Every year, I make fifty predictions about the NBA season to come. Even though we’re already a few days into the season, we did debut the first 25 predictions earlier in the week. That said, these last 25 predictions were in fact made before the first game was played, even though they’re just showing up on the site after most teams have played a contest or two.

For more details on what these predictions are all about, take a quick gander at part one, and feel free to express any disagreements or predictions of your own in the comment section.

Here are the second half of my 50 predictions for the 2012-13 NBA season:

Playoff Predictions

26. The Toronto Raptors will be the best Eastern Conference team not to make the postseason.

27. The Utah Jazz will be back in the playoffs as a higher seeding than last year’s eighth seed.

28. Even without Derrick Rose for most of the season, the Chicago Bulls will be good enough defensively to still make the playoffs.

29. The Brooklyn Nets will have home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

30. The L.A. Clippers will also end up with home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

31. The L.A. Lakers will face the Miami HEAT in the NBA Finals.

32. The Miami HEAT will win their second consecutive NBA championship.

Rookie Predictions

33. Damian Lillard will win the Rookie of the Year award.

34. Anthony Davis will finish top five in the league in blocks per game and top ten in rebounds per game.

35. Dion Waiters will show flashes of brilliance, but by the end of his rookie season pretty much everyone will be in agreement that he is not, in fact, anything even close to resembling “The Next Dwyane Wade.”

36. Brad Beal is going to have a rough first season and will not make the All-Rookie first team.

37. Jonas Valanciunas, however, will be named to the All-Rookie first team.

38. Thomas Robinson will average at least 7.5 rebounds per game.

39. No rookie will average a double-double, but Andre Drummond will come the closest.

40. Brooklyn’s Tyshawn Taylor will generally be considered the best second-rounder from the ’12 draft.

Transaction Predictions

41. Anderson Varejao will not finish the season a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

42. Despite their apparent logjam at point guard, the Toronto Raptors will not trade Jose Calderon this season.

43. The Sacramento Kings, who love Tyreke Evans more than people realize, will not trade him before the deadline.

44. Rudy Gay will be traded, but not until at least half of the Memphis Grizzlies’ regular season games have been played.

45. Josh Smith, though a gorgeous $13+ million expiring contract with loads of talent, will not be traded this season.

46. At some point, the Milwaukee Bucks will trade either Brandon Jennings or Monta Ellis, as two potential free agents will prove to be too much for the Bucks to try and deal with.

47. Utah will find themselves forced to move either Paul Millsap or Al Jefferson to make more minutes available for Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter.

Miscellaneous Predictions

48. Seattle will not be awarded a franchise before the end of the 2012-13 regular season.

49. The Chicago Bulls, like they always do, will once again lead the league in attendance this season.

50. The Orlando Magic will luck out and land the #1 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, because that’s what always happens when the Orlando Magic really need a #1 pick.

Let’s set the over/under for number of predictions I get right at 33.5. Let me know what you’ve got, either in the comment section or on Twitter (you can follow me @joelbrigham).

Check back after the season and we’ll recap these one-by-one to see how many I actually got right. I do, in fact, hold myself accountable in this way, and it’s kind of fun to see how outrageously incorrect I was about some of these things. Which of these are the most outrageous? It might be too early to tell, but I invite you to lambaste me in the meantime, anyway.

Here’s to a great season!