Duffman100 wrote:TheGeneral99 wrote:I mean I don't see no reason why we shouldn't make the playoffs:
Quickley - 25 years old (missed most of last season)
Barrett - 24 years old
Barnes - 23 years old
Ingram - 27 years old
Poeltl - 29 years old
While we don't have a bonafide superstar in the starting line-up, we are very good at every position.
Bench: Dick, Walters, Ochai, Mogbo, Shead, the #9 pick, and maybe a solid free agent?
Should be a pretty balanced team with some depth finally.
That's the hope obviously. Health will be the ultimate factor. Ideally Quickley can be healthy, Ingram is load managed a it. Ideally we make the playoffs and I hope we do, but can't really count on it yet.
Battle, Lawson and Rhoden add a bit more depth as well that can help as end of the bench guys.
Health, indeed. We had one guy start 60+ games this year, and Jamal Shead was the only guy to play more than 65 games overall. That's... horrifically bad for us. Quickley's had 3 injured years around a pair of healthy seasons, so he's a question mark. Poeltl has played under 60 games in consecutive seasons, played 72 the year before that and under 70 for the 3 years prior. BI we know to be a health risk. RJ had played 58 games in consecutive seasons and is usually good to miss at least 10 or 12 games. Scottie's played 60 and 65 the past two seasons and seems to be an absolute champion at racking up injuries that keep him out for extended stretches. So it's a fairly consequential concern.
With a some luck (of which we have generally shown little) and some load managing, we could sneak in for sure. This team certainly has a "better than .500" kind of feel to it if we can drag our offense out of the gutter and maintain any of the defense we had in the second half. 40 wins grabbed the 8th seed this year, and 37 got the 10th seed. So I figure if we are any kind of healthy, we're a play-in squad at the worst, with a reasonable chance to be a well-seeded play-in squad. 44 wins this year got the 6th seed, and snuck beyond the play-in, just for some rough targets.
But that was this year. In 2024, 46 wins was the 8th seed, so it'll depend on exactly what happens in the offseason, I guess. If Giannis stays, what Boston does, etc, etc.
