Hollinger does that. Honestly, what's the difference? His predictions are just as far off as everyone else's. Did you read his writeups on the hornets and lakers last year? The hornets blew his prediction out of the water and the lakers were far better than he expected, even pre-Gasol trade. No "expert" had Portland anywhere near .500. Chicago was ranked amongst the eastern elite. You might find predictions based on statistics more fascinating, but it's all still bunk.
Predictions done in the offseason are noisy. There's just to many unknowns heading into a season. I don't know if one or even a couple seasons of bad predictions based on stats proves anything.
New Orleans is a great example in opposite of Chicago, who wasn't ranked very high (not even in playoff picture by some), but finished one game out of 1st place and won the Southwest Division over Dallas and San Antonio.
pretty safe choices. i made the same prediction to my friend last weekend, except i had the rockets #2 and the hornets #3. i'd like to see someone go out on a limb once in a while. how about something like: 1. lakers 2. rockets (55 wins before they added artest) 3. hornets 4. jazz 5. mavs (carlisle rights the ship, full season with kidd as the leader) 6. spurs 7. blazers 8. suns (slippage thanks to shaq and nash's old age / injuries)
Last year we won 55 games and after adding Ron and Barry they say we will have worse record? No way. I'd say Houston will win about 60 games, not 53. The Lakers will be strong, right. But if Rockets only can stay healthly I'd say we are 1st or 2nd team in the West, number 2 or 3 in the NBA
I see the Jazz suffering a major injury half way into the season and barely making it into the playoffs. Maybe it's wishful thinking. Knowing our luck, we get a 2-7 matchup or even a 1-8.
Don't take it too personally, they have almost all the playoff teams getting less wins than they did last year. I guess they think that there'll be a more level playing field in the upcoming season. I don't agree with that though. I don't see what the lottery teams did in the offseason to warrant them taking wins away from the playoff bound ones.
you are right. i feel like contenders really made themselves better this offseason so why the hell they say they'll win less games...
I see it more like: 1. Rockets 2. Hornets 3. Lakers 4. Jazz 5. Spurs 6. Suns 7. Mavs 8. Clippers Rockets beat Clippers in 1st round Rockets beat Jazz in 2nd round Rockets beat Lakers in 3rd round
Seconded. I think the Clippers are underestimated because they lost Brand and the Blazers are too young.
The element of surprise? They lost that very early last year with the 17/18 win streak in December. "Sneaking up" on people and "the element of surprise" had nothing to do with their season. Talent and coaching did. The NBA schedule is 82 games & 5 1/2 months long. Regarding Denver, I won't bother re-hashing the earlier discussions from the NBA forum about them. They've basically given up on the season already. Their team is significantly worse than last year plus their chemistry is burnt.
What I am looking forward to see is trampling Mavericks in the first round and revenge Jazz in the second round. That's enough.
I am not 100% sure I want Utah in the first round again. After the tough, and very physical, playoff series we have had against them the last two seasons, a third straight first round match-up is going to lead to more physical play. Physical play can, and will, lead to some hard fouls against T-Mac and Yao. With all the hype around another physical first round match-up, I think Artest might snap after one too many hard fouls. Plus Artest might be charged with attempted murder against Matt Harpring after having to stand all the dirty **** Harpring does.
