The calendar flips at midnight. A new year is upon us.
It is time, then, to find the nearest crystal ball to try to forecast what will happen in the NBA in 2024.
Below you can register any NBA prediction you’d like (and as bold as you’d like) for what we’ll see in #thisleague during the next 12 months.
🏀 Who will win the East? Boston, Milwaukee or Philadelphia? Or a team we haven’t listed? (I still have some questions about the 25-6 Celtics as impressive as they’ve been.)
🏀 How many 50-win teams will the West produce after generating just two last season? (We’re on pace — barely — for four at this juncture if you include the 19-12 Clippers.)
🏀 Who else is getting traded across the next six weeks after New York and Toronto paused their legal battle long enough Saturday to truly usher in Trade Season by swapping RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and Detroit’s 2024 second-round pick for OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn? (There will be LOTS more trade coverage to come on these pages to answer that.)
🏀 Can an American-born player barge into an MVP race that features Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as headliners? (An American-born player hasn’t won the award since James Harden in 2018.)
🏀 Are we going to see a sixth different champion in the NBA – after the Raptors, Lakers, Bucks, Warriors and Nuggets – for just the second time in league history? (The Celtics and Sixers would appear to have the best shots at making this happen … unless you believe that the 24-7 Minnesota Timberwolves and the 21-9 Oklahoma City Thunder are true title contenders.)
🏀 Also: What will finally happen with the NBA’s next TV deal? (You certainly hear much, much less lately about the league’s fanciful visions to triple the value of the nine-year, $24 billion deal that is nearing expiration … and you wonder how many new partners will have to be added to the ESPN/Turner mix to ensure that the numbers rise handsomely.)
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The Lakers will make a big swing trade. If we flame out in the first round or play-in tournament, it pains me to say, but Darvin Ham will not be the coach next year of my beloved Lakers.
Rather...I fully expect Doc Rivers to get the job. :-/
(Seriously, the spiral down of this team from the In-Season Tournament has been astonishing and frustrating. Their schedule definitely lightens up in January, which should save Ham's job this season. But apparently, all is not well in Laker-Land behind the scenes. I thought we had turned the corner after last year's trade deadline and off-season. But, that honeymoon phase seems to have worn off and nobody is happy. Ayeeee... 😞)
- Bucks-Thunder finals. OKC shocks the world to win the title. Hard to pick against Boston given their start, but I don't have faith in the J's during crunch time.
- Warriors shake things up by trading Wiggins and still miss the playoffs.
- Luka wins MVP
- Marc investigates the identity of Boston superfan Janos on Twitter. (I'm not predicting this as much I'm trying to will it to happen.) Soup is serve!
Two predictions. Zach LaVine will NOT get traded because of his ridiculous contract and the second is Embiid won’t play enough games to qualify for MVP
- Celtics win the East by several games and march through to the Finals with little opposition. They get Banner 18 in June
- OKC comes out of the West after Minny's shooting deficiences and Denver's lethargy do them in. The Clippers take out at least one contender before falling short.
- Siakam goes to Dallas for nothing much (THJ, Powell, Hardy), but declines to re-sign there
- Luka wins the MVP when Embiid just can't stay on the floor and Jokic has (for him) a sub-par season. Giannis is an afterthought
- Stop me if you've heard this one before: Sixers go out in the 2nd round
- The Warriors miss the play-in, Steve Kerr retires, and Klay gets too many years and too much money to stay home. Rule #1 remains "Keep Steph happy"
I don't think it's going to happen but I'll predict it anyway: Celtics versus Lakers in the Finals. I want to see Bird vs Magic highlights constantly playing. I want to see Kareem get a standing ovation as he walks into the arena using a cane six months after breaking his hip. I want everybody to get drunk on nostalgia.
Prediction:
The Lakers will make a big swing trade. If we flame out in the first round or play-in tournament, it pains me to say, but Darvin Ham will not be the coach next year of my beloved Lakers.
Rather...I fully expect Doc Rivers to get the job. :-/
(Seriously, the spiral down of this team from the In-Season Tournament has been astonishing and frustrating. Their schedule definitely lightens up in January, which should save Ham's job this season. But apparently, all is not well in Laker-Land behind the scenes. I thought we had turned the corner after last year's trade deadline and off-season. But, that honeymoon phase seems to have worn off and nobody is happy. Ayeeee... 😞)
--- At least we won the IST Championship!!! 🥇
Suns continue to be mediocre and trade KD to the Knicks for Randle, Fournier, and multiple first-round picks right before the deadline.
ECF: Celtics over Knicks in 6
WCF: Nuggets over Wolves in 7
Finals: Celtics over Nuggets in 6
ECF: Bucks over Celtics in 6.
WCF: Clippers shock OKC in 5.
Dame gets a ring.
MVP: Luka
Deadline trades: Mavs get Siakam but they still go out in the second round. (This will get me no fans on this board!)
Sixers will make a big trade and then get bounced in the second round again.
Knicks make the ECF because Brunson is magical.
It’s a wolves/nuggets WCF, where the nuggets win and make it to the finals.
- Bucks-Thunder finals. OKC shocks the world to win the title. Hard to pick against Boston given their start, but I don't have faith in the J's during crunch time.
- Warriors shake things up by trading Wiggins and still miss the playoffs.
- Luka wins MVP
- Marc investigates the identity of Boston superfan Janos on Twitter. (I'm not predicting this as much I'm trying to will it to happen.) Soup is serve!
There is zero chance that Embiid misses enough games to miss MVP, even if he has to play minimum minutes in a few ganes
Two predictions. Zach LaVine will NOT get traded because of his ridiculous contract and the second is Embiid won’t play enough games to qualify for MVP
Warriors bag Siakam or Capela with Wiggins heading out
- Celtics win the East by several games and march through to the Finals with little opposition. They get Banner 18 in June
- OKC comes out of the West after Minny's shooting deficiences and Denver's lethargy do them in. The Clippers take out at least one contender before falling short.
- Siakam goes to Dallas for nothing much (THJ, Powell, Hardy), but declines to re-sign there
- Luka wins the MVP when Embiid just can't stay on the floor and Jokic has (for him) a sub-par season. Giannis is an afterthought
- Stop me if you've heard this one before: Sixers go out in the 2nd round
- The Warriors miss the play-in, Steve Kerr retires, and Klay gets too many years and too much money to stay home. Rule #1 remains "Keep Steph happy"
I don't think it's going to happen but I'll predict it anyway: Celtics versus Lakers in the Finals. I want to see Bird vs Magic highlights constantly playing. I want to see Kareem get a standing ovation as he walks into the arena using a cane six months after breaking his hip. I want everybody to get drunk on nostalgia.