2009-10 Prediction Thread Revisited

[fairweatherfan]

With the regular season one day away, here's your chance to get some predictions for the season down in writing.  Predictions can be for the entire season, for one team, a division, individuals, etc. and can be serious or silly.  I'll bump the thread every so often during the season so we can see how everything shook out, and maybe give TPs to the more prescient posters.

Here's a few of my predictions to start it off:

- The top 4 regular-season teams (C's, Lakers, Magic, Cleveland) will combine to win 250 games or more.  San Antonio, however, will rest their main guys and finish 3rd in the West behind LA and either Portland or Denver.
- The WCF between the Lakers and Spurs will be EPIC, but the Spurs will pull it out in heroic fashion.
- Orlando and Cleveland will meet in the 2nd rd this year, but the result will be the same, mostly due to Jameer Nelson absolutely destroying Mo Williams and Boobie Gibson. 
- LeBron will win his 2nd straight MVP, Dwight Howard will be DPOY, Blake Griffin ROY.  Ginobili will win 6th man despite basically being a starter and strong competition from Sheed.
- Andrew Bynum will show flashes of greatness but will ultimately have a disappointing season.  This is not a repeat from every year of his career.
- Jonny Flynn will have at least one monster (30+ pts, 12+ ast, 4+ stl) game this year, but will have an atrociously low shooting % for the season.  Stephen Curry will have a 40+ pt game with 4 or less assists.  Both will make the All-Rookie 1st team.  This will also be the year the Rookie team finally beats the Sophomores at the All-Star Weekend.
- Allen Iverson will be publicly complaining about his team by January.  John Hollinger will gleefully track Memphis' assault on the all-time record for lowest AST/FGM ratio.
- Detroit's big offseason moves will move them all the way up from 8th in the East to 7th.
- The over-under on regular season triple-doubles for Rondo is 5.5.  He will also (finally) make an All-Star team.
- Perk will again be the forgotten hero of the team.
- Big Baby will be visibly disgruntled at times, but will have an efficient and surprisingly productive year.
- The C's will lead the league in technicals.
- Celtics will finish 65-17, and will win #18 in 6 games over the Spurs.  Rajon Rondo will win Finals MVP, leading to months of CB handwringing and bitter debates over resigning him this summer.  Boston will ultimately match any offer he receives.
- Ray Allen will briefly flirt with retirement over the offseason, but will shortly resign with Boston for 3 years without seriously considering any other offers.
- For good or bad, the '09-10 Celtics will mostly be defined by Rondo.

[lon3lytoaster]

Let's see..

Andrew Bynum will get injured

The Celtics win 73 games

Rasheed will scream "Ball don't lie" so loud afterward, it will cause earthquakes in California

Kobe gets hit in the head with a toaster in said earthquake, suffers mild concussion

Rasheed averages over 13 PPG and 6RPG

Paul Pierce continues to lead the team in scoring

KG suffers no significant injuries, plays 34 MPG

Rondo will make the all-star team

Mo Williams will not make the all-star team

LeBron for MVP, Griffin for ROY, KG as DPoY, Rasheed wins 6th man (homer pick)

Celtics beat the Denver Nuggets in five in the NBA Finals, Rondo records 3 triple doubles in the series and wins Finals MVP (For the record, I saying Rondo would win Finals MVP next time we won, directly after banner 17.)

Shaq and Cleveland aren't struggling midseason, but you know they don't win a championship

Orlando flops, falls off a bit from last year

The Raptors win 46 games, raise a banner for second place in the Atlantic division.

After we win the title, I will overdose on green Kool-Aid and mint Oreos, and I'm rushed to the ER to have my stomach pumped.

[Chris]

1. The East will come down to the C's and Magic, both of which will be on a mission, and flirting with 70 wins.  The C's will come out on top, mainly due to an injury to Carter and the Lewis suspension costing the Magic a couple extra games.  

2. The Cavs will go on cruise control for much of the regular season, and only win about 55-58 games.

3. Tyreke Evans will win the ROY averaging 18 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and 4.5 turnovers per game, in leading the Kings to 19 wins.

4. KG wins DPY with an impressive comeback season.

5. Rajon Rondo is an All-Star in the East, and averages 13.5 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2.5 steals per game.

6. Elton Brand is traded to Charlotte for Boris Diaw, and Vlad Radmanovic.  He magically turns into the superstar he was before leaving the Clippers, and the Bobcats end up with the 5th spot in the East, and take the C's to 7 games in the second round.

[KCattheStripe]

1. The Celtics beat the Magic in 5 in the Eastern Conference Finals, allowing them to rest after a harder than average 5 game win over the Heat (in which DWade drops 35+ a game) and 7 game series against the Wizards in the Semis, before they have to play a Spurs team that goes 7 with the Lakers. The Championship goes 7 games, with game 7 going into double overtime in Boston (including one overtime where Parker and Rondo just go at each other scoring 12 in the period each) before the C's pull out the victory at home and Rondo wins Finals MVP.

2. The best rookie on the Kings turns out to be Omri Casspi

3. DWade finally wins the MVP for carrying a team that without him wouldn't be a 5th seed in the Big East, to a .500 record and a playoff birth. The conversation finally shifts from Lebron/Kobe, to Lebron/ Dwade.

