NBA's Central Division: Offseason Report Cards

Chicago Bulls: A-

Anytime you start the off-season by firing an incompetent coach (Vinny Del Negro) and hire the league’s top assistant/defensive guru (Tom Thibadeou) it’s a great start.

Unlike some other clubs with sufficient cap space (New Jersey cough cough), the Bulls were able to sign a true need at Power Forward with Carlos Boozer.

Booz should fit in like a glove as he is now paired with an athletic center in Joakim Noah and phenom point guard in Derrick Rose.

Even prior to signing Boozer, the Bulls get bonus points for unloading the contract of Kirk Hinrich on draft day.

Besides the Boozer acquisition, the Bulls filled the roster around him nicely.

Kyle Korver is a shooter the team desperately needed with the penetrating of Rose and post play of the aforementioned Carlos Boozer in place.

Ronnie Brewer should help on key defensive wing assignments and CJ Watson is a solid backup who can play either guard position and provide ample rest for guard Derrick Rose.

The reason we don’t see an A here is because the team was unable to pry JJ Redick from Orlando.

The Magic ended up surprisingly matching a very lucrative offer (even after they had acquired Quentin Richardson), but Chicago may have been better off over paying for Redick, as he would have been an absolute perfect fit next to Rose in the backcourt.

Cleveland Cavaliers: D+

The Cavs should not be punished for losing LeBron James.

He clearly wanted to play with his friends and enjoy a third of the limelight in sunny Miami beach.

Instead the Cavs should be blamed for their inability to react appropriately.

Without James now, what is the team suppose to do with veterans Mo Williams or Antawn Jamison?

Furthermore, what is the team’s plan?

Rather than looking for deals to move the aforementioned vets, the team opted to replace LeBron James with Joey Graham and second round pick, Christian Negaya.

They were able to trade for young point guard Ramon Sessions and wiry center Ryan Hollins which is a positive move for the team’s future outlook.

In the end, Cleveland hasn’t done enough to rebuild the club post-James. They'll be shooting for a high lotto pick in 2011.

Right now the team has reminiscence of a perennial 11-9 seed out East.

The only thing preventing a failing grade here is the sympathy factor.

Detroit Pistons: C

The Pistons managed to land a highly touted center in the draft with Greg Monroe.

Monroe gives the Pistons a much needed post presence and is also a very apt passer on the low block.

Detroit’s major, but hard to achieve, goal this off-season will be to unload the contract of Richard Hamilton. The team is currently spending over $22 million on their two shooting guards, Rip and Ben Gordon, and will need to find a resolution sooner than later.

Hamilton’s deal runs for three more seasons and considering his age, his value should only depreciate from here on in.

If the Pistons are able to move Rip, this grade sky rockets.

For now though a steady C is where they’re at.

Indiana Pacers: A-

The Pacers entered the off-season with two major questions: who would be the power forward and who would be the point guard of their future?

Indiana drafted a small forward in Paul George and dealt away their starting power forward, Troy Murphy.

The team still has hope that second-year forward Tyler Hansborough could emerge as a solid Power Forward with further development and more minutes.

The team also hopes that Paul George or Danny Granger can sneak in and play some spot minutes at the 4-slot if possible.

Finally, it does seem that the future Power Forward role will be determined next off-season when the Pacers use their enormous amount of 2011 cap space on either Al Horford, Marc Gasol, or Carl Landry.

On the point guard front, Indiana hit the jackpot.

The Pacers were seeking a young point guard around draft time and had been rejected by Minnesota for a 10th pick for Jonny Flynn swap.

The team seemed inevitable to resolve their issue at the 1-spot with a stop-gap option or to overpay for a veteran.

Instead the team was able to net highly touted second-year guard Darren Collison from New Orleans.

Collison played extremely well last season filling in for Chris Paul and should enjoy a nice career in Indiana.

Collison finally gives Granger another offensive option as well and allows D-Grange to focus more on the scoring end than the facilitating one.

The cost to obtain Collison was also far less than many pundits believed as Indiana only had to absorb the contract of James Posey and unload the expiring contract of Troy Murphy in the trade to acquire the UCLA product

Milwaukee Bucks: B

The Bucks had a lot of voids to potentially fill this off-season despite their surprising successes last year.

The team needed a proper Power Forward to help out Bogut down low and provide another option at the low post than just the big Australian.

Drew Gooden was not a terrible option for Milwaukee, but did the team really need to overpay Drew $6+ million a season?

Milwaukee also knew Stackhouse was likely going to leave and possibly John Salmons as well and were able to potentially replace both with Corey Maggette via trade and Chris Douglas Roberts via free agency.

Maggette would be a stellar sixth man for the Bucks and has always had a knack for getting to the free throw line.

CDR enjoyed a nice season last year and could be a do-it-all reserve guard for the team.

Still, with Salmons actually re-signing in Milwaukee, it is difficult to determine how he and newly acquired Corey Maggette will coexist.

Both have very similar styles of play and may be redundant together on the floor at the same time.

The team also needed to replace the departure of Luke Ridnour.

Kirk Hinrich was available on draft day and seemed like an ideal fit under Coach Skiles, mentoring Brandon Jennings.

The team decided to wait on the backup PG role and have now signed backup guard Earl Boykins.

Earl had played well in his former days as a Buck, but he too provides a similar style to Brandon Jennings (albeit worse) and does not satisfy the Bucks’ need for a shooter off the pine.

Rookie Larry Sanders seems like a solid selection for the Bucks.

As the VCU product should be able to play spot minutes at either big man slot and provide athleticism off of the Bucks’ bench.

This was a tough off-season for the Bucks as they truly needed to attain many players to fill in certain slots.

For the most part the team was able to, but perhaps could have used higher caliber talents with lower price tags to do so.