I hope that you enjoyed the first part of my NBA season win predictions. The Eastern conference is really strong at the top as you saw from my predictions yesterday. The West is very much in the same boat. There will be a lot of teams taking their best shot at the Heat every night. There will, however, also be a handful of teams in the West that are not willing to let the Suns walk away with Wiggins without a fight or at least with losing as many fights as possible.
In case you missed it, here is the Western Conference.
Without further adieu here is the second part of my win predictions, the Eastern Conference:
Eastern Conference
15 – Philadelphia – This is a team smart enough to realize they are not at all good and want to make that pay off. They are all about getting the first pick in the draft and are bad enough to do it. The reality is that they don’t need the first pick, only a top three and they are sure to get that unless they get killed in the lottery. 14 wins
14 – Orlando – I love Victor Olidipo but he is all they have at this point. The crazy thing is that they still might not be bad enough to have the worst record in the East. 20 wins
13 – Charlotte – I love the way Michael Kidd-Gilchrist plays. But this team is the Mavericks of the East with the signing of Al Jefferson. He will add 8 wins or so and that in all likely-hood moves them out of the top five picks. Whoever runs this team must not have a clue about how the NBA works. This could be the best draft since 1985 you want a top 5 pick and a shot at the first couple guys. 25 wins
12 – Boston – This team is a lot like Utah, too good for their own good. Especially when Rondo gets back. That could kill their chances at the top five pick that could have quickly help transform them back into a playoff team. 25 wins
11 – Milwaukee – The moves this team make never make sense to me. They have no home grown talent other than Sanders and always kick around in the free agent market to get serviceable guys that allow them to be mediocre. I believe that this is an owner run franchise and the owner is destroying it slowly with his moves. 33 wins
10 – Atlanta – They lost Josh Smith but added Milsap. This could be a case of addition by subtraction. I don’t think they are much worse than last year and should again challenge for a low playoff seed. 38 wins
9 – Toronto – I think they are better than last year but that is nothing to be proud of. They always play hard for their coach and in a season like this with a lot of teams wanting to be bad, that might possibly equate to a playoff birth. Do I think that is the way to go? Heck no. 38 wins
8 – Detroit – Drummond could be this season’s most improved player and the best player from the 2012 draft class. They traded for Jennings, which I hate, but added Josh Smith, which I love. I see a playoff team that loses in the first round. That’s solid improvement from the last few seasons. 41 wins
7 – Cleveland – Irving is a superstar in a league that is driven by superstars. This means health permitting they make a big jump in the standings. They are also auditioning for Lebron, so they best make a good impression. 44 wins
6 – Washington – The Gortat trade gives them at least another 5 wins. This is another team that with a healthy point guard will be so much better. I have never been a huge John Wall fan but when he and Beal played together they looked good. 50 wins
5 – New York – They can score but will they continue to defend for Woodson? I also think they have too many guys who need the ball and take too many bad shots. Iman Shumpert is probably the best one on one defender the league has seen since Scottie Pippen. 52 wins
4 – Brooklyn – This team has an owner with deep pockets and a will to win now. Their window to win is very short. They will have as good a chance of knocking off the two time defending champion Heat as anyone. They are skilled, deep, and tough. 54 wins
3 – Indiana – There wasn’t Not much in terms of roster turnover but there was not a real need to turn it over. They, like the Spurs, had the Heat on the ropes for a while but could not finish the deal. Getting Granger healthy will help the scoring as will adding Scola. They are a better playoff team than regular season one. 56 wins
2 – Chicago – Tom T. just plays his guys so many hard minutes in the regular season that I fear they have no shot at being healthy or fresh when the playoffs roll in. They are the anti-Pacers. Rose will be a MVP candidate but they just don’t have what it takes to overthrow the Heat. 58 wins
1 – Miami – This should not be a surprise. They have the best player in the league by a fair margin. Wade is a top 10 guy when healthy and Bosh knows his role as third wheel. I have always been an Oden fan and if he can play even 20 minutes a game that could be huge for them against teams like the Pacers, Nets, Spurs and Rockets who all have a quality center. 68 wins
Stay tuned for my Major Awards as well as the All-NBA teams tomorrow…
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