#23 NBA Basketball Season review and Play-offs predictions (Haas News)

The Play-offs are about to begin! Here is my prediction and opinion about the regular season.

Hi everybody, welcome back! Like you know I post about my surprises of the week every Sunday. But today its finally time to look ahead to the post season in the NBA. So from now on my NBA posts will be a bit different. I will post about my predictions per round and will still highlight players of the week! So maybe I will post more frequently. I am so excited to watch the upcoming games!

This post will be as mentioned will be looking back at the regular season and I will share my takes with you.
Make sure to follow both @toddcast and @brandonp who both post about the NBA as well and just posted a really nice Podcast.
Here are my takes on the regular season;

Biggest Surprises
Luckily every season has some big surprises that really makes it worth watching the game. To me there are a few players/ teams and moments that stand out. Here are my biggest surprises.

The Utah Jazz
After losing Hayward in free agency I expected a very long and challenging season for the team I appreciate so much. Before the season started I predicted them to finish around the 9th or 10th seed in the West but just look at them now! They made it into the 5th seed. Remember they had some injuries as well and integrated a new style of play with a different point-guard.
Therefore my vote for biggest surprise goes the to Jazz!
Really enjoyed the see the Sixers play as well, they did great but I expected them to make the play-offs this year, off course not as the 3th seed but still.

The G league
A few years ago playing in the G league was considered to be a bad thing, only NBA players that were injured for a long time when there briefly to get back in game shape. Nowadays is key to every NBA franchise, they run the same plays and when the call players up they are ready to play. Some young players even ask to play there for a while so that they can get more minutes.
That brings me the next surprises to me; Quinn Cook and Andre Ingram.
Two players that made a name for themselves in the G league and easily can play in the NBA. Really like the story off Ingram who played in the G league for 10 years and was finally called up by the Lakers for the final games of the season, to score 19 points game!
Quinn Cook showed some real strong play when he replaced the injured Curry. Well done both!!

Biggest disappointment
My biggest disappointments player performance wise are Chandler Parsons, Joakim Noah and Bismack Biyombo.
Parsons is overpaid and really holds him team back in rebuilding, they just have to wait until they have some bad contract of the books.
Noah finished fourth in the MVP voting just for years ago, sure he had injuries but making trouble when you don’t play never helps.
Who do you think makes the most money on the Magic team? Bismack Biyombo, he got rewarded for his strong play in Toronto also during the play-offs, but now he is just a back-up. Hopefully for him next year will be different with a different coach.

I also have to name the Charlotte Hornets, finishing 10th in the East 7 games out of a play-off spot. They have Dwight Howard, Kemba Walker and Nicolas Batum, that should be a better trio then they showed on the court!

Most Valuable player
Westbrook just finished his second season in a row with averaging a triple double. Lebron James is just doing it all! But I have to go for James Harden, the best player on the team with the best record. He was also able to adjust his play after the arrival of Paul. What do you think? Who would you pick?

Defensive player of the year
I love players that take pride in playing defense. Defensive plays can really set the tone for a team and make winning habits. The NBA pace is getting faster and faster and its more about offense nowadays, I still think back on those old days were defense was the standard.
I really like PJ Tucker, Aron Baynes, Luc Mbah a Moute and Andre Roberson. However I believe they the award will go to a more household name, players like Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Paul George made a strong case for themselves but to me the winner is Rudy Gobert! Especially when he came back from his injury the Jazz just took off made the strong play-off push like they did.

Rookie of the year
Simmons? Mitchell? Simmons? Mitchell? It’s just impossible to pick, maybe we should define the term “Rookie” can it only be a first year player? Or also a player that plays his first year?. Blake Griffin won Rookie of the year after he did not play in his first year as a pro. So to me they are both eligible. I expected Simmons to be great so Mitchell was a bigger surprise to, my vote goes to Mitchell because of that.

Sixth man of the year
Here I can be short and to the point! He did not make the All-star team but in my eyes has to win the Sixth man award for sure; Lou Williams.

Most improved player
Sometimes a change of scenery or different environment and play style can really help you as a player. Or just the opportunity that has been giving to you will get you started.
Steven Adams did great, Spencer Dinwiddie made the most out of the opportunity that was giving to him. Fred van Vleet lead the best bench in the NBA. But the player who should win it is; Victor Oladipo!

Coach of the year
The Celtics did a great job without Hayward and Irving in the final part of the season, so Stevens was able to make his team win in different ways.
Dwayne Casey in Toronto changed the style of play and had the best season in Raptors history.
Quin Snyder made the play-offs without any star power. So you tell me? they all did a great job!
My vote goes to Quin Snyder!

Hope you liked my season recap! I will post about my first round play-offs predictions shortly.
Thanks for stopping by everybody and don’t forget to watch as many games as you can!