early award predictions for upcoming season

My Take

scoring leader...... D Wade

rebound leader...... Dwight Howard

assist leader....... Chis Paul

steals leader....... Chris Paul

blocks leader....... Dwight Howard

3s made........ Danny Granger

triple doubles....... Lebron James

double doubles...... Dwight Howard

6th man....... D. Cook

most improved......... Roy Hibbert (I'm a Pacer fan and think he will surprise some people this year)

comeback player of the year........Gilbert Arneas

breakout player of the year*..........Anthony Randolph

rookie of the year..........Blake Griffin

coach of the year........ G Pop

defensive player of the year.......Howard

mvp....................Dwayne Wade

sophomore slump*............Rose

fired coaches before season over...........Scott Skiles, Eddie Jordan, Jay Triano

nice list but i think eddie jordan wont get pullled that quick and dequean cook is a huge gamble

LOOK, I know most of these won't happen but these are my dark horses for each one. These guys are stretches to do it but they "could" possible do it.

scoring leader: Kevin Durant. Averaged 25 his sophomore year. Harden is a great playmaker for his teammates.

rebound leader: Andres Beidrins. Tall, lengthy, and really has nobody else to help him hit the boards.

assist leader: Steve Nash. Going back to the run n gun. Still best passer in the L.

steals leader: Mario Chalmers. 4th last year in SPG. He's only going to get better.

blocks leader: Tyrus Thomas. A beast on blocking. He'll get more pt and more blocks.

3s made: JR Smith. If Im not mistaken, he is now there starting sg and he was up there last year off the bench.

triple doubles: Ramon Sessions: especially if hes Knicks starting pg. Can pass, score, and rebound. Not Likely tho cause nobody is going to beat LBJ in this category.

double doubles: Amare Stoudemire. Its a contract year and he could be that player we saw pre knee injury. Heres hoping.

6th man: Allen Iverson. Big IF. IF he lands on a championship contender. IF he is willing to come off the bench.

most improved: Charlie Villunueva. I see him leading Detroit in PPG over ben gordon and Hamilton.

comeback player of the year: Gilbert Arenas. Gonna be ok. Not great but hes going to average a lot more assists I think. More help on the offense than years pass.

breakout player of the year: Eric Gordon or Marco Belineli. Both superb scorers who will hopefully play a lot this upcoming season.

rookie of the year: Austin Daye. A lot better than people thought. Could become a Durant type player but less of a scorer and more of a shooter. (Im thinkin Blake Griffin has already has the trophy in the bag)

coach of the year: Van Gundy. Going to score alot of points and win a lot of games.

defensive player of the year: Andres Beidrins

mvp: Dwight Howard. Lead his team to best overall record.

sophomore slump: Brook Lopez. Excellent player...just on a horrible team. Hes going to be an all star center in a few years tho, IMO.

fired coaches before season over: Adelman. Rockets have a losin record at break...look to go in a different direction. Dont know too much about this but its possible. There will be more coaches fired, I just dont know who.

scoring leader...... Kevin Durant

rebound leader...... Dwight Howard

assist leader....... Chris Paul

steals leader....... Chris Paul

blocks leader....... Dwight Howard

3s made........ JR Smith

triple doubles....... Lebron James

double doubles...... Dwight Howard

6th man....... Ben Gordon

most improved......... Joey Dorsey

comeback player of the year........Gilbert Arenas

breakout player of the year*.......... Courtney Lee

rookie of the year.......... Jonny Flynn

coach of the year........ Stan Van Gundy

defensive player of the year.......Emeka Okafor (hes gotta be due for a good season by now)

mvp.................... Dwayne Wade

sophomore slump*............ Brook Lopez

fired coaches before season over........... Scott Skiles and Lionel Hollins

Adelman will not be fired because he has a D-League starting 5. He is one of the top 5 coaches in the NBA.

