Now that we have made it to the All Star break in the NBA, I want to go back and look at my giant, 10 day NBA preview I did before the season and see how it looks now. I did get some things wrong, we all do, and I will address those first, but I feel like I picked the top teams pretty well, with one exception.
So, before I pat myself on the back, let's get to the stuff I was off base on. First of all, I was way off on the New Orleans Pelicans, the Dallas Mavericks, the Portland Trailblazers, the Houston Rockets, the Washington Wizards and the Milwaukee Bucks. In the case of the Pelicans, I thought they'd be much, much better than they've shown this season. Sure, they've suffered a plethora of injuries, but they just don't look like that good of a team right now. I watched them play the OKC Thunder last night and they got blown out. The game wasn't even competitive mid way through the third quarter. Sure, they didn't have Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans, but they still have Anthony Davis, my preseason MVP and Defensive Player of the Year winner. Davis has looked good, but he was supposed to look great. He was supposed to be the new face of the NBA. He hasn't shown that he is ready to take the next step, but he still has time. This is a lost year for the Pelicans. Too many injuries and a terrible start doomed them. They should blow it up and try to get a decent pick to add next to Davis.
I also thought that the Bucks would be a much better team than they are right now. They haven't really had to deal with any injuries, they just can't play competent defense and they have no go to scorer. Giannis Antentekoumpo has not taken the leap he was expected to take, becoming kind of a nuisance. Jabari Parker has not lived up to the hype that he can be a top tier scorer and he plays no defense whatsoever. The Greg Monroe signing has been an absolute disaster and their back court is mediocre at best. They have looked pretty awful this year. They already had their highlight of their season, when they ended Golden State's perfect start.
The Washington Wizards can't stay healthy and they can't get John Wall any kind of significant help. Wall is a star. He is one of, if not the, top point guard in the NBA, but he has no help at all. Bradley Beal was supposed to be his wingman, but he can't stay healthy and when he is in there, he's been ice cold from the field. Marcin Gortat looks slow and is not scoring like he did a year ago. Nene looks disinterested and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets traded. Otto Porter Jr has been hit or miss and other than those guys, they have very average NBA players. But, it all really boils down to piss poor coaching from Randy Whitman. The fact he still has a job is ridiculous. He is the one wasting John Wall's talent. I feel bad for John Wall because he's a really great basketball player.
The Houston Rockets have been a mess from the start of preseason. James Harden decided he'd rather party than stay in shape. Dwight Howard can't get touches, but he also mopes and complains more than any NBA player I've ever watched. The trade for Ty Lawson, which I loved, has been a complete disaster. And this team, as a whole, plays absolutely no defense. The offense they run is equally terrible. I swear, they tell Harden to dribble for 20 seconds, then either shoot a 3 or try to drive to draw a foul. It's atrocious. They fired their coach after 11 games, but they haven't been any better since letting McHale go. As was reported last night, this is truly "a broken team".
Now, to get away from teams I thought would be good that aren't so good to teams that I expected to take a step back, but are playing much better than I thought. First, the Trailblazers. They traded away 4/5 of their starting lineup and made some interesting offseason moves, but damn it if it isn't kind of working for them. They lost LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Wes Matthews and Nic Batum, but still find themselves in the playoff race. If they do end up making the playoffs, it will be as an eight seed and they will get crushed by Golden State, but I thought there was no way they'd win more than 25 games this year. Damien Lillard really is that good.
The other team that I kind of crapped on, thought they were too old and that they missed out on some key free agency moves, the Dallas Mavericks, have been very competitive. Dirk is still Dirk. He is still getting 18 to 20 points per game and his jump shot is still unguardable. Wes Matthews, their only free agent signing after the DeAndre Jordan fiasco, has been great, coming off a torn ACL. He has actually looked really good, considering his injury. Chandler Parsons has been okay, he just does what he does, and that's enough for this team. But, Deron Williams has been rejuvenated by his move to Dallas. He was done in Brooklyn. His career seemed to be over, but he has played some pretty good basketball since joining the Mavericks, much to mine, and everyone else's surprise. He looks like a decent NBA point guard again. You have also got to give a lot of love to Rick Carlisle for the job he's doing with this team. He is a top of the line NBA coach. .
