The NBA season is so close. Monday was NBA media day. We got to see formal press conferences asking players questions about the upcoming season and players taking pictures with their teammates. We were able to see big time players answer questions and there was even a a moment where Kawhi Leonard laughed. Out on the West Coast, LeBron assured the media that he can play with anyone and the Lakers team will figure out a way to make it work. Then out on the East Coast, Kyrie Irving talked about how he has thought about his #11 jersey hanging in the rafters of the Boston Garden someday easing the tension of Celtics fans about him leaving next summer just a little bit. All of this is creating excitement for the regular season and what’s to come. This made me think of some bold predictions of what’s to come and what could possibly happen this season that might turn some heads.

Bold Prediction #1 Kawhi Leonard wins MVP.

On the surface, this doesn’t seem like that too bold of a prediction. Kawhi Leonard is arguably a top three player in this league when he is completely healthy. he finished third in voting only two years ago. On the other hand, the guy barely played last year. He had a mysterious injury where he was hurt then he wasn’t then he was still hurt and all of this turned into a saga between Leonard and the Spurs. You know the story. Bovada has Kawhi at 10 to 1 odds right now bringing him in as the 6th favorite to win MVP. He is in Toronto with the Raptors. Since the Raptors became a franchise in 1993, they haven’t had an MVP. The great players of Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and Chris Bosh were never able to secure an MVP during their tenure with the team. So, how can someone expect Kawhi Leonard to be the first person to bring an MVP to the Great White North?

A couple of things will have to happen for Kawhi to secure the MVP. First, the Raptors will have to win a lot of games. Typically, the MVP is awarded to the best player on one of the best teams in the NBA. The best example of this is when Derrick Rose won MVP in 2011. Rose averaged 25 points, 7 assist, and 4 rebounds per game. Those are solid stats, but compared to most NBA MVPs, Rose was a little behind. Rose made up with his team finishing first in the East. The Bulls won 62 games that year making up for what his stats lacked. Rose was the best player on that team, so he got MVP. The Raptors will be battling for a top seed in the East. They will be competing with Boston and Philly for the top spot. If the Raptors can get to 60 wins, Kawhi’s odds should go up. Another thing that needs to happen is Kawhi needs to take control of this offense. This team is thirsting for a guy they can rely on to get a bucket and dominate a game offensively. Kawhi definitely has the potential to do this with his skill set. Everything should be ran through Kawhi this year giving him the chance to put up career season highs in points and assists. Then Kawhi should dominate on defense like he always does. He is going to a team known for playing tough defense and getting after teams. This team is almost built a certain way to make Kawhi shine like the superstar he is. he has a chance to make an MVP run because of this.

The other thing in Kawhi’s favor is that he has never won an MVP before. Whether MVP voters like to admit it or not, they don’t like to vote for the same guy that they have in the past. If that wasn’t the case, then Michael Jordan and LeBron James would have a lot more MVP’s to their names. But, that is the case. Players such as LeBron, Harden, Kevin Durant, Westbrook will have a harder time winning the MVP because of this. This leaves the door open for players such as Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Giannis Antetokounmpo to try and snatch the MVP title. The reason why I chose Kawhi is because I think he has the best opportunity out of those four guys. I think Kyrie will struggle to maintain MVP stats throughout the whole year because of the amount of talent on that team. I think Anthony Davis might be on a team that might not even make the playoffs because they are in West. Giannis is in a good opportunity. The Bucks have the potential to be a great team, but are they better than the Celtics, Raptors, or 76ers? I don’t think so. If that’s the case, Giannis will have to put up crazy numbers throughout the year. He will have to go Russell Westbrook and average a triple double. I think Giannis has the talent to do that, but it is a long season and maintaining that stat line is far from easy. So, I think Kawhi Leonard has the best opportunity to win MVP. Then, would winnning MVP make him more inclined to stay in Toronto? I think that would make the decision very interesting.

Bold Prediction #2 Markelle Fultz will show why he was the #1 overall pick.

The drama surrounding Fultz last year was on another level. There were so many reports surrounding him and his jump shot and whether or not he was actually hurt. Fultz came out and said recently that he had an actual injury and now he is healthy. There have been countless videos of him shooting and lighting it up from deep. But, I am not going to buy into those videos. Remember last summer where everyone was talking about “Hoodie Melo” and how Melo was going to resurrect his career with the Thunder and be Olympic Melo for them? Yeah me too. And I remember them getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs by a team that was lead by a rookie. I don’t base anything off of workout videos. Players in the NBA are in the NBA for a reason. When he take a video of them working out and playing at the pace they want to play without a defender guarding them, they will shoot a very high percentage more often than not. I base my prediction off other parts of Fultz’s game.

Fultz is an athletic freak. His speed and agility is unparalleled to most other players. He is able to change his speed in a way that can get him open whether or not he has a reliable jump shot. His long arms and jumping ability will allow him to finish against taller defenders. Then, he will be playing along two other star players in Simmons and Embiid. Simmons will be able to set Markelle up in favorable situations. Then Fultz will take over the playmaking responsibilities when Simmons goes out of the game. I can only imagine what a Fultz Embiid pick and roll could potentially look like with JJ Reddick, Wilson Chandler, and Dario Saric spacing the floor. That could be very lethal come playoff time. Now all of this might not happen. Fultz’s psych might be too far gone to correct, but if he is able to get his mind back into the spot where it needs to be then he is a great player. We saw what he was able to do at Washington in college. He has the chance to slide into the role the 76ers need him to be and take that team to the next level.

