NBA PREVIEW

The Chicago Bulls still look like the best by a mile in the East, where the other powers are wounded, like the Orlando Magic, or stagnating, like the Indiana Pacers, or recently assembled, like the New York Knicks. Here’s how it looks, in predicted order of finish.

CHICAGO BULLS

Coach: Phil Jackson.

Last season: 72-10, first in Central Division.

Gone: Jack Haley.

New: Robert Parish.

Their key people are short-timers, Dennis Rodman is acting weird (how about that for a scoop?), Scottie Pippen and Luc Longley missed almost all the exhibition season. They won’t win 72 again, but 60 should do. Last season, one other East team won more than 52, the Magic with Shaquille O’Neal.

The Bulls still play killer defense, enabling them to win even when they are out on their feet, as they were by Game 6 of the finals last spring when they held the Seattle SuperSonics to 75 points and put them to bed.

The Bulls’ worst enemies are boredom and bad chemistry--in other words, the Bulls, themselves. For the regular season, at least, they should be OK.

*

ORLANDO MAGIC

Coach: Brian Hill.

Last season: 60-22, first in Atlantic Division.

Gone: Shaquille O’Neal.

New: Felton Spencer.

Spurned by its once-beloved Shaq, vowing to show it still has a future, the Magic had an impressive exhibition season, approaching even those games, noted Houston’s Charles Barkley, as if they were Game 7 of the finals.

Penny Hardaway is sure to break out. Magic Johnson once said he’s the closest thing to the next Michael Jordan, and now there’s nothing holding him back. There’s enough talent here, and certainly enough motivation, for a good season.

Problem: The playoffs and beyond. Everything team officials did--giving Horace Grant a huge contract at 32, running up a $48-million payroll, drafting shooter Brian Evans--assumed that O’Neal would return.

How’s this for a magic act in the Magic kingdom: Now you see him, now you don’t?

*

INDIANA PACERS

Coach: Larry Brown.

Last season: 52-30, second in Central.

Gone: Mark Jackson, Ricky Pierce.

New: No one of note.

With nothing to gain and everything to lose, the Pacers bit the bullet, re-signing free agents Reggie Miller, Dale Davis and Antonio Davis.

They’re still a big, tough, sound team, but they might have been where they’re going. On the rise for two years, they flattened out last season. Brown’s pattern has been quick, dizzying triumphs followed by crashes. He had an antsy look last spring when he seemed to welcome an overture from the Dallas Mavericks.

Rik Smits missed the exhibition season after heel surgery, and he’s still a week or two away. Rookie Erick Dampier, his backup, looked good but went out with a hernia. Team officials hope for some fast healing, all around.

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NEW YORK KNICKS

Coach: Jeff Van Gundy.

Last season: 47-35, second in Atlantic.

Gone: Derek Harper, Anthony Mason, Hubert Davis.

New: Larry Johnson, Allan Houston, Chris Childs.

With their creaky team locked in a post-Pat Riley flameout, seemingly doomed to being used for leverage by free agents, Dave Checketts and Ernie Grunfeld figured a way out of their predicament, trading Mason and his $2.8-million salary for Johnson, thereby acquiring enough of a glow to sign Houston and Childs.

Now they’re younger with lots more firepower. However, they’re committed to re-signing Patrick Ewing, 34, giving them a narrow window. Johnson’s big money kicks in, starting with a $6-million bonus in July, so they don’t have many moves left. Fans paying up to $1,000 for courtside seats have high expectations, but you can’t integrate a starting lineup with players from four teams in a New York minute.

*

ATLANTA HAWKS

Coach: Lenny Wilkens.

Last season: 46-36, fourth in Central.

Gone: Grant Long, Stacey Augmon.

New: Dikembe Mutombo.

The underrated management team of Wilkens, almost signed first by the Clippers, and General Manager Pete Babcock, an ex-Clipper, rebuilt this team, breaking up the Dominique Wilkins squad, acquiring Christian Laettner, Mookie Blaylock and Steve Smith while missing the playoffs only once in the ‘90s.

