RealGM

It seems probable that Lavine and Vuc will at least start the season with us. How many games will we win? Vegas has us at 30.5 I think, which seems fair. I think they might surprise some people, but I always think that and I’m almost always wrong (a few years ago with Ball we were clearly the surprise of the league.

So, this year how many wins?

They won 39 games last year and I think they will be better. The entire system has changed and they fit each other much better. I don't see how they don't improve from last years number.

I voted 30-34. I think most of our players will have good years, but there are very few paths to having a non-terrible defense and no one on our team is good enough to overcome that. Also, our offense will be more potent on paper, be much more aesthetically pleasing, but not as effective as last year. DeMar ball wasn't pretty to the eye, but it was good at grinding out baskets when we needed it.

Giddy does well, maybe too well. Vuc and Zach also have bounce back years. But at the end of the day none of our guys are true difference makers, so we finish with a bad record.

Also I think Charlotte is poised to make a leap this year if LaMelo is healthy. Toronto is also better than what they were doing last year. And the Hawks have no incentive to tank since they're giving up their pick to SA. Grizzlies with a full year of Ja......all should be better than us.

Which is fine. I want us to stealth-tank.

No DDR/Caruso has a paralyzing effect, 20-24

30-34.

Whilst the pieces may fit better, alot of those pieces are very young with the teams vets being Zach, Vuc, Craig and Carter. I think the loss of DDR and Caruso and the leadership and impact they provided is going to be missed and I'm not sure they have anyone to replicate that.

It'll be a more exciting team to watch and they'll likely outscore some opponents but they're going to have alot of trouble stopping team.

I can see this team starting out hot to start the season, catching teams off guard, but they'll soon be figured out and the losing streaks will start happening.

34-39 wins is the nightmare, worst case scenario. Which unfortunately is the standard set by this hapless franchise. If we can't win 47 games then losing 50+ games is by far the significantly best scenario than the nightmare in-between we're starring at. So I voted 29 wins because any other realistic scenario is crushing blow.

I really could see anywhere from 25 to 45 wins being possible. So many unknowns.

I find the descriptions funny. We were 40-42 last year without Patrick and Zach, who are back. Even if we assume nothing from Matas and Ball, I don't expect us to be that bad. If Giddey is what many think he is, we shouldn't be terrible. The entire reason why people think he's so promising is that he should make our offense run better. I thought Demar was allegedly the problem, not the savior? (Which, even as a huge Demar fan, I largely agree with).

Fanduel has the over/under set at 27.5

I think they win around 30

30-34.

The defense will be very bad. If Zach plays poorly or gets hurt, they won’t be good. If he plays well, he’ll be traded. Matas hopefully gets a lot of burn, but he’ll be on a big learning curve.

31

Bulliever2020 wrote:Fanduel has the over/under set at 27.5

I think they win around 30

ESPN's over/under is 30.5, so that sounds about right. It's pretty hard to outguess the Vegas consensus. This board rarely accomplishes that task, as almost always it comes in too high. Which of course is not a surprise for a fan board.

We will unlock important offensive things and I expect our production to improve quite a bit there.

But our defense is a joke. I see no way balancing both sides of the ball we actually improve our win total. But as someone who considers priority #1 to be keeping the SA pick, I’m not at all comfortable with Lavine on the roster and Ball possibly playing. I’m a little bit uneasy about the whole thing.

28 wins

I'll guess 36 wins. I think we'll be really bad the first half of the year and then pretty solid the second half. So good chance we don't keep our pick IMO.

Voted 35-39. More precisely I'd guess 38. It will actually be interesting to see if this team has gotten better or worse, and to what extent. A lot of it really depends on what kind of Lavine, Vuc, and Ball we're going to be getting. I think Ayo and PWill make strides, and I think Buzelis will be solid overall with whatever time he's given.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say 39-40, woulnd't be surprised if we win 44, honestly.

- As people had stated, P-will and Zach are back and will most likely healthy; Zach just had a terrible run last year w his injury AND playing terrible with our team at the beginning

- Lonzo is back; and between Lonzo being back (let's say 80%), P-Will being back, Bazulis getting some burn, Ayo/Terry getting more minutes - I think are defense actually holds to at least league average; I think Caruso will be missed, but Ayo can give most of what he gave. We really really missed P-Will and his size on defense (and to his credit, I think he's a top 10 defensive 3/4 in the league)

- Billy Donavan is a relatively good defensive coach, and none of his teams have been below average on that side of the ball. This year kind of reminds me of the year OKC traded away PG and Westbrook. He had a 44 win w a 5th seed team. They had an old CP3, 2nd year Shai, Gillinari, and Steven Adams.

- The offense w Giiddey at worst will be average in the league; our 3 pt shooting got much better (Zach, P will, Smith, and the scheme makes much more sense).

- In summary, this team is too good to tank to have a shot at the 1st seed. I think we'll actually be in contention for play-in and playoffs more than being a bottom 7 team in the league

I'm guessing in the 40 win range. But it is dependent on how bad the defense really is. I could see a scenario where the defense just crumbles and it is closer to 30 wins. If the defense can manage to stay middle of the pack I see 40 wins.

I'm a debbie downer and think this team doesnt know how to tank/bottom out and so will win 30-34 games in a fruitless attempt to make the playins again. At least this year I suspect that will be driven mostly by good play from the youth (not like Vuc is going to put the team on his back lol), so to me thats at least better tidings for the future than watching a playin fueled mostly by 84 year odl Demar Derozan, so there is light at the end of the tunnel and it doesnt sound like its coming from a train.

24-29

I think some people are really underestimating how important DDR, Drummond and Caruso were to us winning the games we did.