Which NBA Pundit Would Have The Worst Predictions If The Season Ended Today? Grading ESPN's Experts

Republished with permission from PunditTracker.com

As we head into All-Star Weekend, let's take a look at how the NBA pundit prognostications are shaping up so far this year. We are tracking the predictions of 35 ESPN pundits across 11 categories: 6 division winners, 2 conference winners, overall champion, MVP, and Rookie of the Year. Given that it's too early to judge the likelihood of conference and overall championship winners, we will only analyze how the division and player award picks are faring (8 categories), assuming the season ended today. This might prove presumptuous, but we are assuming that LeBron wins MVP and Damian Lillard wins ROY (for you Kevin Durant fans, we are happy to provide the data based on KD winning the MVP).

The table is ranked by Yield. As a reminder, the Yield metric calibrates predictions for boldness by measuring the average payout (using Vegas odds) had you placed $1 bets on each of the pundit's selections. The last row ("total") shows the % of pundits that got each category right - for instance, none of the 35 pundits picked the Knicks to win the Atlantic, while all of them picked the Heat to win the Southeast.

Pundit	Atl	Ctl	SE	NW	SW	Pac	RoY	MVP	#	Yield
Kevin Arnovitz	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Lillard	James	6	$1.47
Nick Friedell	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Lillard	James	6	$1.47
Dave McMenamin	BKN	IND	MIA	OKC	MEM	LAL	Lillard	James	5	$1.27
Israel Gutierrez	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAC	Davis	Paul	5	$1.21
Brian Windhorst	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Lillard	Durant	5	$1.12
Beckley Mason	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Lillard	Durant	5	$1.12
Mike Mazzeo	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Lillard	Durant	5	$1.12
David Thorpe	PHI	CHI	MIA	DEN	SA	LAL	Lillard	James	4	$1.11
Marc Stein	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Chris Palmer	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Larry Coon	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Royce Webb	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Tom Haberstroh	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Maurice Brooks	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Arash Markazi	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Chris Forsberg	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Ian Begley	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Vegas Favorites	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	5	$1.04
Scoop Jackson	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	MEM	LAC	Drummond	Paul	4	$1.02
Justin Verrier	BOS	IND	MIA	DEN	SA	LAL	Lillard	Durant	4	$0.98
R. Shelburne	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	MEM	LAL	Lillard	Paul	4	$0.93
Tim Legler	BOS	CHI	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Lillard	Durant	4	$0.90
Keith Lipscomb	BOS	CHI	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Lillard	Durant	4	$0.90
John Hollinger	BOS	IND	MIA	DEN	SA	LAL	Davis	James	4	$0.89
Chad Ford	BOS	IND	MIA	DEN	SA	LAL	Davis	James	4	$0.89
Adena Andrews	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	MEM	LAL	Davis	James	4	$0.84
Jackie MacMullan	BOS	CHI	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	4	$0.82
Tim MacMahon	BOS	CHI	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	James	4	$0.82
Chris Ramsay	BOS	IND	MIA	DEN	MEM	LAL	Davis	James	3	$0.70
J.A. Adande	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	Durant	4	$0.69
Chris Broussard	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	Durant	4	$0.69
Michael Wallace	BOS	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Kidd-Gilchrist	Paul	4	$0.69
Henry Abbott	PHI	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Drummond	Durant	4	$0.69
Jack Ramsay	PHI	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Sullinger	Wade	4	$0.69
Bruce Bowen	BKN	IND	MIA	OKC	SA	LAL	Davis	Durant	4	$0.69
Adry Torres	BKN	IND	MIA	OKC	MEM	LAL	Davis	Durant	3	$0.50

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