NBA · 1 year ago

5 Bold Predictions For the Second Half of the NBA Season

Ben DiGiacomo

Host · Writer

Trae Young Plays his Final Game in Atlanta
The Atlanta Hawks must tear their team down and rebuild it from scratch. What they have is not working. Trae Young will never be the best player on a championship-caliber team. The Dejounte Murray experiment has not worked, and none of the other players on this roster are good enough. On their own, some of the role players could get the Hawks a decent return, so expect guys like Bogdan Bogdanovic to be on their way out by the trade deadline. Still, the Hawks need to commit to the rebuild this season. Instead of building around Young, they need to rebuild from him, using the draft capital and young assets they get in a trade to kickstart a new era of Hawks’ basketball.
Joel Embiid Meets 65-Game Threshold- Cruises to Second MVP
There is no question that Joel Embiid has been the best player this season. None. After taking home last year’s MVP, Embiid has found a way to improve. He is averaging 36 points, 12 rebounds, and 5.5 assists, with nearly two blocks per game. However, due to lingering injuries, Embiid can only miss five more games before being ineligible to win the MVP trophy. A lot of the rhetoric coming out of Philadelphia has been that Embiid doesn’t care about the MVP since he already has one, and all that matters is being healthy for the postseason, but this is an MVP trophy we’re talking about. If Embiid has two MVPs, his career ranks higher on the all-time list. How could he pass that up? The 76ers have five back-to-backs remaining. He would have two to spare if he missed three of those games. With the motivation to go down as a two-time MVP, I expect Embiid to do everything he can to meet the 65-game mark.
Minnesota Earns West’s Top Seed
Atop the Western Conference, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Denver, and the LA Clippers are all within two games of each other for the top seed. The general belief is that Denver will take over the top spot, while many believe the Clippers will challenge. I’m not buying either team, especially the Clippers. When all is said and done heading into the postseason, I expect the Minnesota Timberwolves to be atop the conference. They have the most manageable remaining schedule of the top four teams, and what they have rolling works. Anthony Edwards is morphing into a superstar, Karl-Anthony Towns is looking the best he’s ever looked, and Rudy Gobert is finally playing the caliber of basketball they traded for. Around those guys, all their role pieces are clicking, and they are exceptionally deep. I don’t imagine them slowing down.
Milwaukee Bucks Fall to No. 4 Seed in East
I'm more convinced of this bold prediction after watching the Bucks in the fourth quarter last night against the Nuggets. Largely thanks to Doc Rivers, I’m expecting a drop off from the Bucks, enough to drop them from the two-seed to the four-seed in the East. This team was sluggish and disconnected before Rivers was hired, but what has he done to convince anyone that he can rally this team? Didn’t Ben Simmons and James Harden hold out and demand trades while he was with the 76ers? In Rivers’s introductory press conference, he openly admitted he wouldn’t wish a midseason takeover on anyone. Is that the type of rhetoric you want to hear from a head coach who was brought in to turn things around? Looking at the rest of the East, the 76ers will start racking up wins once Joel Embiid returns, and given the way the Knicks are playing, they will rise in the standings. It’s only a matter of time, but I expect Milwaukee to have to play the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round, who could easily knock them out the way the Cavs have been looking in January.
Lakers Will Miss the Playoffs… Prompting Offseason Turmoil
I don’t even know if we would consider this a hot take, but since no one will openly admit it, this Lakers team is cooked. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are showing they can’t do everything. I just watched Darvin Ham bench Davis for Jaxson Hayes in the fourth quarter against the Rockets while the Lakers attempted a comeback. Talk about a vote of confidence in your star player! The Lakers lack the talent on this roster to compete in the West. They need to make a massive move at the deadline, but what do they seriously think D’Angelo Russell and Max Christie will net them in a trade? The Lakers are currently the ninth seed in the West. If we rank the five teams fighting for the Play-In Tournament in the seven to eleven spots, I’m putting the Lakers fifth behind New Orleans, Dallas, Utah, and Houston. This season will spiral out of control for the Lakers so badly that Ham will be gone, and LeBron will be looking to go wherever his son Bronny winds up.
Trae Young Plays his Final Game in Atlanta
The Atlanta Hawks must tear their team down and rebuild it from scratch. What they have is not working. Trae Young will never be the best player on a championship-caliber team. The Dejounte Murray experiment has not worked, and none of the other players on this roster are good enough. On their own, some of the role players could get the Hawks a decent return, so expect guys like Bogdan Bogdanovic to be on their way out by the trade deadline. Still, the Hawks need to commit to the rebuild this season. Instead of building around Young, they need to rebuild from him, using the draft capital and young assets they get in a trade to kickstart a new era of Hawks’ basketball.
Joel Embiid Meets 65-Game Threshold- Cruises to Second MVP
There is no question that Joel Embiid has been the best player this season. None. After taking home last year’s MVP, Embiid has found a way to improve. He is averaging 36 points, 12 rebounds, and 5.5 assists, with nearly two blocks per game. However, due to lingering injuries, Embiid can only miss five more games before being ineligible to win the MVP trophy. A lot of the rhetoric coming out of Philadelphia has been that Embiid doesn’t care about the MVP since he already has one, and all that matters is being healthy for the postseason, but this is an MVP trophy we’re talking about. If Embiid has two MVPs, his career ranks higher on the all-time list. How could he pass that up? The 76ers have five back-to-backs remaining. He would have two to spare if he missed three of those games. With the motivation to go down as a two-time MVP, I expect Embiid to do everything he can to meet the 65-game mark.

5 Bold Predictions For the Second Half of the NBA Season

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