Then, despite drawing flies in the frigid Omni, they capped it by last summer, signing their missing big man. Mutombo caught a lot of flak for the Denver Nuggets’ disappointment, but here he’ll have better teammates, coaching and structure.

The Hawks were tough enough last season with the overmatched Laettner at center. They’re not overmatched anymore.

*

WASHINGTON BULLETS

Coach: Jim Lynam.

Last season: 39-43, fourth in Atlantic.

Gone: Juwan Howard, Rasheed Wallace, Jim McIlvaine, Brent Price.

New: Howard, Rod Strickland.

Juwan leaveth, Juwan cometh back.

In the latest blow to a star-crossed franchise, Howard, who had supplanted Chris Webber as the best player, signed with the Miami Heat. In a pleasant surprise, the league ruled that Miami had hidden a prior agreement with Alonzo Mourning to increase its cap room and voided the Howard deal.

The Bullets then traded the 22-going-on-12 Wallace for Strickland, giving them their long-sought point guard. Assuming Webber is ready to zip it up and realize some part of his tremendous potential, they’re in prelaunch countdown.

Of course, this is Webber’s fourth season and the cosmos is still waiting.

*

MIAMI HEAT

Coach: Pat Riley.

Last season: 42-40, third in Atlantic.

Gone: Walt Williams, Rex Chapman.

New: P.J. Brown, Dan Majerle.

Continuing with our Biblical motif: Riley taketh, David Stern taketh away.

On the cusp of a coup, Riley tooketh it between the eyes, instead, when Stern struck down the Howard signing for a penny-ante maneuver that teams had used for years, after Mourning acknowledged his agreement on a new deal in an offhand remark during an ESPN interview.

Whatever Stern’s motivation (to keep salaries down and rein in the adventurous Riley, said an Eastern team official; to get us, said Riley), the effect on the Heat was devastating. Riley has now spent most of his salary-cap money and has merely a good team, not a potential champion, which is dangerous for a coach as demanding as he is.

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CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

Coach: Mike Fratello.

Last season: 47-35, third in Central.

Gone: Dan Majerle, Michael Cage.

New: Rookie Vitaly Potapenko.

Cutting their ties to Brad Daugherty, Mark Price and Hot Rod Williams, the Cavaliers handed the leftovers to Fratello, who did a great job in 1994-95 and an even better one last season, slowing games to waltz time and winning more than their share with a bunch of anonymous guys named Phills, Mills and Hill.

Both seasons, however, the Knicks ousted them in the first round of the playoffs, suggesting there are limits to the use of boredom as a tactic.

The owning Gund brothers say forthrightly that they are willing to lose to rebuild. The Cavaliers are sitting on $4 million of unused salary, intending to save more and go shopping next summer or the one after. Meanwhile, more Johann Strauss records for Mr. Fratello.

*

MILWAUKEE BUCKS

Coach: Chris Ford.

Last season: 25-57, seventh in Central.

Gone: Benoit Benjamin, Kevin Duckworth.

New: Andrew Lang, Sherman Douglas, rookie Ray Allen.

Former Laker Mike Dunleavy got dogged by the large canine, Glenn Robinson, the centerpiece of the rebuilding program who lost his confidence, desire and/or game, prompting owner Herb Kohl to boot the coach upstairs and start over.

On draft day, the Bucks traded Stephon Marbury for Lang and Allen, giving them a big man--Lang is 6-9 but looks pretty good after Benjamin and Duckworth. If Ford, a good man who took the fall for M.L. Carr in Boston, can revive Robinson, anything is possible, or at least the playoffs are.

*

DETROIT PISTONS

Coach: Doug Collins.

Last season: 46-36, fifth in Central.

Gone: Allan Houston.

New: Grant Long, Stacey Augmon.

