Biggest question facing every NBA Central Division team: Can Bucks’ defense step up? What’s next for Pacers?

The 2024-25 NBA season is seven weeks away, and leading up to the start of the regular season we’re taking a look at the biggest question for each team in the league. We already tackled the Atlantic division, discussing if the the Celtics will be the first repeat champion in six years, if this is the year the 76ers get over the hump and plenty more on the Knicks, Raptors and Nets. Now we’ll dive into the Central division, where there’s a wide array of expectations, from championship aspirations to teams in the midst of a rebuild.

The Pacers are coming off an Eastern Conference finals appearance, but getting back there is no guarantee. The Cavaliers are hoping a new coach will be the needed change to jolt this team, while the Bucks will enter Year 2 of the Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard partnership. And while the Bulls and Pistons figure to be lottery teams, there’s plenty of important questions worth discussing when it comes to those squads. Some of these questions may not get answered until the end of the season, or even a couple years from now, but they’re worth thinking about as the 2024-25 season nears.

Bulls: What will Lonzo Ball‘s return look like?

The Bulls kind of, sort of, made a decision on what path they wanted to take after letting DeMar DeRozan walk for nothing in free agency and trading Alex Caruso — their most valuable trade chip — to the Thunder for Josh Giddey. That paves the way for guys like last season’s breakout star Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and 11th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Matas Buzelis. But there’s still some holdovers in Chicago, namely Zach LaVine, whom the Bulls tried to trade, but injuries and LaVine’s pricey contract made that difficult. There’s also Nikola Vucevic, who the team is paying $20+ million in each of the next two years. Both could potentially be trade targets again this season if anyone is willing to take on those contracts.

And then there’s Lonzo Ball. He hasn’t played since January 2022, but after setbacks and three knee surgeries, this may finally be the year we see him make a return to the court. The only issue is it seems like the Bulls have already moved on from him. By trading for Giddey the Bulls effectively said he’s their starting point guard going forward. But does that change if Ball returns and looks somewhat like his former self (who was averaging 13 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists in the 2021-22 season)? Giddey’s shown before he’s capable of putting up those numbers, and he’s a gifted passer, but he’s also nowhere near the 3-point shooter Ball had turned himself into before the knee surgeries, and does not possess the same defensive capabilities that gave the Bulls one of the best defensive backcourts in the league when Ball and Caruso shared the floor together. 

Obviously this all hinges on if Ball can return to what he was prior to all the surgeries, but if he’s able to, do the Bulls consider giving him the keys in the starting lineup again? Do they keep bringing him off the bench regardless of how he does and eventually move on? It’s essentially a developmental year for the Bulls, so Giddey would have to be lousy for him to not get the start given what they gave up for him, but Ball was one of the better point guards in the league when he went down. Giddey’s coming off a playoff run where he saw his minutes diminish. How head coach Billy Donovan manages this situation is going to be intriguing to watch on a team that has several important questions to answer this season.

Cavaliers: How do you keep Donovan Mitchell happy?

We’ll be entering Year 3 of Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland when this season tips. He signed a massive three-year, $150.32 million contract extension this summer, showing he’s committed to the Cavaliers…at least for now. He’s got a player option on that final year, and you can bet that if Cleveland doesn’t get anywhere further than the second round of the East playoffs, he’ll be looking at other teams to join. So this season — and next year — are paramount for the Cavs. They brought in Kenny Atkinson to replace JB Bickerstaff, hoping he can be the coach to get this core of guys over the hump. But the Cavs are on a bit of a tight timeline. Atkinson likely won’t have the luxury of having two years to feel things out with these guys. Mitchell wants to win now, and his contract showed the Cavaliers how long they have until he considers playing elsewhere.

There’s a hierarchy in the East right now, with the Celtics, Knicks and Sixers occupying the group of real title contenders, and then there’s everyone else. Cleveland falls into that second category, and they should be thinking of how they can vault themselves into that first one if they want Mitchell to stay around longer than just those two guaranteed years. That means looking at guys to trade this season. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, they have some players with positive trade value, specifically Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland. Allen missed a majority of Cleveland’s postseason appearance due to a rib injury, but in his absence Evan Mobley showed that he can be the team’s primary center for the future. Mobley averaged 16 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.2 blocks in the playoffs, including 33 points in Cleveland’s final postseason game. He’s an All-Defensive level player, has grown offensively and at 22 years old he’s only going to get better. With Mobley’s ascension, now could be the right time to find a new home for Allen.

