2017-18 Season: 50 Games in Prediction

[ElectricMayhem]

50 games into the next season, where are we at? What does our roster look like? Minutes distribution? Record?

I've done this in years past (and proud to say I correctly picked Ilyasova and SJ becoming Pistons!) but this year I think we're going to be in more or less a holding pattern due to the salary cap situation and the lowered trade value of some of our guys.

Roster:
Reggie/Ish/Beno
KCP/Hilliard
Morris/SJ
Harris/Leuer/Ellenson
Drummond/Boban/Leuer

D-League: Z. Collins

Differences from last year: For better or worse, Reggie will be back in control with hopes that he regains his old form. KCP will draw the ire of the Pistons board for his appearing/disappearing act while getting paid crazy money. Stanley Johnson won't be starting, but will see an increase in minutes putting him at equal minutes with Morris. Leuer will play both PF/C and play to exhaustion again. Boban will see more minutes but it will still be situationally-dependent. Ellenson stays with the team this year but only gets spot minutes, getting yanked around on the infamous SVG leash.

Record: 24-26
Reggie ends up somewhere in between the player he was in 2015-16 and 2016-17. The biggest loss is actually Baynes, who had the best rating on the team last year. They'll miss the way his picks opened up the offense. Stanley becomes a nightly terror on defense while being hit or miss on offense. Drummond improves his free throw shooting to 39.1%.

[TurboTitan]

Yeah I'm done making predictions for this team after being embarrassed last year, this team is so unpredictable and inconsistent is ridiculous

[ImHeisenberg]

Record after 50: 22-28, this team completely fell apart down the stretch. There wasn't anything positive to take away from the end of last season, beyond Boban putting up numbers against teams resting their players for a playoff run.

We'll draft Zach Collins, OG Anunoby or Jarrett Allen at 12, or 13 (because getting leaped over is what we do).

We'll sign a "crafty" vet player, that's looking for one last payday to come here and play spot minutes off the bench and collect a check. But, we'll effectively be the same team we were last year, except everyone will get pissed about KCP when he lays an egg every other game on a max contract. And, we'll miss Baynes, and see how much his rim protection and ability to shoot free throws in the 4th counted.

[Laimbeer]

If Reggie is healthy we can return to squeaking into the playoffs. But it's starting to look very unlikely that Dre will ever take it to that next level. Impossible to imagine this core ever developing into a deep run playoff team.

[Pharaoh]

Wins & losses still aren't relevant to me

I wanna see us play team ball offensively, play hard for 48 on D, be composed...

If we can't do that with this group then you gotta change a key cog or 2 because sharing the ball, playing D for 48 & being composed = wins long term

Before tip off you can dance and joke...after the game is over you can do whatever but for those 48 minutes you gotta bring it or look in the mirror and ask why you can't!

Some players might not like the answer to that question but they need to work out the answer and then deal with it.

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