4. The Southeast Division is closer than anyone expected with both the Wizards and the Hawks giving the Magic a run.

5. San Antonio meets Portland in the Semis and smacks them around like the upstarts they are. San Antonio in 4.

6. Perk Averages a Double Double.

7. The Toronto Raptors implode and Chris Bosh goes to a real team at the end of the season.
 

[ToppersBsktball10]

Derrick Rose has a crazy year.

Zach Randolph, not Allen Iverson puts the Grizzlies in a big hole.

Tracy McGrady stays in Houston.

Rondo starts slow but improves drastically after 15 games and plays at a starting all star level all year.

[Spilling Green Dye]

My humble predictions:

ROY:  Griffing (LAC)
DPOY:  Dwight Howard
MVP:  Lebron
6th man:  Ginobli
Celtics:  67 wins
Cavs:  60 wins
Magic:  63 wins
Spurs:  59 wins
Lakers:  62 wins
Nuggets:  50 wins
Mavs:  56 wins
ECF: Celtics over Magic in 6 (potentially 5)
WCF:  Spurs over Lakers in 6 (should be 7, but Artest's playoff shooting % will be low)
Finals:  Celtics over Spurs in 7.  Celtics win game 7 by a score of 96 to 88.

[Spilling Green Dye]

Just thought of something.. can you lock people's posts so that they can't go back and edit them later? 

[Chris]

Just thought of something.. can you lock people's posts so that they can't go back and edit them later? 

I don't believe so, but we could lock the thread.  Perhaps we could lock this thread before tipoff tomorrow night...

[Kwhit10]

Blazers will have team chemistry issues, and will greatly underachieve and getting the 5/6 seed at best.

[KCattheStripe]

8. Wes Matthews plays major minutes for the playoff bound Utah Jazz, thus proving that I was right all along and that nickagenta should never question my binkies again.

[fairweatherfan]

Just thought of something.. can you lock people's posts so that they can't go back and edit them later? 

I don't believe so, but we could lock the thread.  Perhaps we could lock this thread before tipoff tomorrow night...

I'd rather not do that if we can - I'd like to bump this every so often as the season goes along.  I think we can trust everybody not to cheat on a meaningless prediction thread, especially when we can see when a post was last edited.

[KCattheStripe]

Just thought of something.. can you lock people's posts so that they can't go back and edit them later? 

I don't believe so, but we could lock the thread.  Perhaps we could lock this thread before tipoff tomorrow night...

I'd rather not do that if we can - I'd like to bump this every so often as the season goes along.  I think we can trust everybody not to cheat on a meaningless prediction thread, especially when we can see when a post was last edited.

Yeah, because the Honor System worked so well in School Ties.

I actually agree with FWF, its just that its not everyday you can make a School Ties reference on this blog.

[fairweatherfan]

Just thought of something.. can you lock people's posts so that they can't go back and edit them later? 

I don't believe so, but we could lock the thread.  Perhaps we could lock this thread before tipoff tomorrow night...

I'd rather not do that if we can - I'd like to bump this every so often as the season goes along.  I think we can trust everybody not to cheat on a meaningless prediction thread, especially when we can see when a post was last edited.

Yeah, because the Honor System worked so well in School Ties.

I actually agree with FWF, its just that its not everyday you can make a School Ties reference on this blog.

I'd buy that for a dollar! 

Just to keep from completely derailing, another couple of predictions - the biggest rookie bust of the year will be DeMar Derozan. The biggest rookie surprise will be Chase Budinger, not counting the people who will be surprised that Tyler Hansborough can actually play a little.

EDIT: Also, a prediction for tomorrow night's game - 106-95, Celtics.  LeBron scores at least 30, and Shaq wreaks some havoc down low but Mo Williams struggles with his shot and our bench bulldozes theirs.

[KCattheStripe]

Just thought of something.. can you lock people's posts so that they can't go back and edit them later? 

I don't believe so, but we could lock the thread.  Perhaps we could lock this thread before tipoff tomorrow night...

I'd rather not do that if we can - I'd like to bump this every so often as the season goes along.  I think we can trust everybody not to cheat on a meaningless prediction thread, especially when we can see when a post was last edited.

Yeah, because the Honor System worked so well in School Ties.

I actually agree with FWF, its just that its not everyday you can make a School Ties reference on this blog.

I'd buy that for a dollar! 

Just to keep from completely derailing, another couple of predictions - the biggest rookie bust of the year will be DeMar Derozan. The biggest rookie surprise will be Chase Budinger, not counting the people who will be surprised that Tyler Hansborough can actually play a little.

Another reason the Raps will implode.

[Chris]

Blazers will have team chemistry issues, and will greatly underachieve and getting the 5/6 seed at best.

I missed this one.  Good call.  I think the combination of them tuning out the coach (which IMO is innevitable), and the increased pressure on Roy and Aldridge with their new contracts will be alot to handle...and Andre Miller riding the bench will be enough to throw things over the edge.  I think they might be lucky to win more than 45 games.