Tonight the NBA season kicks off and while I am aware that I am one of 15 remaining NBA fans I have to make some predictions for the season that are bound to be wrong. Just because, here are 37 predictions for the season.
1) The Curse of the Clippers will hit Blake Griffin. (This one is cheating, before the season even begins they announced he is out with a broken knee cap today)
2) The Magic will take a step back to start the season before they gel and become more formidable than last year’s squad.
3) Ron Artest will be on his best behavior in LA, but they will miss Ariza because Artest is ill suited for their offense.
4) Allen Iverson and Zach Randolph will have such a detrimental effect on OJ Mayo that he become the next JR Rider
5) Antione Walker will ask someone you know for a pay day loan (How do you spend $100 million in a decade?)
6) The Celtics will be the most annoying team in the league between Sheed’s outburts, KG maiming people in celebration and Big Baby punching out friends
7) The Wizards will finish with 45 wins, a nice improvement from 19 last year, and will make the 2nd round of the playoffs
8) Gilbert will play in over 70 games, learn to be a real leader, have smaller numbers and be a better player
9) This is the year we realize that Joe Dumars isn’t the GM he has been cracked up to be. He is as hit and miss as the rest of them.
10) It will take about 15 games for the Raptors to rue their signing of Hedo
11) The Blazers will be better and it will have little to with the signing of Andre Miller and a lot to do with the surprising effectiveness of Greg Oden and Brandon Roy
12) The Net’s and their freakish new Billionaire Russian owner will prove to be highly entertaining. (Off the court that is)
13) If Shaq tries to mess with the Cavs, Lebron will have him shipped out of town faster than Braylon Edwards
14) The Knicks will be high scoring, terrible defensively, and even worse next season when Lee and Robinson leave, Lebron blows them off, they have no 1st round pick and no one wants to play there.
15) The Houston Rockets, playing with half a salary cap will make the playoffs. They will also trade away Tracy McGrady during the season.
16) The Heat will be about the same as last year, all Dwayne Wade all the time, no one else any of the time
17) The Chicago Bulls will have a real hard time scoring
18) Derrick Rose will continue to be awesome and may even make Joakim Noah a respectable player
19) The Suns will have a game when they score over 150 points
20) The Suns may very well lose that game
21) The Lakers will be the clear dominating team out west all season so long as their PG’s are at least average
22) The OKC Thunder will be highly entertaining and may push for the 8th spot in the West
23) Kevin Durant will be a top three scorer this year and for the next 6 years
24) The best rookie this season (depending on Griffin’s return from his knee injury) will be Johnny Flynn in Minnesota, dude is for real
25) The following teams will prove to be completely irrelevant: Bucks, Nets, Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies, Pacers, Bobcats, Warriors
26) The Nuggets will take a step back this season but they will find that they had the steal of the draft in Ty Lawson. In two years he will supplant Billups as the starter
27) No one will care about the Utah Jazz and they will still be plenty good
28) New Orleans will stay competitive, Chris Paul will stay legendary, and none of it will matter
29) Every other team in the league will regret not drafting DeJuan Blair (Seriously Wiz, what were you thinking, with him you would be good for 50 wins this year)
30) The Atlanta Hawks will continue to give teams problems, but without a super star there is no way they become an elite team
31) All season long there will be 5 teams that dominate the league: Celtics, Lakers, Cavaliers, Magic, Spurs
32) The Dallas Mavericks will be the best of the rest and they may have the firepower to upset someone in the playoffs
33) Cleveland will not approach last years win total but they will win the East
34) The Lakers will surpass last years win total but they won’t win the West
35) The Magic will lose in the second round of the playoffs
36) The Celtics will make the East finals again, but for the last time in a while
37) The San Antonio Spurs will put together one of their best teams ever, surprise the Lakers and knock of Lebron James in the Finals again
Here’s to a great season everyone
October 27, 2009
Sports