10 bold NBA predictions

This week is a week that I have circled on my calendars every, single year.

Because this week, my friends, is the start of the NBA season.

That means football by day, basketball by night.

That means no more boring weekdays sitting and watching Andy Griffith reruns, because there will be live entertainment on TNT and ESPN close to every night.

The new season is here and it’s one that figures to be one of the most exciting ones in recent memory. Storylines run galore all across the basketball landscape, and probably close to a half-dozen teams figure to be real strong championship contenders.

So with that said, let me get back to the crystal ball and see how I think it’ll shape up.

Behold my 10 things to look for in the 2010-11 NBA season.

Hooray basketball.

10. The Miami Heat will not win 70 games – I’ll go ahead and tackle the biggest question first. Everyone wants to know what the Miami Heat will do. And rightfully so with Lebron James and Chris Bosh joining Dwayne Wade on South Beach. My guess is that it’s not about those three, but rather about the other two guys on the floor. I think the Heat will be good, but not great. Not yet. They still need some time to boost their roster.

9. Cleveland Cavaliers will not win 30 games – On the flipside, the fallout of Lebron’s departure will be felt hard in Cleveland. I’ve seen Mo Williams be the captain of a team before. It gets pretty ugly, pretty quickly.

8. Gilbert Arenas will not finish the season in Washington – Whether by trade or buyout, Gilbert Arenas won’t finish the year in Washington. Just in the past 14 days, he’s admittedly faked an injury and publicly stated he wouldn’t mind a trade. Give him his wish. He’ll make you regret it if not.

7. Jazz take next step toward NBA prominence – No one is paying attention to the Jazz, because they lost Carlos Boozer. But they gained someone who might be better in Al Jefferson. Utah started the preseason 6-0, and with a little health, they can play with anyone.

6. Kevin Durant wins MVP – Coming off a world-class showing at the FIBA World Championships, Durant is ready to explode. And how beastly will his explosion be when he’s coming off a 30-point-per-game season a year ago, anyway?

5. Best offseason move will reside in Oakland – OK, OK, Lebron will be the most valuable offseason move. But the sleeper will reside in Oakland where David Lee will revitalize the Warriors. His big, but athletic, frame will help that upstart offense. He and Andris Biedrins will be tough to handle.

4. Carmelo Anthony will end the season a Knick – There is absolutely no benefit in the Nuggets keeping Carmelo Anthony all season because they have absolutely no chance to resign him. The Nuggets are playing hardball right now, but they’ll give in around January or so and ship the superstar to New York in what will go down as the biggest in-season trade since Denver traded Allen Iverson for Chauncey Billups.

3. Big-bodied Boston primed for one more run – The Celtics are old and gray. But they have a lot of weapons (rusted or not) in their newly-stocked arsenal. Losing Rasheed Wallace will help more than people realize, and gaining Shaq’s six fouls and Jermaine O’Neal’s low-post scoring will be a big boost with Kendrick Perkins on the shelf.

2. Orlando will reign supreme in the East – I know it’s only preseason, but the Magic are unbeaten and have scored a 50-point win, a 40-point win and a 30-point win. Orlando has always had the talent. It’s the motivation and desire that has been challenged. But looking into their preseason numbers shows that they haven’t allowed an opponent to score 90 points in any of their first six preseason games. If they are defending that hard when the games don’t matter, how good can they be when the games do count?

1. Hornets season prognostication – better, but not great – The Hornets actually had a pretty good offseason. They didn’t trade Chris Paul, which for this year, was a positive. What the future holds in terms of the guard’s happiness remains to be seen, but he does have a few new toys in Trevor Ariza and Marco Belinelli, who should help take some of the scoring burden off the superstar guard.

The key, as it always is, will be health.

If Chris Paul plays 70 or more games, I don’t see any way the Hornets end up worse than they were last season. I’ll go with Paul playing 74 games and the Hornets winning 42 games.

That won’t be good enough for a playoff berth, but it will be good enough to instill some much-needed optimism into the fan base.

That’s what the crystal ball says.

Enjoy the rest of the season, but it’s going to go down like this.