DNB 2011-12 Season Predictions

So it has reached that time of the year where I must become a educated guesser on what will happen in this NBA Season. So if you are ready we will begin with the guess work.

Your Playoff Teams in the East:

1. Miami

2.Chicago

3. New York

4. Atlanta

5.Boston

6. Indiana

7. Philadelphia

8. New Jersey

Obviously a Dwight Howard move to New Jersey could mess up the order of this quite a bit. But think these are the 8 teams you see in the playoffs the order I could see changing based on moves and injuries could make it tough on teams the biggest of those could be Boston.

As for the Raptors they will not be in the Playoffs yet again but no one is expecting them to be. The big question for most is will they be the 15th team in the East and likely 30th in the NBA. That answer is no. Detroit will be worse than the Raptors. Think the Wizards will be as well. Also the Bobcats will not be up to snuff. So that would leave the Raptors finishing 12th with more wins than expected at 20-46. I think the Raptors will hang around in enough games to steal a few here and there. They also have the advantage of some young players that will be able to handle the grind of this crushing schedule.

Now on to the West:

1. OKC

2. Dallas

3. Portland

4. L.A Clippers

5.L.A Lakers

6. Denver

7. San Antonio

8. Memphis

The West is a lot tougher to figure out. I am convinced that OKC is the class of this conference now. Dallas got worse, Lakers got worse and the Thunder stayed the same for the most part but have a Kendrick Perkins that looks in fantastic shape and a year of experience at playing as an elite team. The Clippers are the real wild card with Chris Paul. Think 4th is a conservative approach as to where they will end up.

What Raptor Fans really care about is your Lottery Top 5

1. Detroit

2. Washington

3. Charlotte

4.Utah

5. Toronto

Now on we go to the Awards:

Defensive Player of the Year: Chris Paul

Dwight Howard has owned this award for years but with the issues of getting out of Orlando and how long that takes think it will be a Destraction and a less focused Howard. Chris Paul will rack up a ton of steals and get the Clippers running. I thought about going with Dwayne Wade or Lebron James but decided to go with Chris Paul and I am sure David Stern will be on hand to give him his award. Tyson Chandler in New York would have been a more conventional pick to make.

Rookie of the Year: Kyrie Irving

I wanted to say Tristan Thompson but that would be my Canadian Pride talking. You may say that picking Irving is going the easy route but it is not a lock the number one pick always gets the award. Irving has the opportunity and the ability to cash in and win the award. He is starting from day one and has little challenge for minutes in Cleveland.

Coach of the Year: Scott Brooks

The first time I picked him people thought I was nuts. He ended up winning the award. This time my pick will be viewed in a lot different light. Eric Spoelstra will not get the credit for the Heat dominating. While same will be true for Vinny Del Negro with the Clippers. Want a long shot? Frank Vogel will have a nice group with Pacers and they should be much improved.

6th Man of the Year- Taj Gibson

Boozer has been losing favour in Chicago and in a season that has injury issues at the forefront given the schedule it is not looking good for Boozer given his history. All this says to be big things for Taj Gibson. Think that is a good a guess as any. Want a total shot in the dark. Norris Cole the rookie in Miami. They love him and getting to play with the Big 3 in Miami can only help him wrack up some impressive numbers off the pine backing up Chalmers.

M.V.P- Lebron James

People have started to hate him a little less and he has had a extended off-season to get upset how we were all mean to him and his friends. So Game On. Kevin Durant, Rose the defending M.V.P will be in the conversation. Chris Paul could also get a serious look if he is able to make the Clippers the better team in L.A

So what is left to do? Oh right who is going to win it all? Last year I picked this and it almost happened so this year I will pick it again with the same two teams and a different winner.

The OKC Thunder will defeat the Miami Heat in 6 games.

Your Finals MVP : Kevin Durant.

You can bet that I will brag about everything I get right and hope that you all forget everything I get wrong but those are my educated guesses for this season. If you want to share yours feel free to leave them in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Dinonationblog.

