Fearless Predictions

Woot, I'm back. For a little while anyway. I was a little bored the other day, so I came up with some fearless predictions for next season. We'll see if I can do better than last year.


Despite LBJ's tremendous talent, Danny Ferry's idiocy will finally lead to a low playoff seed for the Cavs.

Detroit is going to make a major trade at some point. At least two of their starters from last season will be gone. This might not happen until right before the trade deadline.

Raptors will have homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. I will even go so far as to say that they will win at least one round.

The Magic will take a small step backwards. The signing of of Pietrus is not enough to keep their edge on the rest of the East.

Boston will have the best record in the East, but New Orleans or LA will have the leagues best record.

The Dallas Mavs won't make the playoffs, but they will come close.

Tracy McGrady will finally win a playoff series. Carmello and the Nuggets will not.

New York will suck again and they won't be much more fun to watch. D'Antoni and Walsh will take at least a full year to make any difference.

The Milwaulkee Bucks will be the biggest underachievers this season.

Atlanta will not make the playoffs, either the Nets or Pacers will take the final spot.

Washington will win about 42 games again this year and will lose again in the first round of the playoffs. Their defeat might even be at the hands of LBJ and the Cavs.

Derrick Rose will have a rough year and people will wonder if he was the right choice.

Kapono will win the 3-point shooting contest again.

Westbrook will win the rookie of the year.

Phoenix will continue it's slide into mediocrity. Though it will take another year or two before they stop making the playoffs.

Chris Paul will win the MVP, like he should have last year.

No sub .500 teams will make the playoffs in the East.

Bargnani will be better, but still frustratingly inconsistent.

Hassan Adams will turn out to be better than we all thought. So, will Roko Ukic.

That is all, night

Updated predictions

I know, I'm cheating. You can call them power rankings if it makes you feel better, but here are my latest predictions for the final standings.

The East.

1. Pistons
2. Celtics
3. Magic
4. Raptors
5. Cavaliers
6. Wizards
7. Pacers
8. Bulls
9. Hawks
10. Heat
11. Hawks
12. Bucks
13. Sixers
14. Bobcats
15. Knicks

The West.

1. Spurs
2. Phoenix
3. Jazz
4. Hornets
5. Warriors
6. Mavericks
7. Nuggets
8. Lakers
9. Rockets
10. Portland
11. Kings
12. Grizzlies
13. Clippers
14. Sonics
15. Wolves

ASU's first loss

Maybe I'm just pissed off or maybe I'm just drunk, but that Rudy Carpenter is a bum. I don't think ASU's reliance on the run game is a choice. Statistically he looks ok, but it's only because he receivers make him look good. At least half of his completions are thrown too high. He also takes way too long to throw the damn ball. It's not the O-lines fault that there have been so many sacks this year. I'm not real impressed with the offensive play calling either, but it's pretty obvious where the weak link is.

Ok, I feel better... still not real happy, but better.

Predicted final standing

Just to see how wrong I can be, here are some predictions for the final regular season standings and playoffs.

East:

1. Chicago
2. Detroit
3. Orlando
4. Toronto
5. New Jersey
6. Boston
7. Miami
8. Milwaukee
9. Indiana
10. Cleveland
11. Philadelphia
12. Washington
13. New York
14. Atlanta
15. Charlotte

First round: Toronto over New Jersey, Chicago over Milwaukee, Boston over Orlando, Miami over Detroit.
Second round: Chicago over Toronto, Boston over Miami
Conference Finals: Chicago over Boston

Western conference

1. Phoenix
2. Dallas
3. Utah
4. San Antonio
5. Houston
6. Denver
7. New Orleans
8. Golden State
9. LA Clippers
10. Memphis
11. Portland
12. LA Lakers
13. Seattle
14. Sacramento
15. Minnesota

First round: Phoenix over Golden State, Dallas over New Orleans, Utah over Denver, San Antonio over Houston
Second round: Phoenix over San Antonio, Utah over Dallas
Conference finals: Utah over Phoenix

NBA champions: Utah over Chicago in 6.