The same goes for Garland, whose numbers and efficiency have dipped in the two seasons Mitchell has been in Cleveland. And realistically, the Cavs would be better suited to pair Mitchell with a more defensive-minded backcourt mate as neither him or Garland are strong defenders. It’s unclear who will be available on the trade market, but if the Cavaliers get to February and there’s grumblings about Mitchell not being happy, or the team is just underperforming, Cleveland needs to be aggressive in its approach to upgrading the guys around him.

Pistons: Which of the young guys make a leap?

It can be easy to be pessimistic about a team that set the record for the most consecutive losses last season, but there’s real intrigue here going into a new season. There’s a new coach! Cade Cunningham is coming off a career season! Tobias Harris is back! No but really, Detroit has a glutton of young guys on the roster, but the issue last season was it felt like no one — outside of Cunningham — really popped off the screen. That’s likely in large part due to coaching mistakes, as Monty Williams stifled the growth of Jaden Ivey by bringing him off the bench for two months in favor of…Killian Hayes, who got waived by the team in February. But JB Bickerstaff is in charge now, which hopefully means we’ll see some real growth and development from some of these young guys. The question is, though, which one(s) will break through?

Ivey’s probably the best candidate for that, as he’s shown promise as a backcourt mate next to Cunningham. Jalen Duren’s is entering Year 3 as well, and he already took a sizable leap in his second season, averaging 13.8 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists. There’s also last year’s lottery pick Ausar Thompson, who showed glimpses of becoming an All-Defensive level player at some point in his career, but who could use some growth on the offensive side of the ball. The Pistons spent the offseason making changes in the front office and bringing in a new coach, and hopefully those changes yield to positive results on the floor, because as exciting as all these young guys are, Detroit will eventually have to figure out what they actually have here with all these players.

Pacers: How will Indiana fare with a healthier conference?

The Pacers made a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2024, and while you could say that injuries to opposing teams played a role in that run, they still put in the work to get there. But everyone around Indiana just got better for next season. The Knicks — whom the Pacers beat in the second round — added Mikal Bridges and will get Julius Randle back, on top of a fully healthy Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart. The Sixers added Paul George and a slew of impressive role players. The Bucks — whom Indiana beat in the first round — will have a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo this season. Indiana retained all of its core guys, which is a positive, but without any additional upgrades, will the team have enough to make it as far as it did last year in an Eastern Conference that is much improved, and more importantly, healthier?

That remains to be seen. The Pacers have a solid roster top to bottom, as we saw breakout performances from guys like Andrew Nembhard, T.J. McConnell and Aaron Nesmith in the playoffs. Nembhard put on a show for the Pacers, especially when Haliburton went down with an injury in the East finals. He finished that Boston series averaging 21 points and 7.8 assists, putting him in line for what should be a massive leap in this third season. Nesmith was a pest defensively, and McConnell did whatever Indiana needed to win. Indiana has the recipe to make another deep run, but we just haven’t seen them in the playoffs against multiple healthy teams. And the one time we did, Haliburton was out, which resulted in a sweep by the Celtics. This season will tell us where the Pacers will need to improve to keep pace with the best teams in the East.

Bucks: Will Milwaukee’s defense hold up?

The Bucks are going to score a ton of points. Giannis and Damian Lillard are going to get theirs, they added Gary Trent Jr., a career 38.6% shooter from 3-point land, Khris Middleton is still there, and they added two other guys who can knock down 3s consistently in Delon Wright and Taurean Prince. Scoring won’t be a problem in Milwaukee. But just as it was a season ago, defense will again be a weakness for the Bucks, specifically at the point of attack. In a conference where Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Haliburton, Donovan Mitchell and Tyrese Maxey all play, the Bucks don’t have a credible answer to throw at any of those guys on defense. Lillard certainly isn’t doing it, and while Trent is good defender, tasking him with guarding the East’s elite point guards is a lot to ask.

The Bucks ranked 19th in defense last season, but with a sixth-ranked offense, they managed to win 49 games. And based on the moves the Bucks made this summer, it feels like they’re hoping they can continue to rack up points to where the defense won’t matter as much. That game plan got them to the No. 3 seed in the East last season, and had it not been for an injury to Giannis, maybe they could’ve made a postseason run. We’ll see if that same plan can carry them further this season, but it sure would be nice if they had someone like, oh say, Jrue Holiday.