The Official 2015-2016 Wins Prediction Thread

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Who is having those big breakout seasons in Utah or Phoenix? Who are the players there that are going to carry those teams?

I understand the GS, SA, LAC, OKC, Mem, teams being placed well above the teams, but most of these other teams have no more talent than the wolves (right now).

The wolves would be hard pressed to sustain the same amount of injuries to key players again, not to mention not being likely to trade away players at the deadline, and won't be tanking to end the season. 30 wins is what I expect without Ricky this season.

25 wins is unrealistic unless you plan on this team tanking to end the year.

Utah may have the best defensive center in the league. They already have an all-star caliber wing in Heyward and Favors may make the jump to all-star this year as well. Phoenix has 1 all-star in Bledsoe, added Chandler to help with the defense and Knight showed he was a borderline all-star for the Bucks (18/5/4 43/40/88). We have no all-stars. Who's carrying us? Ricky doesn't score enough to carry us. Wiggins and Lavine put up good stats when they were the only options, but we now have a fully healthy squad so they won't get 40 MPG's and a majority of the shots. Their quality young guys are all 3+ years in the league and most of ours are under 2 years.

I like Gobert but he has zero offensive moves other than an alley oop. He is a younger DJ, which doesn't do much for you until you have Chris Paul. Trey Burkes certainly isn't going to make him relevant on that end. Favors is a solid PF, nothing more nothing less. Heyward will likely be passed by Wiggins this season if he hasn't been already.

Not sure when Bledsoe become an allstar. Chandler is way past his prime, and Brandon Knight isn't an upgrade from Ricky. Ricky can carry us because he makes the other guys better around him. Don't really care how many years guys have been in the league, but rather how well they are performing.

The wolves have just as much talent as either of those teams.

Wiggins being better than Hayward already is a laughably homer take. 19/5/4 45/36/81 and a 20+ PER versus 17/5/2 44/31/76 and a 14 PER while Wiggins averaged 2 more MPG's. Bledsoe averaged 17/6/5 as a PG and is a very good defender because he's one of the best athletes in the league. You're also going off of projections and not actual production which goes against your "how well they are performing" line. Why are our guys the only ones allowed to get better in this scenario? Hayward, Favors and Gobert haven't even hit their primes yet. Same goes for Bledsoe and Knight. We have talent, but it is not as close to being consistently productive at a high level as guys like you think. Wiggins showed nothing in the FIBA tournament to make me believe he is going to make a significant leap this year. If everyone is fully healthy they'll both be better than us. Book it.

[60WinTim]

I really wanted to go with 50 wins in honor of KG being with the team. But after scouring the schedule, I could only come up with 48. But that should be good enough to make the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed...

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

OK, quick summary so far:

Q - 26
Volans - 27
Cool - 31
Khans - 32
Lloyd - 38
Big O - 38
SJM - 41
Doper - 44

[60WinTim]

OK, quick summary so far:

Q - 26
Volans - 27
Cool - 31
Khans - 32
Lloyd - 38
Big O - 38
SJM - 41
Doper - 44

You think so little of my prediction that you are ignoring it?!? ;-)

Rubio back. Sam's focus on defense. KG's intensity. Growth from the young guys. Veteran leadership. Playoffs here we come!

[Volans19]

I really wanted to go with 50 wins in honor of KG being with the team. But after scouring the schedule, I could only come up with 48. But that should be good enough to make the playoffs as a 7 or 8 seed...

opTIMistic as ever

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Sorry Tim, you must have posted while I was consolidating the data. And as expected, you take the top spot!

Q - 26
Volans - 27
Cool - 31
Khans - 32
Lloyd - 38
Big O - 38
SJM - 41
Doper - 44
Tim - 48

(I love that Tim's optimism isn't just unbridled craziness. He actually had us pegged at 50 until he audited the schedule and then, sigh, had to take us down to "just" 48. Love it)

((By the way Tim, you know as well as I that there is no way in hell we win that many games))

[KiwiMatt]

I'm going for 28 wins.

Tim put down the crack pipe! I know they call you OpTIMism, but you need to change to RealisTIM.

:thumb:

[mjs34]

Who is having those big breakout seasons in Utah or Phoenix? Who are the players there that are going to carry those teams?

I understand the GS, SA, LAC, OKC, Mem, teams being placed well above the teams, but most of these other teams have no more talent than the wolves (right now).

