Some nice things said about us: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ba...t=ApJxQu5V68r3l9a1hPAoSWS8vLYF?urn=nba,197215 Sorry, haven't seen this posted yet here.
Perfectly reasonable prediction in my opinion, the wins may be even harder to come by than the 55 he suggests, because I get the feeling the first month or so is going to be more of a rocky ride than many assumed, by season's end I think they'll finally be hitting their stride and playing above their record (which I think could be more in the neighborhood of 50-51).
I'm cool with 55 wins. The Spurs have shown it's about what you do in the post season that counts anyway. We are at a point now where wins totals will not prove whether we had a succesfull season or not.
The year after you startin playing better, you have to remember that teams are more prepared for you coming in the next year. New Orleans found that out the hard way after some playoff success and an excellent record 2 seasons ago. They rolled in last year expecting to do better, and found out that was a very hard thing to do. I would be happy with 55 wins. Especially since I think that many teams in the western conference have improved.
These pre-season predictions MEAN NOTHING. The reason is very simple: no one knows how good Oden is going to be. Period. Think about it. Oden is a huge unknown at this point. A mystery. A question mark. If he turns out to be as good as I believe he can be, it's going to throw a monkey wrench into not just the western division, but the entire NBA. I really believe that. The guy might possibly be the biggest sleeper this year. He's shown hints of greatness in the pre-season, but wait until February. By then, he may have totally turned this team around and made it into a very scary bunch.
Great read. Thanks. Funny comment on the bottom. "I'm a Laker fan, but I honestly won't feel bad if we lose to the Blazers. I mean, you can't NOT love these guys. Brandoy Roy is up there in the top 10 of my favorite historical figures of all time. Lol."
Realistically, I expect around 50 wins this year if we are injury-free. I expect Miller's presence to end up costing us at least one very promising player, probably more and I doubt we'll have any great chemistry as long as he's here. Everything he says and does (or more accurately doesn't do) is so opposite to what Nate has preached to the guys and gotten them to accept that if/when Nate replaces Blake with Miller as the starter he will lose the team's respect and everything that came with it. Our Championship window is but a crack in the wall now. This team is quietly imploding.
