RealGM

Polling each fan forum to get their take on the upcoming season.

Too difficult to predict with so many variables within the lineup, new faces, and players playing out of position, but I'll be optimistic and say 45-49 wins. Within that prediction, I believe that Kemba will play better with shooting wings in Batum & Lamb, that Jefferson will return to decent form with the weight loss, and that MKG will be a more confident scorer on the offensive end

47

I think we're definitely a much better team next season. My guess is we go 43-39, just like we did two seasons ago. I would've been more confident in us approaching the 50 mark if we had any semblance of interior defense.

48 and streaky

38. 5 more wins that last year.

reasons for not having more

-Bad Bench outside of Lin
-Bad Interior defense
-East should be much improved

JDR720 wrote:38. 5 more wins that last year.

reasons for not having more

-Bad Bench outside of Lin
-Bad Interior defense
-East should be much improved

Bad bench? Lin is probably the best backup PG we've had. At least a couple of Lamb, Daniels, PJ, Marvin, Hawes, or Kaminsky should have it together on any given night. The defense is absolutely dismal, but I think Clifford will learn that one of Zeller/MKG/Batum has to be on the floor at all times otherwise the team is going to get absolutely shredded. This year, Biz isn't there to anchor the second unit and I have a feeling that Batum or MKG is going to be playing quite a few minutes with the second unit.

I went with between 30-34.

The rest of the East has really improved, Miami/Indy in particular will likely not have catastrophic injuries throughout the year. Very hard to imagine us being ahead of (in no order): Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Miami, Toronto, Milwaukee or Indiana. Detroit and Boston are also arguably capable of being as good or better.

JDR720 wrote:37. 4 more wins that last year.

reasons for not having more

-Bad Bench outside of Lin
-Bad Interior defense
-East should be much improved

Our bench is just fine. I love it actually.

I would say about 36-38 somewhere. Can't go higher until I see a coach who can make adjustments and run at least a half decent offense.

MotorKeepsGoing wrote:

JDR720 wrote:38. 5 more wins that last year.

reasons for not having more

-Bad Bench outside of Lin
-Bad Interior defense
-East should be much improved

Bad bench? Lin is probably the best backup PG we've had. At least a couple of Lamb, Daniels, PJ, Marvin, Hawes, or Kaminsky should have it together on any given night. The defense is absolutely dismal, but I think Clifford will learn that one of Zeller/MKG/Batum has to be on the floor at all times otherwise the team is going to get absolutely shredded. This year, Biz isn't there to anchor the second unit and I have a feeling that Batum or MKG is going to be playing quite a few minutes with the second unit.

Lin is probably our best backup PG we've had, but the rest is very iffy to me. Lamb couldn't get off the bench for OKC and supposedly has work ethic problems, Daniels isn't very good outside of shooting, PJ is bad at almost everything, Marvin isn't good, Hawes just had a career worst season and Frank is a rookie and those are usually really bad.


look at these other East benches

Cleveland- Mo-Delly-Shump-Thompson-Varejao
Heat- Chalmers(or Shabazz)-Green-Winslow-McBob-Amar'e
Bulls- Brooks-Snell-McDermott-Mirotic-Taj
Hawks- Schroder-Hardaway-Sefolosha-Scott-Splitter
Boston-Thomas-Crowder-Jerebko-Lee (or Sullinger)-Olynyk(or Zeller)
Nets- Larkin-Ellington-RHJ-Chris McCullough-Robinson
Pistons- Jennings-Meeks-Johnson-Tolliver-Baynes
Pacers- Stucky-Miles-Budinger-Allen-Turner
Bucks- Vasquez-Bayless-Mayo-Henson-Plumlee
Knicks- Grant-Galloway-Early-Porzingis-O' Quinn
Magic- Watson-Fournier-Hezonja-Frye-Dedmon
76ers- LiverPooty-Catch-Fats-KIA-Slam
Raps- Joseph-Ross-Johnson-Scola-Bismack
Wiz- Sessions-Neal-Dudley-Humphries-Gooden

ours is definitly in the bottom half.

42 sounds good. Winning record but barely.

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.

48, flirting with fifty.

Lots of variables, health being that biggest IMO.

Guarantee me a healthy roster with no significant injuries all season and I'll take 53 wins.

Give me injuries like last year, I'll go with 40.

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

Or we are estimating what Cliff can do with Batum. While I think he is a good player it is hard to bet against Cliff screwing this up again.

Liver_Pooty wrote:Anyone who says less than 40 really, really underestimate Batum.

Perhaps. But then again he's coming off by far his worst season as a pro, and he was never better than the 3rd-best player on the Blazers (Roy/LMA/Batum, then LMA/Lillard/Batum) and arguably 4th-best behind Matthews. I expect him to really bust his ass since he's in a contract year and the 2016 cap surge is a huge incentive but it's far from certain he can be an all-star caliber player for us or anyone else. I've always seen him as more of an elite 3rd or 4th guy, not a cornerstone, but that could just be bias built up from all the Blazers games through the years where he was obviously a secondary player.

45-49

41 - which takes into account Jefferson NOT being in great shape, but better than last year + MKG missing at least 10 games+ Kemba shooting around 40% + Frank having rookie struggles, but still being a top 10 rookie + Zeller not improving this summer + Clifford being better than last year, but still not figuring out a good offense.

Being realistic 38-43. Not surprised up to 46.