There goes a shining tomorrow down the drain. Collins improved them by 18 victories and set out to spent their millions in cap room--only the Heat, Knicks and Lakers had more--for a big man like Mutombo or Howard, who wanted to play with rising stars Grant Hill and Houston.

Instead, Collins hit a land mine, losing Houston, adding no one over 6 feet 8.

Where to go from here? There are already reports of strain between the high-strung coach and his slowly emerging superstar. Hill can get out of his contract in 1997. By then, player and coach will have worked it out, one way or the other.

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PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

Coach: Johnny Davis.

Last season: 18-64, last in Atlantic.

Gone: Vern Maxwell, a bunch of other nobodies.

New: Rookie Allen Iverson, Don MacLean, Michael Cage, Lucious Harris.

New arena, owners, general manager, coach . . . attitude?

The 76ers had better hope so. Last season, Derrick Coleman, Jerry Stackhouse and a team that should have won 35 games by accident finished off the unlamented Harold Katz era in the style he had accustomed everyone to.

This squad lacks some things here and there--a point guard who will pass the ball to someone--but is vastly more talented than anything they’ve seen in the ‘90s. Coleman is even coming out of retirement.

However, Davis, a nice guy, will have to prove he can keep Coleman et al. from walking over him. He has one season to win enough to persuade Stackhouse to re-up next summer. Otherwise, it’ll be every rat for himself.

*

CHARLOTTE HORNETS

Coach: Dave Cowens.

Last season: 41-41, sixth in Central.

Gone: Larry Johnson.

New: Vlade Divac, Anthony Mason.

The Hornets started last season with Mourning and Larry Johnson. Now they have Divac and Mason.

The good news is that owner George Shinn has whittled down the payroll--which he, himself, blew up when he gave Johnson that $84-million extension three years ago--so he can sell the franchise.

The bad news is everything else.

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BOSTON CELTICS

Coach: M.L. Carr.

Last season: 33-49, fifth in Atlantic.

Gone: Eric Montross.

New: Rookie Antoine Walker, Frank Brickowski.

At least, Carr is getting to see the consequence of his errors.

That $3-million slot he squandered on first Dominique Wilkins and then Dana Barros, cost him the chance to go shopping last summer, when everyone else did.

Instead, he traded Montross for the right to draft Walker, a talented small forward but no lock, leaving himself with no center but 38-year-old Alton Lister.

The real question is not when Carr’s learning curve will catch up but when owner Paul Gaston’s will. There are reports that Larry Bird is finally willing to take over the operation. Let’s put it this way, someone has to.

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TORONTO RAPTORS

Coach: Darrell Walker.

Last season: 21-61, last in Central.

Gone: Oliver Miller.

New: Rookie Marcus Camby, Popeye Jones, Hubert Davis.

In his first season upstairs, General Manager Isiah Thomas drafted the rookie of the year, Damon Stoudamire, with the No. 7 pick and saw his team beat the Pacers and SuperSonics in a 4-7 start before turning back into an expansion team.

He has since fired Coach Brendan Malone, who couldn’t abide losing with kids, and traded for Jones, a good rebounder whose money the Mavericks needed, and Davis, a good shooter whose money the Knicks needed. Camby looks promising. The Raptors have a long way to go but don’t look like the worst team in the East anymore, not as long as there are the . . .

*

NEW JERSEY NETS

Coach: John Calipari.

Last season: 30-52, sixth in Atlantic.

Gone: Chris Childs, P.J. Brown, Armon Gilliam.

New: Xavier McDaniel, Robert Pack.

So far, the youth movement is going a little slowly. No sooner had the new savior, Calipari, shown up when all the free agents they wanted to keep split. Now the Nets are planning on starting the ancient McDaniel at small forward (yes, Ed O’Bannon fans, it’s true).

The problem was the old Willis Reed heritage, rather than anything new boss Michael Rowe and Calipari have done, but they have to live with it. They plan to melt the team down and sign a big free agent in two years.

The meltdown part shouldn’t be a problem, anyway.