***Official 2016-2017 Wins Prediction Thread***

[Mr. Brightside [enjin:16464947]]

Thibodeau is 10 wins by himself. The bench will be much better, 3 point shooting should be better, and defense should be better. Towns will take another step closer to becoming a superstar and a legit top 10 talent. Wiggins will make a huge jump by scoring more efficiently and becoming the perimeter defender he was supposed to be out of the draft. Sprinkle in LaVine and Dieng's improvement, and we're looking at a very nice season.

I'm saying 44 wins and the 7 seed in the West. 15 win improvement.

[Shumway]

Well my a attempt at throwing a dart is 42 wins. I think it's a bit optimistic to take a small sample size of 500 ball late last year and assume that's the starting point. To maintain that through the long grind of an NBA season will be an accomplishment. Sure an OKC-like jump is possible, but that would be a close to best case outcome I'd think. 42 wins would represent some real progress towards becoming a genuine contender in the next 2-3 years.

Of course, I think we're all hoping that Tim is the one with real insight here.

[Monster]

Im predicting 51 wins. Wiggins makes the all star team and towns has a very good chance of making the team as well.

I think it's more likely that Towns is an All-star than Wiggins unless they don't include centers in the voting or something like that.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

One thing to keep in mind when you worry about injuries derailing our season is every team has the same concern. See Gordon Hayward and the Utah Jazz. Some teams WILL lose a lot of man-games. And because of it the conference will not be as tough as it appears today.

Not that I actually enjoy seeing guys get hurt, but let's face it, this is good news for the Wolves in that Utah is a divisional and conference rival. They are definitely one of the teams we will by vying for a playoff spot against.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Update with latest predictions added:

Bleed - 38
Big O - 39
Volans - 40
Kekgeek - 41
Abe, Shumway - 42
Q, Monster - 43
Drew, Mr. Brightside - 44
Future - 45
Doper, Kiwi - 46
Jerry, Mstermisty, Lipoli - 47
Cool - 49
SP - 50
Worldk - 51
Phenom - 54
Tim - 60

As more folks weigh in, the central tendency is definitely starting to point toward the mid-40s.

[Monster]

One thing to keep in mind when you worry about injuries derailing our season is every team has the same concern. See Gordon Hayward and the Utah Jazz. Some teams WILL lose a lot of man-games. And because of it the conference will not be as tough as it appears today.

Not that I actually enjoy seeing guys get hurt, but let's face it, this is good news for the Wolves in that Utah is a divisional and conference rival. They are definitely one of the teams we will by vying for a playoff spot against.

The Jazz are also pretty deep. They can just plug Joe Johnson in as a starter or keep him coming off the bench and plug in another young player. It weakens them sure but they are still likely to be a pretty good team without Gordon because of their depth. Gordon is a good player through. Also I remember some disparaging comments when Bazz and the Wolves when he got his finger caught up in a teammates jersey injuring it and I thought at the time it just seemed like bad luck. Gordon has been pretty durable as an NBA player so...yeah these things can happen.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

One thing to keep in mind when you worry about injuries derailing our season is every team has the same concern. See Gordon Hayward and the Utah Jazz. Some teams WILL lose a lot of man-games. And because of it the conference will not be as tough as it appears today.

Not that I actually enjoy seeing guys get hurt, but let's face it, this is good news for the Wolves in that Utah is a divisional and conference rival. They are definitely one of the teams we will by vying for a playoff spot against.

That's the politically correct stance to take, Q, and I'm not doubting your sincerity...but my take is different. I'm so hungry for a Wolves playoff appearance that I do enjoy seeing an important player on a rival team get injured...that is, if it's something minor like Hayward's finger injury (i.e. I'm okay with nuisance injuries but no career-enders).

I would actually take Cool's statement a little further. Yes, injuries will happen to all of our rivals, but since the Wolves rely on perhaps the youngest core of key players in the league, it's reasonable to conclude that we will stay healthier than our competitors.

It's awfully early to be making predictions about season wins with the roster not yet set and not seeing how they respond to Thibs, but I'll play just to keep Q happy. I've crunched the numbers and come up with 48 for a very scholarly reason...nobody has picked it yet :).

[maelstrom11 [enjin:6599701]]

I'm going with 46 just like last year.....This team is going to be fun to watch!!

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

I predict 48 wins (with a range of 46 to 50). I am even toying with the possibility of making a fun bet in Vegas on the Wolves season. Can anyone refer a good legit site to make a seasonal bet?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I predict 48 wins (with a range of 46 to 50). I am even toying with the possibility of making a fun bet in Vegas on the Wolves season. Can anyone refer a good legit site to make a seasonal bet?

I've used BetUS.com in the past and found them reliable, Ricky. The only issue I had with them in paying me came with trying to collect after winning "free bets". They have some funky rules about having to exceed a certain level of action before paying off bets made with "free money". I never had any problems collecting on straight bets though. They currently have the Wolves at 42 wins, but you don't have to pay any juice to bet the over (i.e. bet $100, get $200 back if they win more than 42).