The NBA season is less than three weeks away. Below are five bold things I predict to happen, including a Roy Hibbert trade, the Oklahoma City Thunder firing Scott Brooks and the Chicago Bulls reaching the NBA finals.
1. Indiana Pacers have a fire sale.
It's going to happen. Sure, Indiana will start the season off with every intention of reaching the playoffs. But come February, Larry Bird is going to see it as a lost cause and start taking phone calls. Roy Hibbert, whose happiness in Indiana has been questioned before, has a player option for next season - do you think Bird is going to risk letting him walk for nothing? The same thing with David West. Those are two players who can get Bird assets to use next season, when Paul George will be healthy and ready to play.
If the right offer came along, I think Bird would be willing to part with anybody on the active roster. He needs to reconfigure his roster. Last season proved again - even with Lance Stephenson and a healthy George - the Pacers, as currently constructed, can't get over the hump of beating whatever team LeBron James is on.
2. Oklahoma City Thunder fire Scott Brooks.
I don't see this current Thunder team making it past the conference semifinals, which ultimately leads to Brooks being fired in the offseason.
There's no doubt Brooks is a good coach, and his players love him. But the team needs to get to the finals this year for Brooks to keep his job. The pressure is on Oklahoma City to win now, before Kevin Durant hits free agency in 2016. I see the team stumbling in the second round of the playoffs and, with one season left to convince Durant to stay, making the change in the offseason to shake things up as a last ditch effort.
3. Chicago beats the Cleveland Cavaliers for a spot in the finals.
All the talk is about Cleveland reaching the finals, but I see them losing to Chicago in the conference finals. Cleveland is going to need at least a season to gel together and figure out each player's role, and that's going to hurt them going against Chicago's defense. Cleveland also lacks rim protection - Chicago's bigs are going to hammer them in the paint. If Derrick Rose is healthy to provide scoring, coach Tom Thibodeau's defensive schemes are going to be too much for the Cavaliers this year.
4. John Wall and Bradley Beal surpass Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson as best backcourt.
Wall and Beal are already among the top backcourts in the league, and they've played less than 150 games together. Their upside is huge, and they're both going to earn All-Star invites this season. While Wall isn't - and never will be, although his shooting does continually improve - the kind of shooter Curry is, Beal will have a huge season in terms of scoring and improved defense to make up for it, elevating the duo above Curry and Thompson.
5. Houston Rockets fire Kevin McHale midseason.
OK, maybe not so much a bold prediction as an inevitable one. The Rockets took a step back this offseason, and the blame - fair or not - is going to fall on McHale. Houston arguably underachieved last season, and an up-and-down start to this season is going to have McHale clearing out his office sometime after the All-Star break.
