2010-11 S.W.A.G.s

We are a couple of days away from the start of preseason and a few weeks from the start of the season.  Time to roll out the predictions.  You've seen my preview, which is pretty standard.  Now here are my S.W.A.G.s (Silly Wild Astute Guesses) - which take a slightly different tack.

Now keep in mind, these are meant to be a little silly and a little far out there.  But to be honest, I'm finding it hard to imagine something that couldn't happen with this crew.  I mean, with the personalities on this team, just about anything could happen.  But lets give this the old college try anyway, shall we?

1. Boston Bench Mob gets a reality show.  Shaq will pull some strings with his Shaq Vs. producers, rent out a Real World worthy bachelor pad in the North End, and move in with Nate Robinson, Glen Davis, Delonte West, and Marquis Daniels. A camera crew will follow them around as Nate poses as a child for one of Shaq's COPS type raids.  Delonte West becomes the voice of a cartoon character and Big Baby takes up MMA.  Marquis just sits there giggling and munching on Cheetos.  In short, hilarity ensues.

2. Luke Harangody enters the starting lineup.  Ok, so this one is more of a fear than anything else but here it is.  Pierce will take his annual 2 week vacation sometime in the first half of the season.  Then one of three things could happen to put Harangody into the starting lineup.  A) Marquis Daniels gets hurt - not a stretch by any means.  B) Doc Rivers could decide that Daniels works better off the bench - so he puts Luke in with the starters much like he did with Scalabrine the first time KG got hurt.  C) Daniels plays himself right out of the top of the rotation - at which point his agent bursts a blood vessel and retires on the spot.

3. Kevin Garnett: MVP.  File this one more into the "man, wouldn't that be great?" file.  Seriously though, everyone is raving about this guy from the coaches to the players to the media.  If anyone on this team has a shot at it (besides maybe Rondo) it is Garnett.  Consider that James and Wade will now be cancelling themselves out in the voting, there might be a window of opportunity here.  Will KG ever lead the league in scoring?  No.  But close your eyes and imagine a world where defense is valued enough to give a rejuvenated and healthy Garnett the due respect he deserves for being a ball-hawking, arm-waving, havoc-inducing madman of defensive intensity.  Beautiful isn't it?

4. Antoine 3.0  This is pretty much cliche at this point, but hey, I'm pretty sure that just about anything could happen with this squad.  Imagine if Danny finds a 2-for-1 deal where he adds a small forward in exchange for Glen Davis and a salary-match casualty like Von Wafer.  One or both of the O'Neals misses a week or two for some reason or another.  Danny needs to add a power forward type on a 10-day contact.  He loves reclamation projects like Marbury, Nate Robinson, and Darius Miles.  He's always had more talent than work ethic, but nothing motivates like needing to pay the bills.  Hey, yaneverknow right?

5. Rondo becomes a shooter.  It is well documented that Rondo isn't a great shooter.  It is also well documented how stubborn he is.  Imagine if he took that stubbornness to another level and just decided that he's going to prove everyone wrong and refuses to miss.  Of course this would probably be preceded by a period of time where he isn't making a lot but refuses to stop shooting them (like the fella in #4 here).  But hey, if it means that he'll get better in time for the playoffs, who cares?  Its not like this team cares about the regular season anyway.

Oh yeah, and one last SWAG: Banner 18, over the Lakers in 6.  Nuff said.