25.5

[thedoper]

I predicted 43 wins in another thread. And I am always spot on with this stuff.

[The Rage Monster [enjin:8010341]]

Really this bet comes down to one thing, health. If you think the team can stay healthy it's a lock they win more than 25 games. We're returning 4 of 5 starts and we replaced Love with Young so it's not like we'll have nothing at PF. With Dieng, a healthy Bud, and Williams our bench should be much better than last year.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Really this bet comes down to one thing, health. If you think the team can stay healthy it's a lock they win more than 25 games. We're returning 4 of 5 starts and we replaced Love with Young so it's not like we'll have nothing at PF. With Dieng, a healthy Bud, and Williams our bench should be much better than last year.

I agree. If Pek, Rubio, Budinger, Brewer, Martin, and Mo Williams all stay reasonably healthy, we should win 30-something games. However, I don't think that will happen. And neither does Vegas.

It's more than likely that two out of the Martin-Bud-Pek trio miss a fairly significant amount of time based on past precedent. And then there will be random stuff that hits us, just like any team. I don't think us fans consider these things when making W-L projections. We tend to assume best-case scenarios in terms of health and rookie readiness to contribute. Vegas doesn't think about best-case scenarios, but most realistic-case scenarios. And when you factor in the injury-prone nature of some of our key guys plus all the youth, 25.5 is a very reasonable number.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Health is always a factor, rage, but I would argue that it is much less of a factor this year than others because the nature of the roster is so different. For the past few years, the roster has consisted of a clear starting five and almost nothing behind them...the gap between our top 5 and our next 7 was enormous. Not so this year. We lack a top ten superstar this year, but we have depth like we have never seen before. Injuries will always happen to some extent, but I think we are in much better shape to weather them now.

I also like the "over" this year, but I have to admit there are very few occurrences where I have gravitated to the "under" for any Minnesota team :) . There will be some growing pains this year, but teams that play hard are generally competitive, and I think this squad will play hard al year. I watched portions of the Cavs' opening scrimmage last night, and got a little down seeing how much better they looked than the Wolves did Monday night. But there were some reasons for this:

1) The Cavs had the advantage of four days of practice before their open scrimmage, while the Wolves were playing completely cold.
2) The Cavs played their first team against their reserves, while Flip divided the roster into three balanced squads. And the Cavs second team is terrible and no match for their starters.

Yes, the Cavs have considerably more polish than the Wolves, and more talent too, but I think our team will play hard every night and easily win 26 games.

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

I thought 25.5 was a bit low, but not low enough for me to lay a big bet on it like I did last year.

I'd be disappointed though if this team can't find 30 wins. At the very least they should be competitive at home.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

It looks like Atlantic City is finally offering sports gambling. So for anyone in the mid-atlantic/northeast, get over there and take that over. You're right Phenom, 25.5 is a sick joke and if we only win 25, I'll be very disappointed.

But yes we're still having the over party in Vegas in June.

[60WinTim]

Q - yeah, we sucked when Love went to the bench. But we sucked even more when Rubio went to the bench...

A couple of reasons for sucking with Love on the bench:

1) We were a team that leaned on Love for offensive production, so when he went to the bench, we were ill-equipped to handle his absence. We are likely to be much more balanced on the offensive end this year.

2) Our backup PF sucked about as much as our backup PG last year. The drop off this year will hopefully not be as great, whether it's Bennett stepping up, Dieng playing some PF, or Flip's small ball taking hold.

I also think Wiggins will make a much bigger impact in his rookie year than Durant was able to muster, because Durant's strength was shooting, which rookies tend to struggle with. Wiggins strengths are defense and athleticism at the rim, which ought to serve him well in his rookie year.

I know you are excited for this season but tempering your expectations. I just think you (and most everyone else) are over estimating the reasons for taking a step back, and under estimating the reasons for taking a step forward.

But I'll enjoy seeing you pleasantly surprised, and also enjoy having the three of us tell you all we told you so! :)

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

"If Pek, Rubio, Budinger, Brewer, Martin, and Mo Williams all stay reasonably healthy, we should win 30-something games. However, I don't think that will happen. And neither does Vegas." -- Q

If those guys stay reasonable healthy, we're looking at 40+ wins more than likely. Six key vets? Better defense throughout the entire team. More athleticism. Much better bench. I can understand the 30-something wins if that's including some injuries, but if those six are healthy then I think you're selling them short.

[TheGrey08]

lol wow. I'd take the over in a heart beat. It's not even a decision for me.

[60WinTim]

This is the best quantum music video ever. If you agree, you should put money down on the over... ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rjbtsX7twc