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I don’t have the exact date that this conversation occurred, believe me I wish I did, but sometime towards late November or early December I was talking to James about the Raptors’ struggles. I looked at the calendar, saw the teams the Raptors were playing from January 27 to February 24, and got excited. (more…)
Mr. Sterling, could you stop booing your own team? (Noah Graham/Getty Images)
Hello readers, I’m from the future, and I have some urgent information about how your favourite teams are going to perform this year. I know that most of you are begging to learn more about the Grizzlies, the Knicks, the Warriors, the Clippers, the Bucks, and the Grizzlies, and are genuinely concerned that they might not be able to make the playoffs. WELL, TAKE HEED FAIR IDIOTS! GAZE UPON THE STARK PROGNOSTICATIONS I HAVE PROVIDED AND DESPAIR! Your favourite teams are going to SUCK and nobody will feel pity on you. They will be smashed like a child’s macrame project at the hands of Brock Lesnar. (more…)
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Pre-season predictions are a bit of a fool’s game. Whenever you go back and look at them at the end of a season, you realize the prognosticator went horribly wrong in more than one place. Always, always, always you find that there are a few injuries and trades that completely change the landscape of the league. But I’ve gone ahead and done them anyway. (more…)
Terry Gilliam/AP Photo
I’ve heard a lot about how tough it is to make predictions this season. Well, here’s an important term for 2009-2010: mediocrity. Outside of the top and bottom 3 or 4 teams in each conference, pretty well everyone is stuck in it. So yes, it’s going to be a tough year to predict in some ways. But you can count me among those to say that this year the difference between good teams, great teams and shit teams will be more noticeable than ever. I was originally just going to just rank the teams without win totals. Why? Limit the damage, baby. Limit the damage. Unfortunately, I’ve been told I need to do wins/losses too. So, totals in brackets after the pick. (more…)
Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images.
Barring the landscape changing with significant trades or injuries, the top 7 in the West this season is pretty much set with the Lakers, Spurs, Blazers, Nuggets, Mavericks, Jazz, and Hornets. A few interesting teams will be fighting for the chance to lose for the Lakers and I’m going to discuss them. First up, the Los Angeles Clippers.
I’m terrified to make a prediction about the L.A. Clippers. They’re a mystery. On paper they’re the eighth-best team in the conference, but I’m not the least bit confident saying that they’ll make the playoffs. In fact, if you were to tell me that you thought they would, I’d pester you to make a bet with me about it, even if it’s late-November and they’re becoming a trendy pick due to their soft early-season schedule.
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Remember how crazy the West was 2-through-9 last year? We knew no one would catch the Lakers, and we knew you’d have to win close to 50 games to make the playoffs, but we had no idea how everything would shake out in the end. There was one great team in the conference, a bunch of very good teams, and then a whole bunch of crap. No Western team won between 29 (Golden State) and 46 (Phoenix) games.
Well, the East is even crazier than that this year, but the action is all in the middle. I see three teams that should easily win more than 46 games as presently constructed and only two that might finish with fewer than 29. That’s almost what happened last season, but what’s even more interesting is that, if forced to predict team records this season, I’d argue that there are ten Eastern teams that could hover around the 40-42 win mark. (more…)
Ah yes a new season is upon us. It’s a time of wonderment, of unbridled optimism, of limitless possibilities. There are still a few weeks before the season starts and cold reality slaps the majority of the Association in the face, but I figured I’d get a head start. Optimism is running wild in Toronto, but there are a few pitfalls that Raptors Nation is overlooking. (more…)
Ah yes, a new season is upon us. It’s a time of wonderment, of unbridled optimism, of limitless possibilities. There are still a few weeks before the season starts and cold reality slaps the majority of the Association in the face, so I’m going to embrace the optimism. To those who know me, this is no surprise; optimism is practically my middle name. But this year just FEELS different for some reason. The Raptors have almost completely remade their team. With a new coach, new philosophy, new feel overall. (more…)