Can Danny?

The toughest conference in the East looks to stay just as tough although even more contested than last season. The Pistons lost Ben Wallace to division rival Chicago but the Bulls still have some cap space and might not be done dealing yet.

Detroit Pistons: While the Pistons did lost Big Ben, they shored up their bench with the economy signing of Flip Murray for a mere 1.7 million. While Nazr Mohammed isn't going to make anyone forget about Ben Wallace, the more important Piston is Antonio McDyess. If the 32 year old Dice isn't able to step up and help out with more minutes, the Pistons could take a major step back this season. Then again, this is a team that was 14 games better than their next closest competitor so a major step back still has them as one of the teams to beat in the East.

Cleveland Cavaliers: People who think Cleveland will be better this season because they'll have a healthy Larry Hughes clearly don't know much about Larry Hughes. In the past three seasons before this lost campaign, Hughes has missed a combined 65 games. Larry Hughes is rarely 100% and even when he is, he didn't fit with the Cavs system. As for Drew Gooden, like many free agents this season, he's badly overplayed his hand. He will likely struggle to get market value for his services and can't even sign a one year deal with a team that could use him because the Cavs will match. Playing for the qualifying offer doesn't help because with Varejao's emergence and Donyell Marshall still around, Gooden will be fighting for playing time, hardly the situation one wants to be in in a contract year. Gooden's agent needs to find a sign-and-trade for his client. Either way, the Cavs should be fine. Perhaps a deal with Hughes and Gooden to Sacramento for Bonzi Wells and one of their PF's could work. Worst case scenario, the Cavs get a focused Gooden hoping to do good on his one year contract. While the Cavs would probably love to dump Damon Jones and Eric Snow, it will be tough to find takers for either of them. Perhaps packaging one of them with Gooden in a sign-and-trade could work but how much is a team going to give up for Gooden and Damon Jones at around 12 million dollars? The Cavs have some work to do heading into this season because right now, they could end up with a few unhappy campers and the potential for infighting.

Chicago Bulls: The Bulls snared Ben Wallace and then, in a more important move, acquired an expiring deal in PJ Brown for Tyson Chandler. With the Phoenix Suns growing closer and closer towards the luxury tax, they may be interested in moving Shawn Marion. Very few teams in the East have the assets and expiring contract to make it work. The Suns would probably rather deal Shawn out of conference so Chicago may be in the driver's seat for The Matrix. If not the Matrix, the Suns still have some cap space so they could look to bring in another free agent or two to round out the squad. However, what could be the most interesting non-move for the Bulls is the lack of an extension for Kirk Hinrich. Hinrich's value is pretty steady so it seems odd that the deal hasn't gone down yet. Paxson might not want to make a deal so to maximize his cap space for next season but that would be a risk. Then again, with Duhon and Gordon also on the roster, it could be a risk worth taking. Mike Sweetney also will be looking for a new deal although I'd be surprised if he got one before next season. In fact, Sweetney's expiring deal makes him all the more valuable as a trade commodity.

Indiana Pacers: Once they sort out the Al Harrington deal, nothing will be changed. The Pacers are still an also-ran in the division who might not even be able to stay out of the central celler this season. For all the talk of Harrington's improvement, he's still pretty much the same player he was when he left Indiana. The better stats are because he was on the lowly Hawks and got more minutes and more shots. He isn't going to replace Ron Artest and he won't be able to step in for Jermaine O'Neal if he continues to miss games like he has the last two seasons. Stephen Jackson still needs to be moved. Unless Rick Carlisle is going to play medium-ball with Daniels, Jackson, Granger, Harrington, and O'Neail, it's going to be hard to find minutes for everyone. The Pacers might want to make a play for Sam Dalembert to help themselves in the center spot but right now, I think they just need to get what they can for Jackson.

Milwaukee Bucks: The Bucks have a boatload of expiring deals and might be able to make a play for a solid player from a team looking to dump salary. Shawn Marion is not likely as the Bucks simply don't have the assets to get back a player of the magnitude. The Bucks could just wait the contracts out and sign someone with their cap space but last time they did that, they ended up with Bobby Simmons for ten million a year which is one of the worst moves in Larry Harris' short tenure as GM. The Bucks have a lot of bodies under contract and a barely under the luxury tax so unless a sweet deal comes their way, I can't imagine that they'll be making many more moves this offseason.