It’s not too often that I go back to some comments that I made months earlier, but a friend of mine reminded me about the post I made in late October about four teams to bet on for total wins over/under. I thought it would be interesting to go back and see if I would have made any money or if I would be given another reminder why it’s probably best that I don’t end up in the sports prognostication business.
I thought that the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz were undervalued and the Toronto Raptors were being given too much credit after Vegas gave them a projected total of 26 wins for the season. How sad is that I thought the Raptors going 26-56 would be far-fetched? Winning just over 30% of your games should be automatic, but not this year. Anyways, let’s take a closer look...
Boston Celtics
Projected Record: 54-28 or 55-27
Actual Record: 56-26
It was close, but we got the job done by picking the over. It would have been even easier to get the over if the Celts hadn’t made a senseless trade of Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City. They loss their inside presence and necessary toughness that has allowed them to be so successful in the playoffs. I thought that the additions of Jermaine and Shaquille O’Neal would have made them deeper. When both healthy, it did, but those nights were few and far between. Consider us lucky to get this one.
Phoenix Suns
Projected Record: 41-41 or 42-40
Actual Record: 40-42
Give credit to Vegas for being really close with these first couple of picks. I thought this pick would have been a lock once the Suns and Magic made their blockbuster trade to help each other mid-season, but then again, I should have realized that I was now putting my hopes in the hands of Vince Carter to come through in the clutch. I thought they would be a consistent scoring team and it would lead to more victories. The only thing consistent for them was that they hovered around .500 all year long.
Utah Jazz
Projected Record: 49-33 or 50-32
Actual Record: 39-43
My quote from October, “Having one of the best point guards in the game in Deron Williams and one of the best coaches in the game in Jerry Sloan will always allow for this team to be better than competitive.” Too bad I couldn’t do my best Kreskin impression and predict that the relationship between the two would become so toxic that it would force Jerry Sloan into retirement. I can’t be mad about losing this pick because there was nothing I could do to ever predict that. All you can do is shrug your shoulders.
Toronto Raptors
Projected Record: 26-56 or 27-55
Actual Record: 22-60
You have to feel bad for Jay Triano. He didn’t have a talented lineup to begin with and then every time you would turn around, the Raptors would be dealing with another injury. In the end, the Raptors would put together what looked to be more like a D-League lineup as opposed to an NBA one. I’m assuming that Jay Triano will be gone as coach, Bryan Colangelo will continue to avoid taking any heat for putting together such a terrible lineup and Raps fans will be stuck watching a sub-par basketball team.