The tip-off of the much awaited season of the NBA is only days away. After a pre-season filled with blockbuster trades, free-agent signings, and changes in the coaching staff in many of teams, the hoop world is buzzing with anticipation as the start of the season draws near.

The off-season witnessed LeBron James and Chris Bosh leave Cleveland and Toronto to take their talents to South Beach and join Dwayne Wade. It also saw Kevin Durant lead the American team to the top of the FIBA World Championships. Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, Al Jefferson, Hedo Turkoglu are just some of the marquee player who will be sporting new jerseys as the brand new NBA season debuts on October 27 on BTV and SOLARtv.

With that said, we’ve decided that it would be nice to predict all the post-season awards of this NBA season along with which 16 teams are bound for the playoffs and ultimately which one of these teams would go all the way to the NBA title.

Rookie of the Year

Even though John Wall of the Washington Wizards was the first pick of this year’s draft, he is not the favorite to win this award; that distinction belongs to Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, last year’s number one overall pick. Griffin is still considered as a rookie because he didn’t play a single game in last-year’s regular season. He is expected to post monstrous rookie numbers specially because he’ll get a lot of touches on offense.

Defensive Player of the Year

This award already has Dwight Howard’s name penciled in. Howard is a tremendous defender who blocks a ton of shots and alters a whole lot more. The Orlando Magic’s entire defensive pattern revolves around his ability to block shots and shot down the other team’s big man. This is why, barring any injuries or a sudden meteoric rise of any other player on defense, Howard will retain this award.

Most Improved Player

This award is hard to give out because not a single game has been played yet so it will be based on purely potential. Because Carlos Boozer has moved on to join the Chicago Bulls, Paul Milsap could win the Most Improved Player award this year. Yes, Al Jefferson will also be joining the Jazz and Milsap will have to contend with him for playing time but the fact that Milsap knows Jerry Sloan’s system more will likely earn him more minutes.

Sixth Man of the Year

Manu Ginobili and Jason Terry are the favorites for this award. Even if both can be considered elder statesmen in the NBA, the two are vital cogs in their teams’ success. It all boils down to which of them stays healthy and plays more games.

Scoring Champion

Kevin Durant will lead the league in scoring. He did it last year and he’s gotten better so it’s easy to pick him as the favorite to win this award again. There are better players like Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and LeBron James but all these players have team mates who could score as well so the wealth would have to be spread around. Durant is the center piece of the Oklahoma’s Thunder. He’ll have the ball most of the times and because of his amazing offensive skill set, Durant is definitely the favorite to lead the league in scoring.

Most Valuable Player

This year, the race for the MVP trophy will be tighter as LeBron James won’t dominate like he did last largely because he’ll have Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to share the ball with. The MVP race will likely boil down to a two-man race between James and Kevin Durant. James’ point production will likely drop but he’ll be a more dangerous threat on offense because he has two superstars beside him and he’ll likely get better on defense because he doesn’t have to expend all his energy on offense, well also because he has two superstars beside him. A lot of people won’t be happy about it, but James is likely to repeat as MVP with Durant closely behind.

Best Turnaround

There is no way to go but up for the New Jersey Nets. They had a absolutely miserable season last year but they regrouped in the off-season. As of the moment, they are still working to get Carmelo Anthony on board and if they do, this award will be theirs. If not, the New York Knicks would likely get this distinction because of the addition of Amare Stoudemire.

Most Wins

The Miami Heat will be the first seed in the Eastern division, closely followed by the Boston Celtics, while the LA Lakers will be a shoo-in for the top spot in the West. Miami will likely have more wins than LA because the competition in the East in easier than it is in the West.

Easter Playoff Teams

As stated above, Miami and Boston will make the top two and they will be followed by Chicago and Orlando. Milwaukee, Atlanta, and New York will be composing the lower half of the rankings with either Charlotte or Philadelphia getting the eighth seed.

Western Playoff Teams

After LA, the teams are pretty even in the West. Oklahoma, Dallas, San Antonio and Utah will all make it easily with Houston, New Orleans, Denver and Portland competing for the last three slots.

NBA Champions

The Lakers are the favorites to win the West while mot pundits see a struggle between the Celtics and the Heat for the right to challenge the back-to-back defending champions. However, both of these Eastern teams will be hard-pressed to wrest the crown from the Lakers. After the dust has settled, Phil Jackson will claim his fourth three-peat and Kobe Bryant will win his sixth ring.

Catch your favorite NBA teams in action on BTV everyday on SOLARtv from Saturday to Monday. Tipoff will be on October 27 with a gigantic double-header featuring the revamped Miami Heat going up against the Boston Celtics and while the LA Lakers start their drive for a three-peat against the Houston Rockets who will get Yao Ming back after a year of absence.

The Celtics-Heat game will be aired live on BTV at 7:30 am which will be followed by the Lakers-Rockets contest at 10:30 am.