Now, let's get to the stuff I was on the mark with in my preseason preview. Golden State and San Antonio have been great. Golden State, whom I've written about a couple of times already, has been historically great. They are the most fun to watch NBA team that I've ever seen. Steph Curry is the best player in the NBA, no questions about it, and they also have Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut and Andre Igoudala, and I could name a lot more. They are so, so good.
The Spurs are right there as well. The Aldridge signing has been great and Aldridge has taken very easily to playing the "Spurs Way". David West, who they signed for the veterans minimum, has been a great addition as well. Then they still have Kawhi Leonard, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli. I know Ginobli just recently got hurt, but they can plug Patty Mills, Danny Green, or anyone on their bench to take over until Ginobli returns. Sure, they got blown out by the Warriors recently, but the Spurs save their best for the playoffs. I still really like the Spurs to compete for the title this year.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have been pretty good as well, yet no one is really talking about them. They won their 40th game last night and Kevin Durant looks like he is 100 percent back. To go along with Durant, Russell Westbrook is still doing all the great and reckless things he does on the court, but he's found a way for it to help his team this year. Serge Ibaka is still one of the top rim protector and he has increased his range all the way out to the three point line. Steven Adams is the new Bill Laimbeer and the rest of the team knows their place. Andre Roberson is a lock down defender, DJ Augustin and Cameron Payne are strictly there to give Westbrook short breaks. Enes Kanter is instant offense off the bench and Dion Waiters, when he is on, can score in bunches. OKC is lurking and I wouldn't want to play them in the playoffs if I were either San Antonio or Golden State.
In the East, there are two teams and that is it. The Cavs, another team I've written plenty about, is the best team in the East, but they have a problem with their roster and since they fired David Blatt, Tyronn Lue hasn't really set the NBA coaching world on fire. I wouldn't be surprised if they make some moves, trading guys like Kevin Love, Timofey Mozgov and/or Tristan Thompson or Anderson Varajo and bringing in more shooters, but it won't matter, they will still lose in the Finals. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are great, but then you have guys like JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova and James Jones that are playing critical minutes in the playoffs. LeBron the GM needs to make better player personnel decisions and sign good NBA players, not his buddies.
The other team from the East that is setting the world on fire completely took me by surprise. I thought the Toronto Raptors would be good, but not this good. DeMr DeRozan and Kyle Lowry are playing All Star level basketball, although Lowry is the only one that made the team. Jonas Valenciunas is becoming that rebounder and low post scorer that they need him to be. Corey Joseph has been awesome since he signed there this offseason, scoring points and playing good defense. DeMarre Carroll, who's been out with an injury, looked just as good as he did last year in Atlanta, playing lock down defense and hitting open shots. The Raptors have been a whole hell of a lot better than I thought they would be, especially after their rough finish in the playoffs last year, and they look like a real threat to the Cavs. I would love if the Raptors faced the Cavs in the East Finals, swept them and then get crushed by either OKC, Golden State or San Antonio. That would be hilarious to me because it would freak out David Silver and make the fans in Cleveland that much more miserable. I really, really like Toronto.
As far as award predictions, Steph Curry is the MVP. I picked Anthony Davis, but it's Curry. Emmanuel Mudiay, my preseason rookie of the year, has been hurt and can't shoot, so I will now go with Karl Anthony Towns. He is a star in the making. Kawhi Leonard is hands down the Defensive Player of the Year and Gregg Popovich has to be coach of the year. You can't give it to Steve Kerr, and Adam Silver doesn't have the cojanes to give it to Luke Walton, so it's Poppovich.
To close it all out, at the All Star break, my finals prediction is going to be Golden State and Cleveland. I know I picked San Antonio and Cleveland, and that could still happen, but Golden State is something special this year. Not only will Golden State repeat, probably sweeping the Cavs out of the Finals, but I think they will break the single season record of wins. In 1996 the Bulls finished 72-10 and I think the Warriors will finish this season at 74-8, besting them by two games. The Warriors are that good and they will finish their historic season with a second straight NBA title.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He really wanted an all Canada final of the Raptors and the Grizzlies, but then he realized that Memphis is not in Canada. He also realized their are no Grizzlies in Tennessee, no lakes in LA, and definitely no Jazz in Salt Lake City. The NBA is weird. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.
