Sooner or later the bubble has to burst.
I'm more inclined to think they haven't fallen back quite as much as the rest of the West has potentially caught up.
Division:
Chicago, should be much better not suffering a SC hangover. I see them as Div. Winners.
Columbus should be a bit tougher to put away with Carter and NAsh as opposed to just Nash. If Brassard and some of the other young talent step up they might make some noise.
St. Louis is a bit of a question mark to me. IS MacDonald a 70pt guy if healthy this year? Is Stewart a 35g powerforward? Boyes, Steen, Pietrangelo, Halak, the list of question marks goes on. Should they catch lightning in a bottle, they will be hell to play against any given night.
Nashville is always tough to play against. They need scoring, but everyone always says that.
Bottom line is that if Detroit has another bad bout of the injury bug the teams in their own division are better equiped to hand them a loss. Finishing 3rd in their Division could see them on the outside looking in in April.