RealGM

If we had not had our 4 best players (MKG, Kemba, Cody and Al, in that order) all get hurt for weeks at a time we would have made it in last year. We are unlikely to have all our best guys go down again. +8 wins.

Having Lance as a mental distraction and a horrendous brick layer hurt our team cohesiveness a lot. Addition by subtraction. +2 wins

We obviously had terrible outside shooting working against us too. With Batum, Lamb, Frank and Hawes we now have 4 guys who can semi-reliably hit 3 pointers. PJ should be better too. Maybe Daniels can even play a little. Our shooting problem should be much closer to being solved. +5 wins

Playmaking wasn't up to par last year. This season, Kemba will be able to play a lot better with space to dribble and we added secondary playmakers in Batum, Frank and Hawes to help spread the ball movement around. I think we have that issue covered a lot better as long as we bring in a decent playmaking back up PG in free agency. +4 wins

We were not bad a DEF last year and losing Biz will hurt some there but we added a very nice defensive wing in Batum and a lot of our defensive strength is based on the scheme and not just the players. The much better offense should out weigh the not quite as good D overall. BUT: -5 wins

I think we have a good chance to win 45 games, give or take a few and solidly make the playoffs. If we dodge Cleveland, maybe we can even win a series.

I'm sticking around as a Charlotte Hornets fan even though I don't love every move they made. I think we got this............flame away if you want to but please give us a prediction on our win total and why you think that while your at it!

To add to your reasoning, Clifford seemed unsure of how to manage the players last season. There was a lot of inconsistency. If these new batch of players were approved by Clifford, then he likely already has a plan in place. Barring any major injuries, I'd expect more focus. An achievable goal should not be just making the playoffs, but winning a playoff game (This drought is starting to get bad).

If we had stayed healthy last year we would have probably ended up as a 5-6 seed, even with the Lance distractions. Now that we've dumped him and swapped Hendo for Batum we should be better there. Adding Hawes/Kaminsky isn't terrible but it remains to be seen whether a front line full of defensive stiffs will pay off just because a couple of them can allegedly shoot 3pters. I agree that potentially this could be a better team but with our bizarre rotations and coaching decisions I'm not sure that it really matters who our players are if our coach is clueless about who to play when.

That's about as ungloomy as I can get right now. I'll probably get more optimistic as the season approaches. Maybe Frank will dominate summer league. That would be a nice first step.

If Miami gets Wade back they are a much better team than us.

Depending on what Detroit does with their space they can be much better as well.

The Nets cannot sustain the winning, thats one team we can catch. Boston too.

Milwaukee is a much better team. Hawks, Cavs, Bulls are as well. Wizards not as good as last year but probably still better.

I'm not optimistic.

...we're in the East.

I think we are improved from last season, but i wont say we will/wont make the playoffs until i see what the other teams do.

Cleveland
Chicago
Atlanta
Washington
Toronto
Miami
Milwaukee
Indiana

Boston, Detroit, Orlando, and New York could all also be as good or better.

The East is looking like it will be much better next season. Unless MKG progresses as much as he did last season and Kemba emerges as an all-star level PG with the new #spacing I don't see it happening.

We got the decent back up PG I thought we needed. I think we should make the playoffs even with the improved competition in the East next year. At least we should definitely be in the playoff race.....and I think they will be a lot more fun to watch this year. Likeable players, more exciting offense and a bit of the under dog. I can get with that!

Last year was essentially the worst case scenario with that roster. No consistency, lots of injuries, no cohesiveness, plenty of underachieving players with much higher expectations, and a coach that couldn't weather the storm. This team is as talented as last year's team, but we have less defense and significantly more shooting. If Al and Kemba figure out how to play off of each other and Al figures out how to not be detrimental to Kemba's driving abilities, we're going to be fine this season. We sacrificed way too much of our future for this season- it had better pay off. We have to give Batum a reason to re-sign.

with so many teams in the east grouped together, the playoff teams will largely be decided by injuries and on/off court distractions. Teams that stay injury free and don't have a lot of distractions will make the playoffs. Teams that get beat up by injuries or have distractions (like players demanding trades, quitting on coaches, arrests etc...) will miss the playoffs.

You know the Cavs will finish 1 or 2 and you know the Sixers will miss the playoffs. Every other team is up in the air.

My best guess looks something like this...

Tier 1
Cleveland

Tier 4
Miami
Chicago
Atlanta
Washington

Tier 5
Milwaukee
Toronto
Charlotte

Tier 6
Indiana
Boston
Detroit
Brooklyn
New York
Orlando

Tier 10
Philadelphia

fatlever wrote:with so many teams in the east grouped together, the playoff teams will largely be decided by injuries and on/off court distractions. Teams that stay injury free and don't have a lot of distractions will make the playoffs. Teams that get beat up by injuries or have distractions (like players demanding trades, quitting on coaches, arrests etc...) will miss the playoffs.

You know the Cavs will finish 1 or 2 and you know the Sixers will miss the playoffs. Every other team is up in the air.

My best guess looks something like this...

Tier 1
Cleveland

Tier 4
Miami
Chicago
Atlanta
Washington

Tier 5
Milwaukee
Toronto
Charlotte

Tier 6
Indiana
Boston
Detroit
Brooklyn
New York
Orlando

Tier 10
Philadelphia

Looks about right to me though I am not sure about Milwaukee with MCW at PG. I'm also a bit worried about IND moving up but I think we will be in the thick of the hunt. Hopefully we can get some breaks and move into the 4-7 seed range.

I still think we're around 10th, our interior defense is bad probably and our bench has a lot of holes.

Hey what happened to my post about Chobots and stuff?

catch20two wrote:Hey what happened to my post about Chobots and stuff?

huh?

fatlever wrote:

catch20two wrote:Hey what happened to my post about Chobots and stuff?

huh?

I had a long post detailing how much the Chobots would like the optimism of this thread but it got deleted.