WDKB Actually Unhinged 2024-25 NBA Predictions, Revisited (Part 2)
Every year, people try to guess what will happen in the NBA. Every year, people are wrong. We are those people.
Now that the NBA finals have ended, we can look back on our predictions from the beginning of the season and determine just how wrong we were. One of the beautiful things about the NBA is that it always provides unexpected drama, and this season was no different! While last season brought such gems as the Jontay Porter sports betting scandal, this season brought new exciting moments like multiple coaches on playoff-eligible teams getting fired within days of the end of the season.
We’ll revisit our predictions by conference, because 30 teams is a lot of teams. We fared a bit better on our western conference predictions, getting one prediction completely correct and getting partial credit on three other predictions! This is a career high for us, but maybe also a sign that we weren’t ambitious enough. Let’s get into it.
Western Conference
Golden State Warriors
❌ Buddy Hield breaks the record for most three-pointers in a game, a record currently held by Klay Thompson.
❌ Lacob gets into beef with the SF Supervisors and moves the team back to Oakland.
We should have predicted… Draymond Green baselessly accuses KAT of skipping a game because he’s scared of Jimmy Butler, learns he had missed the game due to attending a funeral, and says “You never wish that on anybody. But the Draymond Green Show With Baron Davis must go on.”
We should have predicted (honorable mention)… Warriors try to trade for Kevin Durant, fail, and pivot to trading for Jimmy Butler.
Los Angeles Lakers
❌ Bronny James wins Rookie of the Year.
Bronny did start for the Lakers in their last game of the regular season!
❌ Bronny James is traded to the Washington Wizards for Kyle Kuzma.
We should have predicted… The Lakers trade Dalton Knecht for Mark Williams at the deadline, then back out of the trade when Williams fails the physical, forcing them to finish the season with no true center. They still finish third in the west.
We’ll save the other thing for the Mavericks.
LA Clippers
❌ Thanks to their shiny new stadium, the Clippers have the best home regular season record in the NBA.
❌ Kawhi Leonard announces his retirement mid-season.
After starting the season “sidelined indefinitely”, Kawhi Leonard returned and was “extremely back” for a little while before being vanquished by the Nuggets.
We should have predicted… The Wall actually leads to lower opponent free throw percentage.
The Clippers weren’t last in overall opponent FT%, but this stat is specific to when opponents are shooting free throws when looking at The Wall.
Sacramento Kings
❌ Without the motivation of being filmed for Netflix, Sabonis has a career-worst season in points and rebounds.
Sabonis was worse than last year across most stats, but nowhere near career-worst.
🟡 The Kings fire Mike Brown and hire another former Warriors assistant.
The Kings did indeed fire Mike Brown. However, the interim head coach is Doug Christie, who has not served as an assistant coach for the Warriors.
We should have predicted… The Kings fire Mike Brown midseason, then trade De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio to reunite DeMar DeRozan with Zach LaVine. Bulls West!
Phoenix Suns
❌ Devin Booker and Kevin Durant both get injured, and the double Patrick Ewing Effect propels Bradley Beal to lead the Suns to a championship.
We should have predicted… The Suns fire Mike Budenholzer after one season, making him Devin Booker’s 6th one-year head coach.
We should have predicted (honorable mention)… The Suns lower food prices at their arena.
Portland Trail Blazers
❌ Scoot Henderson has a better season than Victor Wembanyama.
This did not happen but I am still a Scoot believer. –Grant
❌ Portland extends Deandre Ayton but includes a Kyler-Murray-type video game restriction clause in his contract.
Deandre Ayton was not up for a contract extension so this never could have happened, that’s my bad. –Grant
We should have predicted… The guys start getting good at the wrong time and threaten to make the play-in, forcing some extreme tanking tactics. Chauncey Billups is still extended as head coach.
Minnesota Timberwolves
❌ In order to settle the ongoing legal battle over the ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Timberwolves board of governors opts to sell shares in the team, Green Bay Packers style.
There was drama here but not this kind of drama.
❌ The Timberwolves and Knicks trade Randle for KAT with the exact same terms as the summer deal, but in reverse.
