50 (semi) bold predictions, revisited: 50-26

With this great season ending in a fittingly great way with the Mavs’ triumph, here’s an unashamed look back at my 50 (semi) bold preseason predictions, some of which don’t look so bold now, and some of which look down right retarded. Because this is extremely long with my review of each prediction I’ll break it into two posts, the second coming tomorrow hopefully.

50. The Clippers will be competitive…for the 8 seed.

One year too early on this one…

49. The Suns’ off-season moves will make for Steve Nash’s most frustrating season as a pro.

This was the first time a Nash-led team finished with a sub-.500 record.

48. Daniel Gibson will make himself somewhat relevant again.

Sure, the Cavs sucked, but Gibson upped his scoring from 6.3 ppg to 11.6 ppg and drained 1.8 threes per game.

47. Dwight Howard will mature a bit more and not finish among the league leaders in techs

Dwight, you disappoint me. Howard led the league in techs yet again and shows no signs of relinquishing this dubious crown.

46. Mike Conley will finally step his game up.

After three mediocre years for the former 4^th overall pick, Conley finished with career highs in points, assists and steals while averaging 15.2 points and 6.4 assists in the playoffs for a team that was one game away from the conference finals.

45. Elton Brand will become 70% of his former self, which is to say, he’ll have Philly fans ecstatic.

After averaging 13.8 ppg in 08-09 and 13.1 in 09-10, Brand became just about exactly 70% of his former self this year, averaging 15 and 8.3 in helping the 6ers to a surprise 7^th seeding in the east.

44. Blair and Splitter will form the best support Duncan has had down low since the Admiral.

The numbers may not reflect it, but these big men did a great job of reenergizing the Spurs. Blair started 65 games and averaged 8.3 and 7 boards in 21 minutes; Splitter finished 4^th among rookies in PER.

43. The Warriors will improve by at least 5 games in their first year w/o Don Nelson.

The additions of David Lee and a stunningly good Dorrell Wright helped them to a 10-game improvement.

42. Trevor Ariza will be considerably more comfortable in NO than he was in Houston.

Though he’s still a very good defender, Ariza’s scoring dropped from 14.9 to 11 and assists dropped from 3.8 to 2.2, which, combined with his horrid shooting (39.8% FG), qualifies him as arguably the worst offensive wing in the league.

41. Jeff Teague will be playing more minutes than Bibby by game 60.

Ok, so he started playing more in game 65. After a terrific series against Chicago, Teague cemented the stature that I thought he would achieve just a bit earlier.

40. The Mavs’ $22 million Chandler/Haywood combo will combine for one successful back-to-the-basket post move.

Chandler/Haywood combined successful back-to-the-basket post moves in 2010-11 season: 0

Well-deserved combined championship rings: 2

39. Andray Blatche and Yi Jianlian will combine to allow more points than any PF combo in history.

There’s no way I can prove this, but…

38. LeBron can never remember Kenny Hasbrouck’s name and thus avoids him in conversation.

There’s no way I can prove this, but…

37. Brandon Bass will be starting for some team come March.

I felt Bass should be a starter right when he got to Orlando, and after playing just 13 minutes a game in 09-10 and almost demanding a trade, Bass became the full-time starter at the end of 2010 calendar year and was the team’s second most efficient player.

36. The Cavs will finish 10th in the East.

This did not happen.

35. Jefferson > Boozer.

Care to debate? Jefferson was one of 28 players in the league with a PER over 20, played all 82 games, and averaged 18.6 points while finishing in the top 10 in both rebounding and blocks.

When it came down to it, Boozer was a defensive and offensive liability for a team that deserved better, missed 23 games, and the only stat he really bested Al in was FG % (51 to 49.6).

34. Rockets faithful will again be devastated by Yao’s injury troubles, although he will be on the court this year.

He’s the type great, gentle star you just want to see succeed, and hopefully we’ll see him again.

33. When he gets pt, Terrence Williams will establish himself as the biggest triple-double threat in the league after LeBron.

After some astonishing performances at the end of the 2009-10 season, I thought T-Will was gonna breakout. He stunk, then was benched, then was traded, and repeat…

32. The Bulls’ lack of post-scoring in the wake of Boozer’s injury (about 1.5 months worth of game) and variety of jump shooters prevents them from living up to off-season hype.

They were fine without Boozer, but shooting/lack of scoring help on the wing was their Achilles’ Heel against the Heat.

31. Corey Maggette is this year’s Jamal Crawford.

It seemed perfect: a perennially selfish, one-dimensional top-notch scorer who’s never won gets a nice change of scenery as he hits 30. He had his worst season since coming into the league.

30. Struggling with rumors and in-fighting, the Nuggets are the West team that really disappoints.

That’s exactly what happened until Melo was traded, after which point they were arguably the best team in the West until floundering in the playoffs against a more cohesive Thunder unit.

29. Darren Collison will average 19 and 10.

This is one that I was actually pretty confident in after Collison averaged 19 and 9 as a starter in NO and after I touted him as a prospect…I took this one personally.

28. The Chuck Hayes at C phenomenon is replaced with the Kirk Hinrich at SF phenomenon.

The Wizards teased that proposal until realizing that the 6-3 Hinrich could not, in fact, match up with normal NBA wings.

27. Al Horford doesn’t improve on his averages of 14.2-9.9-1.1 and people realize that he isn’t actually an All-Star caliber player.

I never thought Horford should’ve been an All-Star and thought his being an All-Star with only above average numbers signaled a shift in talent in NBA big men. I respect him as a player, but not an All-Star. This year he finished with essentially the exact same line: 15.3-9.3-1. He’s a very good defender and I respect him as a player, but in 1991 he’d be just a decent C.

26. Peja Stojakovic becomes the most relevant expiring contract come Feb.

You could argue that Peja with his massive contract did hold that position, as a number of veteran ball clubs vied for his talents. He was very key in the Mavs’ sweep of the Lakers.