The NBA season is just a little more than a week away and as we creep ever nearer predictions on how the year will shake down keep trickling in.
Here are seven of our boldest prognostications for the 2016-17 season:
The Golden State Warriors will not win the NBA championship
Normally, it’s not very bold to say one team out of 30 won’t end up as the champion, but when you add Kevin Durant to a roster that won a record 73 games last season and already boasts the two-time defending league MVP Stephen Curry in addition to all-stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green then expectations change.
Durant’s shift from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Warriors shook the NBA world and with it came proclamations that the Dubs had already won the title before they’d even played a single game.
This is exactly what happened when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined forces with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in 2010, and even though that group would eventually go on to make the Finals in that same season they were assembled, they didn’t end up winning it all.
At the end of the day there will be wrinkles and growing pains as coach Steve Kerr figures out how to effectively integrate Durant into his star-studded roster. This will take time, meaning another Warriors championship banner is no guarantee.
The Thunder will win the NBA championship
The Thunder will never be able to fill the hole left by a player as impactful as Durant was, but just because he’s gone doesn’t mean they’ll be lost without him.
In a strange way Durant’s departure may actually be something of a blessing for OKC as the identity crisis it always seemed to fight with has now been resolved.
Without question the Thunder are officially Russell Westbrook’s team and with that distinction expect the volatile superstar to set the NBA on fire with a monstrous MVP season.
The precedent’s already there from the 27 games he played with Durant down with injury in 2014-15 when he averaged 28.1 points, 8.6 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game with an astounding usage percentage of 38.3.
There is a caveat that at that time he had Serge Ibaka, who won’t be with him this season after being traded to the Orlando Magic for a package that included guard Victor Oladipo, but that shouldn’t slow him down.
Westbrook has a notorious mean streak and has always responded to sleights, be they real or imagined, by destroying his opponents on the floor. The rumours swirling that he hasn’t contacted Durant in the aftermath of his old superstar buddy leaving him sure sounds like one of those sleights, and the best way for him to get even would be by going out on a season-long revenge tour culminating in an NBA championship.
The Toronto Raptors will return to the Eastern Conference Final
After an off-season that saw many of their conference rivals improve and not a whole lot of activity on the Raptors’ front, many don’t believe the Raptors have much of a shot to repeat last season’s success.
That’s a fair point. After all, Toronto’s roster really hasn’t changed and perhaps got weaker with the departure of Bismack Biyombo, while nearly every team in the Eastern Conference made some kind of move to improve themselves.
However, even though the Raptors haven’t made big alterations to the roster, this is still a core group that’s improved upon its win total every year under coach Dwane Casey and one that’s seen its best players, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, take strides each season.
There’s no reason to expect otherwise this season, and if others like Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas can finally break through, or if DeMarre Carroll can remain healthy all the way through it’s reasonable to think they can finish right near the top of the conference again and make it back to the conference final.
Blake Griffin will be traded at the deadline
The Los Angeles Clippers have some hard decisions to make this season on their two best players.
Both Griffin and Chris Paul can opt out of their current deal at the end of this season, essentially making them expiring contracts. If the Clippers— who already handed a costly extension to DeAndre Jordan— decide they only want to keep one of the two, then Griffin’s the obvious odd-man out.
Despite being four years older, Paul is the more valued asset to the team because of the position he plays, and given how Griffin got himself into hot water with Clippers management after sustaining a hand injury in an incident that saw him strike a member of the team’s equipment staff last season.
A lot will depend on where the Clippers are in the standings at the time, but if they’re floundering Griffin would make for an excellent deadline trade chip.
A 6-foot-11 guy will be named an all-star… as a guard
Near the end of last season, Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd experimented with playing the 6-foot-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo at point guard.
The experiment had mixed results— it didn’t help the Bucks win, but the budding star put up monstrous numbers running the point— yet you could tell that near the end of the season he was getting more accustomed to the role.
Now, entering this season, it’s assumed Antetokounmpo will resume his point guard duties. He already has more than enough length, strength and passing skills to play the position, but what’s still in question is his ball-handling and shooting ability.
Should he get that all cleaned up early on it would be impossible to keep him off the all-star team.
Jamal Murray will win NBA rookie of the year
With the injury to No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons, No. 2 Brandon Ingram is the guy coming into his rookie NBA season as the frontrunner to win rookie of the year. But even though he has the advantage of more acclaim, Murray, a Kitchener, Ont., native will be the one who ultimately walks home with top rookie hardware at season’s end.
Why is this? Simple. While Ingram is playing on a putrid team like Murray is, at least the Los Angeles Lakers have other young scorers such as D’Angelo Russell and Juilius Randle who could take away opportunities from him.
With the Denver Nuggets, Murray won’t have as much of that problem to deal with and has a good chance to lead all rookies in scoring given he will conceivably have the green light to launch nearly at-will.
It’s certainly not perfect, but rookie of the year honours often go to the top first-year scorer.
Chris Bosh will play a game this season
Blood clotting has seriously derailed Bosh’s NBA career, to say the least. As such, the Heat have cut ties with him believing his playing days to be all but over.
Bosh doesn’t believe he’s done though, and even though he knows it’s a risk, he’s going to continue to fight and try to resume his playing career.
Before the blood clotting reoccurred, Bosh was putting up fantastic numbers last season. As long as he continues to work on getting back there’s bound to be some NBA club this season in need of frontcourt help who would be willing to roll the dice on an 11-time all-star like Bosh.
