House of Hoops cont.

Gray

Even though I broke down the Six championship relevant teams yesterday, I still have to give you my playoff picks and individual award winners. It's all gettin placed on record this year, so at the end of this season, no one can talk noise about who's right and who's wrong. It will be documented.

East Conf Playoff Picture

x=Division Winner

1.Magic(x)Amazing at home, amazing against the West, they'll have the best record in the NBA

2. Cavs(x)They will be slightly worse by adding Shaq, not slightly better.
3. Celtics(x)Better equipped for the long run. W-L record won't be amazing, but will win division.
4. Heat-Outside the division winners, Heat are best team in the East all because of DWade, and because the Sixers and Hawks both got worse.
5. Pacers-They are for real this year, Brandon Rush will start scoring, take pressure off Granger and with hungry kids like Hanborough and McRoberts, the kids will play some D and rebound.
6. Sixers-Igoudala is enough to make the playoffs, but Royal Ivey is now their starting PG.
7. Wizards-Risky, but if Arenas plays 65 games, they will rally behind him and win much of those games, Hibachi!!

8. Hawks-Adding Jamal Crawford never helps your team, they will get in and be swept out.

Big Surprise-Pacers...I'm callin it and believing it, I really think they will be dope because of the intensity Hanborough and McRoberts will bring. Roy Hibbert is there to block shots, and with a longer more athletic team this year, the Pacers will have some D to go with their high powered O. Jim O'Brien is a good coach, and with Granger, Dunleavy and Murphy they have a nucleus of productive veterans to go with young hungry scrapers, this is their year and it will make everyone shut up about Larry Bird drafting white players, it will prove he just drafts good players.

Big Disappointment-Bulls/Pistons I hope I'm wrong but I got a bad feeling about starting the year without Derrick Rose. The kid IS the Bulls identity and with him injured I think Chicago will get off to a trademark bad start. And judging by our recent string of injuries, I feel like the Bulls season will be rife with small nagging ailments that keep our squad from playing at full strength. If I'm right about the Pacers, I'll be right about the Bulls. And it will be a set back for a team that took the defending champs to 7 games last year. As for the Pistons, they will see just how overrated the scoring of Ben Gordon is. The roster is void of any real bball IQ other than Hamilton and Prince, and with Kwame Brown as your starting Center...the Detroit city woes continue in 09.

Western Conf Playoff

1. Lakers(x)-They play 17 of their first 21 games at home, they'll start great and finish great.

2. Nuggets(x)- Say hello to the new-look Pacers of the late 90s. Great pg and leader in Chauncey, a la Mark Jackson. Great scorers at 2 and 3 in JR Smith and Melo, a la Reggie and Jalen. Active big men who also score w Nene and Birdman (brrrddlll!!!) a la Smits, and the Davis bros. But the Nuggets will never reach the NBA finals while Kobe's around, a la Pacers always being runners up behind MJ.
3. Hornets(x)-Will win the division over the Spurs because of youth, and a team reenergized by Emeka Okafur. He will board, block shots, and run the floor, like Tyson Chandler with more touch and less tip dunks. Chris Paul is going to murder the single season assists record this year, Okafor doesn't miss crips.

4. Spurs- will lose their division but have the best record otherwise because the big 3 is back and Timmay has some some big men to give him minutes.

5. Trailblazers-No surprises, the blazers will keep building on a good thing with Andre Miller, and solidfy themselves as a perrenial playoff threat.

6. Jazz- Healthy Deron Williams and a solid nucleus with AK47 and Boozer, plus an increased role for Millsap

7. Rockets-Ariza and Battier will become leaders of this team while Yao and TMac are hurt, Defense, a good coach, and Carl landry and Luis Scola inside will be enough to make postseason.
8. Mavericks-They'll win games, but Shawn Marion will take shots away from Josh Howard, and between the two of them, Dirk, Jason Terry, and Jason Kidd's wild 3-pointers, not enough baskeballs to go higher than the 8 seed.

Big Surprise-Rockets- they will get off to a decent start despite the fact that Yao and TMac will never see the court. Many have picked them to fail after losing Artest and their top 2 scorers being injured, but Adelman will put the pieces where the belong to make it work.

Big Disappointment-Suns- The Suns did little to make themselves better and Steve Nash is one year older. They will depend entirely too much on Jason Richardson and Leandro Barbosa for offense and will lose any game in which Amare gets into foul trouble. They gave Amare no help down low, and will be sorry for failing to do so as the team that was a bogus call away from being the Finals favorite in 07, will not make the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row.

MVP
Lebron-numbers will be too ridiculous, league will want to promote him, esp since he's prolly going to NYC next year. Back to back MVPs forth coming, even with Shaq on his team now.
*Wade, Roy, and D. Howard will be in the discussion.

Scoring Champ
Dwayne Wade-He has the luxury of getting to the foul line anytime he falls down, easy buckets.

Def player of the year
If the world is right-Shane Battier will finally get the credit he deserves for being so lockdown.
If world is f'ed up-Josh Smith will win it for leading the league in weak side blocks.

6th Man
Lamar Odom by default, he'd start on any other team.

Coach of the Year
Jim O'Brien-I say it again because it bears repeating, Pacers are going to be dope this year.

Document your thoughts.