Coaches do get fired because of a bad team. I was just going out on a loop saying he was going to get fired. I really have no argument that says he will get fired. But to your point. Being a top 5 coach in the NBA does not guarantee that you will keep your job. Just look at Dantoni. What about Avery Johnson, Flip Saunders, Eddie Jordan? Even if you say those aren't top coaches, what about Larry Brown? And, just to say, Adelman has been fired in the past, so don't count on anyone being safe in the NBA. GMs don't care who you are. If you don't win, you'll be heading out.

Everything looks good but i think jennings is going to be rookie of the year. I think Kevin Durant might lead the league in scoring it depends on how many times westbrook and harden shoot.

GRIFFIN DOES TO MUCH AND HE WILL BE A BIG REASON WHYY THE CLIPPERS MAKE THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR IF THEY DO... HES R.O.Y

AND GILBERT WONT BE AVERAGE HES GOING TO BE THE GILBERT WE ALWAYS KNEW..HIS FIRST GAME BACK. AMAZIN..I NEVER SAW SO MUCH PLAY MAKING WIZARDRY IN A GAME....PLUS HE CAN BE A NUMBE R1 OPTION ON OFFENSE THAT SA FRANCHISE POINT GAURD I THINK HES MILIKING WASHINGTON FOR ALL OF THERE MONEY THO....he wouldnt sign a contract unless they signed the ageing antwain jamison and gilbert has a 100 million dollar contract if not more..i think when its out or he gets all the money he can get out of the wiz hs goning to demand a trade or leave if he has an opt out clause...

and last year was an embaresment franchises fire coaches because the gm put togther bad teams n bad draft picks..

sixers signed brand knowing he will slow down there fast tempo they starrted losing mo cheecks got fired...brand got injureed in teh sixers made the playoffs...mo cheeks worked with this players for a couple years getting a get group of guys together and making a good team up..then they fire him..wehen its brand fault the sixers performed poorley...now we have a bad contract a player with a player who has more then 1 injury plauged season

Read my whole paragraph. Im saying these guys are "stretches" to do it and that they could "possibly" do it but some of them are not likely. Basically darkhorses for each race. I know Sessions isn't going to lead the league in triple doubles and Austin Daye is not going to be Roy because those belong Lebron and Griffin.

What I meant to say about Arenas was he is going to be more of a passer and less of a scorer this season because the have so many more options. Plus he'll lose some minutes, but not a lot, because Randy Foye will not be glued to the bench. I see a 19ppg 8apg season from Gilbert Arenas. I'll take that any day over half the pg's in the league. Thats all star numbers, IMO, which I think Arenas will be.

SteveDot, do me a favor. Read my whole paragraph before you start blasting me for not picking Blake Griffin for ROY.

Oh, and I gave you a thumbs up because you agree that Gilbert is going to be great this year.

I agree that top coaches get fired but I think it will be difficult for Adelman to get fired considering what he is working with. Larry and Flip are both good coaches but I think Dumars just wanted more out of them. It's like what DWade is saying about how he's not just going to stay with the Heat because they make the playoffs, that's not enough for him anymore. He wants to see changes. Making it to the conference finals was just not enough anymore, the Pistons wanted a championship and these guys couldn't produce (After the 1st one Larry got). Same thing with Avery. That Dallas team had so much promise and he just couldn't get them anywhere meaningful. D'antoni got the Suns pretty far too and then they kind of regressed for a little. For a team that is used to winning that might be a tough pill to swallow.

Houston is not really used to winning anything. I mean we just won our first playoff series in 12 years. I think fans are kind of anticipating them having a rough season and there isn't really anything they can do about it except blow up their team to try to get a superstar who may or may not help them. I think any success at all will be unexpected and welcome.

But weirdest coach firing I ever saw was Sam Mitchell getting the boot after the Raptors got off to a bad start last year after he won COTY not so long ago. However, I think a repeat could be in order for Mike Brown if the Shaq/LeBron combo does not hit the ground running.