How will finish Clippers this season?

[donemilio21]

38-28.
I hope I'm not asking for too much I always guess these wrong in the beginning of the season, but I came close last year.

Btw to quote Bill Simmons, does anyone else feel this way? I know I do.

The best thing about following sports? When the stars align and your team wins a championship. The second-best thing? Anticipation. Having a quality team, knowing it's headed someplace, dreaming about the possibilities. Staring at the schedule, circling games, knowing that something like 50 of your next 150 nights are going to be a blast. Glancing at the clock at 3:30 in the afternoon and saying, "Four more hours." Standing in front of your seat 20 minutes before tipoff, watching warm-ups, feeling that buzz, feeling those goose bumps slowly form on your arms.

[azncorruptedo17]

i'm hoping around there. 36-30ish

shortened season, depends what we do with our pg surplus to get a big man... i'm actually happy we have too many pgs, it'll keep the backcourt fresh throughout the year, but our front court.......

[thanumba2clippersfan]

Since we have a shortened season I want more than 33 wins and a trip to the playoffs.

[madmaxmedia]

41-25 is my prediction.

With Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups also being added, it's really an entire new team not only in production but also personality and leadership-wise. 3 starters have been added to the team that know how to win (along with that one guy we already have who jumps over cars). Chauncey and Paul are undisputedly 2 of the best leaders on the court in the NBA.

It would be nice if Mo Williams was 4 inches taller, but regardless will provide a nice pop off the bench. If we don't trade Foye or Gomes, they will be better players for us by virtue of being dropped 1 rung in the rotation (now very solid bench players.)

The main thing is that we leapfrogged a lot of 'middle of the pack' teams, so the improvement in our record may be bigger than some are expecting.

We really need 1 more move though, to get a quality PF/C backup.

[RiversideClips]

38-26, but I'm still hoping for more.I always think we can we more!

[mkwest]

Part of me wants to hold off until I know who we get to back up DJ, but I'll give a go and amend if we pick up another big before the season starts.

As of today, I'm going to say 43-23. Does that sound crazy? It sure does, but this team has a lot of upside, a good combination of veteran leadership, players in their prime and young legs. We were second worst in the league in turnovers last season. Now we add in 2 floor generals in Billups and Paul that know how to protect the ball. We were the 6th worst team in 3 point percentage last season, now we bring in Paul who has been shooting around 39% from beyond the arc in the last 2 seasons. Billups has been a 39% 3 point shooter for his career, and it's also where Mo is as well. CP3 and Billups are both closers and this along with shooting and turnovers are problems that are pretty much solved. Ball movement should be much better and we'll find it easier to get guys good looks for easier scoring attempts. Defensively, the 3 primary additions all play solid to good defense and hopefully that rubs off on everyone else.

To touch what madmaxmedia said, we're adding 3 players who are quality starters. We've lost 1 (2 if you are counting Kaman). That is huge. I just need Neil to get me a couple of bigs to ease my mind. If he doesn't then, this prediction will probably need to be scaled back some.

[madmaxmedia]

Yeah, I sort of hedge by bet and split it down the middle. With a quality big man (a good signing but doesn't have to be a miracle acquisition), I would probably be predicting 43 wins too.

I just see our offense running so differently than before, with both Paul and Bilups. Less one-on-one play, and just smarter overall with a lot less shot jacking to beat the shot clock. A TON of pick and roll with Blake- I'm honestly more excited about that than I am about the alley oops...pick and roll is the bread and butter of the NBA, and we will literally have the best pick and roll combo in the NBA. Off the top of my head, none of the other great PG's have a PF like Blake, and none of the great PF's have a PG like Paul. Also, there will always be another guard on the floor who can drop a 3, and Caron and even Deandre should get great scoring opportunities when defenses rotate to help. But we really need a decent PF/C backup who can provide some inside presence when Blake and/or Deandre are on the bench.

Deandre doesn't need to become significantly better, he just has to be consistent night in and night out, and avoid foul trouble.

[Knightspeed]

40-26. For sure more than the wins we had last season.

[jgustav1]

My prediction is 42-24 this season. I have some concern about the lack of size at SF/SG against bigger teams and big man depth, but the starting 5 is among the best in the West.

[Det the Threat]

I think we'll finish with a 37-29 record and make the playoffs as a #6 or #7 seed.

I know all the media is hyping us like heck, but we still have a team that's only been together for about a week before the regular season starts, is still pretty thin up front and still hasn't got a real NBA caliber shooting guard.

