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John Hollinger beat Vegas

The blog Weak Side Awareness did all kinds of fancypants research and figured out that John Hollinger is going to live out his days on the island of his choosing.

Not really. Hollinger is keeping his day job. But should he ever seek work in the world of gambling ...

Last season Hollinger's predictions were freakishly accurate. Of the dozens tracked by the blog, Hollinger's were beaten only by a hybrid formula The TrueHoop Network's Painted Area put together built on the picks of Hollinger, Kevin Pelton and Kelly Dwyer.

Those were the only two who beat the Vegas lines.

In his wake were the Vegas lines, and a who's who of NBA quants. Go and have a look.

Interestingly, a whisper behind the Vegas lines was the ESPN summer forecast. That was where, ten weeks before the season started, ESPN.com had a panel of 93 people predict the season. That's very similar to the panel that endured some criticism for its ranking of every NBA player this summer in the #NBARank project. It appears they know what they're saying when they say there's a certain wisdom in crowds.