Bold Prediction #3 The Cavs will make the playoffs.

I’ve said this before and I will stick to it. The Cavs still have a lot of talent on this team that has a lot of playoff experience. The Cavs might have looked dismal at times last year even with LeBron James, but they were surrounded with drama the whole year. It seemed like each player had something happen to them at one point or another that just caused the team’s chemistry to be out of sort one way or another. There was the whole thing with Isaiah Thomas. Other members on the team didn’t like Dwayne Wade being there because he was friends with LeBron. Tristan Thompson had the whole Kardashian curse going on. Kevin Love dealt with mental health. JR Smith threw a bowl of soup at a COACH. Rodney Hood literally refused to go into a game. Even LeBron punched the wall in the locker room after game one of the Finals. So many things surrounded this team last year that were unnecessary for the most part. Take out a lot of those distractions and I believe that we will see a different team. They have promising young players and a veteran core who knows how to win. I think the Cavs will surprise a lot of people this year and make the playoffs, but if Jimmy Butler ends up on the Nets, then the Cavs will face a tougher road for the playoffs.

Bold Prediction #4 The Pelicans trade Anthony Davis by the trade deadline.

So lets recap what has happened since I last wrote about Anthony Davis. Davis signed with the agent Rich Paul. Rich Paul is from Klutch Sports. Klutch Sports is LeBron James’ agency. Hmmmm. It seems like the stars are aligning for AD to be a Laker this time next year. Here is how it is going to go.

The Pelicans will get off to a rough start to the season. The Pelicans will struggle from not having another respectable guard alongside Jrue Holiday. Julius Randle will clog the lane for Anthony Davis and AD will quickly become frustrated. In a very competitive West, their slow start will be very hard to overcome especially because of the team’s lack of talent. AD will realize that the organization is unable to obtain talent because of the small market and begin to think of a trade. Christmas will come and go and AD will be ready for a trade. The team will be fighting for the 8th spot at best and he is tired of losing. A couple of weeks before the trade deadline, he will tell the team he wants a trade and he will not resign with them when his contract comes up. This is when teams start calling.

The three teams that will call and have any chance to get AD are the Lakers and the Celtics. The rest of the league will call, but nobody will be able to put together a better package than these teams. The Lakers will probably be the first team to call because they need another star to put next to LeBron because they can’t waste any years of LeBron’s contract. This is where the offer for AD becomes hazy. At this point in the season, we will see if LeBron and Lonzo can play together. If they can’t, then they will be happy to center a package around Lonzo and either Kyle Kuzma or Josh Hart and figure out a way to make the salary difference work. If it looks like Lonzo and LeBron can play together, then the Lakers probably won’t be able to make the move. Hart and Kuzma have a combined salary of 3 million which makes it near impossible for a trade to work out. Unless the Pelicans are willing to take both Kentavius Caldwell-Pope and Rajon Rondo, i don’t know how this deal would work out.

The next team we would have is the Celtics. The Cetltics clearly have the most amount of assets to offer. They have a couple of picks to offer along with a star player. Let’s start by setting Kyrie, Gordon Hayward, and Jayson Tatum untouchable. This leaves Jaylen Brown and Al Horford to center the deal around. Jaylen Brown is really hard to work around because his contract is only 5 million and they would have to make up 20 million dollars to match the salary to Davis’ contract. So the star that would be traded is Al Horford. The deal would be Anthony Davis for Al Horford, Terry Rozier, and the Grizzlies pick and maybe the Clippers pick. The Pelicans would send someone else like a Frank Jackson to make the salaries work, but the player wouldn’t be a starter by any means. I don’t know if the Pelicans or the Celtics would pull the trigger on this, but this would be one of the biggest trades in the history of the NBA.

The last team that would be in on the mix would be the 76ers. If the 76ers would be in on the trade, here is how it would go. The 76ers would send Markelle Fultz, Dario Saric, Furkan Korkmaz, and Jerryd Bayless for Anthony Davis. The only picks that would be included would be a second round by either team. I don’t think the 76ers would offer anything else. They would give up too many wing players if they included Robert Convington instead of Dario Saric. Plus, their backcourt would be too crowded having AD, Embiid, and Saric all on the same team. The trade I said above makes the most sense in my opinion. The Pelicans get back a former first overall pick plus another young promising player in Saric. The 76ers complete their search for another star and are now capable of making a Finals push and competing in the Finals. I don’t know if the 76ers are willing the make the final push on this, but this would be a hard offer to say no to.

I don’t think AD wants to play on a mediocre team his whole career in New Orleans and he is aware of what he needs to do to prevent this. I think AD moving teams in the middle of the year can make either of the Lakers or 76ers real threats to the Warriors and make the Celtics one of the best team the Warriors have ever played against going back to the 2015 Cavs team.No matter what team AD goes to, I think that he will be traded by the trade deadline.

There you have it. I think that this is how the NBA will shake out this year. There are always things that are surprises during the regular season. The Pacers being good last year surprised just about everyone. Donovan Mitchell caught everyone off guard with his impressive rookie campaign. Now, these surprises didn’t end up affecting the playoffs necessarily because the Warriors and Cavs ended up playing against one another for the fourth straight year. Maybe this year will be different and we will see surprises that will affect the playoffs. I’m hoping for an exciting NBA season and if some of my predictions come true, we could see one happen.