10 Things to Watch for NBA's Final Two Months

With the NBA season turning the final corner, we need to look at some of the storylines that might be heavily involved in the final two months. There are a lot of them plus since I am sucker, I make my predictions on what might happen this season.  

Could Philadelphia out-tank Milwaukee? - Everyone will find this weird, but I keep having flashbacks of the Milwaukee Brewers closing out the season with a strong final month and ensuring they would not get a top five draft pick. I do not think it will happen with Milwaukee, but Philly is bad right now plus they will get worse when the trade deadline rolls along.  Personally, it is down to these two teams for the worst record in the league, and it is not even close.

Andrew Bynum with the Pacers - The much-maligned center will likely make his debut with the team in the coming weeks, and from all that being said by their players, Indiana does not feel it will be a problem. Given what we found out about Cleveland, Bynum got off the hook a little bit for his antics with how dysfunctional everything was there to begin with even though Bynum is not completely there. With the team and the coaches around him, I have a feeling Bynum will flourish with this squad.

Russell Westbrook with the new KD - Let's face it, Kevin Durant is a different player than he was when the season started. Durant became the definite leader of this team. With Russell Westbrook back on Thursday, are we sure he will be okay with all of this?  Remember Russ can be a type of player that tries to do too much costing his team and freezing out Durant late in the game. I feel like these two have such a good working relationship that this will not be an issue, but one little dispute and the media will be all over their asses.

Trade deadline deals - I do not believe Pau Gasol, Carmelo Anthony or Rajon Rondo will get moved this week. Those are the big three that people are going into ESPN's Trade Machine and trying to figure out how they fit on their squad.  I do think Philadelphia will deal one or two of their players whether it be Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes or others. Milwaukee should move a piece or two with all their available veterans. Brandon Bass from Boston is probably elsewhere by Thursday.

Will Giannis make a case for Rookie of the Year? - Looking at the rookie crop and there are not many great players with the ability to snag Rookie of the Year. You would probably say Victor Oladipo and Michael Carter-Williams are the favorites at this point. If Giannis Antetokounmpo comes through with a big March and April, will he garner some votes?  Probably because he would need to be special almost every time he went  on the court.

How the Eastern Conference will play out  - In a weird way, I find the Eastern Conference more fascinating than the Western Conference because truly anything can happen.  There are four possibly five teams vying for the three seed right now along with others whom are multiple games under .500 slotted into playoff spots. It is a great heaping bag of mediocrity after Indiana and Miami. Although those two teams will be battling out to see what team gets the top spot to see who will take homecourt advantage for the entire playoffs.

Kyrie Irving and Cleveland  - This does not always happen but after a guy comes up big in an All-Star, it translates into a strong stretch of games for him. Cavs need to make a push at some point. They need to get their shit together and throw their name in the hat for one of the bottom seeds in the Eastern Conference. Despite how poorly the Cavs have played this season, they are only three games back of the eighth seed. It is possible they could sneak in there. Even though, I have someone else at the eight seed, I could see Cavs getting hot for a couple weeks.

Kevin Durant and LeBron James going boxscore for boxscore - These players are in separate conferences, but at the same time, everybody is putting both of these guys on a pedestal. Durant's comments on LeBron over the weekend tells me he wants this MVP to escape from LeBron's shadow. KD is sick and tired of it and wants to make a difference. But then there are reminders like last Wednesday night where James reminds the world he is the best player in the world and will be making a run at the MVP crown. It should be great when these two square off on Thursday night.

Playoff Predictions - Eastern Conference - 1. Indiana,  2. Miami,  3. Toronto  4. Washington  5. Chicago  6. Brooklyn  7. Atlanta  8. New York

Playoff Predictions - Western Conference  - 1. Oklahoma City, 2. Houston  3. LA Clippers  4. San Antonio 5. Portland  6. Golden State  7. Dallas  8. Phoenix.

Charlie.