During my routine read through TrueHoop today, I saw that Henry mentioned the few bloggers who had predicted a Cavs-Spurs final. I read the list, clicked a few links, and thought..."Hey...wait...didn't I pick the Cavs and Spurs?" A look back through the archives of Your NYK turned up this:
I usually don't like doing predictions but I've gotta take a whirl...Hmm. Looking back, my predictions weren't horrible. The Cavs and Spurs are, indeed, meeting in the Finals, while some of the other guesses were certainly feasible.East: Cavs over Wizards
West: Spurs over Suns
Champ: Spurs- Finals MVP Tim DuncanROY: Duh, Brandon Roy. His last name is Roy, dammit!
Most Improved:Jumaine JonesAndrew Bynum
Sixth Man: Jamal Crawford
Coach: Don Nelson
Defensive Player: Artest. No contest.
MVP: Lebron, finally.
-If Arenas and Butler stayed healthy, the Wiz coulda gone deep.
-If hairline fractures were never invented (and he didn't start so much), Crawford coulda won Sixth Man.
-If dogs weren't so whiny about starving and whatnot, Artest coulda been DPOY.
-If he tried even a little bit, LeBron coulda been MVP.
Meanwhile, Roy did win Rook of the Year, and Don Nelson should've won Drunk Coach of the Year. So there. Anyway, back in October, I linked to the predictions of the ESPN NBA staff, and it's interesting to take a look at how they did. A few notes on that:
- Chris Sheridan picked Jorge Garbajosa for ROY, which was ballsy at the time. Looking back, not a bad choice.
- John Hollinger picked Channing Frye for Most Improved. Calling that a misfire would be an understatement. At least he didn't choose Mike Dunleavy, Shaun Livingston, or Dajuan Wagner (!?), like some of the other guys.
- Both Marc Stein and David Thorpe got Leandro Barbosa for Sixth Man
- No one picked Sam Mitchell for Coach of the Year (and I don't know if anyone would now). Scoop Jackson picked Mike Dunleavy.
- Scoop made up for his previous stinker by being the only expert to correctly pick Marcus Camby for Defensive Player of the Year. Oh, and if anyone ever asks you what Seth from P&T and Jamal Mashburn have in common, it's that we both predicted Ron Artest for DPOY. And we're both money from outside. And we both blink a lot when we talk. I think Jamal Mashburn and I might be related.
- Jon Barry was the only expert to pick Dirk Nowitzki for MVP. If ever there was evidence that Dirk should not have been MVP, that is it. Nobody picked Nash or Duncan.
- 5 experts had the Spurs winning the championship. John Hollinger and Greg Anthony had Cleveland in the Finals.
Yeah. I think that next year they should predict some other stuff, like the Sportsmanship award winner, the player who receives the longest suspension, and the highest paid player to change teams. In fact, remind me to get those predictions from you guys when the time comes. It'll be cool. That's it for now. Peace.