The NBA season is beginning tonight, testing to see if the success from the season before can carry over to 2013. Can the fans be as interested when the season runs a full 82 games? Or should the NBA honestly reconsider their schedule and start the season Christmas Day and have fewer games altogether? Either which way, as a Magic fan I am not very excited, while all my neighbors to the south are extremely enthusiastic as the Heat are looking better and better. Here comes my list of predictions for this upcoming season of basketball:
1) Derrick Rose will get hurt. Again. The Bulls will make the playoffs again but the injuries will prevent them from going anywhere…..again.
2) The Miami Heat have a legitimate shot at the NBA Finals, and winning the entire thing. Eric Spolstera you are a lucky son of a-
3) The Indiana Pacers are one of the sneaky-good teams in the NBA that can and will challenge the aging bums known as the Celtics as well as the upstarts like the Nets.
4) The Boston Celtics will remain bitter all season over the disappearance of Ray Allen, and their age will continue becoming their biggest flaw
5) Atlanta Hawks were sneaky good until they started losing players like clockwork. Expect them to be a lower-half seeded team with minimal hope
6) The Orlando Magic are going to suck, pure and simple. And we will STILL have a chance at the playoffs.
7) Expect way more minutes for J.J. Reddick, and he will be one of the most important players to any team this season.
8) The New York Knicks will disappoint severely and will regret losing Jeremy Lin as they watch Carmelo Black Hole Anthony eat up the season
9) The Philadelphia 76ers are a one-trick pony and will prove it to the world this season
10) The Milwaukee Bucks hate the NBA. For as long as the status of the NBA remains the same, nobody will ever find playing for the Bucks attractive
11) The Detroit Pistons will play better than last season, but its still not enough
12) See above statement, now change the name to the Toronto Raptors
13) The Brooklyn Nets are going to start a cool rivalry with the Knicks while battle for the final seed
14) The Cleveland Cavaliers are going nowhere.
15) Washington Wizards are going nowhere
16) The Charlotte Bobcats are going to continue to destroy the legacy of the Michael Jordan Post-Bulls days
17) The San Antonio Spurs will hang on to the title of the 2nd best team in the West
18) The Thunder are going to really regret losing Harden, as their chemistry took a nasty, nasty hit
19) The Los Angeles Lakers look good, but the current status of the NBA doesn’t need a good center—and Dwight Howard’s presence won’t change that that much.
20) The Memphis Grizzlies will quietly be a major threat to the top three seeds in the West
21) The Los Angeles Clippers will begin their ascent to Earth in 3…2….1……
22) Blake Griffin will continue to receive undeserved attention for his aggressive and selfish promotion basketball ways
23) The Denver Nuggets will have the worst uniforms in the entire league, and will play damn good too
24) The Dallas Mavericks will have to fight for a playoff spot, because their off-season was quite a disaster.
25) Expect at least 5 fines on Mark Cuban after his frustration reaches a boiling point a quarter of the way through
26) The Utah Jazz will contemplate moving to Pittsburgh so they can nab a 4-seed in the East
27) The Houston Rockets will become your surprise-surprise team of the West with the Harden-Lin combination
28) The Phoenix Suns will resemble the state of Arizona: miserable, no hope, an embarrassment, and an afterthought
29) The Portland Trail Blazers are going to flip when they see Brandon Roy succeed in Minnesota. And also suck.
30) The Minnesota Timberwolves are going to be one of the 5 best teams in the West----the season Roy, Love, and Rubio are fully healthy
31) Golden State Warriors will make vast improvements, and the owners will find a way to **** that up again.
32) The Sacramento Kings may have saved their franchise, but it will be years before they can save their team.
33) The New Orleans Hornets are going to be like the Milwaukee Bucks; they have a great player, but will then realize that with no help they ain’t goin’ nowhere.
34) The Heat will run into the Spurs in the Finals---because the Thunder got rid of Harden
35) The surprise team that can go very far in the playoffs this year will be the Houston Rockets
36) Interest in the NBA will not be as heavy as last season because we are back to the long-arse season consisting of far too many games
37) The flopping problem in the NBA will remain as the fines aren’t heavy enough
38) There will be a flop that will change the outcome of a game, leading to Stern flipping out.
39) Steve Nash is going to play his soul out playing for the Lakers
40) The Heat-Celtics rivalry will reach new new heights, although if Miami wins all 4 games can it be really considered a rivalry?
Final: The Orlando Magic will frustrate me, severely. And it has less to do with the loss of Dwight and more to do with the loss of Stan Van Gundy, a proven coach that could have weathered this storm a lot better than your average leading man. The Eastern Conference is weak enough that the Magic can be a sneaky good team if Jamieer can learn to Point Guard more, if Hedo can go back to his 2009 ways, and if the shooter-happy squad can land the shots. But like I said before, I really wish Van Gundy was here to coach at least one season to see what he could pull off with a depleted squad.
Is it baseball season yet?
Post-Note: With the NFL trying to expand to London, I still don't see why the Magic don't reach out to Brazil.....it could really help a fanbase that's truly madly deeply pisssssssssssed off.
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