How many games will CHA win this season?

[Mystical Apples]

Anyone who says less than 40 really, really underestimate Batum.

I'm a big fan of Batum. Worried about PG and usage.

[JDR720]

to me 45 wins will be around the 5/6 seed in the East. and i currently have the Bucks and Raps as those seeds. I definitely dont think we're better than them.

1-Cleveland- 60+ wins (elite team)
2-Heat- 50+ wins (loaded starting 5, solid bench)
3-Hawks- high 40's/low 50's wins (more based on the excellent system than quality of players)
4-Bulls- high 40's wins (takes a small step back with new coach)
5-Raps mid/high 40's wins (plays in the NBA's worst division)
6-Bucks-mid 40's wins (very good all-around team, but a lot of youth)
7-Wiz- mid/low 40's wins (PP is a big loss, but Wall/Beal should get them in)
8-Indy (George is the Easts 2nd best player IMO, he should get them in assuming he is back to 100%)

really the only seed up for grabs is the 8th seed. anyone but the 76ers could get it. maybe the Knicks too unless Melo goes crazy.

[Liver_Pooty]

After the top 2 its anyones race, to be honest.

[LofJ]

On paper we're a better team than last year.

Top 10 last year

Jefferson
Kemba
MKG
Lance
Zeller
Henderson
Williams
Neal
Biyombo
Roberts

Top 10 this year

Kemba
MKG
Jefferson
Batum
Zeller
Lin
Lamb
Hawes
Kaminsky
Williams

Marvin will likely go from our 7th man to our 10th man, enough said.

All that said I think we'll win 44 games, which should hopefully be enough for the 7 seed. I think we could win more depending on how well Clifford handles rotations and substitutions. I don't have much faith in that however.

[Benjamin Linus]

I'd say around 42. I think we're a little better than we were when we last made the playoffs... just the East is a whole lot better than it was two years ago, especially the bottom half, as there's not going to be so many outright awful teams to beat up on.

[malik959]

So going by RealGm votes:

Cleveland 60 (only 1 vote) (I'd say under about 55)
Chicago 50-54 (I'd give them 50, they played good even when Rose was out. )
Toronto 50-54 (Patterson and Jonas in the back court Carroll was a nice addition)
Miami 50-54 (Wade, Bosh, Stat and Lou are all injuries waiting to happen. If they can stay healthy throughout the season then 50-54)
Atlanta 50-54 (Carroll swapped for THJ does Thabo come back healthy?)
Milwaukee 45-49 (Nice young Squad moving up, but Monroe on defense )
Indiana 45-49 (losing West and Hibbert hurts more than people think, Hill and Turner replace them. Turner's looking good)
Celts 45-49 (over achieved winning 40-42, I don't see an improvement even with A.J. I.T should start, looked good late in the season)
New York 40-44 (dependent on Better defense improves wins, offense will be slow until All-Star break. Melo must stay healthy)
Washington 40-44 (Nene's getting old (32), dropped from 15ppg-11 and 7.5Rpg-5.5, Same with Gortot. Played pretty good in the P.O)
Charlotte 40-44 (losing Lance and gaining Batum - not bad. Can MKG, Walker, and Zeller step up?
Detroit 40-44 (Losing Monroe hurt, Ilyasova replaces him in the starting lineup.
Orlando 30-34 (Nothing lost, nothing gained, take that back they lost a defender in O'Quinn)
Brooklyn 30-34 (Brook has been injury Prone, Losing D. Will could be a good thing and a bad thing, Andrea Bargnani = bad thing)
Philly 25-29 (Outside of Okafor, Noel, and Embrid, name 3 players on their roster- Go

[LofJ]

Knick fans are in for a disappointing season going by their expectations.

[Mystical Apples]

So going by RealGm votes:

