I have to believe that some of the individuals who post here have the discerning taste to appreciate that the greatest sports association in the world tips off this evening.

in honor of that event, please post your predictions for the upcoming NBA season.

I say:

Western Finals - Lakers over Spurs
Eastern Finals - Magic over Bulls
NBA Champs - Lakers
NBA MVP - Dwight Howard
Rookie of the year; Blake Griffin (yes he's still eligible)
team hyped ad nauseum - Miami

As for my beloved Cavs - 43 wins (8th seed in the east)

western conference:
1. lakers
2. thunder
3. spurs
4. mavericks
5. jazz
6. trailblazers
7. rockets
8. nuggets

eastern conference:
1. celtics
2. heat
3. magic
4. bulls
5. hawks
6. bucks
7. wizards
8. knicks


champs = lakers
MVP = kevin durant
ROY = john wall

this will be a really rough year for cleveland fans. not only do i fully expect you not to make the playoffs, i think there's a realistic chance that you could finish with the worst record in the nba. you will probably have to fight my pistons for that dubious crown, though.

Ha, the Losin' One didn't get much help tonight. He's already barking orders at Wade. It will be touching to see how hard the Cavs play, and how much fun they have this season, but I can't see any team winning it all without a stud player. Only team I'm curious about right now is Chicago.

1st- Love to see Eddy Curry getting mentioned on donewaiting

2nd - Justin, enjoyed the banter with during the "decision debacle".
I have followed the cavs extemely close during training camp and the preseason. Ramon ( pronounced Ra - mahn) Sessions is a player, Boobie's re energized, and JJs on the cusp of stardom. The 60 win days are over, but they are far from the worst team in basketball, B.Scott wont let it happen.

1-0

bad, embarassingly bad

the injuries havent helped, but these guys simply look like the dude that got dumped hard by a girl that was severely out of their league ( and who was cheating on them for years with some dude in Miami) while they held a 20k engagement ring in their pocket, and therefore have been stuck watching seinfeld reruns in their underwear stuffing their face with cheetos

i am optimistic about Manny Harris and Eyenga, I think Hickson will get it together, and Sessions will be all right

let the dismantling begin (ASAP Please!!!) and go bucks!

james drove every ounce of my interest out of the game.

About ready to say the same myself. I am curious though to see if OKC or Chicago will amount to anything. These young teams, also including Atlanta, just don't seem to ever have the tough attitude needed to win in the playoffs. Can't play physical. Also interested to see if Orlando finally fixed their problems by dumping the softies. I can see them giving Miami AND Boston some trouble. Turkoglu is playing his balls off.

yes somehow turkoglu and Stan Van G are a lethal combo,
as for OKC, Atlanta etc.
Nowadays young teams are sooo young, meaning that most of the players that make up the cores of these young teams only have at most 1 year of college experience and thus its taking longer for the competitive natures to take shape ( see KG) if at all.
AAU tournaments are showcases more then competetive events and high school is mostly a joke for these guys.

Anyone else noticed that, even though Ron Artest continues to fire blanks on the stat sheet, the Lakers haven't lost a game since Matt Barnes got hurt and RonRon started taking up all his minutes? I was just about to go on the bandwagon of benching Artest and starting Barnes....


I continue to hate the Heat more every day that goes by. They're still going to make it to the Conference Finals though. No question.

Ron is the man, I vote for him once a day for the all star team

I don't think it bodes well for the NBA that players are pushing to go to teams with their friends ala LeBron, Bosh, Carmelo, etc. You will end up with 4-5 power houses and everyone else.

In other news, will Baron Davis poison the Cleveland locker room or be the start of great things with rebuilding in the draft?

its all about the draft pick, baron was just a piece for gilbert to prove he'll take on and spend mad money to improve


as for the players forcing trades, i dont think its a problem at all. To assume there are only 10-15 top flight basketball players in this league is absurd. Yes, some major markets are taking on 2-3 max contract guys, but its affecting their depth and future assets. The Bulls beat the Heat ( who are 1-7 vs top tier teams this year) based on their depth last night, and depth is something the Heat and Knicks of the world will struggle to develop. The poor, lil nuggets also looked stroung last night due to the array of weapons they recieved for Melo. The only sad sacks are the CAVS who were hamstung and had no opportunity to gain from the Lebron debacle.
and,Let us not forget the #1 team in the NBA currently are the small market Spurs