ESPN's Pre-preseason predictions for the 2009-10 season

[garnett_21]

A team of 53 ESPN writers/collumnists have turned in their rankings for multiple awards/standings for what they think will happen in the 2009-10 season. Listed below are the ones that have been released already. When new ones are released (I know the West rankings haven't been released yet), feel free to link them here and I can edit this first post with the link.

Rookie Of The Year - Blake Griffin

MVP - Lebron James

Best Newcomer - Richard Jefferson, Spurs

Worst Newcomer - Zach Randolph, Grizzlies

Team Turmoil (most difficulties) - Detroit Pistons

Team Turnaround (biggest improvement) - Washington Wizards

East Standings - Cavaliers, Celtics, Magic are 1, 2, 3

[beishuizen91]

Very interesting, but I think Flynn will win Rookie of year. Lebron winning MVP? No surpise there. Pistons will struggle, I agree. I cant wait to see what they think of the west!

[tarheelsnipe]

Pretty accurate to me. Lebron should have a great year with his supporting cast.

Arenas back with the Wizards will definitely improve their record.

Blake is the clear frontrunner for ROY, but it's always a crapshoot with this category.

You could rearrange the top 3 in the East and make a legitimate argument for either team.

Not sure I like the best and worst newcomer categories.

For team turmoil, I'm going with the Lakers. I don't know why, but something tells me that Kobe,Coach Jackson, and Artest just sound like a Peanut Butter, Pickle, and Mustard sandwich. We'll see. Jordan and Rodman buried the hatchet so I guess anything is possible.

[jeebus86]

There have been other predictions made:

West standings: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s...-WestStandings

East Champs, Cleveland: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s...s09-EastChamps

West Champs, Lakers: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/s...s09-WestChamps


There are a few things i disagree with, but for the most part I can't complain too much, although I do feel that the Lakers should have a lot more wins.

Also, I just don't see the Spurs as the second best team in the West to dethrone the Lakers. I'm not saying the Spurs are not any good, but if there's one thing I've learned last season from the Lakers, is that they respond well to challenges.

The only way I see the Lakers being dethroned next season is if a team catches them unexpectedly by surprise. And the Spurs will not be that team, and I credit the media for this. Maybe if the media would have continued saying that the Spurs are still too old and washed up, then maybe I could see them giving the Lakers a challenge, since odds are the Lakers wouldn't have taken them too seriously. But because ESPN and the media continue to overhype the Richard Jefferson deal, and try to put the Spurs on the same pedestal as the Lakers, the Lakers are gonna look at this as a challenge, and you better believe that the Lakers are gonna come fully loaded and prepared when they face the Spurs. So unless so freak incident happens, i don't see the Spurs threatening the Lakers anytime soon.

Realistically, if you know Lakers basketball, you know that there's only one team in the West and in the entire league for that matter, that scares us and still has the best chance to dethrone us, and I'm really surprised nobody voted for them... I'm not gonna name any names, but if you've read my posts in the past, you know which I'm talking about. So if we don't prepare well for this team, this team can catch us by surprise...

[shaqattak]

Have they predicted who will win the championship yet? I agree w/most, hopefully Randolph won't hurt the Grizz, but will help them now that he's a little older and hopefully more mature.

[Jprk31]

I'll take a health Celtics over the Cavs any day! They should be nos. 1 in the rankings.

[NickRadz23]

Great, ESPN hatin on Detroit again! Hopefully we prove everybody wrong and become a threat again. Im gonna make a prediction and say that the Pistons will have a much better record then last year..... hopefully lol. thanx :)

[yankeesfan24]

no love for terrence willaims as ROY? cmon espn, nobody watch his college games, he may not be the best shotter, but hes phenominal at everything else

[GilbertArenas0]

That's right!!! Wizards are on the comeback trail! Of course we have new firepower, but all we needed was our key players to come back healthy.

Detroit I wholeheartedly agree with. A scrub coach, an undersized volume scorer to replace Iverson as the guy to disrupt Rip and Hot Rod, then replace Dice and Sheed with an burnt out Ben and an above average forward in CV31. Meh, should've waited another year with all that cap room.

[jeebus86]

ESPN make there Championship predictions: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=OffseasonPredictions09-NBAChamps

I guess ESPN really wanted to be nice to the other teams, because clearly, the Lakers should be leading by a landslide. But, i understand it's there job to make things SEEM more competitive then what they actually are. Otherwise, if everybody picked the Lakers, what would be the point of watching the NBA anymore?