Bold predictions for the rest of the 2023-24 NBA season

We're more than halfway through the NBA season, so it's time to make some BOLD predictions for the rest of the NBA season. So bold that the defending-champion Nuggets don't even make the Conference Finals and Nikola Jokic doesn't even win the MVP. So buckle up for some eye-opening takes on award winners, standings projections, playoff upsets, and even a little offseason player movement - I just couldn't resist. Enjoy!

Note: Stats are current as of Valentine's Day morning.

The Celtics currently have the NBA's best record (42-12) and net rating (plus-9.4). Their starting five - Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday - is the best in the NBA and the core players in that lineup are in their respective primes. And the stats back up the fact that they are an elite unit (plus-11.4 points per 100 possessions). These are all indicators that Boston will win 60-plus games and finish with the best regular season record in the NBA. 

Five games into the James Harden era, the Clippers were 3-7 and looked like a borderline Play-In team. Since then, the Clippers are 32-10 and everything has fallen into place. Kawhi Leonard has played like an MVP. Paul George and Harden have played like All-Stars. Norman Powell, Terance Mann, Russell Westbrook, and the rest of their role players have been excellent. And at the helm of it all is Ty Lue, arguably the best coach in the league. There's no reason to believe this team won't continue its torrid pace the rest of the regular season.

These are all pretty dang good rosters - better than most Play-In teams in the past. In fact, there's a good chance that both LeBron James and Steph Curry outright miss the playoffs despite having healthy (thus far), All-NBA-caliber seasons. And the Pelicans and Kings both are well-above .500, so it's pretty surprising to see them in this group. However, there's no chance they surpass the Thunder, Nuggets, T'Wolves, or Clippers, and they're neck-and-neck in the standings with the Suns and Mavericks. 'Tis life in the Western Conference though.

The Bulls and Hawks are rudderless organizations that don't belong in the playoffs, so no need to pay them any attention here. The Heat and 76ers, on the other hand, are still stealth Finals contenders given that the Heat have made the Conference Finals three out of the past four years, and the 76ers have arguably the best player in basketball (Joel Embiid) on their roster. Injuries have kept, and will continue to keep these teams in the Play-In mix, but if either or both could get healthy come spring, they'll be a nightmare matchup for their first round opponent. Which is why...

Last season, the Heat and Lakers made runs to the Finals and Conference Finals, respectively, from the Play-In. Could we get a repeat this season? It's certainly possible - especially considering both the Heat and Lakers project to be Play-In teams. While I don't think a Play-In team makes that far this season, I do foresee at least one of the teams - whether it's the Heat, Lakers, 76ers, Warriors Pelicans or Kings - upsetting their first round foe. As a matter of fact...

If the 76ers continue to drop down the standings without Joel Embiid, they very well could end up in the Play-In. And if they do, they could find themselves in a first round matchup against the likes of the Celtics, Cavs, Bucks or Knicks. Therefore, what could've been a Conference Finals matchup could end up coming two rounds early. A healthy Embiid can play Giannis Antetokounmpo to a draw. Damian Lillard is obviously a playoff killer, so Philly will have difficulties there, but Tyrese Maxey should be able to feast on Lillard on the other end. A series like this could very well come down to coaching, and I'll take Nick Nurse over Doc Rivers from a tactical standpoint any day. And a second straight first round exit will lead to...

Giannis Antetokounmpo has had an interesting last 12 months, hasn't he? On the court, he's been a maniac, playing every possession like it's his last, even during most regular season games. Off the court, he seems to be on edge and has been a lot more vocal in his displeasure over his coaches. Last spring, he all but said it was time for a change after the team was upset in the first round by the Heat. And earlier this season, he called out his then-coach, Adrian Griffin, (as well as his teammates, and even the equipment manager) publicly in a surprising tirade that preceded Griffin's dismissal weeks later. If his team suffers another postseason collapse, he's going to take a long look at this aging Bucks roster and see if the grass is greener elsewhere.

Given that the Celtics are depending on Kristaps Porzingis to remain healthy throughout the playoffs, and the 76ers are depending upon Joel Embiid to return to 100 percent before the playoffs, and the Cavaliers' ugly playoff exit from last season has left a bad taste in my mouth, I suddenly have found myself having a New York state of mind. Since their acquisition of OG Anunoby, the Knicks have been one of the best teams in basketball (12-2 when Anunoby plays). They look to be built for the playoffs too as seen by their eighth-rated offense, eighth-rated defense and sixth-best net rating. New York may not be the best team in the East, but they're probably the deepest team, they grind on defense, and they have an emerging star and go-to guy in Jalen Brunson for late-game situations.

This series will spawn a new rivalry: Luka Doncic vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Both are bonafide MVP candidates, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Both are huge guards with unique playing styles. The Thunder are inexperienced, but more talented; the Mavericks are built to complement Luka and have the playoff-Kyrie Irving X-factor. I think this series comes down to which superstar plays better. Give me Luka by the narrowest of margins in another epic first round series.

Talk about a brutal draw! The T'Wolves and their number one-rated defense will unfortunately run into the one team that doesn't care about their defense, the Kevin Durant and Devin Booker-led Suns. It'll result in an epic first round series of two vastly different styles. Ultimately, the Suns will prevail due to their endless supply of elite shooters players (Durant, Booker, Bradley Beal, Eric Gordon, Grayson Allen) because, in today's NBA, offense wins championships.

