Then and now: Your three overachievers and three disasters.

[UK2K]

From where you thought they'd be preseason, to where we are now.

My winners:

Biggest overachievers
1) Boston Celtics
Predicted to be a bad lottery team. They're going to the playoffs.

2) Atlanta Hawks
Predicted to be middle of the road, and compete, but to put on the show they did, they slide in at #2.

3) Indiana Pacers
I know they aren't in the playoffs yet, but if they get in, they're gonna be a tough out. Thought without PG they'd be a dumpster fire. They're close, but they're still miles ahead of where I saw them.

Biggest disasters:

3) Miami Heat
Did anyone see them missing the playoffs? The loss of Bosh hurt, but even in the EC, a healthy Wade should be enough to get in the playoffs.

2) Oklahoma City Thunder
Most had them penciled in as a WC finals contender, if not a championship contender. Now they may be watching from home.

1) New York Knicks
They suck. Bad. Melo quit. The team is full of losers. Just a bad team having a horrific season.

What say you?

[Kobe_6/8]

Winners
1) Warriors - Fantastic season, 38-2 at home?!
2) Hawks - Nobody had them doing this well.
3) Rockets - Even with Dwight injured, Harden is carrying them.

Losers
1) Wizards - Turned out pretty average.
2) Bulls - Derrick Rose.
3) Thunder - Durant.

[Random_Guy]

comon now, its not fair to say the thunder are a disaster, injuries plagued them, and russ played extremely well, dont see how they are underachieving.

[UK2K]

comon now, its not fair to say the thunder are a disaster, injuries plagued them, and russ played extremely well, dont see how they are underachieving.
Injuries are part of the game. Dwight has been out for months.

And while Russ is playing well, they're still losing.

They may not even make the playoffs. Really? Make the playoffs? From title hopefuls to... Fans in the stands.

[Milbuck]

Bucks
Hawks
Celtics

Hornets
Knicks
Wizards/Heat

[imdaman99]

Knicks are a disaster this year, especially after winning 2 meaningless games to push themselves away from the top pick...but what can you do? You can't really tell a bunch of guys trying out for the NBA to not give it their all.

As for OKC, it's a 1 man band. Can Kanter put up nice stats? Yes, but the scrub he's covering will also do that. At least Harden has defenders around him that can score. Thunder have 1 or the other. They either have defenders who don't know how to score or they have offensive players that don't know how to defend. Waiters is their 2nd option, you wanna tell me about his game last night? :roll:

[Giaodollo]

Post All Star break the biggest overachievers has defintely been Jazz, went from a possible first pick to almost .500. I guess long term very negative.

[SexSymbol]

Overachievers:
1.Hawks, easily, nobody thought they would have a 60 win season, absolutely nobody.
2.Jazz, they've been amazing post all-star break for some mysterious reason
3.Celtics, making the playoffs wasn't really seen as a possibility for at least 5 months of the season.

Disasters:
1.Hornets, they should've been much better
2.Toronto, started out so strong, completely sucked in the second half of the season
3.Knicks, what a focking trainwreck of a team, should be removed from the league. This team is nothing now, it's nothing historically, it's always been overrated just due to being a New York team. KNICKS ARE A TOP 5 WORST FRANCHISE EVER.

[SugarHill]

overachievers - rockets, hawks, jazz

underachievers - hornets, suns, wizards

[UK2K]

Everyone hating on the wiz.

Did anyone think they were a finals favorite?

[Legends66NBA7]

Everyone hating on the wiz.

Did anyone think they were a finals favorite?

They were overrated all off season as a Top 3 team guaranteed in the East, when they didn't make any significant improvement. Pierce over Ariza wasn't an upgrade IMO. Still a middle of the pack team and that's what they turned out to be.

And being overrated doesn't necessarily mean people thought they were title/finals favorites. You can be overrated without being considered one. Look at the Hornets, I remember a lot of posters saying they were locks to get into the playoffs and possibly a high seed.

This was bold prediction thread for the Wiz (probably the highest they got praised, I think) in the off season: http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348084

Some actually thought it wasn't even far fetched at the time.