2015 NBA season predictions!

[phrazbit]

The 3 weeks too long preseason is nearly over, the actual season is nearly upon us, one week before a real game! Its time for a thread of some bold, some not so bold, some "I told you so" right and some 'salt in the eye' wrong predictions!

Last year when predicting the standings I went so far as to ensure my projections added up to a .500 record across the league... it wasn't worth the trouble. I will be a bit more loose... I am tempted to pick Philly to go -12 and 94.

Any predictions made may be edited up until opening night.

[phrazbit]

Here goes:

East:

1. Cleveland 65-17
2. Chicago 58-24
3. Washington 49-33

Good lord the East is awful

4. Toronto 46-36
5. Miami 45-37
6. Charlotte 45-37
7. Atlanta 42-40
8. Detroit 37-45
9. New York 36-46
10. Brooklyn 33-49
11. Indiana 33-49
12. Orlando 32-50
13. Milwaukee 30-52
14. Boston 26-56
15. Philly 10-72

West:

1. LA Clippers 59-23
2. Golden State 57-25
3. Spurs 56-26
4. Dallas 55-27
5. OKC 53-29
6. Portland 52-30
7. Your Phoenix Suns 51-31
8. Houston 49-33
9. Memphis 47-35
10. Peli-Jazz-Horns 43-35
11. Denver 37-47
12. Sacramento 35-47
13. Minny 30-52
14. Lakers 28-54
15. Utah 24-58

East Finals: Cavs over Wizards in 5

West Finals: Clippers over Warriors in 7

Finals: Cavs over Clippers in 6

MVP: LeBalding

Coachy MVP: Horny

6th man: Isiah Thomas

DPOY: Not a Phoenix Sun.


Other bold predictions:

Houston's superstars will get their coach fired.

Goran or Bledsoe will be an all-star, but not both.

Gerald Green will be traded.

Kobe will shoot under 40% while shooting over 20 times a game, the national media interpret this as him not giving up and having the will of a warrior. He will also throw virtually everyone associated with that franchise under the bus.

Wiggins will be good for a rookie but fall miles short of the hype.

Alex Len will break a bone, best case but least likely scenario: an opposing player's nose.

Aaaand finally, despite again ranking as one of the top on-court duo's in the league people will continue to moan about how the Bledsoe/Dragic combo does not work.

[Christine-In-AZ]

Here goes:

Perhaps you are not going for absolute accuracy, but you've got 1265 total wins & 1195 total losses in your final predicted standings.

[bwgood77]

Here goes:

Weird, I was looking at some new nba site last night and the east rankings were nearly identical to yours top to bottom (one playoff team was 3 spots higher). One team I think was a few spots off. I did think the site had good eastern predictions though compared to many others.

[phrazbit]

Here goes:

Perhaps you are not going for absolute accuracy, but you've got 1265 total wins & 1195 total losses in your final predicted standings.

I covered that in my opening post fella!

Last year when predicting the standings I went so far as to ensure my projections added up to a .500 record across the league... it wasn't worth the trouble. I will be a bit more loose... I am tempted to pick Philly to go -12 and 94.

I realized as I was finishing I was being too kind. A lot of 50 win teams, not enough teams with wins in the 20s and teens. If I was to strip down about some teams I'd probably dip into the mid-tier of the East.

[DRK]

Top 8 East:
Cleveland
Miami
Chicago
Washington
Toronto
Charlotte
Brooklyn
Atlanta

Top 8 West:

Golden State
San Antonio
Clippers
OKC
Dallas
Portland
Memphis
Houston

(Yes, I dont think we will make playoffs this season yet again)

East Finals: Cleveland over Miami
West Finals: Clippers over SA

Champion: Clippers

MVP: Curry or LeBron

COTY: Pop

6th man: Jamal Crawford

DPOY: Dwight.

[lilfishi22]

I have Cleveland winning in the East and Clippers winning in the East.