Everyone else is doing it: 12 fearless predictions about the season

12 things that may or may not happen during the course of the season:

1. Utah Jazz will win the champions - these guys are better than people are giving them credit for, Boozer is a monster and the supporting cast is very good. Ak-47 is the x-factor, if his fragile ego holds up this team will be tough to beat.

2. The Sun will have the best record - Their up-tempo style and skill will win a lot of regular season games, but they will not be able to translate it into playoff success, yet again.

3. Chicago will win the east - They have the most talented roster and one of the best defensive systems in the conference. That will be good enough for a number one seed and eastern conference championship. Unless they trade for Kobe, in which case they're fucked.

4. The MVP will go to KG - The Celtics are going to be a lot better this year and KG will get all the credit. Every sports writer is the country has a giant man crush on this guy.

5. Andrea Bargnani will have a lot less doubters by the end of the year - he's got the natural skills, the aggressive and the willingness to learn to take huge strides in his development.

6. Raptors will win the same number of games as last year - well give or take two. They have gotten better, but so has the rest of the conference.

7. Raptors will make the playoffs as a fourth or fifth seed and lose in the second round - This will make everyone fairly happy.

8. Baston, Moon and Martin will spend most of their time on the inactive list

9. Chris Bosh's body will hold up - everyone is getting way too excited about his potential health problems, he will play more than 70 games this year.

10. Washington won't make the playoffs - Agent Zero's knee won't be 100% for a good chunk of the season and the rest of the team is not good enough to take up the slack. Especially since they still won't play defense.

11. Boston will make the playoffs - But they won't be higher than fifth seed.

12. New Jersey will win the Atlantic division - I don't like it either, but they have Jason Kidd and a good supporting cast. They would have won it last year too, if they hadn't been hit so hard by the injury bug.

Another Preseason Victory, But Still More Questions

Well, if you missed it the Raptors crushed the Wizards tonight, it's really too bad its only the preseason. They do look good though, let's just hope they keep it up when the games count.

The consensus seems to be that the odd man out of the Raptors lineup will be Jamario Moon, Luke Jackson or Juan Dixon. It's not a decision I would like to make, I honestly like each of these guys and think that they can contribute to the Raptors success. If I had to guess I would say that Jackson is the most likely cut, He's much cheaper to get rid of then Dixon and Moon has been playing very well. But who knows, coach Mitchell has said that the cut would be based more on what he sees in practice, then what has happened in the preseason games.

If we're really lucky Bryan Colangelo will find a team in desperate need of some bench scoring (Miami, maybe. Though, they did just trade for Ricky Buckets) and ship Dixon off for some future draft picks.

On Another note, the season is just not starting soon enough, the waiting is killing me.

Tricky cuts

Someone on the current Raptors squad isn't going to make it to the regular season. Its sad, but its the rules. Before training camp began I was sure that the cutee(I don't think that's a word, but it works for me) would be one of, Jamario Moon, Luke Jackson or Derrick Martin, with Juan Dixon being a long shot. After these last few preseason games, I have to admit that I have no idea.

Juan Dixon has been shooting very well coming off the bench, which is exactly what he's supposed to do. So I'm pretty such he's a lock to make the team

Luke Jackson and Jamario Moon are both fairly young players with the potential to be quality role players for Toronto for a long time... And neither of them are likely to cost much. That leaves Derrick Martin.

While he certainly isn't going to get any better and right now he's little more than a tutor for Toronto's young PG tandem, I don't think they want to get rid of him either. His mentoring has been very valuable to both Ford and Calderon and is a big reason why they both improved dramatically last year. While the Raptors could instead try to keep Martin on as a coach this year, his relationship with the other two point guard would likely suffer and if either of them get injured Martin can still be a reasonably effective backup PG.

So where does this leave us? To my surprise the player who seems to have performed the most poorly and who really doesn't seem to be getting much burn is Maceo Baston. Really the Raptors don't need him and at his age his is unlikely to be a part of their long term plan. However, I can't see them simply giving up on a guy they just agreed to pay a couple of a million dollars to, without at least giving him some time in the regular season to prove himself. On the other hand, they won't lose much if they do

So who gets cut... Only time will tell, but my money is on Moon or Martin. Mostly because they are the only two in camp without a guaranteed contract.