Sked Does The Raptors No Favours.

The NBA Schedule is out and Raptors will open it up against Canadian Tristan Thompson. Chris Bosh makes his lone appearance with his Heat Buddies in Toronto on March 30th. Raptors new home opener is now against the Pacers on the 28th of December. Raptor face 17 of their first 26 games on the road and will have little time off while doing it. This does not bode well for a team trying to learn a new system with a new coach in charge. If the Raptors have any hope at the playoffs things are a little brighter in February with a 7 game homestand. Here the link to the schedule on NBA.Com. Also here is the official press release from the Raptors on the announcement of the schedule.


The Toronto Raptors announced Tuesday a revised 2011-12 regular season schedule featuring 66 games from December 26 to April 26. The club will tip-off its 17 season in the National Basketball Association at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on Monday, December 26. The team’s home debut at Air Canada Centre will be Wednesday, December 28 at 6 p.m. versus the Indiana Pacers. Raptors season seats are available by calling (416) 366-DUNK (3865), while single-game ticket information will be released at a later date. The Raptors will launch a special "72 Hour" Tip-Off Pack with sales starting Wednesday at noon. Fans can call (416) 366-DUNK (3865) or visit www.raptors.com for more information. The Raptors will face 17 of their first 26 games on the road (December 26 – February 6). After that stretch, Toronto will play 12 of 15 games on its home floor (February 8 – March 7) with only a two-game set at Houston and New Orleans and a single game at Detroit being played away from Air Canada Centre. The schedule features 19 games in 31 days in January, with the 19 contests being an all-time franchise high for a month. Twelve of the 19 January outings will be on the road, including a stretch of eight of nine games from January 14-29. January also consists of the team’s lone back-to-back-to-back set with games January 9 versus Minnesota, January 10 at Washington and January 11 versus Sacramento. The Raptors will play five games in six days, January 9-14. The longest road swing is five games which occurs twice: January 22-29 and March 13-20. The longest home stand of the season is seven games February 8-22, which equals the club record set from November 30 – December 14 in the 1999-2000 campaign. Noteworthy games on the 2011-12 schedule include the lone home matinee contest of the season when the Los Angeles Lakers make their only visit to Toronto on Sunday, February 12. The Raptors will play host to the defending Eastern Conference Champion Miami Heat only once at Air Canada Centre on Friday, March 30. The Raptors will face the New York Knicks on February 14 and March 23 and the Boston Celtics on February 10 and April 13. Toronto will play its eighth season in the Atlantic Division, joining Boston, New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. The Raptors were a member of the Central Division from 1995-2004. The schedule features 48 games within the conference: four games (two home, two away), against six teams (Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, New Jersey, New York, Washington); three games (two home, one away) against four teams (Charlotte, Indiana, Milwaukee, Orlando); and three games (one home, two away) against four teams (Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia).Non-conference games include: two games (one home, one away) against three teams (Denver, Houston, Memphis); one home game against six teams (Golden State, L.A. Lakers, Minnesota, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio); and one road game against six teams (Dallas, L.A. Clippers, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Utah). The busiest day for the Raptors this season will be Wednesday with 17 games on the schedule. Friday tops the home schedule with 11 games at Air Canada Centre, while Sunday and Wednesday feature a high of seven road contests. The majority of the team’s home games will fall on Wednesday (10) and Friday (11), with the combined 21 games accounting for more than half of the 33 home dates. The Raptors’ busiest month is January with 19 games followed by March with 17 contests. The busiest home month is March with 10 games, while the busiest road month is January with 12 games away from Toronto. The Raptors will have 20 back-to-back outings in 66 games, which is up two from last season’s total spread over 82 games. A high of eight contests will be a road game followed by a road game. The Raptors’ 2011-12 television schedule will be released at a later date. For the sixth consecutive season, all Raptors games will be aired nationally in Canada.