Cleveland 60 (only 1 vote) (I'd say under about 55)
Chicago 50-54 (I'd give them 50, they played good even when Rose was out. )
Toronto 50-54 (Patterson and Jonas in the back court Carroll was a nice addition)
Miami 50-54 (Wade, Bosh, Stat and Lou are all injuries waiting to happen. If they can stay healthy throughout the season then 50-54)
Atlanta 50-54 (Carroll swapped for THJ does Thabo come back healthy?)
Milwaukee 45-49 (Nice young Squad moving up, but Monroe on defense )
Indiana 45-49 (losing West and Hibbert hurts more than people think, Hill and Turner replace them. Turner's looking good)
Celts 45-49 (over achieved winning 40-42, I don't see an improvement even with A.J. I.T should start, looked good late in the season)
New York 40-44 (dependent on Better defense improves wins, offense will be slow until All-Star break. Melo must stay healthy)
Washington 40-44 (Nene's getting old (32), dropped from 15ppg-11 and 7.5Rpg-5.5, Same with Gortot. Played pretty good in the P.O)
Charlotte 40-44 (losing Lance and gaining Batum - not bad. Can MKG, Walker, and Zeller step up?
Detroit 40-44 (Losing Monroe hurt, Ilyasova replaces him in the starting lineup.
Orlando 30-34 (Nothing lost, nothing gained, take that back they lost a defender in O'Quinn)
Brooklyn 30-34 (Brook has been injury Prone, Losing D. Will could be a good thing and a bad thing, Andrea Bargnani = bad thing)
Philly 25-29 (Outside of Okafor, Noel, and Embrid, name 3 players on their roster- Go

12 teams (7 last year) projected to finish above 40 wins. Kind of like 93% of car drivers claim they're "above average"

[316Hornets]

I'd expect Charlotte to win around 45 games. There could be some needed time for the team to gel at first, but once that happens the team should compete well with most teams.

[Bassman]

They have the Hornets ranked dead last in the SE division over at basketballinsiders, though I'm not sure how much I trust the analysis of that site.

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/ranking-the-nbas-southeast-division/

Their main reason is that they believe Clifford will struggle to integrate the new pieces. And it doesn't seem they have much faith in him.

They were quick to make changes to the team and decided to bring in Nicolas Batum from Portland and then signed free agent Jeremy Lin. They drafted Frank Kaminsky, acquired Jeremy Lamb from Oklahoma City and added Spencer Hawes in the Stephenson deal.

Adding all of the pieces together could take some time to pan out as each of those players figure to see significant roles next season. Finding minutes for those players and setting them into their roles could be a tough task for head coach Steve Clifford.

This is right on target. Cliff will try to run the same strategy he did our playoff year, but the dynamics are way too varied to pull that off again. Yes we have better players, but I don't think Batum Is up to the go-to role envisioned for him. Frank is a rookie, Al is an unknown, Cody is not suddenly a true starter coming off a tough injury, and Kemba may never shoot well enough. Even if they bring things together, it will take time to gel that this team, Cliff, Cho and MJ do not have. We win more than last year but don't pull off a winning record.

[catch20two]

Anyone who says less than 40 really, really underestimate Batum.

Well Batum couldn't save the Blazers from winning far less than 40 games between 2011 and 2013. Lol. And those were his best individual years. Ctfu

[mrknowitall215]

They have the Hornets ranked dead last in the SE division over at basketballinsiders, though I'm not sure how much I trust the analysis of that site.

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/ranking-the-nbas-southeast-division/

Their main reason is that they believe Clifford will struggle to integrate the new pieces. And it doesn't seem they have much faith in him.

They were quick to make changes to the team and decided to bring in Nicolas Batum from Portland and then signed free agent Jeremy Lin. They drafted Frank Kaminsky, acquired Jeremy Lamb from Oklahoma City and added Spencer Hawes in the Stephenson deal.

Adding all of the pieces together could take some time to pan out as each of those players figure to see significant roles next season. Finding minutes for those players and setting them into their roles could be a tough task for head coach Steve Clifford.

Whether Clifford can grow as a coach or be fortunate enough to have the pieces gel right away will go a long way in how successful this team can be. I have no faith in Clifford to make the necessary adjustments if the team struggle off the bat going into the season before it's too late because he's shown to be too stubborn yesteryear, so hopefully things get off to a good start

[mrknowitall215]

Anyone who says less than 40 really, really underestimate Batum.

Well Batum couldn't save the Blazers from winning far less than 40 games between 2011 and 2013. Lol. And those were his best individual years. Ctfu

Batum is overrated by most, underrated by a few. I think Batum will be a important cog with his versatility to play 3-4 different positions if Clifford use him correctly and not depend on him too much. I'm just hoping Batum could have a similar to better impact to what McRoberts was for this team the other year, but I'm not expecting much in the scoring category, and I think outside of his length being able to bother players occasionally that his defense is overblown, but I'm content & excited about what he'll bring to the team if used correctly

[malik959]

So going by RealGm votes:

