BUT maybe some things will follow thru and hold true to the regular season. I'll give you 5 HOT TAKES that I think could carry over from the pre-season:
1.) The 3 BEST records in the East at the end of the regular season will all come from the Southeast division. That's right I said it! The Pistons will NOT win the East. They will be good of course but I think we see a drop-off from their 64 wins last season. The East is loaded this year and it's mostly because of Anthony Davis. There's a lot more talent AND a whole lot of experience to boot. Teams are gunning for the Pistons this season. And I can guarantee you that when a team sees the Pistons in any given SIM, they will be specifically game planning for that one game as a prelude in case they meet int he playoffs. I think the Magic, Hawks, and Bobcats(including myself is what makes it a HOT TAKE
) will have the 3 best records in the East followed VERY closely by the 76ers and the Pistons. 2.) The Pelicans WILL win the Southwest division! Despite all the hoopla about all of the Grizzlies free agent acquisitions this off-season, they once again won't be able to put it all together. They will keep up with the Pels for most of the season but in the end the Pels will come out victorious. Look for the Rockets to fade off into the sunset as this aging team barely misses the playoffs in the pathetic Western conference. By no means will the Pels be a great team but Griffin and Dame are enough to drag this team to the division title. Still expect a first round playoff KO.
3.) For the first time EVER, 3 players will average over 40 points in the regular season. It ALMOST happened in 1991, but this year will be the year. We know AD is probably a given for 40+, but just take a look at the Clips and the Suns. These teams are atrocious. No one is on these teams beside Kevin Love and Kevin Durant. These guys will shoot 30 shots a game and be the sole offensive option on their teams. If there was ever a season that this could finally happen it's this season. If there is one of those three players though that does not achieve 40 ppg it would be Kevin Durant due to him being a Beta and a Baby Back Bitch.
4.) The Magic terrorize the league. The addition of DeAndre was one of the most underrated and not talked about trade acquisitions of the season. There was no buzz around this trade. It was like "Oh look the Magic got DeAndre...that's cool". Well no it isn't cool. His addition to basically the same team as last season will boost their wins from 52 to over 60, and put their point differential close to +10. Trust me this team will be very hard to beat. And this is basically with GM false9 simply setting a depth chart and not sabotaging the game plan. For all the talk about how he massively failed in the playoffs, I mean horribly underachieved and met no one's expectations of what this team would do, for all that talk about how he couldn't game plan his way out of the Wignosy's cat box...he's going to figure it out. He's going to keep improving, and this team will not be fun to match-up against.
5.) The Cavs re-start and going all in will be a complete failure. By failure I mean this squad will be fighting for 6-8 seed and will probably face a first round bounce. When you look at the team on paper you would think it could possibly contend for the division but it unfortunately will not go as L_Hamilton intended. This team's strengths and weaknesses are all over the place. I don't even know where to start with this game plan. Luckily the Cavs still have their draft pick this season because they may find themselves starting their rebuild before the season hits Day 60. Luckily for the league this fire sale looks tasty af!