Clippers for winning it all

Suns miss playoffs

MVP: Lebron (he'll have too much media attention not to get it)
COY: Coach Tibs
6MOY: Isaiah
DPO: M Gasol

[Christine-In-AZ]

* '15 record versus '14 record is the parenthetical info

* The Eastern Conference wrestles a little strength back from the West. I shifted 21 wins over to the East. It's very slight with the West still holding a 653 to 577 wins advantage over the East.

* There are three distinct team groupings to me:

8 "Lotto Locks"- PHL, MLW, BOS, ORL, DET, UTA, SAC & MIN. They simply can't escape a lottery fate.

7 "Title Tribes"- LAC, OKC, SAS, GSW, DAL, CLE & CHI. The Warriors would need some serious magic, but it wouldn't shock me if the Mavs pulled it off like '11 once again. Any one of the rest have realistic championship scenarios.

15 "Parity Party-ers"- IND, ATL, WSH, NYK, TOR, BRK, CHA, MIA, DEN, LAL, PHX, MEM, NOL, HOU & POR. 50% of the league is in this bulging middle ground. "Ok" to "good" teams, but none going anywhere special this season. The Grizz or the Hornets might break free from this group and do some playoff damage if the wind blows right for them.

*MVP- Lebron James
*COTY- Doc Rivers
*6th Man- Ryan Anderson
*DPOY- Joakim Noah

* Bulls uber-defense frustrates the uncalloused Cavs out of the playoffs. In the end, it's the Spurs again. They finally get their repeat. I'm good with that.

Some reasoning for where I put the Suns...

-All-in-All the Suns are probably just as strong talent-wise as last year, though the center of that talent's balance has shifted even more to the smaller side, and that's a negative. TJ Warren seems a good pick, but unless he's crazy good and gets significant minutes...minutes where he's clearly more effective on both ends than Mook, PJ or Green, he's not winning us any games. Maybe down the road, but not this season.

-If somehow the Suns could roll out exactly the same team as last year...had the exact same injuries...they'd win less games. There wasn't a "book" on Hornacek & the Suns for a good chunk of last season. 5 or 6 or more Suns wins were likely fallout from this "newness". The surprise factor is gone this year.

-A season long healthy Bledsoe should get back most if not all of those victories lost to the Suns are now respected and prepped for better line of thinking.

-I think the Suns are going to be involved in (what'll seem like) a thousand nail-biters this year. This is where the departure of Frye is going to hurt the most. It's tough to win a high percentage of the close games if you're too dependent on guard play. Hopefully the combined frontline players will step up and be clutch, but right now I just don't feel they'll be up to it. It'll be interesting to see how the Suns do this season in close games as compared to last year. Bottomline for me is, I think the win total takes a significant hit due to this department.

-And then there's Len. Yep! If he stays healthy, can stay on the court out of foul trouble and not clog up the offense for 20+ minutes a game? Sure, that could mean several more wins to the total. I'm just guessing no he won't/can't for the most part. Like TJ, I can see it happening down the road, but not really this year.

-In the end, another very exciting (yet somewhat frustrating) year of promise. 44 wins is still good for the 2nd year of the rebuilding-from-the-bottom plan. Next year and forward should be great.

[Revived]

I really hope we don't get the #13 pick again and continue our reputation as the treadmill team of the NBA.

Go hard or go home. Top 5 pick or playoff team. Nothing in between please.

Yes I know I'm such a little devil for "supporting tanking", please cry me a river.

[Damkac]

East
1. Cleveland
2. Chicago
3. Washington
4. Toronto
5. Atlanta
6. Charlotte
7. Miami
8. Brooklyn
--------
9. New York
10. Detroit
11. Orlando
12. Indiana
13. Boston
14. Milwaukee
15. Philadelphia

West
1. San Antonio
2. Oklahoma
3. LA Floppers
4. Golden State
5. Memphis
6. Dallas
7. Portland
8. Phoenix
--------
9. Houston
10. New Orleans
11. Denver
12. Sacramento
13. The Worse LA
14. Minnesota
15. Utah

Finals: OKC over Chicago

MVP: Curry (because he is the only superstar on his team ulike Durant, JBJ, Griffin etc.) Just hope it won't be LeBron
DPOY: Duncan
6th man: Isiah Thomas
CotY: Hornacek

[bwgood77]