Cleveland 60 (only 1 vote) (I'd say under about 55)
Chicago 50-54 (I'd give them 50, they played good even when Rose was out. )
Toronto 50-54 (Patterson and Jonas in the back court Carroll was a nice addition)
Miami 50-54 (Wade, Bosh, Stat and Lou are all injuries waiting to happen. If they can stay healthy throughout the season then 50-54)
Atlanta 50-54 (Carroll swapped for THJ does Thabo come back healthy?)
Milwaukee 45-49 (Nice young Squad moving up, but Monroe on defense )
Indiana 45-49 (losing West and Hibbert hurts more than people think, Hill and Turner replace them. Turner's looking good)
Celts 45-49 (over achieved winning 40-42, I don't see an improvement even with A.J. I.T should start, looked good late in the season)
New York 40-44 (dependent on Better defense improves wins, offense will be slow until All-Star break. Melo must stay healthy)
Washington 40-44 (Nene's getting old (32), dropped from 15ppg-11 and 7.5Rpg-5.5, Same with Gortot. Played pretty good in the P.O)
Charlotte 40-44 (losing Lance and gaining Batum - not bad. Can MKG, Walker, and Zeller step up?
Detroit 40-44 (Losing Monroe hurt, Ilyasova replaces him in the starting lineup.
Orlando 30-34 (Nothing lost, nothing gained, take that back they lost a defender in O'Quinn)
Brooklyn 30-34 (Brook has been injury Prone, Losing D. Will could be a good thing and a bad thing, Andrea Bargnani = bad thing)
Philly 25-29 (Outside of Okafor, Noel, and Embrid, name 3 players on their roster- Go

12 teams (7 last year) projected to finish above 40 wins. Kind of like 93% of car drivers claim they're "above average"

This isn't my prediction, it was just the top votes from each board.

[Chuck Everett]

37. Team still has zero all-stars unless Kemba and Al ball the "f" out. Hard to be .500 with not one all-star on the roster.

[countryboi]

this team should win 45-50 games...i really feel like anything less is a failure.

[predators]

37. Team still has zero all-stars unless Kemba and Al ball the "f" out. Hard to be .500 with not one all-star on the roster.

I went 35-39 as well. I almost went 40-44, but the only team I can say the Hornets are better than with 100% confidence is Philly. I'm already having nightmares of Al\hawes\frank getting shredded by the Pick & Roll late in games.

[Komodo]

As an outsider, I've got you in tier 3 along with the Bucks, Raptors, Magic, Pistons, Pacers, and Celtics. Those teams will likely finish around .500 give or take a few wins, and will compete for 6-7-8 seeds, or finish as low as 12th. Much like Casey is a poor coach for the Raptors, I also worry about your coach using your pieces effectively.

[Braggins]

Can I change my vote? I voted 40-44, but was inspired when I realized someone voted for 60 wins and would like to follow suite.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

As an outsider, I've got you in tier 3 along with the Bucks, Raptors, Magic, Pistons, Pacers, and Celtics. Those teams will likely finish around .500 give or take a few wins, and will compete for 6-7-8 seeds, or finish as low as 12th. Much like Casey is a poor coach for the Raptors, I also worry about your coach using your pieces effectively.

I don't think that this is particularly unfair. Speaking personally I have a hard time projecting exactly how this team will do.

Pro
* Last year the team had an uncharacteristic number of key injuries - should not happen again
* Team offense and passing look better overall based on player skillsets
* Team depth looks much improved

Uncertain
* Lots of new faces, hard to tell how they will jell ... could be good or bad
* Lots of guys are on contract years and have incentive to do well ... could be good or could lead to selfishness
* Al came into camp out of shape and never got going ... could be much improved this year or the same as last

Con
* Coaching - some early losses last year were due to poor adjustments, rotations, etc. (Some of this may have been Lance)
* Interior defense looks to be a potential problem with the loss of Biz and Maxiell
* Overall several teams in the east seem to have improved as well.

Similarly, it's a bit hard to tell what we will get with the Bucks, Pistons, and Pacers this year too due to roster changes going back to the last trade deadline as well as what happened this summer. I'm a bit down on the Pistons & Pacers, but could easily be wrong. I'm not really expecting much improvement from the Magic this year either. I still think they are another year away. The Celtics on the other hand are going to take teams by surprise IMHO. I'm expecting steady improvement from the 2nd half of last year from them. Raptors should be about the same or slightly better.

One of the top teams always seems to fall off unexpectedly and I think that Atlanta is a prime candidate for that this year. I think that teams are figuring out how to play them and will be able take away some of the easy shots they got last year (but I still expect Atl to own the Hornets due to PG match-up).

The East is going to be interesting this year. My sense is that it's going to be a better conference overall, but still behind most of the West.