GM Survey: The Results Are In
For eight years running, GMs League-wide have filled out a detailed NBA.com survey. Consisting of 60 questions, ranging from team oriented to player oriented questions, the League’s 30 GMs weighed in on how they see things shaking out this upcoming season. As of late yesterday afternoon, this year’s results have been sorted and posted.
Not allowed to vote for the team they work for or the players on their squad, GMs agreed, overwhelmingly so, that the Lakers will win the Finals and that LeBron will repeat as MVP. Having correctly chosen L.A. and Bron last year (as Lang did in his ‘08-09 NBA season preview), there’s no reason to think they won’t be right again this season. Of course, they also predicted that Andrew Bynum was the “most likely to have a breakout season” last survey, so don’t buy what they’re selling too blindly.
While the answers mainly adhere to last season’s, there are a few subtle and not so subtle changes that are notable. First off, last season 66.7 percent of GMs said that Kobe Bryant “forces opposing coaches to make the most adjustments.” One year and a ring later, Kobe has fallen behind LeBron, earning just 23.2 percent of tallied votes. Notable as well, Dwight Howard earned 46.4 percent as “best defensive player in the NBA,” labeling him as GMs favorite defender. Last season KG was No. 1 in that category, holding over 44 percent of all votes. Of greatest note, last year the percentage of GMs that picked Derrick Rose to win ROY was less than the total of GMs who chose Mike Beasley, Greg Oden, OJ Mayo, Kevin Love, Anthony Randolph or Russell Westbrook to win the award. Not the best news for this year’s favorite, Blake Griffin.
As a whole, some of these predictions are mad obvious and foregone conclusions; others seem to show GMs thinking outside the box. Either way, read the predictions; question ‘em; decide whether you like or dislike ‘em. In nine months time, we’ll be able to tell just how smart, omniscient and clairvoyant NBA GMs really are.
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70 wins?
That sounds like the pipe talking right there.
70 wins is a lot.
I mean, only one team has every done that, and that team featured the two best swingmen in the game at the time. And they were totally familar with each other for the most part. Cleveland improved, but they made some big changes.
I am interested to see what Mo Williams does this year with fewer shots, but more high quality shots.
Didn’t you say the Lakers were going to lose last year? Where’s my apology?
Thanks for counting on me. Hopefully you are here for the Bron and Kobe debates throughout the season. And Teddy. I keep telling all my boys that Orlando is going to be CRAZY his year. Top of the East if you ask me.
and the reason that no other team other then the 95-96 bulls had 70 wins is because - to quote Myles - “Its a remarkable achievement that requires sustained focus, absolute chemistry, a favorable schedule and not one injury to a key player.” I have a hard time seeing the cavs team running on all cylinders right off the bat, nor doing it consistently for half a year straight, nor shaq breaking down somewhere along the season. this is not to say they won’t be a great team, but 70 wins means a winning percentage of 85%. that’s A LOT to ask for.
Bron does get a little too much love though. He’s not perfect, but he IS the best player in the L and has been for a minute.
but he’s got you beat here so bad, it’s painful…
Let this one go, there will be other battles!
Granted, do I think the Cavs are going to do that well? No I don’t. But Z isn’t exactly “beat” here from what he said; its rational.
P.S Any word on Patty Mills injury?
it seems to be that it’s been misinterpreted since then as “i think the Cavs will win 70 games next year”. i don’t think that’s what he said.
i agree, it’s unlikely that it will happen - they’ll probably fine-tune a lot ready for the playoffs, and besides, apparently there’s a huge historical precedent against it….
but i don’t think the original statement, “they’re probably looking at 70 wins”, was unreasonable, especially in the context of a counter-argument to “LeBron won’t win MVP next year cos he won it last year”. i can’t see who else could win MVP, and LeBron’s squad will still probably get enough wins to justify him winning the award. the only other candidates are CP3 and Wade, and i can’t see the Hornets or the Heat having good enough seasons to justify that. of course Kobe too, but he’ll probably defer to teammates even more during the regular season to save himself for the playoffs. i can’t see him overtaking Bron again now that Bron has overtaken him
I mean, you’re such an expert on English, so I hope you know your math too, so here’s an equation: 1 divided by the (total number of years the NBA has played a 70+ game season times the total amount of teams that have played every single year). Give me the answer to that number, and that’s statistically the chances of the Cavaliers reaching 70.
Really. Honestly.
the real point is that the discussion has veered well away from where it was, because people are more interested in petty point-scoring.
as i say (again), the question was “will lebron repeat as MVP”…
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