Archive for September, 2010

Hey SCIC Fans, I want to apologize. Due to school, I will be focusing there until the season starts where the articles will be pumped out at a crazy rate. The season starts in under 40 days so until then please read some past articles and sign up to the The Upside NBA podcast which will be reborn and re started when the season starts as well.

Now that you have seen both East and West prediction, how about my overall prediction. You know where all the teams are ranked, you know who I’m high on and who I like, here are all the player awards. Let’s start with the Coach Of The Year. Coach Of The Year- Nate McMillan-Portland Why McMillan? Last season, the Portland Trail Blazers were a 12 man wrecking crew. Heck, even Nate McMillan tore his ACL last year. This season, I see much success for Portland. I expect 50 wins and Portland being the team everyone knew had the talent to be [...]

Just like the Eastern Conference part 2, the Western Conference get’s it’s own part 2 predictions. Here are my all west breakout team, my all west team and the top 5 storylines in the west. All West Breakout Team Point guard- Russell Westbrook Westbrook was great last season (16-8-5) but I still see improvement for him. To me, there’s 2 ways he can go here. Westbrook can become the 2nd scorer on the Thunder and give them maybe 19-7-5 or become a more passing point guard and help develop the younger players. Either way, signs point to Russell Westbrook having [...]

Now that were done with the eastern Conference, let’s take a look at the tough western conference. Last season, we seen 8 tough teams enter the playoffs with 50 wins. We have some young teams looking to move up, some older teams looking to hold on and unhealthy teams looking to remain healthy and play well into May. Like the title says, this is part 1 with the complete predictions and then part 2 will give you the details to all west team, underrated players, breakout players and more. 1. Los Angeles Lakers (Projected W-L: 60-22) You add Steve Blake, [...]

After reading part 1, I’m sure your interested in seeing part 2. In part 2, we will look at some of the potential breakout players, top player at each position, coaches on the hot seat and some undercover storylines in the East. Let’s start with the all breakout team. All Breakout Team Point guard: Jrue Holiday ( Philadelphia 76ers)- Holiday was a favorite of mine in the 2009 NBA draft. Sadly, the Knicks passed him (another post in the future). Holiday is 6-4 and a strong on ball defender. In summer league play, Holiday has shown more lead guard qualities [...]

I promised some predictions…..weeks ago. Here’s what were going to do: Eastern Conference part 1 ( predictions) and part 2 ( breakout players, all east team and some other things I’m not going to spoil) so let’s look into the eastern conference. Oddly enough, the East got stronger and there are some teams who have talent and might missed the playoffs (crazy considering a couple sub .500 teams made the playoffs in the past 4 seasons). Here’s how the entire east should shake out. Mind you, this is my opinion and not the total writing staff’s opinion 1. Miami Heat [...]

Last time, the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers went to 7 games and a Dennis Rodman jumper was the difference. Now, we take to teams who set historic records and see who’s better. I’m talking about the 1986 Boston Celtics and the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers. The 72 Lakers are famous for the 33 game winning streak and winning the NBA title over the New York Knicks. The 86 Celtics went a record 40-1 at home which ended with NBA title over the Houston Rockets. Prediction: I have Boston in 4. I think Boston’s frontcourt and depth will overpower [...]

We seen Boston grab two O’Neals, we seen Chicago go and get Carlos Boozer to play next to Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, we even seen Miami go from Dwyane Wade to Wade, James and Bosh and grab the world’s attention but don’t sleep on the Orlando Magic. The Magic went out and added 2 nice role players in Quentin ( I love that name) Richardson and Chris Duhon. I believe both players were overused the past couple seasons and could fit into that role as a player coming off the bench to get 10 to 20 minutes per game. [...]