2012-13 NBA Predictions

Each fall for the last three, my college friend Jason and I share our NBA ranking predictions, talk a lot of smack and forget them until May.

Each spring for the last two, I've gotten my butt handed to me, and the following fall I've still claimed this would be the year I get off the schneid.

Some things never change.

The following is my (slightly edited) response to Jason's latest predictions. Here's hoping Spring 2013 is kind to me.

Enjoy.

You're a crazy man and you have no business in sports.

Here's the link to the chart, including our predictions, (ESPN writer and stat geek heartthrob) John Hollinger's forecast and last year's results. I should also give credit to Bill Simmons, who I listened to in preparation for this, but he doesn't have any (written) predictions.

My (superior) outlook:

Miami: Dominant, assured and unstoppable; LeBron's quest to take down MJ begins

Boston: Restocked and refreshed, the bastards

Indiana: Predictably good, but not frightening anybody

Atlanta: Improved despite Johnson loss, and got a brighter future out of it

Brooklyn: Won't guard anyone, but who'll guard them?

Chicago: A half-season without Rose or the bench mob hurts

Philadelphia: 60 games of Andrew Bynum is enough for East playoffs

New York: Love the pieces, hate how they fit; the worst-run franchise in sports

Milwaukee: Tough, scrappy frontcourt, but identically-awful guards 

Cleveland: Irving makes the leap, but have you seen this roster?

Washington: Ditto with Wall

Toronto: Like Lowry, Bargnani, but nothing else here to get excited about yet

Detroit: Monroe is the one redeeming part of a trainwreck on both ends 

Charlotte: Hey, they're not the worst team in the league anymore!

Orlando: This - Howard's old mates, plus the embarrassing trade bait pu pu platter - is

San Antonio: Old reliable storms through regular season again with Leonard era on horizon

Lakers: Kobe and co. struggle to mesh before April, but Finals date with Miami awaits

Denver: Pieces fit beautifully and recall the Seven Seconds or Less Suns, but who's the Nuggets' star?

Oklahoma City: Second unit collapses post-Harden and robs a few wins, but a tough conference finals out

Memphis: Healthy Z-Bo makes or breaks Grizzlies, so this is wrong one way or the other

Utah: The defensive-minded, foul-crazy version of the Denver Nuggets

Clippers: Paul and Blake are still great, but front office and bench dysfunction boils over

Minnesota: Love and Rubio are the next big thing, but not until January; watch out in round one, Spurs

Houston: Harden, Lin and Asik are a decent trio, but youth robs Rockets of playoffs yet again 

Dallas: Dirk - balky knee and all - carries a load of drek to a .500 finish, but no postseason

Golden State: Like Grizzlies, all is on health of Curry and Bogut; I'm not betting on it

New Orleans: Young and frisky, but don't trust Gordon to be the guy or Davis to be an instant sensation

Portland: Aldridge rots in obscurity with intriguing but disappointing flotsam

Sacramento: Forget Sac-town or Vegas; Kings shape Stern's last act by bringing basketball back to Seattle

Phoenix: Life after Nash is going to be brutal until those lottery picks are cashed in

As for our Bulls, I'm having a hard time adjusting to following a decent-but-not-great team - April 28 still lingers in my mind - amid the consistently awful Cubs, excellent Bears and depressing Illini. Hollinger made me feel better with this in his Chicago forecast:

In the short term, the good news for Chicago is there is still enough talent on hand to field a very competitive team. The Bulls went 18-9 without Rose last season, and their two most identifiable characteristics -- manic defense and prolific rebounding -- had little to do with their floor general. Nonetheless, the playoffs showed how much harder it is for Chicago to sustain a cohesive offensive attack without him. It will be even harder after the Bulls made several secondary cuts.

The net result is a team that several fan bases would be glad to have, especially if Tom Thibodeau can keep it playing hair-on-fire defense, but one that will likely disappoint those who witnessed the past two campaigns.

How do you feel about our boys? I think your prediction is asinine, but I hope they prove you right.

Episode VII: The Force is Strong With This One

Disney buying Lucasfilm was destined to make the Internet go bonkers. Adding Star Wars: Episode VII to today's announcement made it doubly so.

But why all the hatred? For me, today is a dream come true.

About 15 years ago, after reading the Star Wars Encyclopedia - I'll pause so you can absorb the ridiculousness of that sentence - nine-year-old me dreamed of the Star Wars movies George Lucas never got to make. 

Young Darth Vader going bad and fighting his master, Obi-Wan? Wizened Luke Skywalker, having conquered the Force, opening an academy to repopulate the universe with young Jedi? Where do I sign up?

As we all now know, the former was made reality shortly later, and we asked how we could have been so foolish. Rather than expanding the glory of the Star Wars saga, the prequel trilogy became a calling card of everything ill-conceived, greedy, soulless and flat-out wrong with modern movies.

Still, does that mean Hollywood shouldn't try again?

As countless media franchises - not least the the Star Wars expanded universe - have shown us, belonging to a great franchise isn't enough to make a film, comic, novel or game worthwhile (see... well, pretty much any franchise). But, on the other hand, it's also not enough to make a project not worthwhile (see also Knights of the Old Republic and Episode I: Racer). 

What's more, we already know three very promising things about Episode VII.

The first: George Lucas is not involved. The benefits of Lucas stepping away should be obvious, but let's spell them anyway: the man has made four mediocre-to-awful franchise sequels in the past 15 years. The best Lucas films had other directors. Lucas has nothing left to prove and, thus, no reason to work hard.

Disney's backing is a more subtle issue, but let me put it this way: don't you want the studio behind The Avengers backing Star Wars? (I'm ignoring the crossover capabilities for now, but of course they're myriad.) Disney not only poured cash into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also hired a visionary director in Joss Whedon to write, direct and oversee the project. Here's hoping Episode VII gets similar treatment.

Promising a further trilogy, of course, makes that decision even more critical to Disney. This isn't a matter of throwing together a cash-grab; Star Wars: Episodes VII through IX will be one of Disney's signature projects for the next decade, beginning with stiff competition from its own Avengers sequel in 2015. That stakes for Episode VII couldn't be higher, high stakes mean high dollars, and high dollars usually mean a better director, actors and effects.

So while many Internet columns and forums are whining about corporate greed and the ruination of sacred things today, fear not, Disney: if nothing else, you've made one nine-year-old's dream come true.

Now please, please don't screw it up.