Good, bad of the East in preseason play

It's been slow going, but the Hawks are finally moving beyond their Iso-Joe offense. (Getty Images)

Preseason is not meaningless. You can say it is if it makes you feel better about the fact that your team is 1-7 (hi, Clips!), but more and more numbers show the preseason has predictive meaning — at least for some teams. It’s also valuable for the way it gives us a peek at how individual players have developed and teams have integrated new players and systems.

With that in mind, let’s go through the Eastern Conference, singling out the good and bad of the preseason for each team, in alphabetical order. (Here’s the Western Conference.)

ATLANTA HAWKS

The good: Atlanta is committed to its new flex-style motion offense, with more cutting and screening that should produce better shots, take pressure of Joe Johnson and diversify the crunch-time offense.

The bad: It’s slow going so far. The Hawks are shooting a middling 43.5 percent from the floor, Johnson still can’t get to the foul line as much as a high-volume scorer should, and Josh Smith remains prone to the occasional lazy, long two-pointer. Stick with it, Hawks.

BOSTON CELTICS

The good: As Julian Benbow noted in the Boston Globe today, the Celtics have the second-largest positive rebound differential in the preseason. That comes one year after the Celtics were an average rebounding team on the defensive glass that could not sustain even that level against good offensive rebounding teams (see Game 7 of the Finals, for instance).

The bad: Shaquille O’Neal‘s presence radically changes the way the Celtics defend the pick-and-roll, and you can see it already in the preseason. Example: On two separate possessions earlier this week against New Jersey, Shaq’s man (Kris Humphries) sprinted up from the right baseline to set a screen at the top of the three-point arc for the lead ball-handler. Shaq didn’t bother pursuing Humphries. Instead, he pointed to Kevin Garnett (standing just across the paint on the left baseline, guarding another New Jersey big man) to switch and run out to Humphries while Shaq slid across the lane to take Garnett’s guy.

It takes a beat to organize this sort of thing, and that one beat gives the offense an edge. Plus, New Jersey later adjusted by moving its bigs further apart along the baseline, making it harder for the Celtics to switch in this manner.

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

The good: D.J. Augustin is shooting the lights out (56 percent overall, 64 percent from deep) after taking a step back last season, raising the possibility that an Augustin-Boris Diaw combo might be able to hold down the point guard spot after all.

The bad: Diaw might also have to play center, because the Nazr Mohammed-DeSagana Diop-Kwame Brown combination has done little in the preseason. Also, the Bobcats still can’t score. They’re 29th in points per game and last in three-point attempts. Is this offense good enough to claim the No. 7 or 8 seed?

CHICAGO BULLS

The good: Tom Thibodeau is gradually moving the Bulls away from their love affair with two-point jumpers. Luol Deng is 12-of-24 from deep, while at the other end, the Bulls are absorbing the defensive principles that made Thibodeau such a success in Boston.

The bad: Derrick Rose is only 4-of-19 from three-point range. Has he actually improved from the outside?

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

The good: Only the Magic are allowing fewer points per game. Perhaps this team can still play some defense without LeBron James? Also: Ramon Sessions is going to help. A lot.

The bad: Antawn Jamison is off to a horrid start, and Mo Williams, the guy who should lead the team in scoring this season, is dealing with a nagging groin injury. The vets need to get healthy and ready, now.

DETROIT PISTONS

The good: The Pistons are near the league average in scoring and three-point attempts after scraping the bottom in both categories last season.

The bad: They’re getting killed on the glass, which figures to be a problem all season given the dearth of good rebounders behind Ben Wallace.

INDIANA PACERS

The good: Roy Hibbert is a player. He’s dropped 20 pounds, and he’s putting up 18 points and nine rebounds and shooting 45 percent. You’d like that last number to be higher, but Hibbert is making up for it by getting to the line a ton.

The bad: This team adores the three-point shot — and that’s preferable to adoring the long two — but the Pacers are hitting only a shade below 35 percent. That’s about the same percentage as last season, when they came in a tad below the league average in three-point accuracy.

MIAMI HEAT

The good: Preseason stats may have meaning, but the math experts who have crunched the numbers have concluded they have less meaning for elite teams. That’s good, because Miami’s numbers are far below what you’d expect almost across the board.

The bad: Two of their four best players are injured, and one might be out until Christmas. Check back in 2011.

MILWAUKEE BUCKS

The good: The Bucks seem ready to correct last year’s league-worst free throw attempt differential, which was so bad it was the equivalent of starting each game down about 5-0. If Milwaukee wants to win 50 games, it needs to sustain this improvement starting next week.

The bad: Nearly every member of the frontcourt is dealing with an injury, and Brandon Jennings, who was among the worst finishers in the lane among point guards last season, is shooting 35 percent.

NEW JERSEY NETS

The good: Their numbers are solid on both ends, and Terrence Williams, their potential breakout second-year player, has calmed down after hoisting a shot seemingly every time he touched the ball during New Jersey’s two-game stint in China. The second unit is explosive enough to go on some fairly dramatic runs. (It is also inexperienced enough to single-handedly lose the Nets some games.)

The bad: Troy Murphy‘s status to start the season is uncertain as he recovers from a lower back strain. It’s hard to imagine the Nets contending for the 8th spot if Murphy misses an extended stretch, since the power forward duties would fall to Humphries and rookie Derrick Favors.

NEW YORK KNICKS

The good: Amar’e Stoudemire is absolutely destroying people.

The bad: The Knicks love to shoot three-pointers, but (just like the Pacers) they don’t shoot them accurately enough to justify the constant hoisting. The Knicks are hitting about 33 percent of their threes in the preseason after hitting 34.6 percent last season.

ORLANDO MAGIC

The good: Everything. The Magic are undefeated and outscoring opponents by a ludicrous 25 points per game.

The bad: Umm … Dwight Howard released a kids album?

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

The good: Elton Brand looks fairly active, and Jrue Holiday, though shooting only 39 percent, looks comfortable running the team and ready for a solid second season.

The bad: The Sixers still can’t hit from deep (just 29.7 percent), and Evan Turner has looked shaky. The Sixers have tried him as the point guard of their second unit, but they have done so fairly gently. They have not asked Turner to penetrate and create as the point man, instead having him simply handle the ball at the top of the three-point arc and pass off to guys coming off of screens on the wing. Patience, people.

TORONTO RAPTORS

The good: Only the Timberwolves (!) have averaged more points, raising hopes the Raptors can remain an elite offensive team without Chris Bosh. Linas Kleiza seems hungry to take on a larger role than he had in Denver.

The bad: Opponents are shooting 47 percent and scoring a ton, and the Raptors again look like a defensive sieve. Two key franchise cogs — Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon – are firing up brick after brick, and Calderon may have lost his starting job to Jarrett Jack. Calderon thrived as a pick-and-roll partner with Bosh, and he’s never been much of a penetrator-creator type. Here’s hoping there’s more to his game than we’ve seen so far.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS

The good: John Wall might already be the second-most threatening open-floor player in the league, behind LeBron. He’s at least in the conversation for that title along with Dwyane Wade and Rose. His perimeter shot is obviously a work in progress (he’s 1-of-13 from deep), but he’s racking up assists without turning the ball over at a horrific rate.

The bad: The Wiz have attempted the fewest foul shots in the league, and it doesn’t help that Yi Jianlian left his aggressive interior game in Turkey.

On to the Western Conference …