Never to early to begin prognosticating. This will be fun to bring up in ~365 days.

East

1. Miami
2. Chicago
3. NY
4. Atlanta
5. Orlando
6. Boston
7. Indy
8. Philly

West

1. OKC
2. Dallas
3. Portland
4. Lakers
5. Memphis
6. SA
7. Clippers
8. Denver

This could be really fun after teams make off-season moves. Miami and Chicago will clearly be the best teams in the east. NY will be better, but still won't play enough defense to win the conference.

In the West, I don't think any team will be the clear favorite. Lakers drop a bit b/c of coaching and likely personnel moves, but Kobe is still one of the best, even if he is slowing down. SA will obviously fall, but I can't see them going from 1 to 9. Pop is still coach, and they'll rebuild. Durant and OKC will be fun to watch. I'm guessing 60 wins.

Chicago wins the East, over Miami.

Dallas wins the West again, over OKC.

Dallas wins #2. No one would have predicted Dallas would be in the Finals in 2011, even with a healthy Butler and Beaubois. I'm banking on Beaubois being 100% in 11-12, and Butler, while may not be at the level he has been in recent years, will give Dallas another viable scoring option. Dallas wins it again, playing good team basketball, and with an even more improved defense.

I predict the CBA to win it all...

East

1. Miami
2. Orlando
3. Chicago
4. Atlanta
5. New York
6. Philadelphia
7. Boston
8. Washington

West

1. LAL
2. Oklahoma City
3. Memphis
4. Dallas
5. Denver
6. San Antonio
7. Portland
8. LAC

Finals: Miami over LAL in 5
MVP: Kevin Durant
COY: Mike Brown
ROY: Ricky Rubio
DPOY: LeBron James
MIP: Jrue Holiday
6th: James Harden

I will be very interested to see what happens when Butler returns.

impossible to speculate until the cap situation is finalized.

quote:

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impossible to speculate until the cap situation is finalized.

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Ehhh....it is just early predictions, the cap situation/CBA will be a nice excuse to use when these sucky predictions go wrong.

Besides, most predictions are just based on how things went this year, anyway, and these predictions are just based on 25 seconds of thought.

West
1. Lakers
2. Dallas
3. OKC
4. Memphis
5. Spurs
6. Nuggets
7. Clippers
8. Houston

East
1. Miami
2. Chicago
3. Boston
4. Atlanta
5. Orlando
6. Sixers
7. Knicks
8. Bucks

If there's a season at all, I like OKC out of the west and Miami out of the east, with Miami to win it all.

I'm going to be very curious to see what happens in the offseason in San Antonio, though, because with the right retooling, they might be able to pull themselves off the canvas for one more miracle run. It all depends on what Timmy D can get out of his aging body, though. Pop would need to think hard about minimizing his minutes during the regular season to save him for the playoff run.

I am willing to admit that SA does not have a shot at the title without a big time pick-up.

West:
1. OKC
2. Dallas
3. Lakers
4. Spurs
5. Portland
6. Denver
7. Memphis
8. Houston

East:
1. Miami
2. Chicago
3. Orlando
4. Boston
5. New York
6. Atlanta
7. Milwaukee
8. Philadelphia

MVP: Kevin Durant
COY: Scott Brooks
DPOY: Dwight Howard
6th Man: Lamar Odom
MIP: Tyler Hansborough

1st Team All-NBA:
G - Kobe Bryant
G - Dwyane Wade
F - Kevin Durant
F - Dirk Nowitzki
C - Dwight Howard

West 1st Round:
OKC over Houston in 5
Dallas over Memphis in 6
L.A. over Denver in 6
Portland over S.A. in 7

East 1st Round:
Miami over Philadelphia in 4
Chicago over Milwaukee in 5
Orlando over Atlanta in 7
Boston over New York in 7

West Semis:
Dallas over L.A. in 7
OKC over Portland in 6

East Semis:
Miami over Boston in 6
Chicago over Orlando in 6

WCF:
OKC over Dallas in 7

East Semis:
Chicago over Miami in 7

NBA Finals:
OKC over Chicago in 7

Go Mavs.

Dallas is the biggest question mark here with the potential hard cap and their free agents with Chandler, Barea, and Butler. I think we have to resign all those guys in order to win it all. If we do that we will have just as good a chance to win as Miami, OKC, or LA.

I'm a Mavs fan, but truthfully I would have to question the wisdom of trying to keep the current group together anything close to as-is. I'd definitely want to wrap up Chandler for a long-term deal, though, and have him work in the off-season on developing a shot and a move or two.

It's time to find out if Roddy Beaubois is player or not, and he needs to learn to play the point. He has the tools to compare to Tony Parker if he plays as a 1. His talent would be wasted as a 2... and 2s are a dime a dozen, anyway.

Start with that nucleus, and I think Dallas has a team that will be respectable. I don't see a repeat championship out of them, though, no matter what they do. Those are extremely difficult to achieve and I just don't think that lightning will stay in the bottle for this group. They need to find some youth to step into playing significant minutes for this thing, and fast.