National Basketball Association

NBA: Five Bold Predictions For The 2016-17 Season

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:44 p.m. ET

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With the 2016-17 NBA season just around the corner, we disclose five bold predictions for the new campaign

Can you smell it?

The growing sense of optimism shared amongst fans and organizations alike that this could be their year. This will be the year that they break through, or if not this year, soon…..unless you’re the Brooklyn Nets, then you start investing in funding for the technology that froze Captain America so you can still be alive when they actually own the rights to their own draft picks.

(I kid, I kid… but seriously.)

The NBA season brings new faces in new places, even if those new faces make you cringe because there’s no spacing on the team and they just traded for MCW, or are just going to be plain unfair.

Now, with all that being said, no meaningful basketball has been played yet, so there’s still time to try to predict the organized chaos that is called the NBA by the common folk. (Again, I kid!)

In all seriousness, trying to predict what happens in the NBA is hard but I’m going to give it a shot – and take as many shots as possible like I’m channeling my inner Kobe-in-his-last-career-game.

Without further ado….here are five bold predictions for the 2016-17 season.

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

1. The Pelicans trade Anthony Davis

I recognize reader that you may have just lost all interest in further reading my article, and I am sorry – but these are bold predictions. Hear me out.

Anthony Davis is a freak of an athlete and a very productive basketball player…. when healthy. Whenever those words are uttered in professional sports is the equivalent of getting the red ring of death on your Xbox or the blue screen of death on your computer – it’s just not working anymore.

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A lot of emphasis has been placed on the Pelicans needing to build around Davis in order to not waste his prime, but I would argue – has Davis already reached his ceiling?

Davis owns a near career double-double average (20.8 PPG, 9.7 RPG), which on paper, is quite impressive. Upon taking a closer look, here are the number of games he’s played starting with his rookie season: 64, 67, 68, and 61. I don’t know enough about each season Davis has played as to which games were just rest or injury, but the bottom line is that the majority of those games missed were due to injury.

Davis has consistently missed around 15 games a season. That’s nearly a 1/5 of the season, every season. As many NBA fans know, playoff seeding can come down to the final game. If your star player is missing games, unless you’re the Warriors or the Heat Big 3 teams, no team in the league has enough depth to carry them to the playoffs (or deep into the playoffs); and the Pelicans haven’t had the greatest roster construction the past few seasons.

If I’m the Pelicans, I put Davis on the block and get a more established, less injury-prone star and stockpile draft picks for the future to add the Buddy Hields from the college ranks; or turn into more established stars. Say, Ben McLemore and Anthony Davis for Boogie and some draft picks?

Feb 27, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; UNLV Runnin

2. Pat McCaw wins ROTY

Have you not heard? Have you not seen?

Well, if you haven’t, go look up the highlights from the Warriors-Nuggets game from the other night. McCaw hit the shot that sent the game into OT and the game winner in OT. While one game’s performance doesn’t mean he’ll win ROTY, his skill set will.

McCaw is lean as shown above. He’ll have to bulk up to stand the physical aspect of the NBA, but he’s a solid defender who can shoot the 3 with respectable consistency and is crazy athletic. Oh, and he can act like a PG if need be. Sound familiar? Maybe like, I don’t know… Iggy?

He couldn’t have ended up in a better place to learn from some of the best players the NBA has to offer, and while he won’t crack the starting lineup barring a devastating injury, he will be an electrifying 6th man who could seriously vie for ROTY. I think he gets it done.

Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

3. The Hawks earn the 2 seed

This one pains me to write because I think the Celtics or Raptors are realistically more likely to be in this spot come season end, but I just have a really good feeling about the Hawks this year.

They took some risks this season in signing the ghost of Dwight Howard and Jarrett Jack coming off an ACL tear, but also added some high-upside players through the draft by trading Jeff Teague in Taurean Prince and DeAndre Bembry.

Typically trading away an All-Star PG isn’t the brightest move, but the Hawks needed to think long term with Horford departing and Millsap not getting any younger. Signing an aging, not as versatile center in Howard is a head-scratcher, but it doesn’t mean it won’t work.

Millsap is basically a poor man’s version of Horford, and will help offset Horford’s departure. Prince and Bembry have looked great in preseason, Schroder is just as fast as Teague was if not faster, and is younger, and Bazemore is a stud. If Jack is a shell of the player he’s shown he can be, and Howard’s role is simplified, the Hawks will be rolling.

Nicole Sweet-USA TODAY Sports

4. The Nets do better than the Knicks

Linsanity is back in New York and all is right in the NBA.

Everyone knows that if healthy, the Knicks will coast past whatever win total the Nets put together….. but too much hinges on the Knicks starting 5.

Rose is facing serious legal trouble, and if he misses time, Brandon Jennings becomes the starter. Jennings is a fine backup and has shown he’s a capable starter, but let’s just say (hypothetically) Melo or Noah goes down (again). Then what? Lance Thomas, while a fine player, is no Carmelo, and Kyle O’Quinn, Marshall Plumlee, or Kuzminskas suddenly is the Knicks starting center.

I just think the Knicks are going to have a major injury or two amongst the starting 5 and are just going to plummet to the bottom of the Eastern Conference Standings.

The Nets, on the other hand, have taken a lot of fliers on reclamation projects but I think they’re all motivated to show what they’ve got; and there’s a lot of excitement with a new head coach and new GM. I think the Nets produce more wins then what NBA writers and fans are expecting.

Cole Elsasser-USA TODAY Sports

5. Redundancy Prevails

Teams like the Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers, and Orlando Magic are being pegged by many to not improve much despite their heavy spending in the offseason. I think they’re wrong.

While too much of a good thing can actually be bad for you, and while I wish that wasn’t true about ice cream and cheeseburgers, I don’t think that principle applies to these teams.

Yes, there are only five players on a court at a time, but all of these teams have players that their weaknesses are their backups’ strengths.

For instance, Mudiay hasn’t got his 3PT shot down to the point where defenses respect his range. Jameer Nelson, Malik Beasley, and Jamal Murray can.

Mason Plumlee is offensively talented, but doesn’t have the frame to match some of the NBA’s bigger bigs. (I was redundant on purpose reader!) Ezeli does. (Ezeli should start, but you know, that’s beside the point).

Payton’s story is similar to Mudiay’s, but luckily Augustin is still spry enough to spell Payton for longer periods of time so Orlando’s offense doesn’t stagnate with some questionable spacing issues (on paper).

You get the point?

I think that all of these teams have head coaches that will definitely figure out their rotations and take their teams to the postseason. Whether or not they get very far remains to be seen, but I think they all get there.

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