2014-15 NBA Season Preview: Lottery Rankings, League Pass Stay-Aways, and First Coach to be Fired

There's been too much positive energy around here at ThePicknPopcast.blogspot.com.  Let's get negative. Let's get dark. Just kidding. In all seriousness, last night's Julius Randle injury (my ROY pick down already) slapped all of us NBA addicts across the face with a dose of reality. Things aren't all rainbows (I added 15 pounds of muscle in the off-season...Legally, I swear.) and butterflies (I can shoot three's now!) people.  

2014-15 NBA Season Preview: Future Bets

First of all, let me admit that I am probably a horrible gambler, and the reason I’m writing this post is because the last $10 in my SportsBetting.ag account is tied up in NFL future bets. If I suddenly stop writing about NBA lines or gambling again after the NFL season ends in late-December, that will probably mean that I’ve won my ‘over’ bets on the Chargers (8 wins) and the Patriots (11), and you should be happy for me.

Since I can’t yet bet on these preseason props, I’ll write about them instead. All bets are found in the ‘Future Props’ section on www.sportsbetting.ag, as are the odds and payouts, and these are wagers I would be making if I had the funds with which to make them. This method is much cheaper. I hope to make this a regular feature on the blog, and as always, feedback and counter-arguments are appreciated.

2014-15 NBA Season Preview: MVP, All-NBA, and Playoff Predictions

Image via sportswol.com

Here we are.  NBA Day.  It's been a long few months and yet with the NBA Finals finishing in June, then the Draft, off-season, NBA Summer League, and even a bonus FIBA World Cup tournament, we've barely been without basketball.  Today is the day though.  It's the instant all that speculation and all those predictions become almost immediately invalidated.  That's alright though.  Starting tonight, there will always be a fresh batch of basketball games to talk about.  New information to help inform us.  Our studies begin tonight.

2014-15 NBA Season Preview: Defensive Player and Coach of the Year Predictions

We're officially past the half-way point of our 2014-15 NBA Season Preview, after the conclusion of our Big Man Week. The season is almost underway. Thank you for sticking with us here on the blog and consuming our content.

In this third week of our preview series, Chris and I wanted to pay homage to the dominant bigs in the league by profiling their games and the context within their franchises. Chris covered the new-age big men in today's NBA; starting with Monday's examination of Anthony "The Unibrow" Davis and his unfair treatment by the NBA's marketing and television departments, transitioning to Serge Ibaka's unmistakable influence on a top-tier defense in Oklahoma City, and today with a look at Carmelo Anthony's evolution into being eligible for this list and his embracing of his inner-(stretch) big man. I stuck to the more traditional mold of bigs when choosing Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge, which gave me an insight into team-building and how to potentially retain the greatest player in a franchise's history (hint: become good). Apologies to Dirk Nowitzki, DeMarcus "Boogie" Cousins, Al Horford, et al, but, just like last week when we tackled two-guards, five choices aren't nearly enough. 

As we've done at the end of every one of our themed-weeks so far this preseason, we've provided some predictions for the NBA end of year awards, with the Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year Awards most closely associated with, and largely dependent-upon, the impact of the big men. The last non-center or power forward to win the Defensive MVP was in 2003-04 - back when Metta World Peace was called Ron Artest - and the Coach of the Year trophy is usually influenced by team defense, which is usually influenced by bigs. It's no coincidence that every coach on our COY-ballots feature strong players in the front-court. 

Chris and I have tried to break up some of the monotony with these lists and "ballots" that hold absolutely no influence on the actual results at the end of the 2014-15 season. We usually save our thoughts and reasoning behind the picks for the podcast, but this weeks' podcast will be delayed a day, so we supplied some notes and different looks at our predictions. There's probably no chance that a rookie, for instance, will factor into the discussion for Defensive Player of the Year this season but awards voting is usually so boring and narrative-driven that we had to attempt to have fun with it.

2014-15 NBA Season Preview: Shooting Guard Week Wrap-Up & 6th Man of the Year/Most Improved Player Awards Picks

The second week of our 2014-15 NBA Season Preview attempted to cover some of the league's most interesting Shooting Guards, at a position that might be as healthy and stocked with talent as it's been at any point in recent league history. Over the course of the week, we covered players in various stages of development and different team contexts; from my piece on Bradley Beal from Monday, Chris's DeMar DeRozan discussion on Tuesday, Lance Stephenson's new situation in Charlotte Wednesday, Kobe Bryant's legend on Thursday, and Chris's Friday feature on Klay Thompson and his dramatic summer.

Chris and I explained our selection process a bit in this weeks' podcast, Episode 40, and addressed some of the players that didn't quite make our cut. As with last week, we wanted to begin establishing some predictions for the major end-of-year awards, but ones that tied into our Shooting Guard Week discussions. The Sixth Man of the Year Award, along with the Most Improved trophy, are largely dominated by guards over the last few years, so we'll cover those awards here and save the Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year Awards for next week and our Big Man Week. The discussion began on the podcast but we've narrowed down our predictions a bit, by further categorizing these awards.

Compared to the other, major NBA awards, the Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved distinctions are pretty dependent upon context and situation. Injuries, minutes, and shot attempts play a huge role in which players become favorites and receive the narrative bumps, as well as team win totals and preseason prejudices that impact every award. Chris and I have tried to differentiate between the candidates, from players still on rookie contracts to NBA veterans in new environments, to make this process a bit less nebulous and maybe more structured.