Portland Projected with 2nd most wins in West at 52 wins

[espn_hall_of_famer]

Heard they just posted the Vegas spreads on over/unders for wins. Took a look around at some live websites and founds some odds. Looks pretty interesting. Some odds:

Miami - 64.5

West:
Lakers - 57
Portland - 52
OKC - 51.5
Spurs - 50
Dallas - 49.5
Utah - 49
Houston - 48
Denver - 43 (really?)
Phoenix - 42

So Portland is projected to be the #2 seed with the 2nd best record. Phoenix and Denver fighting it out for the 8th seed.

I'm guessing the Melo thing must still be brewing in Denver if Vegas is only projecting 43 wins. I wonder why Vegas doesn't have OKC winning as many as Portland. Maybe because people actually have their paychecks on the line and won't believe the media hypa?

Also curious to note Spurs at 50 (I think that's a little high), and Phoenix at 42 (no Amare really must have made a difference in the computer calculations).

 

[THE HCP]

64 wins for Miami huh? I honestly think they get 75.

 

[MARIS61]

So we're projected to chalk up our 3rd season of stagnation.

 

[KingSpeed]

64 wins for Miami huh? I honestly think they get 75.

75??? I don't know about that. They're already having injury issues.

 

[MickZagger]

64 wins for Miami huh? I honestly think they get 75.

Absolutely no way they reach 70. I'm betting on 62 at most.

 

[Natebishop3]

64 wins for Miami huh? I honestly think they get 75.

No way they pass the Bulls.

 

[THE HCP]

I honestly believe they are going to tear the league up. I don't want them to, and I will be rooting against them, but I can't wait to see them take the court. I never thought health would be a factor for them, but who knows. I do think if healthy, they beat the Bulls record.

 

[THE HCP]

The 07-08 Celtics won 66 games with their "BIG 3"....... there is no comparison to this "BIG 3" and to be honest, I believe the supporting cast on Miami is better also. Who knows, hope 2 of their loses are against us.

 

[ABM]

So we're projected to chalk up our 3rd season of stagnation.

Yeah, but, overall, seasons are graded on a curve, right?

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

Which site did you look at? Got similiar numbers, but Sportsbook.com has OKC with a higher win total:

http://www.sportsbook.com/livesports/indexmember.php?sportsname=basketball

Posted as bets you can make over/under with red meaning I think the projection was too high and blue too low.

Lakers 56.5
OKC 52.5
Portland 51.5
San Antonio 50.5
Dallas 49.5
Utah 49.5
Houston 47.5
Denver 43.5
Phoenix 42.5
New Orleans 40.5
Memphis 38.5
LA Clippers 36.5
Golden St 30.5
Sacramento 27.5
Minnesota 23.5

Miami 64.5
Orlando 56.5
Boston 53.5
Atlanta 46.5
Chicago 46.5
Milwaukee 45.5
Charlotte 39.5
New York 35.5
Philadelphia 35.5
Washington 34.5
Indiana 34.5
Detroit 31.5
Cleveland 29.5
Toronto 26.5
New Jersey 25.5

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

The 07-08 Celtics won 66 games with their "BIG 3"....... there is no comparison to this "BIG 3" and to be honest, I believe the supporting cast on Miami is better also. Who knows, hope 2 of their loses are against us.

How is there no comparison?

A case can be made for Garnett/Pierce being a better duo over Wade/Lebron. Bosh may edge Ray Allen, but who compares to Perkins and Rondo?

Perkins > Anthony
Garnett > Bosh
Pierce < Lebron
Allen < Wade
Rondo >> Chalmers

Posey = Miller
House = House
Davis = Haslem
Brown = Z

I also think there is a huge edge in coaching between Doc and Spoelstra.

64 wins for Miami huh? I honestly think they get 75.

Um, want to make it interesting?

 

[Ed O]

52 wins sounds about right.

Regarding the Heat: if James/Wade/Bosh stay healthy all years, I could see them pushing 70 wins. I don't find that very likely, though, and I don't think that their depth will be able to let them dominate with one of those guys out.

Ed O.

 

[alex42083]

Can't be angry about that. At this point, if I saw the team get the No. 2 seed with 52 wins ... or more ... and be just behind the Lakers, I think we'd all take that.

 

[MickZagger]

To win 70 games, everything has to go right. No injuries, several buzzer beaters and Wade and Lebron two ball hawking guards need to be on the same page.

 

[julius]

I don't think they'll be nearly as dominating as some think they will. Bosh isn't a top notch PF, imho. He was a really good player on a really really shitty team, and never ever lead his team anywhere.

Granted, the Raptors have 'done' more than Portland has since he came in the league, but a lot of his status, imho, is based on the fact he was in the sole Canadian NBA team (and the NBA was desperate to keep it strong) and Toronto is a big city close to the media epicenter of the east coast.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like him on the Blazers. But he's no Tim Duncan or Karl Malone.

Imho, you put Brandon Roy on a top 5 market team and his name and prowess would be significantly more important in the NBA's "eyes".

 

[THE HCP]

There is no comparison to Boston's Big 3 and Miami's because the Celtics were already past their prime and Miami's are about to enter there's! HUGE difference!

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

There is no comparison to Boston's Big 3 and Miami's because the Celtics were already past their prime and Miami's are about to enter there's! HUGE difference!

As I said, care to make it interesting?

 

[julius]

The 07-08 Celtics won 66 games with their "BIG 3"....... there is no comparison to this "BIG 3" and to be honest, I believe the supporting cast on Miami is better also. Who knows, hope 2 of their loses are against us.

I hope 6 of their losses are against us.

 

[Minstrel]

There is no comparison to Boston's Big 3 and Miami's because the Celtics were already past their prime and Miami's are about to enter there's! HUGE difference!

The advantage Boston's big three had was that they were more complementary. Garnett's, Pierce's and Allen's games didn't overlap much, they all attacked different parts of the defense. Bosh and Wade are both going to be scoring in ways that James already does, making it harder for all three to be used at close to optimal levels.

Plus, Boston had far superior team defense than Miami projects to, IMO.

 

[espn_hall_of_famer]

There is no comparison to Boston's Big 3 and Miami's because the Celtics were already past their prime and Miami's are about to enter there's! HUGE difference!

My personal take on the Boston Big 3 that I think made their season unique compared to the Miami situation is

1) while they were labeled the "Big 3" I think in hindsight we can now say it was more like the "Big 4" because Rondo was a lot better player than anyone realized he was. Great defense and a great resource making the rest of the team better. Without him, their just a 56-59 win team at best. So let's not forget they really had KG (> than Bosh), Rondo (likely comparible to Wade as far as value the team gets from him), and Paul Pierce (the leader and dagger in most games comparible to LeBron). Ray Allen ended up being gravy on top as an all-star that provided that streaky shooting, but lights-out when he was on fire. And,

2) I think one thing that is missing in this comparison is that while Boston won a lot of games with their "Big 4", they really were an anamoly. I remember at the time thinking that they are defying all of the odds because you simply never see this much change in chemistry and adding stars onto a team (like we did when we added a future hall-of-famer in Pippen along with a Dream Team star in Steve Smith amongst our current all-star at the time of Sheed). So teams have made an attempt to have three stars on a team all at once in the past, and the chemistry usually doesn't allow it to work very quickly. Boston is the only example in history of it working in that first year. So I wouldn't count Miami as being so lucky as Boston was when they suddenly jumped to 66 wins. I'd say Miami is more like a 58-63 win team this season depending on injuries and chemistry.