I have us at 48 wins and a 6th seed. But last year the 4-6 seeds won 48 games, so it could depend on a couple of regular season wins. I wouldn't be surprised to see us win a round 1 upset without HC, especially if we play a team like the choker Blazers (3rd seed last year, with 49 wins)
Yeah I'm just not convinced the same players in the West will be trouble this year. I'm not sold on the Blazers. I'm not sold on the Pelicans. I'm really honestly not sold on the Rockets. I think the Wolves are built on toothpicks and lies. Utah, Golden State, and honestly OKC are teams that I think will be the most dangerous, but I could see us beating those teams on any given night. In fact, with LeBron on the team, we can beat anybody once. In a four game series? That's a different question.
I think we'll start slow, and finish fast. I’m hoping we’ll be playing beyond our seeding at that point, and have a fighting chance in the playoffs.
Realistically I'm in this boat as well. I think 45-50 wins, probably somewhere in the middle of that and 6th seed. We can win our first round matchup. After that all bets are off I think - we could surprise some folks.
This is why I said 48. If we gel from the get go (not completely impossible, but unlikely with all the new faces IMO) then I could see us getting 50+ in the W column no problem.
rotations will take awhile to work themselves out. Imagine Byron trying to figure out the rotations lol
This is FAR different of a game than the last 2 years and it was way easier to predict last season that we would win roughly 10 more games (I was only 2.5 games off). This season has too many variables. Is Lonzo's body gonna hold up and is he going to have a semblance of a shot? His shot may be the bigger issue here with Rondo on board but if his shot develops and is reliable it changes everything for us and how Lebron can operate, what kind of starting lineups we can run not to mention how strong our bench is. Do we make a move on Kawhi at say, the deadline instead of summer? This would add 4-7 wins after the break. Do we get a real center or does Zu or Mo suddenly develop? Does LBJ play a lot of 5 and the death lineup actually work? How good are Houston (without Ariza and will they have Capela? CP3 injuries? Carmelo coming in and hexing everyone?), Phoenix with Ayton and Ariza?, Spurs with DeRozan? What happens to the T-Wolves with a disgruntled Butler and KAT? Pelicans with Randle? Anyways based on nothing really changing I'm sort of in the upper 40's group and for the sake of ending another pedantic post I will say: 50
