I'm looking at DWade. His rookie year (age 21-22- approx same age as Dame), he put up 16-5-4 in 35 mpg. He jumped to 24-7-5 in his sophomore year in 39 mpg. His biggest improvement was due to 4 increased FT attempts per game. If Dame can climb up from 19-7-3 in 39 mpg to 22-8-3 in some fewer minutes, he will be an all star and we will win a ton of game. As a comparison, Roy went from 16-4-4 in 35 mpg his rookie year to 19-5-6 in 38 mpg his sophomore year. With this improvement, we only went from 32 wins his rookie year to 41 his second. I'm hoping for a bit better from Dame and this team.
I wonder how much an improved team and bench will play into those number but I am all for the "Wade Jump" if you will
But Roy has less of a supporting cast. We will surprise a lot of people this season. If Roy was on the stacked team now; we'd have more than 41 wins, IMO.
We are a better team overall this year......much improved bench and I think Lopez is a slight upgrade over Hickson, especially on D. We were on pace for about 45-47 wins last year until the minutes started showing and Batum got hurt. High/low for me is 50-45. However, I could see a 55 win season if Batum, TRob, Claver, and Leonard blossum/breakout.
As of now, without knowing what other teams have done, +7-10 games on whatever we notched last season.
We were 33-49. Considering the tank towards the end of year I'd say +7-10 is a safe bet. It's still early, but it appears the west has gotten weaker, or at least more top heavy.
Even though it appeared to be a "tank", the schedule was such that there was a very good chance we would have lost all of those games even if we hadn't "tanked". Mid-season I was looking at the close to our schedule and knew that all the "Playoffs" talk was way premature and we'd come plummeting down to Earth. So I don't really buy into us being better than our record indicated. I think we have a dramatically better roster already, but I don't know that it'll translate into a dramatically better record. Lillard and McCollum will hold the keys to whether we just meet, or exceed expectations.
Our starting 5 was better than our record indicated. The bench holds the keys to success IMO. And this second unit has got some real potential: McCollum/Watson Barton/Crabbe Wright Robinson Leonard
