With tonight’s NBA Draft Lottery, the NBA off-season begins, and with it my lengthy new-baby-and-non-hoops-work-induced blogging hiatus.
But before I can start wading into the various issues of this off-season, a couple of housecleaning posts are in order. First, a reckoning with my October predictions for this now-completed season:
1) The Grizzlies will be one of the most improved teams in the NBA — and still miss the playoffs. The Grizzlies offense will make a big leap from terrible to average. The defense will maintain its mediocrity. The result? Respectabilty! Predicted record: 36-46.
Good start. The Grizzlies, in winning 16 more games, were the league’s second most improved team (behind the Oklahoma City Thunder, who made a dramatic 27-game improvement), but did indeed miss the playoffs. The team’s offensive efficiency jumped from 28th to 17th. The defense fell off slightly, from 20th to 23rd. As for the record, I undershot by four games.