This trade looked like a lose-lose at the start of the season, and then a win-win at the start of the conference finals, and now idk –Grant
❌ The Timberwolves move to the eastern conference mid-season. No additional teams are added or announced.
We should have predicted… The Timberwolves trade KAT for Julius Randle.
This happened before we did our predictions, but we shouldn’t have let the space-time continuum stop us.
Utah Jazz
❌ In order to achieve brand synergy with the Utah Hockey Team, the Jazz rebrand to the Utah Basketball Team.
We should have predicted… The Jazz invent (?) a new style of tanking where you just don’t play any of your starters in the second half. They use this to achieve the worst record in the NBA, but still only get the 5th overall pick.
Denver Nuggets
❌ Russell Westbrook wins Comeback Player of the Year, an award which is revived just for him.
🟡 The GM trades Aaron Gordon mid-season and Michael Malone quits.
Partial credit here: Dallas assistant coach Marko Milic left after they traded Luka. The Nuggets fired Michael Malone and their GM.
We should have predicted… The Nuggets fired their head coach and general manager with only 3 games left in the regular season while in playoff contention.
Oklahoma City Thunder
✅ Kenrich Williams regrows his mullet.
Nov 17, 2024: Kenrich Williams is back, and he appears to have re-grown his mullet. We got one right!
Jun 24, 2025: Kenrich Williams did disconnect his mullet at some point during the finals, which is unsettling looking. However, the fact that he regrew it still stands.
❌ Jalen Williams has a career-best season but misses out on All-NBA because one of the voters accidentally writes Jaylin Williams.
Jalen Williams had a career best season and made 3rd-team All-NBA with 15 points more than Alperen Sengun, the highest point-getter not included. One incorrect vote would not have changed this.
We should have predicted… Alex Caruso has to give the young Thunder players a tutorial on how to pop a champagne bottle after they win the championship.
San Antonio Spurs
❌ The Spurs trade every player on their roster aside from Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul.
❌ Wembanyama makes more dramatic hair choices than Jimmy Butler this year.
Wembanyama made some dramatic hair choices but Jimmy remains undefeated here.
❌ Wembanyama records a quintuple-double.
October 31, 2024: Wemby recorded a 5x5, which is halfway to a quintuple-double (25/9/7/5/5)
We should have predicted… Chris Paul and Victor Wembanyama cheat while participating in the skills challenge during All-Star weekend and get disqualified. The cheating is revealed to be Wembanyama’s idea.
This is arguably the best thing that happened in the NBA this season. –Grant
Dallas Mavericks
❌ Klay gets MVP votes.
❌ Jason Kidd and Quin Snyder switch signature glasses styles after the All Star break.
We should have predicted… You know what happened. We should have predicted every part of it.
Counterpoint: No we shouldn’t have! –Marisa
We should have predicted (honorable mention)… The Mavericks win the draft lottery.
Houston Rockets
❌ Dillon Brooks gets a one-game suspension for punching his own teammate in the nuts.
For the second season in a row this didn’t happen. Let’s hope Bradley Beal is really annoying.
🟡 The Houston front office decides that the current rebuild isn’t going quickly enough, and makes a big trade for James Harden, since the Clippers also want to blow it up.
This was looking wrong through the end of the season. Luckily right before press time, the Rockets traded for Kevin Durant since the Suns want to blow it up*, making this almost correct.
* it’s not actually clear what the Suns “want”, exactly, just leaving that phrasing to match the prediction.
We should have predicted… The Rockets ride good play from Steven Adams to become the 2-seed in the West. They lose to the Warriors in 7 (again) in the first round.
Memphis Grizzlies
❌ It’s revealed that the Memphis scorekeeper WAS padding JJJ’s stats, proving Reddit correct.
This hasn’t happened yet but it can never be disproven. –Grant
We should have predicted… Memphis fires Taylor Jenkins with two weeks left in the regular season while in the middle of a playoff push. They proceed to lose a play-in game on a 5-second violation.
New Orleans Pelicans
❌ The players vote to impeach CJ McCollum as NBPA president.
We should have predicted… After another lost season, the Pelicans fire their general manager but demand the new GM keep head coach Willie Green.
That’s a wrap on the west! Somehow, we will be back soon with some NBA draft fashion coverage. Bye!