-10000? seriously, though, 35. the west is just too stacked for a team with this little talent to compete night in and night out. i'll be pleasantly (and quite) surprised if the lakers even break even. am I the low one so far?
30+ wins at most, can't be optimistic at all even with Kobe playing superball given how the injuries are stacking again...
it's always 30. there are enough bad teams that the lakers can beat at home there to push my estimate up to where it was (35). if all their games were vs. the west...*shudders*
This is tough. I think we actually finish the season a lot better than we start. Scott is still working out our line up, the team needs to gel, its going to take a lot of work to get us playing well on the defensive end, etc. I am thinking 35 wins but we may make the playoff race interesting after the all star break.
i don't think that scenario is plausible, simply because i'm guessing the last team in the playoffs in the west will have close to 50 wins again.
To clarify, I think we will win around 35 games. But, I could see this team clicking, winning more games than that, and making a serious run for the playoffs after the All Star break.
So much depends on Kobe's health, how well our young guys play, etc. We are a better team than last year, but its hard to say how that will translate on the court.
yeah, folks were claiming that the warriors were just worldbeaters (they're not), but that's kind of out the window now. say what you want about injuries, but Jeremy lin wasn't closing that gap against one of the league's obvious bottom feeders last night. I don't think prime kobe was closing that gap. mike brown's preseason was better than this.
Keep in mind guys we had Keith Appling in the game and he played significant minutes. He's not going to make the roster. We look bad right now, but our offensive players aren't there right now. Lin is absolutely crucial to this team. Clarkson is increasingly important. Young is vital. Even Henry and Kelly will have roles to play when they return and they're all offensive weapons. When Kobe came out of the game there was absolutely nobody to rely on offensively. Boozer might be the only one and when his little jumper is off he's not going to create much.
Last night's game was ugly, but even ignoring that, this team seems lost defensively. I think they will get better in that department, but I have a feeling they are going to come out of the gate in really bad shape. A team learning how to play defense, no Nick Young, and apparently no Steve Nash...that's all going to lead to some ugliness. Not to mention that 6 of our first 7 games are against teams with winning records from a year ago. So 34 wins is my prediction.
47 Definitely seems like a lot now (my first prediction). We've got 53 games before the All-star break (last game Feb 11), and 29 after (first game Feb 20). I think that before the all-star break we'll start to pick up some momentum, with Randle finally playing consistent/maybe even starting, and the team as a whole gelling. I'm thinking about 20-33 before the break, and maybe 20-9 after. 40 total wins?
Last few preseason games have been ugly, no way around that. I stick with my 35 game prediction, but still think we will be a lot better team by the end of the season. Unfortunately, I am also thinking we will struggle so much in the beginning of the season there will be no way to climb out of the hole and get into the playoff hunt.
