7 Things I Think I Know After The First Week of the NBA Season

Life is good. The election is history (literally), and the 2008-2009 NBA season is one week old. Most of your sports columnists were smart enough to make lots of predictions before the season started. Not me. I'm no Bill Simmons. I needed a week to feel things out because, frankly, I don't get paid enough to give it that much thought. (Zero is not a friendly number in that regard.)

Nevertheless, after semi-fervently following the young NBA season, my keen insights are as follows:

1.) The New Orleans Hornets are for real. As a Mavericks fan, I was able to witness CP3 and company demolish the Big German, the Little General, and Josh "Hey, we're losing a playoff series...come to my birthday party to celebrate" Howard. After 23 straight wins by the Mavs since the 20th century over the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, the futility finally caved, and the Hornets got good. Real good. Then adding James Posey, fresh off of a huge injection of Celtic Pride (it does wonders, I hear) from their championship run, only adds to this unbeatable nucleus. Prediction: The 1 seed in the Western Conference is theirs, beating out L.A. by 4 games in the end.

And oh, by the way, their court has a sweet new look:


2.) Pistons GM Joe Dumars is a genius. I hate that the Detroit Pistons lose Chauncey Billups (still one of the most underrated players in the game, along with Danny Granger of Indiana), and I'm lukewarm about their acquisition of Allen Iverson.
But they needed to shake things up, and from what I hear (I don't pretend to understand NBA salary cap law) it will clear up all kinds of cap space for the next, like, 57 seasons. When LeBron James becomes a free agent after the 2009-2010 season, you can bet that Detroit will be an alluring choice to keep him from jumping ship to Europe and a $200 million contract. Because if New Jersey was the only option, you know LBJ would set sail across the Atlantic. Back to the point: Detroit was good, is good, and will be good for a long time.

3.) Team names that don't end in the letter "s" are stupid. The Seattle Supersonics apparently got tired of coffee and rain and relocated to Oklahoma City. Since no airplanes have ever flown into the state of Oklahoma (really, who would want to go to Oklahoma?), it didn't make sense to have an aviation-related mascot. So they're now the Thunder, and have joined the other 3 s-less teams: the Heat, Magic, and Jazz. Lots of WNBA teams have adopted this approach (Shock, Sol, Storm), arena football teams (Rush), and even colleges (Tulane Green Wave). Something about that just doesn't seem right to me. But at least those sound half-good... the Thunder? I don't know about that. Sounds like it was Friday at 4:00 pm and the naming committee just wanted to go home. Probably there was a storm in the area, too.

4.) The Hawks will be for real. Of the four remaining undefeated teams in the NBA (as of tonight), the Atlanta Hawks are surely the biggest surprise. They've got great veteran leadership in Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson, and lots of spectacular talent in J.R. Smith and Marvin Williams. It's been a while since the Hawks first descended to the NBA's basement, but it looks like they're emerging once again. They took the eventual champion Boston Celtics to the brink in a 7-game series as an 8-seed in the first round of the playoffs yesteryear, so they sure don't lack confidence. Take it from me, the start is no fluke; they'll win 50 games this year. But that's about it; maybe after beating the Raptors in the first round, they'll fold to Detroit or Boston.

5.) This season will solidify the changing of the guard in the Western Conference. The Spurs are getting a little too old, the Suns are getting a little too slow, and the Mavericks are just not going to have enough. I think Dallas will be the best of these three teams, but it won't amount to any title runs. (Sorry, Dirk.) The Lakers, Rockets, Blazers, Jazz, and aforementioned Hornets will be there at the end this year.

6.) I can relate to president-elect Barack Obama. What does he do to unwind after voting and awaiting the results of whether he'll be leader of the free world? Nothing to take the edge off like a game of basketball. I'd be real nervous playing him that day. What if you accidentally gave him an elbow to the nose, just hours before his victory speech? Awkward!

7.) a.) The 2009 NBA Finals will be a rematch of the 2008 NBA Finals. b.) The Boston Celtics will repeat as champs.Now how uncreative is that? Maybe so, but it's the most likely scenario. N'awlens is really good, but they can't turn away Kobe and Pau in a 7-game series, especially if Andrew Bynum's knee stays healthy. Cleveland and Toronto will get closer to challenging the Celts, but it just won't be enough, either. Celtic Pride will prevail again, and Kevin Garnett will celebrate with a pair of Red Auerbach cigars. This is one prediction that will make Bostonian Bill Simmons happy...