In the 2014-15 season the eventual Conference Champion came from the Central Division. LeBron James and company are again favorites to win the Conference and the 2015 NBA Finals. The San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors trail the Cavs, a team that showed more resilience and depth than most expected battling injuries to both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

With two of its top three talents gone, the Cavs were able to draw a sixth game in its matchup with Golden State, though the Cavs took 2-1 edge after getting one of the first two road games. This year, LeBron is locked and loaded as the indisputable premier talent in the NBA.

Cleveland Cavaliers (53-29)
Championship Odds: +275
Predicted W/L: 58-24

The Cleveland Cavaliers should be on the fast track to win a title this season. It will have nearly its full contingent of players. Kevin Love made his first appearance of the preseason Sunday night since suffering the shoulder injury in the postseason that held both he and Kyrie Irving out of the Finals. Love had six points and four boards in 13 minutes of action.

Irving is still without a return date however, and there is no concrete time table at all. Cavs coach David Blatt said that he will not be ready for the start of the regular season, but more more is known. What is known is that the Cavs are a great team without Irving, so to think that having an NBA All-Star back in the lineup would make it unbeatable? Not really, but it would keep that +275 odds from oddsmakers a rather enticing bet for bettors. A healthy Love goes a long way for this team, and he at one point was the leagues best 4-man, nearly indisputably so.

Can the Cavs game “Minnesota Love?” At just age 23 we would hope the answer is yes, but Love has struggled to be healthy. He could even be injury prone at this point, though the shoulder injury was due to a dirty play, not deterioration. The fact still remains that players tend to overcompensate when injured which can lead to further injury. Is Love healthy enough to avoid that? We do not really know, as 13 preseason minutes indicate little to nothing.

The Cavs can be carried on LBJ’s shoulders alone, but no superstar can do it himself entirely (though LeBron came scarily close last season). The Cavs have the league’s best player flanked with two All-Stars and a potential stud in Tristan Thompson to round out the quartet, not to mention the enigmatic J.R. Smith, defensive pest Iman Shumpert and a rugged, tough, good center in Timofey Mozgov. This is a team with some depth, and all the more so if long-awaited Sasha Kaun can come in and give added depth.

This is a team with several players capable of making the leap as big time performers, not the least of which was Matthew Dellavedova, a Finals hero with a cult fanbase. LBJ is the glue that holds together a pretty impressive ship as the favorites to win the title in 2015.

Chicago Bulls (50-32)
Championship Odds: +1600
Predicted W/L: 53-29

The Chicago Bulls are good basketball team, with or without Derrick Rose. Rose is once again out with uncertainty surrounding whether his orbital fracture will allow him to play the season opener. Rose may not have the toughness to roll with a mask, or he may, but if it holds him out the heart of a champion can surely be questioned for a guy commanding $20 million this season.

What will really make the Bulls go is do-everything swingman Jimmy Butler. He is dominant at the 2-guard spot, but functions well as a small forward too. He drew comparisons to Sidney Moncrief as a defensive stopper who could still put the ball in the bucket, and he is one of the Bulls’ best answers at 2-guard in a long while.

Pau Gasol remains a top-center in the NBA despite now being 35 years of age. Last season he was good for 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game with nearly two blocks per contest. When attempting to discern if a top player is falling off, turn to the rebounding column. Gasol’s 11.8 was his highest of his NBA career. So, he passes that test. He also saw 34 minutes a game in 78 starts last year. There is little to no indication he is going to fall of this season, nor in the immediate future, and he is the Bulls player other teams covet most as a player, though some would say Butler’s value as a young prospect makes him more desirable.

The Bulls have some other key performers like Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic, Mike Dunleavy and Jordan Crawford. But the meat of the team is Gasol and Butler, which really gives the structure to win three more games than last year if Butler continues to push towards being a superstar a la Paul George.

Nikola Mirotic showed enough late in the year that he could feasibly be a starter if it were not for Joakim Noah. Noah may at this point be trade bait, despite his high assists as a point-center. Because Mirotic is waiting in the wings, the Bulls could snag a lot for Mirotic, and the need is really there mostly at the point guard spot.

If the Bulls could bring in a good playmaking point to set the table better, the team would have a better shot at taking down the Cavs. Given that Fred Hoiberg is thought to be a great tactician, it stands to reason he can get the most out of bandaids like Kirk Hinrich and Aaron Gordon, but a better point would give the Bulls the firepower to deal with it when Kyrie gets going. The Cavs are going to pose problems in the backcourt with Shumpert and Irving both there to make Hinrich’s life a living hell.