Given the schedule and the roster the Raptors would be hard pressed to match the 22 wins of last season in this shorter 66 game schedule. It looks like the schedule maker did the Raptors no favours. But the Raptors youth should serve them well. It will have to if they are to have any hope of surviving this NBA Schedule.

Basketball is back on our 4th Anniversary?

It's OVER? Looks like that is the case. The players and owners have reached a deal it seems. The fact I am up at this hour to find out is not unusual. So it figures while most of the world was asleep this all comes to an end. The word is a 66 game season will begin on Christmas Day. Training camps are said to be opening on December 9th if all goes well. Players and Owners will still have to vote on this deal but most feel it is going to pass. All this goes down on the 4th Anniversary of the Dino Nation Blog. This has been a tough time and a tough year for the blog but we have made it through the storm?

Also news yesterday that the Raptors owners have decided to stick around. MLSE will not be sold. So is it better the devil you know? Also with this new labour agreement will anything change in terms of the Raptors. I would not hold your breath with a new super luxury tax as part of this deal. But in reality the Raptors with even more cost certainty should stop trying to pretend to be a small market team and spend some money. Raptors will have money to spend as well even if they will not head into the land of luxury.

But based on comments of Bryan Colangelo do not expect the Raptors to spend much of that cap space on this short season. It was clear to me that Colangelo just looked at this as a lost season and made his plans accordingly. Including drafting a rookie that will not be here till next season. So even though basketball it looks like is back, the Raptors likely will still be terrible. Dwane Casey is not a miracle worker I don't think. So the Raptors will be rebuilding for yet another season. The big storyline will likely be Demar DeRozan taking over the title of face of the franchise from Andrea Bargnani. He will do it minus on of his Young Gunz buddies. Sonny Weems unlike many NBA Players that decided to go to Europe does not have an out clause in his contract. There was no guarantee he would have been back anyway as he was a restricted free agent. Raptors did make a qualifying offer so when Weems makes his way back to the NBA Raptors will hold his rights.

Is this the year we finally see Jose Calderon just go away? Will Bayless and him have an open competition in camp for the starting job? Yes folks if you have not figured it out we are talking basketball again. Raptors will also have to decide if they want to bring back free agent Reggie Evans. Raptors had a few other free agents but the only one that will even be considered coming back is Reggie. Tough to say if there will be a big market for Evans after two injury plagued seasons in Toronto. When healthy he still can hit the glass and be one of the top rebounders in the league.

Lots of time to sort all this stuff out but it is just a pleasure to be back talking basketball with you all again. I have missed doing this and missed talking basketball with so many of you. But it appears that is a thing of the past. But as the Raptors learned with a trade for Tyson Chandler it is never a deal until it is signed. NBA and the players have a bunch of B-list issues to sort out and they will need to vote to approve this deal. However at this point if this were to go south both sides would get buried and I think they all know that.

So is it forgive and forget and move on? I can only speak for myself. I will forgive sure but not forget. This whole experience has made me a little less passionate for the sport that I love. Will I get over it in time? Sure likely but I am not going to forget this and say no harm done. I remember after the NHL came back how much people acted liked idiots in this country. At the end of the day no sport is bigger than life itself. If there is any lesson I take away from all this greed and nonsense that is it. I also realized what a screwed up world we live in when I don't have basketball to stop me from paying attention to it. I learned that I really don't need to tweet everyday if I don't want too. That life marches on if this blog is written everyday or not. But all that being said I have invested 4 years of my life into the DNB. That is longer than pretty much any relationship I have ever had with a woman except for one. So that might have been the hardest thing about this lockout for me. Watching all that I worked for in the last 4 years be completely out of my hands. It was frustrating and it hurt. There is no doubt a lot of hurt and hard feelings coming out of this on the over side. We all will need time to heal. Hopefully that can happen and this deal can create an NBA that is worth watching for fans in every city that has a team in this league.

So if all goes well will see you Monday!!!