So long as Kevin Durant and Devin Booker are healthy, the Suns will easily be a contender. They came the closest to beating Denver last postseason, so I don't see why they couldn't beat them this year having added even more offensive weapons around Durant and Booker. While the Nikola Jokic-Jamal Murray pick-and-roll will remain unstoppable, something tells me the Nuggets' role players won't come up as big as they did last season when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown, and others all played their best basketball in the playoffs. These are bold predictions, remembers? So let's imagine a world where Phoenix pulls out a couple of high-scoring, epic games to swing the series.

That's right! Last season was The Year of Nikola Jokic. This season will be The Year of Luka Doncic. Dallas will avoid the Play-In and finish in the top-six of the Western Conference. From there, they will upset the Thunder in the first round. Then, they'll finally take down the Clippers after coming so close in past postseason affairs. The one team that I don't see them beating is the Nuggets, but the Suns will take care of Denver for them. In the Western Conference Finals, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving will have the firepower to hang with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, but also the defensive wings and bigs to swing the tide. Last, in the NBA Finals, they'll have, by far, the best player in the series against the Knicks. And you can expect Luka to put up some obscene numbers on his way to Finals MVP and the first of numerous championships for the Luka Legend.

In case you haven't noticed, Luka Doncic is on an absolute heater lately. In his past 30 games, he's averaging 36.4 PPG, 10.5 APG, 9.3 RPG with 49-37-78 shooting splits. He's getting tot the free throw line nearly 11 times a game too. Those are clearly MVP-worthy numbers (and his numbers this season aren't much different)...the question will be where does Dallas end up in the standings? Right now, they're in eighth, but they're only one game out of fifth. If he gets the Mavericks up to the fifth-seed, and continues this torrid pace, he'll win his first MVP award.

This Rookie of the Year reminds me of the LeBron James-Carmelo Anthony race from 2003-04. Both were destined to be great - LeBron was a better overall player and prospect, but on a bad team; Melo was a really good scorer on a playoff team. LeBron ultimately won the award, and rightly so, but it was a great race, and for a while, Carmelo seemed to have the momentum. Fast forward to this season, Victor Wembanyama is in LeBron James' situation and Chet Holmgren is in Carmelo Anthony's situation (albeit even better). Much like 03-04, the better overall player, Wembanyama, will win the award. He's just too damn good - he had a triple-double with blocks the other night for goodness sake!

The Pacers have the second-fastest pace in the league and will parlay that into the highest offensive rating per 100 possessions in NBA history (current record is held by the 2022-23 Kings, which were at 119.4 points per 100 possessions). After looking as though they'd blow the record out of the water earlier in the season, the Pacers have fallen off slightly as they've tried to integrate Pascal Siakam and work through Tyrese Haliburton's hamstring injury. They currently sit at 120.9 points per 100 possessions, which second behind the 2023-24 Celtics, who are at 121.3 points per 100 possessions. However, I suspect that their offense will get humming again once Haliburton gets back to 100 percent.

118.3 points per 100 possession puts a team in the top-10 all-time for offensive ratings. Right now, the Celtics, Pacers, Clippers, Thunder, Bucks, 76ers, Hawks, Knicks, Suns, Mavericks and Warriors all sit at 118.3 or better (and the Nuggets are at 118.2 points per 100 possessions). I suspect that nine of those teams will finish at or above that mark because offense is as efficient as possible, and the NBA is as offensively-talented as it has ever been.

Jalen Brunson's Q-rating is about as high as any player's in the entire NBA right now. He's the unofficial mayor of New York, and seems poised to led the Knicks to a deep playoff run despite only making his first-ever All-Star appearance this season. For the year, Brunson is averaging 27.5 PPG and 6.5 APG to go with efficient 48-41-83 shooting splits. And he's currently carrying the team with Julius Randle and OG Anunoby out for extended periods. 

The Ant-Man is making his leap into superstardom this season, and he's doing it at a high level on both ends of the court. On offense, he's averaging career highs in PPG (26.1) and APG (5.2) to go along with career-bests in all shooting splits (47-39-84). If that weren't enough, he's also one of the defensive catalysts for the team with the best defensive rating in the league, and the top record in the Western Conference. 

When I made my initial prediction earlier this season on Detroit's losing ways, they were in the midst of a 16-game losing streak. I predicted that streak would get into the 20s (it ended at 28), but that they would not finish with the worst record in the NBA. I got half of it right so far, so now let's see if Cade Cunningham and company (currently 8-45) can get them past either Wizards (9-44), Spurs (11-43) or Hornets (12-41). My guess is the Wizards end up at the very bottom when it's all said and done as they have the worst roster in the league in my opinion.

Unless the Lakers make another deep playoff run, this offseason is going to be a fascinating one for LeBron James. He has a player option, which means that just about everything will be on the table for him. He's been leaving plenty of breadcrumbs suggesting that he's open to leaving the Lakers in recent weeks - hourglass emoji tweet, saying he doesn't know whether he'll opt-in or not, openly flirting with the Knicks, and having his agent, Rich Paul, smooth things over with the Knicks' front office (Paul broke away from CAA years ago to form Klutch, and his former-mentor, Leon Rose, now runs the Knicks). Adding to that, this week, ESPN reported that the Warriors and 76ers both inquired as to King James' availability at the trade deadline as well. Oh, and there's the Bronny James variable - will he declare for the Draft? Will a team promise to draft him if LeBron signs with them? My guess is the Knicks, having nearly won the title this season, decide to replace Julius Randle with LeBron and bring the King to the Big Apple this summer.