NBA 2024-2025 Playoff Predictions

 For the record, here is my predictions from the start of the season.  

Eastern Conference:

Play-in Games:

• Orlando Magic defeats Atlanta Hawks
• Chicago Bulls defeats Miami Heat
• Chicago Bulls defeats Atlanta Hawks

1st Round:

• Cleveland Cavaliers defeats Chicago Bulls, 4-1
• Boston Celtics defeats Orlando Magic, 4-2
• New York Knicks defeats Detroit Pistons, 4-3
• Milwaukee Bucks defeats Indiana Pacers, 4-2

2nd Round:

• Cleveland Cavaliers defeats Milwaukee Bucks, 4-1
• Boston Celtics defeats New York Knicks, 4-3

Conference Finals:

• Cleveland Cavaliers defeats Boston Celtics, 4-3

Thoughts:

• To the surprise of no one, the two best teams in the East meet in the finals.  Boston has the deep playoff experience.  Cleveland has the better record- and is better rested (the top 3 players on the Cavaliers in Minutes per game are all under 32 minutes;  the top 3 for Boston are all above 33 minutes).  And Boston played a ton more games last year.
• Add it up- and the longer the series goes, the fresher Cleveland will be.  Boston's a great team- but I think Cleveland wins in game 7

Western Conference:

Play-in Games:

• Golden State Warriors defeats Memphis Grizzlies
• Sacramento Kings defeats Dallas Mavericks
• Sacramento Kings defeats Memphis Grizzlies

1st Round:

• Oklahoma City Thunder defeats Sacramento Kings, 4-0
• Houston Rockets defeats Golden State Warriors, 4-1
• Minnesota TImberwolves defeats Los Angeles Lakers, 4-3
• Denver Nuggets defeats Los Angeles Clippers, 4-2

2nd Round:

• Oklahoma City Thunder defeats Denver Nuggets, 4-2
• Minnesota Timberwolves defeats Houston Rockets, 4-3

Conference Finals:

• Oklahoma City Thunder defeats Minnesota Timberwolves, 4-1

Thoughts:

• Oklahoma City Thunder is head and shoulders above every other team in the West this year.  After them, it's a dogfight.
• I have Minnesota being the surprise team to make it to the conference finals.  Even at the 6 seed, they won 49 games- and I think they underperformed.  

NBA Finals:

• Oklahoma City Thunder defeats Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-3

I want the Cavaliers to win it all.  But objectively, Oklahoma is the best team.  They won the most games despite some serious injuries.  Maybe if Chet Holmgren has problems, the Cleveland front court will lead them to victory.  

They split the series, each team winning 1.  Cleveland won by 7.  Oklahoma won by 20.

I have to give it to the best team, not the team I'm rooting for.

Your NBA Champions- the Oklahoma City Thunder!

The Tarriffs: A multi-prong disaster

Let us count the ways in which the tarriffs announced by President Trump are a horrible idea:

1)  It will raise prices.  That is what tarriffs are designed to do- raise prices on goods.  As a general rule, things that raise prices hurt the consumers.

2)  It's especially bad because one of the economy was marked as the most important issue by the voters in the 2024 election, and the voters were not happy with President Biden's handling of the economy.  So voluntarily raising prices- when people were complaining about the high prices from inflation- is especially foolish.

3)  The tarriffs have significantly increased the chance of a recession.  

4)  What are the purposes of the tarriffs?  The President's advisors and staffs are giving contradictory reasons on what the end goal is with the tarriffs.  Either they are hiding the reason- or, far more likely, they have no idea.  

5)  This is solely on President Trump.  No one in Congress voted on raising tarriffs; he did not have the buy-in from the House, the Senate, or the public.  If this succeeds (and I have no idea what 'success' would look like), the credit belongs to him.  If it fails (and, based on the stock market and people's opinions on the economy, I have a very good idea what 'failure' looks like), the blame belongs to him and him alone.

6)  He's managed to offend every nation with his 10% across-the-board tarriffs, ticking off allies.  The other countries may cut deals with the US- but they also know the US isn't a fair trading partner, and will look for other answers in the long term.

7)  The idea is bad- but the execution is far worse.  The calculations for the tarriffs were poorly made- to the point that economist Adam Tooze called them "Grotesque".  

8)  And they also applied tarriffs to uninhabited islands.  It's bad enough to think that the US is being run by a wannabe mob boss.  It's worse to think that it's being run by a grossly incompetent wannabe mob boss.  

9)  It's so haphazard- every day the story changes of which countries will have tarriffs and by how much.  Not only does this reinforces the idea that the group in the White House have no idea what they are doing, but business thrives on stability- when there is this much chaos, they retreat and stop spending money.  Which hurts the economy.

Normally, when a President makes a decision I don't agree with, I at least usually understand what they are thinking.  On this one, I'm completely lost.  I'm not a conspiracy theorist- but I am completely lost what the purpose of these tarriffs are supposed to be.  I don't see how this helps the country, the world, or even Trump politically.  

The tarriffs are a bad idea, poorly executed, and an embarassment to all involved.  It will hurt the country, the world, both in the short term and the long term.

Outside of that, it's a great idea.