MEM 58 24
SA 57 25
OKC 54 28
LAC 53 29
DAL 52 30
GS 48 34
PHX 48 34
POR 47 35

--------------------------

HOU 46 36
NO 38 40
DEN 39 43
LAL 35 47
MIN 33 49
SAC 19 63
UTA 15 67

CLEV 57 25
WAS 54 28
ATL 53 29
CHI 52 30
TOR 47 35
MIA 45 37
DET 43 39
CHA 42 40

--------------------

BKN 41 41
NY 36 46
MIL 34 48
BOS 34 48
IND 22 60
ORL 17 65
PHI 7 75

Obviously this relies on health. I think Memphis is pretty underrated, and while I don't know if I REALLY expect them to finish on top, I think they can be right in the mix if healthy. If OKC was healthy they would be at the top.

I think Milwaukee is closer to the team they were two years ago when they had 38 wins and last year was just an implosion year with injuries and stuff. The freak and Jabari and a little health should lead to vast improvement. I don't expect a ton from rookies, but if Sanders and Ily are healthy, and Henson and the other young guys improve, they could be quite a bit better than people expect.

The last spot in the east is tough. There really is no reason a Brooklyn team with a healthy Lopez, Williams and Johnson shouldn't make the playoffs, but I'm not sure they will be healthy.

I think another underrated team is Atlanta. If Horford is healthy, they have an EXTREMELY solid lineup and could fight for the two seed.

I think Indiana will implode. Their best player is West, and they could REALLY fall apart.

Finals

OKC over CLE

If OKC is healthy they are the best team in the league. I think they were the last two years as well, but injuries in the playoffs derailed them.

Dallas could be really tough and get as far as the WCF.

WC Playoffs

MEM over POR
SA over PHX
OKC over GS
DAL over LAC

DAL over MEM
OKC over SA

OKC over DAL

EC Playoffs

All higher seeds advance in every round

[batsmasher]

East
1. Cleveland
2. Chicago
3. Washington
4. Atlanta
5. Charlotte
6. Miami
7. Toronto
8. Detroit
--------
9. Brooklyn
10. New York
11. Indiana
12. Milwaukee
13. Orlando
14. Boston
15. Philadelphia

West
1. San Antonio
2. Golden State
3. OKC
4. LA Clippers
5. Memphis
6. Phoenix
7. Dallas
8. Houston
--------
9. Denver
10. Portland
11. New Orleans
12. Sacramento
13. LA Lakers
14. Minnesota
15. Utah

[King4Day]

I could see us struggling to mesh the guards. One of Green or Thomas will be dealt midseason. Perhaps we rekindle the Anderson/Green trade there were rumors about.

I know we had a solid pre-season record but something just didn't feel right.

[spanishninja]

I could see us struggling to mesh the guards. One of Green or Thomas will be dealt midseason. Perhaps we rekindle the Anderson/Green trade there were rumors about.

I know we had a solid pre-season record but something just didn't feel right.

I don't think it will be that bad but one thing we have to try to fix is IT overhandling the ball when he's the primary playmaker. Once that happens he should do great out there on his own.

[King4Day]

I could see us struggling to mesh the guards. One of Green or Thomas will be dealt midseason. Perhaps we rekindle the Anderson/Green trade there were rumors about.

I know we had a solid pre-season record but something just didn't feel right.

I don't think it will be that bad but one thing we have to try to fix is IT overhandling the ball when he's the primary playmaker. Once that happens he should do great out there on his own.

What do you mean by overhandling? Not passing or just trying to be too fancy?

[spanishninja]

I could see us struggling to mesh the guards. One of Green or Thomas will be dealt midseason. Perhaps we rekindle the Anderson/Green trade there were rumors about.

I know we had a solid pre-season record but something just didn't feel right.

I don't think it will be that bad but one thing we have to try to fix is IT overhandling the ball when he's the primary playmaker. Once that happens he should do great out there on his own.

What do you mean by overhandling? Not passing or just trying to be too fancy?

not passing enough. I can definitely see where he got his assists from last year, usually passing it off at the end of the clock. He can't do that same thing on this team.