Our friends at BlazersEdge wrote about Nurkic and his "affect" on the team. After the Plumlee for Nurkic swap, the Blazers won at an astounding rate of .700 until he broke that leg bone. So....the question remains.....how many wins do you think this team (assuming NO changes from today) will earn? We bring back the same 15 players on the roster today and Stotts does his best to coach them up. No Ezeli, but Quarterman back on a hockey contract. Lillard - McCollum - Harkless - Vonleh - Nurkic Turner - Crabbe - Aminu - Davis - Collins Napier - Connaughton - Layman - Swanigan - Leonard Was it a mirage? Was it an easy schedule? Was it luck? Or is it sustainable for a season?? VOTE!
I know we are probably only going to use the Mini-MLE but I would still like to wait until after free agency to answer this one. We could have a trade (here's to hoping!).
I think the improvement is real. I don't think they'll race out to 60 wins, but I do think they're capable of getting more than 50. I believe the addition of Nurkic makes Vonleh and Harkless play better with the starting guards. I also think that Collins will add needed DEFENSE to our squad with his energy, toughness and length! Anything we get from Swanigan is bonus. I expect DL, CJ, Harkless, Vonleh and JN to start. I expect ET, AC, AFA and Collins to get most of backup minutes with a little Davis, Napier and the occasional Leonard sightings. I still expect PC, Layman and Swanigan to ride the pine. I voted for 50-54 wins. I think we're better than we were with Plumlee and expect the record to show it when extrapolated over the 82 games.
I predicted 60 last season before Festus went MIA. Now we have Nurk, and Collins. Going 60 again..... EDIT: Damn! I'm the only one at 60+??? Where's @KingSpeed ?
Not even gonna bother to answer this until Nurk makes it through camp unscathed. Also want to see Swanigan and Collins in action in the Summer League.
50-54 seems reasonable with a healthy team. I would feel more confident in that assumption if we could make a decent trade to bolster the bench.
I'm also currently thinking upper end of 45-49. If things largely go right, 50 wins seems reasonable. Any injuries to significant players (Nurkic seems most relevant here), any major underperformance from players without counter-balancing overperformance and they could drop down to 40-45 wins.
I don't know what to pick between 23 and 82. But for real I voted 55-59 because I have a good feeling about the team, Nurk, our Rookies and other guys maybe improving. Also because I'm just a f'cking homer