Therefore I think we'll struggle a bit during stretches of the season, but should be a team that nobody wants to play in the playoffs, especially if we can find a groove right before the postseason starts.

[Forte IV]

Don't be surprised if we have a great record this season. Schedules like these are meant for youth. With back-to back-to backs in the schedule I really feel we'll have a break out year during the season.

[DunknDave]

I always give us too much credit, so I'll do it again. I say we'll end up at 42 - 24 ------Vinny needs to finish 18 games over .500 to even his career coaching record, so he'll get there this year. No major injuries of course, especially to CP3, Griffin, orJordan------we are very thin in the frontcourt. I'd take either Ajinca or Feseenko------each of whom would provide a bigger inside presence. Ajinca is a pretty good outside shooter, meaning he could easily play with Blake, but Feesenko is much beefer, meaning he could help gaurd the Howards and Bynums of the league. Anyway, again looking forward to an exciting Clipper season.

[madmaxmedia]

After seeing the roster on the floor in a regular season game, I think over 40 games is the expectation for the team, but more importantly- along with 2nd round or WCF as par for the playoffs. It's crazy to actually expect WCF for the Clippers, but this will especially be the case if we can just add 1 more piece to the team.

As is, this is a very 'good' team already. The new additions to this team are going to work out, PERIOD, because we just added 3 real pro's to our starting line-up, 3 guys that know how to win and care only about winning- meaning they know its up to them to find ways to contribute, and not about the rest of the team adjusting to them. We all knew this already, but seeing them on the floor Sunday completely cemented that.

They also all happen to be guys that can help bail out the offense when defenses are tightening up in 4th quarters and the shot clock is running out.

Our former starters who were 'okay' as NBA starters are now real strengths from the bench, especially Mo Williams. I think coming off the bench to supply offense will really free up Mo to do what he does best, and not have to focus on being a floor leader (which is what CP3 does best.) I know Mo was looking forward to the challenge of being the starting PG, but he can shine now as well as I think he will really find his niche in the NBA this year.

We all want another big man of course. But I would say that the team has enough bigs that on most nights our size won't be a deficiency, and won't have a huge impact on our W-L. But where it could have a big impact is in the playoffs. What would actually help more in the front court is for Deandre to become a better 1-on-1 defender- he has been AWESOME as a help defender with such incredible blocks, but is still letting opposing guys post good numbers on him (Bynum.)

[madmaxmedia]

Funny thing is I now just read this article on their 'disappointing' debut-

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... ba-wp12452

Thing is, who would have expected the Clippers to run like a well-oiled machine after such a big trade and almost no TC and preseason? That part was totally expected, but what I liked is seeing those pieces on the floor and knowing that they can pull out wins like Sunday night relatively handily despite being early in the learning process. I'm not particularly worried about tighter games against lesser teams, with guys like Paul, Billups, and Butler on the floor- know what I mean?

[mkwest]

ESPN has us 4th in the West with a record of 41-25

[TheNewEra]

41-25 sounds about right

[mj_shoefanatic]

41-25 is my prediction.

Mine too.

[mkwest]

The Regular Season is officially in the books for us. Let's see how we did at predicting how we would finish.

mkwest: 43-23 (+3)
DunknDave: 42-24 (+2)
jgustav1: 42-24 (-2)maxmedia: 41-25 (+1)
mj_shoefanatic: 41-25 (-1)
ESPN: 41-25 (+1)
TheNewEra: 41-25 (+1)
knightspeed: 40-26
donemilio21: 38-28 (-2)
RiversideClips: 38-28 (you said 38-26, but I'm going to assume you meant 38-28) (-2)
DetTheThreat: 37-29 (-3)
azncorruptedo17: 36-30 (-4)
thanumba2clippersfan: 33-33 (-7)

knightspeed was right on the money! Congratulations

Overall, not too bad. Much better than usual. 8 posters were within 2 games of the season ending mark.

Regardless of how the season finished or where we actually seed, the Clippers are in the postseason for the first time in 6 years. Haters can hate all they want, but we've all been die-hard fans that have supported this team through thin and thinner. The past is ugly as hell, but the future look promising, so that is what we need to focus on.

[azncorruptedo17]

lol mk, i was actually trying to find this post a few days ago! not bad. 4 off. gj knightspeed!

[azncorruptedo17]

and i think if it weren't for billups going down, we def woulda hit the 46-48 game mark, there were quite a few games [probably 5-7 games] where billups woulda made a diff... billups or better coaching =X