ESPN Magazine predictions (surprising)

[KingSpeed]

1. Denver
2. OKC
3. Minnesota
4. Lakers
5. San Antonio
6. Clippers
7. Utah
8. Memphis
9. Dallas
10. New Orleans
11. Portland
12. Sacramento
13. GS
14. Phoenix
15.Houston

1. Miami
2. Atlanta
3. New York
4. Boston
5. Philadelphia
6. Chicago
7. Brooklyn
8. Indiana
9. Toronto
10. Milwaukee
11. Cleveland
12. Detroit
13. Washington
14. Orlando
15. Charlotte

Discuss.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Ugh. Worst possible scenario. Not a play-off team, but also not in the running for a good pick.

 

[NOVoodoo]

Even the Denver Nuggets think these projections are a joke...

 

[Rhal]

Lol these rankings look like they were made by a 4 year old throwing darts at a wall full of team names. Id like to see the reasoning on these picks.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[NOVoodoo]

Lol these rankings look like they were made by a 4 year old throwing darts at a wall full of team names. Id like to see the reasoning on these picks.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

You know what it reminds me of?

It reminds me of Rolling Stone's "Greatest Guitarists of All-Time" lists, or any lists they do for that matter.

They know their medium is a dying medium, and the only way to survive is to make controversial picks.

For every person who looks at the issue and says, "Denver Nuggets #1?!? Minnesota Timberwolves #3?!?," you have a reader.

It's like they've relegated themselves to the status of being the National Enquirer of sports media.

(In other news, the Sporting News just became the second worst sports magazine on the racks. Raises all around!)

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Pocket Squares!

http://deadspin.com/5955240/basketb...ith-pocket-squares-according-to-reggie-miller

 

[KingSpeed]

I believe they made these predictions using a statistical formula.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I believe they made these predictions using a statistical formula.

Ya think?

 

[craigehlo]

I have my doubts about the Blazers making a legit playoff run, but any forecast that has the Hornets above is pure garbage.

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

More like

1. OKC
2. Lakers
3. Denver
4. San Antonio
5. Clippers
6. Utah
7. Dallas
8. Minny
9. Memphis
10. Portland
and then the rest

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

Although I'd rather have us tank. Remember that Charlotte gets our pick if it's 13 or above.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

2. OKC
15.Houston

Now we know the REAL reason Houston made the trade...

 

[huevonkiller]

OKC is more like a sub-50 win team now. They look even weaker for the post-season too.

 

[Natebishop3]

OKC is more like a sub-50 win team now. They look even weaker for the post-season too.

I highly doubt that.

 

[huevonkiller]

I highly doubt that.

I don't always agree with Hollinger but he seems to be right. I could easily see Harden being worth 4 more win shares over an 82 game season.

"Before the trade, my model had the Thunder winning 58 games. Taking Harden and Daequan Cook out of the Thunder rotation and adding in Lamb and Martin takes them down a peg, even though I projected Martin to do better in Oklahoma City than I had him doing in Houston. (This is subjective, but I do think he'll be better; he was second in the league in points per minute two seasons ago before Kevin McHale's system took the ball out of his hands, and he should have the rock more as a go-to guy for the Thunder's second unit.)

Keeping Martin's other adjustments the same (dings for injury proneness and defense), using my standard rookie score for Jeremy Lamb (here, I leave my ad-libs out of it and estimate a performance based purely on draft position) and tweaking minutes for other players to adjust for the Thunder likely playing a bit more smallball, and I end up at 54 wins for the Thunder.

That's a four-win drop, and at the margin you can see the impact this might have on their title chances -- 58 wins screams contender, while 54 hints more meekly at the chance of a deep playoff run. While it doesn't affect their projected seeding at all, the Thunder grade out as a less-formidable regular-season outfit, and that carries over to how well they project for the postseason, too.

All of which makes sense. You don't make a trade like this, largely motivated by cap considerations and draft picks, without taking a step back in the short term."

http://bbs.hupu.com/4523167.html

tl;dr version: 58 wins before the trade seemed reasonable, if Martin is worth 4 less wins then OKC is a sub-50 win team.

Martin is brittle as well, I think he's got them about right. I was surprised by his Denver projection though, but they outperform their regular season expectations all the time and got Iggy.

 

[Natebishop3]

But it's also possible with Harden gone, Durant will step up his game even more. I guess we'll just have to see.

 

[huevonkiller]

The theory seems to be that Martin has the ball in his hands a lot, so Durant should see about the same amount of touches.

 

[KingSpeed]

Denver #1
Golden State #13

Wow.

 

[Eastoff]

Denver #1
Golden State #13

Wow.

Dat Minnesota! BD