In danger of bringing terrible memories of the Dallas Collapse of ’06, other teams around the league are starting to say thatthe Dwayne Wade gets too many calls. The Detroit News has an article about it. Here’s an excerpt:

Rasheed Wallace fired up a shot and then threw himself to the floor. Then he got up, faked a limp and did it again. “Working on my D-Wade flop,” he said, laughing. The dead-on impersonation of some of Heat guard Dwyane Wade ‘s theatrics actually had the entire team laughing during Thursday’s shoot-around. But Wade’s flopping, and subsequent trips to the free-throw line didn’t seem funny during the Pistons’ 87-85 victory Thursday night. “You can’t do nothing to D-Wade,” Wallace said. “If you say ‘boogety-boogety booh’ to him, that’s a foul. If you give him a hard look, that’s a foul.” Heading into Thursday, Wade had attempted a league-high 163 free throws — 11.6 per game.

Read the full article here.

The NBA season tips off on Tuesday night with a high-octane, run and gun showdown between the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls. It’s about time. I’ve kept myself distracted from the pain of last season’s abrupt collapse by the Dallas Mavericks by watching a little bit of playoff baseball, playing fantasy football, and enrolling in seminary. I can’t wait for the Mavs opener against San Antonio on Thursday night. I’m predicting big things for Dirk and the rest of the team this year.

Let me preface my predictions with a few items of note. First off, I am completely biased. I’ve been a Mavericks fan since the days of James Donaldson, Derek Harper, Rolondo Blackman, Brad Davis, and the rest of the team in 1986-87. I was one of the 2,000 in attendance during the mid-nineties fiasco seasons, when they were lucky to win 15 games. I wear my team spirit on my sleeve, and I make no apologies for it.

Secondly, since I am a Mavericks homer, I know much more about the Western conference, and the Southwest Division in particular, than the East. I couldn’t tell you more than about 15 players from the East, but I could probably tell you the starting lineup for most of the teams in the West. That being said, my predictions for the Eastern teams will not be researched nearly as well as the West.

With that out of the way, here is my forecast for the Eastern Conference:

1-Chicago Bulls (Central Div Winner)
2-Miami Heat (Southeast Div Winner)
3-New Jersey Nets (Atlantic Div Winner)
4-Cleveland Cavaliers
5-Orlando Magic
6-Detroit Pistons
7-New York Knicks
8-Washington Wizards

And the West:

1-Dallas Mavericks (Southwest Div Winner)
2-LA Clippers (Pacific Div Winner)
3-Utah Jazz (Northwest Div Winner)
4-NOK Hornets
5-San Antonio Spurs
6-Phoenix Suns
7-Golden State Warriors
8-Houston Rockets

East Champs-Chichago Bulls
West Champs-Dallas Mavericks
NBA Champs-Dallas Mavericks

You may notice a few bold predictions. First off, the Hornets ahead of the Spurs? Yes. The combination of Chris Paul rising another level and some key additions in the off-season make them a much better team than last year. I also think Tim Duncan’s production will go down this year, causing the Spurs to have a tough season. Also, the Warriors in, Lakers out. Golden State should have been much better last year than they were. They have really good young talent on their roster, and Don Nelson is a coaching genius (in the regular season), which will translate into a trip to the playoffs.

The reason I think Dallas will be the best this year is simple. They have the top 7 players from last year back, and have improved their roster with slots 8-12. Devin George and Gregg Buckner will be serviceable 7-10 minute guys, and Anthony Johnson will give Devin Harris the needed pressure to improve his game to get more playing time. Not to mention, Austin Croshere is an upgrade over Keith Van Horn.

The one thing that can throw everything off is injuries. If any team suffers a key injury to a star player (Pau Gaso of the Grizzliesl, for example) that will dramatically affect their success.

I’ll come back to my predictions and make any updates to this at the All-Star break.

John Nadel for the Associated Press wrote an article on Wednesday entitled Kobe ready for another runt to NBA title. However it doesn’t mention an NBA title anywhere in the article. Here’s an excerpt: “Bryant hopes the signing of Vladimir Radmanovic, Maurice Evans and Shammond Williams will strengthen the Lakers. ‘We made some key additions with those guys,’ Bryant said. ‘We turned some heads the way we performed last season. We were a very young team. We’re still a young team. I think it will be exciting.’”

Let’s take a look at the stats of these key additions. The most notable player, Radmanovic, has a career average of 10.1 points, 1.5 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per game. He’s thought of as a threat from behind the three point line, where he averages .381 for his career. Maurice Evans career totals are 5.4 ppg, 0.7 assists, and 2.4 rebounds. And finally, Shammond Williams. He hasn’t played in two years, but his career totals are 6.1 ppg, 2.5 assists, and 1.6 rebounds. Those numbers are sure to turn some heads.

In their defense, I didn’t expect the Lakers to make the playoff. I especially didn’t expect them to take Phoenix to 7 games. They did MUCH better than I expected last year. However, it’s very early to start talking about the Finals for Kobe and the Lakers. The first thing they need to do is make consecutive appearances to the playoffs and maybe win a series or two. Then I would be OK with people talking about a title run.

Until then, let’s just be realistic about the Lakers’ title chances. Slim to none.

Pau Gasol might miss three months of the NBA season because of an injury he sustained to his foot during the closing moments of the World Championships in Japan. Mark Cuban has been vocal about his concerns of NBA players participating in these types of events. His main argument is that there is no insurance for his player, they were to get hurt. This fear has come true for the Memphis Grizzlies. They will be without their best player for a significant portion of the season. At least it didn’t happen to Dirk. Read the news story here.

After a heartbreaking end the the 2005-06 season, the Mavericks are back at it early in the off-season getting ready for the 2006-07 season. They’ve reportedly come to terms with Jason Terry, which was by far the most important business to take care of. They are set to offer Mbenga a multi-year deal, and it looks like they’re going to trade Marquis Daniels to the Pacers for Austin Croshere. I like the moves I’ve seen so far. I’d be surprised if Mbenga, Dampier, and Diop are all back next year. I’m waiting to see if someone will take a chance on trading for Dampier (not likely) or Diop. As far as Daniels goes, he’s been buried on the bench since Avery has been coach and he seems to think he’s more of a playmaker than he’s proven to be so far in his career.

The final piece of business that needs to happen before the season is extending Dirk’s contract. Once that happens, their off-season will be complete. The way things have gone since Cuban’s been owner, though, means that there may be some more deals in the works that will shock us all.

We’re looking good to make another run at the NBA Finals.