When was the last year Portland didn't beat the predicted Win/Loss record of most "experts"? I'm looking over the seasons, and I'd guess 2012? That was the first post-Roy team and Gerald Wallace was probably our second best player after LMA. 28 wins seemed about right, but I can see how some might have thought we'd get a few more wins. I know the last three years I've predicted several more wins over the consensus and easily come out ahead. Every year I kick myself for not throwing in a hundred bucks betting on them. Maybe this year I'll finally get off my ass.
Who cares? Predictions mean nothing. I think we could be pretty good this year if a couple of young guys step up and we're relatively healthy.
I think the Blazers will be over their 37 win prediction. But that isn't going to do much other than get them a 1st Round series against the Warriors or the Rockets. For me to see improvement, they need to do what they did last year (they should if they are better and other teams injuries didn't mean anything, right?) and then actually win a 1st round series when they are favored to do so and have HCA.
If we don't improve our frontcourt, we will be very susceptible to injury in the frontcourt. I'm sure we'll win between 42 and 52 wins. The problem? I'm pretty sure about 10 or 11 teams in the West will have that many or more. So, predicting which exact ranking or "place" the Blazers get is a ridiculously silly exercise. Put another way, the Blazers are a very good team in a conference of very good teams. So, to rise to HCA again, several things will need to go right. Same as those other teams.
Last year predictions had the Thunder, Wolves, Spurs, Clippers, Wolves and Nuggets all way ahead of us.....gotta love our underdog status year in and year out.....predicting seeds before rosters are filled and training camp has even started is childish at best...we're all 0-0 until tipoff of the regular season...nobody had us sweeping summer league either....that was supposed to be the Lakers....smh
You can tell it's wasn't HCP because he would have had the Lakers with 81 wins with one begrudging road loss to the Warriors.
99% of the roster spots are filled across the NBA. There are only a few teams with 1 or 2 spots left open - without any 'impact' FA remaining. There is very little difference between making the predictions now versus in October.
Teams will full, or nearly full, rosters can still make trades. There could still be one, or two, significant trades between now and opening night. We also won't get a glimpse of how last year's injured players have recovered until we see them in preseason games. I don't expect anything that would suddenly cause anyone else in the West to suddenly vault into contention with GSW and HOU for the No. 1 or 2 seed in the West, but with teams 3 - 11 so tightly bunched, a trade or key player not fully recovered from an injury could shake things for the middle of the pack. BNM
Sounds like an easy way to make more money in Vegas if you're a Blazer fan. These predictions always fail. Barring any serious injuries, I expect Portland to be #8-9 seed this year.
I think that number is low. I expect us to fight and claw like hell to get to the 6 or 7 seed. 45 wins or so should do it this year.
There are still trades to be made and roster spots to hand out ….there's a huge difference to me in making predictions before one game has tipped off...couple days ago Melo was in OKC....today he's in Atlanta....Kawhi and DeRozan just swapped places....not buying what you're saying....it's premature to project records at this point but they do it every year because there's nothing else to talk about...
Some might actually give credit to the coaching staff for that. Interestingly, many Blazer fans think our coaching is weak. Talk about 2 very different interpretations of reality.
Is the national media and Vegas underestimating the Blazers every single year some kind of running gag or something? If we'd bet against the Vegas line the last few years we each could have funded annual trips to the summer league. And most of us knew it.