Milwaukee Bucks (41-41)
Championship Odds: +5000
Predicted W/L: 47-35

The Milwaukee Bucks are the third best team in this division, but it is reasonable that the Bucks could give the Bulls for a run this year for the right to lose to the Cavs. Gianni Antetokounmpo is the best player of the 2013 draft, and the Bucks snagged him in the middle of the first round. Adding to his 6’11” jack of all trades style is a stacking of big men that helped the Bucks become a top defensive team last season. John Henson, Greg Monroe and Jabari Parker will be the forward contingent. Monroe comes from Detroit and Moose should help transform the frontcourt further by adding some offense and a mid-range jumper.

And of course, Parker was on pace to be Rookie of the Year last season before sustaining an injury in his 25th game. He averaged 12.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game while shooting 49 percent from the floor in 29 minutes a night. The injury won’t set Parker back much and the Bucks have the greatest gift in point guard Michael Carter-Williams playing with the tutelage of Jason Kidd. Kidd will absolutely seek to get the best from MCW and seek to see just how good the 2014 Rookie of the Year really is. The likely answer is: very good. Having the shooter Khris Middleton to round it all out is more the blessing given his 2015 free agency.

Middleton is lights out and Jarryd Bayless can rack up points in spurts too The Bucks still have Greivis Vasquez coming off the bench too behind MCW and he could provide stability if needed, not to mention a wealth of experience that can further help mentor Carter-Williams.

The Bucks are designed to pound it out, but will be able to dominate in transition with Parker finishing the passes from Carter-Williams or Antetokoumpo. No one is really sure what position Giannis is yet, but most are certain it hardly matters.

This Bucks team is long and will break up a lot of passing lanes, and Kidd can get the most of it defensively. Ultimately, the Bucks can fight for the No. 2 spot in the East, or it could finish second-to-last in this division. The Central offers a dogfight for supremacy and most of the teams jostling to finish second behind Cleveland. Kidd believes this group of underdogs can knock off the big boys though, and given Milwaukee’s array of athletes and defensive standouts it is reasonable.

Indiana Pacers (38-44)
Championship Odds: +5000
Predicted W/L: 36-46

The Indiana Pacers had the wings taken out of its sails when Paul George sustained a season-ending injury before the 2014-15 season ever got underway, hitting the basket stansion in a Team USA game.

George is back in the fold, but reinvented. He will now play the 4-spot, and it was called by the man in charge, Larry Bird. Bird believes George can excel as a floor stretcher in a smaller Pacers lineup. Ian Mahinmi is good enough that the Pacers felt it was time to part with an underachieving Roy Hibbert. The Pacers are hardly dominant at both point and small forward though with a mediocre George Hill and one trick pony C.J. Miles.

Monta Ellis is a great guard to make that not matter so much, but unless George is a game changer as a power forward, this team goes nowhere. The Pacers did re-sign Rodney Stuckey who gives great scoring punch off the bench, and it brought aboard Jordan Hill to have a true presence at the 4 incase George is not quite the success Bird thinks he will be. Overall this team does lack depth in the frontcourt, though. The Pacers have a decent frontcourt player in Lavoy Allen, but Indy’s bench will count on a lot of unproven talent at all positions.

Detroit Pistons (32-50)
Championship Odds: +15000
Predicted W/L: 32-50

The Detroit Pistons did decide Reggie Jackson was the man it hoped it would be when it dealt for him last season. The free agent remained in the Motor City to be the point guard for Stan Van Gundy’s Pistons. Perhaps the best addition was by subtraction, losing Josh Smith last season. The pistons immediately keyed a turnaround at the lost of the talented headache forward, and it will look to build on that despite losing Greg Monroe in the offseason.

The Pistons are going to try to get a Renaissance of sorts out of Ersan Ilyasova, with also the smooth shooting Anthony Tolliver on the bench. Andre Drummond is the beast that drives this team to its vaunted mediocrity, and Stan Van Gundy spoke favorably of his comparisons to Dwight Howard.

Adding Aron Baynes of San Antoio was an interesting move, all the more so if he is not just a product of Gregg Popovich’s one for all coaching strategy. The Pistons also added the less talented Morris brother in Marcus, but it would be hardly surprising to see Stanley Johnson snag the starting power forward slot rather quickly.

Johnson looked like a dominant player in the Orlando Summer league, but that was just summer league. Even so, Johnson is a monster on the glass and handles the ball very well even with a lot of attention and pressure. He could be a star in the long run and the Pistons know that they got a steal on him in the draft. With several talents in front of him, he kind of got lost in the sauce of the 2015 draft, but has a legit chance of becoming its best player in the long run. The Pistons will also hope to get more from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, or the sharpshooting Jodie Meeks could supplant him to adding more scoring punch to the starting unit.

The Pistons are relying on Ilyasova returning to what he was with Milwaukee while also needing some production from Caldwell-Pope because Reggie Jackson really cannot do it all by himself in the backcourt. Drummond is good enough to keep 30 wins in the bag, but not much more.