2023/24 Projections and Predictions thread

Great, pay 8 players major contracts instead of 6 ....works well.

 

The difference of KPJ/NIx to FVV/Amen is immense. Amen will be among the best guards in the league at rebounding and steals. If he develops a decent outside shot this year, he could vie for 6th man of the year. The Rockets will get a lot better this year. Memphis and NO are real candidates to implode. Ja Morant is a real wild card and if Zion gets hurt again they will be tank candidates. OKC will be much better if Chet can stay healthy. San Antonio is going to suck while Wemby learns the game. My only concern with San Antonio is the refs. They are already giving Wemby superstar calls and handling him with extreme kid gloves. Portland will be bad, Utah started out hot, but they will be mediocre at best. I don’t know if we can make the play-in, but we will be in the conversation all year.

 

You are also paying 40 million to a player instead of 15.8, that would be more than double.....let's face it.....KPJ was probably worth 12-15 million if he was not such a shetty human being.

That was fair (overpriced) market value. Better player. Better results.

 

Not my money and by the time we need cap space he is gone. Amen will be all-star level PG by then.

 

It has nothing to do with cap space, I am talking about value here, and people are then responding with cap space.

If you can play like a 40 million player, oh yeah, we all cheer on that contract.

I would rather he would find guys that can be lowballed lol.

 

“If Amen develops a decent outside shot.”

…that’s never going to happen. His form is completely broken.

 

Actually, it's a 47.9% chance they keep the pick under the best circumstances, having one of the three worst records.
2024 NBA Draft Lottery Odds | Tankathon

 

you still a Josh Christopher fan? that's so 2022

 

Removed

 

Lol I said Fred was older and get flak but everyone outside of Houston is noting that he is almost 30 and has a lot on his shoulders.

 

He’s on to something with age and defense. Last year the top 10 defenses were mostly the older teams in the league. The few younger teams that had top 10 defenses featured 1 or multiple high end defensive bigs that anchored them.

We will improve defensively, likely a good deal, but I think our youth and lack of a true anchor will limit how high we can jump.

 

I keep hearing people say they would be satisfied with +10 wins vs last season. Fvv is worth +10 wins by himself, if the team only improves by 10 wins that means every young player has regressed or stagnated. That would be an unmitigated disaster.

I want to see a leap from at least two out of three of Jalen, Sengun and Jabari. I want to see a step from Tari. I want to see flashes from Amen and Cam. Between internal improvement and adding Brooks, Landale, Green etc that should be minimally another +10 wins and that’s how you get to 40+.

 

Wins are a finite resource. The NBA was the youngest it had ever been the past 2 seasons by median age. A lot of teams are getting better and few of the great teams are getting worse. The teams getting worse tend to be in the East. I'm not close to being as gung ho as you are about the Rockets chances even assuming 2023 wins are as easy to get as 2022 wins and balanced schedules.

With that said, I expect the Rockets to be much better this season as a team, but the win total is going to disappoint a lot of people.

 

You haven’t been paying attention.

 

The West is hugely overrated and that was before Memphis losing their starting center:

 

@ApacheWarrior ive decided I’ll go 3 games above your projections. Which is the opposite from the last 2 season where I was below your projections both times.

Cheers to a good season (and for me the first time in years I am hoping the team wins) I can still hope for all the fails on the Nets though

 

So a big list of teams which for the most part is a bunch of teams that won 42-53 games last season and didn't lose a player close to as good as FVV for the season. Memphis and Sacramento are the only two good teams that drop more than a couple of wins, but they are still likely better than Houston. On Dallas, they only won 38 because the West was too good last year so they decided to tank late. Portland and maybe Utah are going to be the only sure fire loss sinks.

 

Utah was among the Top 5, Top 6 in the West in the first 30 games last year.......and then decided they want to take things slow.....

That is how things could go one half and go another half of the season.