NBA – Laughably early Predictions
Jim disagrees about these being ‘laughably early’ and to a degree I understand. Most NBA teams are reasonably solid now with the vast majority of free agents having found homes. The last holdout at this point is Donovan Mitchell and while Utah has said they love some of the offers they have received from teams other than the Knicks, pundits still expect that New York is the most likely place for Mitchell to end up. Expect this one to go the distance as Utah waits for better offers right up until the last moment.
Still, it’s almost 2 months before any meaningful NBA basketball is going to be played and no end of injuries (hello Chet Holmgren) could still arise before the sneakers begin to squeak. There could still be trades, Donovan Mitchell could end up somewhere other than New York and move the needle causing some of these predictions to go astray. Even as we speak several of the NBA’s top stars are getting ready to suit up for EuroBasket 2022. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic will all be in action, playing Fiba rules which are more physically demanding. How different would the season look for their NBA teams if they sustained a fracture or other serious injury.
Heck, for that matter, even the pro/ams many NBA players take part in over the summer can be fraught with peril. As mentioned above, a simple basketball play ended the season for rookie phenom Chet Holmgren playing in a pro/am. So anything can happen between now and the beginning of the season which in my opinion, makes these laughably early.
Eastern Conference.
Expect these teams to be at the top of the East this year:
Milwaukee: Will continue to be dominant behind MVP Antetokounmpo. They have faced the pressure and understand how to get through an 82 game season. Middleton is back to full health, Jrue Holiday finally looks like he found a team where he fits and Bud is a pretty decent coach.
Boston: Winner of the Eastern Conference last year, Boston has only gotten stronger in the offseason with the acquisition of Malcom Brogdon and Galinari. I understand Galinari is out for a spell with an injury but he’ll be back and he’s still got enough in the tank to help out the ever improving young core of Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum and Marcus Smart. They are well coached and workmanlike in their execution of the too long NBA season.
Philadelphia: This is going to be the year when Doc Rivers finally gets all his horses pulling in the same direction right from the start of the season. Joel Embiid has had too many near misses not to be pulling as hard as he can this season and James Harden really does have something to prove.
Toronto: Okay, so maybe the homer in me has something to do with this prediction but when you really look closely under the microscope, you’ll see that Toronto has a lot to offer and Nick Nurse has proven he can get the best out of this team. Pascal Siakam has been putting in the time this offseason and can be expected to be at his very best this season. Fred VanVleet is a floor general with the ability to take over a game all on his own, OG Anunoby will be the best version we’ve seen of him this year with tenacious defense and an ever improving shot. And of course their magic weapon, Rookie of the Year, Scotty Barnes is going to become the glue guy that brings it all together for them.
Filling out the other 4 playoff spots will be: New Jersey, Miami, Chicago and Cleveland.
New Jersey: Granted New Jersey on paper has an incredible team, but so did they last year and the year before. Too many wildcards there to consider a really successful rugged 82 game season. Good luck Steve.
Miami missed their window last year. Lyle and Jimmy are simply too old and brittle to expect them to last through a long season. Still, they’ll win more than they lose, but don’t expect them to get past the first round.
Chicago is a bit of a wildcard here on this list, but I’m putting my confidence in Demar Derozen and expect he’ll come back even stronger than last year.
Cleveland is definitely the biggest surprise on this list, but they have a bunch of players and Evan Mobley who really want to win and I think they will surprise a lot of teams this year.
Tomorrow: The West and final wrap up thoughts.