The premature revise your expectations for the 17/18 season thread

[snaquille oatmeal]

I don't know if this team is better or worse. The absence of Lou Williams, a guy that draws fouls and can get you 30 of the bench is going to be huge.

Lou Williams rule is in effect this season, so we’ll see how he adjusts

[gts1]

yep.. until Luke actually proves he's a better coach than Scott we'll have to hold off on any judgements there... So far he's been okay at best. I want him to succeed because I like him and I think his style will carry him a long way without getting on the players nerves overtime. We could end up with a situation where we have a good coach for many years to come, like Pops in SA, Luke's's young which is a huge bonus. Still he's done nothing and my fear is since he's not Magic's guy a bad season may send Luke packing. Some guy in the analytics dept is gonna tell Magic and Rob this is a 45 win team and that will be the end of Luke

Pop couldnt coach this team to 35 wins. You can only do so much with the roster you are given.

what does that have to do with what I said? Nowhere do I say Pops could coach this team to 35 wins...

[Michael Lucky]

Like the season and the year before, this team will go as far as the PG takes them. If Lonzo can't stay healthy, it's going to be a loooong year.

Lonzo could be rookie LeBron and the team would still suck.

About 25 wins is a reasonable expectation for the roster.

We won 26 last year while tanking half the season. I know its in vogue but you've got to quit being nihilistically negative.

I'm definitely far more pessimistic than most, i'll admit that. Having said that, we lost our two best players. Lou had a career year in terms of efficiency, and we dumped off Russell to the Nets. On the other hand while many don't like Nick Young, he was also one of our better players last year and one of the players directly responsible for our strong start last season. The addition of Lopez will help the win column but only so much. I'm also not big on how the team is currently constructed around Lonzo. Our shooting is really really bad and that does not bode well in today's style of basketball. The western conference is also stronger than last year, which means a harder schedule as well. I maintain that 25 wins is quite reasonable.

[Michael Lucky]

yep.. until Luke actually proves he's a better coach than Scott we'll have to hold off on any judgements there... So far he's been okay at best. I want him to succeed because I like him and I think his style will carry him a long way without getting on the players nerves overtime. We could end up with a situation where we have a good coach for many years to come, like Pops in SA, Luke's's young which is a huge bonus. Still he's done nothing and my fear is since he's not Magic's guy a bad season may send Luke packing. Some guy in the analytics dept is gonna tell Magic and Rob this is a 45 win team and that will be the end of Luke

Pop couldnt coach this team to 35 wins. You can only do so much with the roster you are given.

what does that have to do with what I said? Nowhere do I say Pops could coach this team to 35 wins...

I'm just reiterating your point in a general manner.

[PKABOOICU]

We wont be 20 wins bad, but we wont break 30 wins this year. I got us at 28-54.

We're playing the Warriors, Spurs, OKC, Rockets, Wolves, Nuggets, Blazers, Celtics, Cavs, Raptors, Wizards atleast 30 times. Most of those will be guaranteed losses.

[milesfides]

A trade will be made by Christmas (after Dec 15 eligibility) and another before the Feb 8 deadline.

I expect Brook Lopez to be traded, and Andrew Bogut becomes our big lineup center and defensive anchor. My guess is that Bogut signed with us based on that expectation. I think Bogut will become a big part of our team; he's our only chance of becoming a better defensive team.

Larry Nance will play a lot of small ball center, the Draymond role.

I also expect Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson to be traded - too many reasons why, including 2018 capspace and logjam at those positions.

Alex Caruso's 2-way contract will be converted to a regular one. Book it.

Best case W/L: if Lonzo, Caruso, Kuzma, Nance, Bogut stay healthy and get a lot of burn, I see them winning 40+ games and making the playoffs. Lonzo gets ROY.

Worst case W/L: if Clarkson, Ingram, and Randle are all still on our team, our offense will be bad and our defense will be terrible. No more than 30 games.