The wolves would be hard pressed to sustain the same amount of injuries to key players again, not to mention not being likely to trade away players at the deadline, and won't be tanking to end the season. 30 wins is what I expect without Ricky this season.

25 wins is unrealistic unless you plan on this team tanking to end the year.

Utah may have the best defensive center in the league. They already have an all-star caliber wing in Heyward and Favors may make the jump to all-star this year as well. Phoenix has 1 all-star in Bledsoe, added Chandler to help with the defense and Knight showed he was a borderline all-star for the Bucks (18/5/4 43/40/88). We have no all-stars. Who's carrying us? Ricky doesn't score enough to carry us. Wiggins and Lavine put up good stats when they were the only options, but we now have a fully healthy squad so they won't get 40 MPG's and a majority of the shots. Their quality young guys are all 3+ years in the league and most of ours are under 2 years.

I like Gobert but he has zero offensive moves other than an alley oop. He is a younger DJ, which doesn't do much for you until you have Chris Paul. Trey Burkes certainly isn't going to make him relevant on that end. Favors is a solid PF, nothing more nothing less. Heyward will likely be passed by Wiggins this season if he hasn't been already.

Not sure when Bledsoe become an allstar. Chandler is way past his prime, and Brandon Knight isn't an upgrade from Ricky. Ricky can carry us because he makes the other guys better around him. Don't really care how many years guys have been in the league, but rather how well they are performing.

The wolves have just as much talent as either of those teams.

Wiggins being better than Hayward already is a laughably homer take. 19/5/4 45/36/81 and a 20+ PER versus 17/5/2 44/31/76 and a 14 PER while Wiggins averaged 2 more MPG's. Bledsoe averaged 17/6/5 as a PG and is a very good defender because he's one of the best athletes in the league. You're also going off of projections and not actual production which goes against your "how well they are performing" line. Why are our guys the only ones allowed to get better in this scenario? Hayward, Favors and Gobert haven't even hit their primes yet. Same goes for Bledsoe and Knight. We have talent, but it is not as close to being consistently productive at a high level as guys like you think. Wiggins showed nothing in the FIBA tournament to make me believe he is going to make a significant leap this year. If everyone is fully healthy they'll both be better than us. Book it.

You can't be so foolish that you would take a rookie's full season stats as the player he was at the end of the year. Wiggins averaged over 23 pts, 6 rebs and 4 asts over his last month. While that is a small sample size it is just as realistic as taking his full season as a representation of where he is as a player (and plays right into my "how well they are performing" line).

Zach's last month was 21 pts, 6 rebs, and 6 assts.

Most people understand that a rookie season is usually the biggest struggle for players, but I guess that hasn't hit home with you yet.

Anthony Bennett showed plenty in the international games this summer, and we bought him out. Apparently teams don't put a great deal of stock in that play, but if you do, I am guessing you have Dieng pegged for MVP this season because he tore it up.

BOOK IT! :o

Then you say I am going off projections responding to you predicting that Favors could be an allstar!

[60WinTim]

"No way in hell?" "Crack pipe?"

We are in uncharted waters. I believe last year's 16 wins is causing many of you to make artificially low predictions. But last year needs to be ignored. The injuries, the mid-season trades, the subtle tanking by Flip, all made last season's results irrelevant.

But if you instead look at what the Wolves have assembled, there is reason to believe the Wolves can be even better than the 40-42 record they produced two years ago. Mitchell's focus on defense. Vets to show the youth how to win. Potential breakout seasons by a number of young players. I fully expect this team to surpass that 40-42 record.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

"No way in hell?" "Crack pipe?"

We are in uncharted waters. I believe last year's 16 wins is causing many of you to make artificially low predictions. But last year needs to be ignored. The injuries, the mid-season trades, the subtle tanking by Flip, all made last season's results irrelevant.

But if you instead look at what the Wolves have assembled, there is reason to believe the Wolves can be even better than the 40-42 record they produced two years ago. Mitchell's focus on defense. Vets to show the youth how to win. Potential breakout seasons by a number of young players. I fully expect this team to surpass that 40-42 record.

Tim, I love your optimism, but you have been wrong on the high side every single year, going back to the ESPN days. But if that's what keeps you tickin', so be it.....

There is no one on this roster even close to Kevin Love, circa 2013-14 and we also had a reasonably healthy Pekovic and 82 games of Rubio that year.

Hopefully Wiggins or Towns or LaVine become as good or better than Love in due course, but it most likely isn't happening this year. And Pek will likely never be the same player.