization that really could benefit from some major changes, although the events of this summer were a particularly ugly way to ensure that they would happen.

Orlando Magic

Motto: Quick: Name an active Orlando Magic player! You can’t, right?

It’s been a few seasons removed from the painful but necessary Dwight Howard trade a few years back and it still looks like the Magic are far from competing. It won’t help their cause that Victor Oladipo will be out indefinitely with a facial facture.

Could the Magic do what the Phoenix Suns did last season in a much tougher conference? Could this relatively anonymous young squad at least fight for contention right down to the final weeks of the regular season? Maybe that’s what the Magic were thinking when they picked up former Phoenix power forward Channing Frye: that maybe he could provide a bit of insight into how that happened. Insight’s all he’ll be able to provide for the time being, he’ll also be out until at least November with a sprained knee.

Clearly, this doesn’t look like the Magic’s year, but it’s OK. In fact, it might be counterproductive for this clearly rebuilding squad to start competing now. They are a major piece or two away from being a legitimately good team no matter how well players like Nikola Vucevic or Maurice Harkless develop.

Charlotte Hornets

Motto: Hey, we’re not the Bobcats any more!

History will show that the Charlotte Bobcats never won a playoff game in team history. Although they made an unexpected trip to the NBA postseason last year on the back of free agent acquisition and unlikely savior Al Jefferson, they were once again swept in the first round during the Miami Heat’s march to the NBA Finals.

The good news is that they’re the Hornets now, having snatched that nickname back from the re-branded New Orleans Pelicans, who used to be the New Orleans Hornets, who used to be the Charlotte Hornets. (Relocation can be a confusing thing.) Also, they managed to pick up free agent Lance Stephenson, formerly of the Indiana Pacers, after what can be euphemistically called “character issues” scared away some of the more marquee teams in the league.

All the Hornets need to do is keep Al Jefferson healthy and on the court and Stephenson out of trouble and they could easily return to the playoffs to showcase their cooler name and snazzier uniforms. If you want to bet on both of those things happening, go right ahead, but don’t be surprised if Charlotte starts playing for the lottery come March.

Central Division

Cleveland Cavaliers

Motto: Yes, that really happened

LeBron James was always going to return to Cleveland. Even after he defected to the Miami Heat and took them to four straight finals, winning two of them, the plan always involved James returning to his home state.

Few thought it would happen this soon, however. The entire state of the Eastern Conference shifted when James announced that he was leaving the Heat to rejoin the team that drafted the Akron native. There he joined point guard Kyrie Irving, star of the Fiba World Cup and, oddly enough, the first round pick the Cavaliers were able to land because of the hole James left in their lineup.

In his letter explaining his decision, James notably failed to mention two other overall top picks in Cleveland history, Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett. There was a reason for this, the Cavaliers would end up trading them to the Minnesota Timberwolves for rebound machine Kevin Love. Just like that James and Irving had a third all-star to join in the all-new, all-younger Big Three.

The roster turmoil is probably not over. Some of the younger players, most notably shooting guard Dion Waiters, might not work in the system. If the Cavs* fully trusted the supporting cast they had they would not have brought in veterans like Shawn Marion, Mike Miller and James Jones.

The only thing preventing the Cavaliers from being the best team in the Eastern Conference, possibly the NBA, is time. It’s going to take at least a half-season’s worth of games for James, Irving and Love to find a groove. Don’t be surprised if the Cavaliers stumble early in the regular season just like the post-decision Heat did.

If they don’t stumble, this is clearly the best collection of talent in the Eastern Conference, and potentially the entire league. Scarily though, Cleveland’s core three might even have a higher ceiling than Miami’s thanks to the youth of Irving and Love. If so, the rest of the East is doomed for years to come.

* Specifically LeBron James

Chicago Bulls

Motto: Derrick Rose is back! For real this time, we mean it!

If Derrick Rose is healthy, if Joakim Noah doesn’t collapse from overwork, and if Pau Gasol can be the new Luol Deng this could be a very dangerous team. In fact, this could be the team with the best chance to prevent James from a fifth straight finals trip. But, oh, those are a lot of ifs.

So far, it’s hard to say what Derrick Rose is any more, if he will ever even approach the MVP form he established back before injuries made him lose two full seasons. He’s been impressive in the preseason, but he also was impressive in the exhibition games leading to the Fiba World Cup and he ended up being about as valuable as Mason Plumlee.

It’s clear that the Bulls can’t lean on Noah any harder than they did last season. Noah basically had to pull double duty as center and primary ball distributor, which he did beautifully, but his increasing workload and his willingness to play through all injuries will backfire sooner rather than later. The Bulls, of all teams, can’t afford another serious injury to a key player if they want to avoid being of the all-time “what if?” teams.

Detroit Pistons

Motto: Some assembly required

OK, having Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings on the same team turned out to be as bad of a deal in real life as it looked like on paper. Plus, having both of them in the same lineup made it impossible for the Pistons to use Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe, two of their best players, properly.

If anyone can figure out how to handle this complete mess, it will be new head coach and president Stan Van Gundy. If he can get the Pistons, who went 29-53 last season, above .500 he should be coach of the year. It’s much more likely that the Pistons will try to sell off Smith and/or Jennings for spare parts and seriously rebuild. If the Pistons are smart, they picked up Van Gundy with the future in mind, not this potentially dreadful present.

Indiana Pacers

Motto: This is going to be depressing

Has an NBA team ever been eliminated from postseason contention in July before? When Paul George suffered a hideous leg injury during a warmup game for the Fiba World Cup, the unfortunate encounter with the stanchion probably ended his team’s chances at even matching the previous season’s playoff performance.

Not that last year wasn’t depressing, too, especially after the first half of their season saw them fighting with the Miami Heat as the top team in the East and the second half saw them playing like one of the worst teams in the league. They managed to get themselves together in time for the playoffs, only to be knocked out by the Miami Heat once again, this time in the Eastern Conference finals.

We’ll give the last words on the upcoming Pacers season to a clearly pessimistic David West, who will have to be the Pacers’ top scorer with George gone:

You have to give yourself a realistic starting point. So obviously we can’t be talking about competing for a championship, even being in title contention, we’ve just have to talk about figuring out a way to get the best lineups on the floor, the best guys on the floor to give us a chance to compete.

Yeah, sorry Indiana, but this is going to suck.

Milwaukee Bucks

Motto: Come to the Greek Freak show

Wait, Jason Kidd pushed his way out of Brooklyn to coach this mess of a team?

Honestly, the only reason to really watch the Bucks this season will most likely be Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Greek Freak, whose length and potential have made him a cult figure among hoops heads.

Oh yeah, and thanks to their accidental tanking last season, they managed to draft Duke’s Jabari Parker with the second pick in the draft, expect him to pick up some rookie-of-the-year votes with the old “getting a lot of points on a bad team” trick.

The two 19-year-olds will be the guys to watch in a team that otherwise will feature such marginal figures as Brandon Knight and OJ Mayo getting significant playing time. Defensive standout Larry Sanders should be back at some point, as long as he doesn’t get into another bar fight or flunk another drug test, but it’s hard to think the Bucks can count on him for – well, count on him, period. Expect the Bucks to battle the 76ers for the worst record in the league.

Eastern Conference finals prediction: Cleveland Cavaliers over Chicago Bulls