Saturday morning I’m getting on a plane for Minnesota, where I’ll be spending the week between Christmas and New Year’s, missing not only Wednesday’s home opener with the Thunder but also Friday’s home game with the Houston Rockets. Thanks for starting the season during the holidays, NBA!
So there may not be much activity in this space for the next week unless there’s significant news outside the scope of the games themselves. But, you know what? I’m betting there’s significant news. As I wrote in my post on new signee Dante Cunningham, I think a trade to further address the team’s frontcourt depth is inevitable, whether it comes in the days leading up to Monday’s season-opening game at San Antonio or later into the season. Signing Cunningham does not address the team’s lack of a backup center, but, given that Cunningham gives the team a longer option at small forward in addition to a Darrell Arthur replacement at power forward, the signing is a useful precursor to a deal that would send out a wing player (Xavier Henry? O.J. Mayo?) for a big.
I now think a deal of some sort could happen sooner rather than later. Given my track record, it might happen while I’m in an airplane tracking up the Mississippi.
But before I head out, I need to go on the record with some predictions for the league in general and the Grizzlies in particular. Given the compressed and shortened schedule, the number of older teams with shoddy depth, and the looming uncertainty over the fate of arguably the league’s second best player (Dwight Howard), forecasting the NBA seems even more difficult than usual this season. I predicted over/unders for all 30 teams on the Chris Vernon Show earlier in the week and am already shading several of my predictions from that show up or down.
But here’s my best shot:
