(FiveThirtyEight) Rockets will be the best in the west

Its the Westbrook effect. Remember how everyone's projections had the Thunder over the Rockets each and every year during the entire Harden era.

 

Damm right

 

The Clippers are not gonna win 48 games like last year........

Blazers are likely not going to win only 41 games.

 

really I have us winning 70

 

....no?

 

I don’t care about load management nonsense the clippers are atleast a 53 to 55 wining team.i do have us wining anywhere from 57 to 61 wins. Remember this team easily had the best offense and record after November to the end of the season with the same core and Paul missing a huge chunk of that stretch. You add Russ now and we are improving. D House and Rivers are now fully accumulated into the system after coming in mid season and obviously Harden is a all time legend

 

don't be weak

 

When healthy, we were kicking ass last season. The big questions for me is will Fertitta let Morey improve the roster, which we could still use, and can we integrate Westbrook into our system without taking a step back from where we’re were last season? ​

 

Same here. Notwithstanding WB's weaknesses, I think this first year with two MVPs putting tremendous pressure on defenses, we are going to be awesome.

 

I like this point of view. Therefore I declare this real news. Everyone else not predicting The Rockets as the best team is just fake news produced by the enemies of the Rockets people.

 

I love statistical breakdowns.

Here's where I agree with the West chart:

-Rockets will have the best record in the West. They probably would have with CP3. Great regular season records are a D'Antoni hallmark
-Warriors in the hunt
-Mavericks making the jump

Here's where I disagree:

-Clippers have the best chance of winning it all due to their wing defense. They are simply going to shut teams down with smaller-midsize scorers. You have to run them off the floor
-Jazz and Blazers are underrated with Conley on this chart
-Nuggets, Thunder and Pelicans are overrated on this chart

X-Factors:
-Clippers, Lakers chemistry
-Lakers durability
-Rockets durability
-Rockets tenacity and guts (Sisu) in the playoffs. We gave up the past two years before the games were over. Does Westbrook change that? If so, sky's the limit
-Porzingis for the Mavs
-CP3 with a chip on his shoulder, something to prove (not that we've really seen this before in his career)- could make the Thunder a spoiler team
-Jazz ability to score

As for the East:

-Wide open, vastly inferior to the West
-76ers are always an injury questionmark
-Does CP3 get traded there
-Bucks inevitable 'It team' letdown
-Celtics new lineup with the best coach in the NBA
-Jump for Pascal Siakam, Raptors keep rolling
-Jimmy Butler Drama, Part VII: The South Beach Menace

 

Here are 538 predictions:
2018-19
Rockets (2nd in West) 56-26 (actual 4th in West 53-29)
OKC (4th in West) 53-29 (actual 6h in West 49-33)

2017-18
Rockets (2nd in West) 57-25 (actual 1st in West 65-17)
OKC (3rd in West) 55-27 (actual 4th in West 48-34)

2016-17
Rockets (8th in West) 45-37 (actual 3rd in West 55-27)
Thunder (4th in West) 50-32 (actual 6th in West 47-35)

If anything they've consistently overrated Westbrook.They actually acknowledge this saying that their model overemphasizes RPM (currently) and that it doesn't actually translate to wins/losses. Their new models (coming out later this offseason) will use new factors that they've already said will lower the Rockets as it will penalize Westbrook.

 

This isn't true. 538 had us as the best west team winning the most games prior to the trade.

 

My mistake, I hadn't realized they had ranked the Rockets so fairly in the past. My comments were directed more towards ESPN, the TNT crew, ect who continually had us ranked 5-8 and below OKC.

 

Paul George will probably miss training camp and maybe the beginning of the season due to his shoulder surgery.

I think Utah got markedly better but I’m less convinced about the Blazers and Nuggets.

 

LOL paranoid much?? Even good news is bad news?

 

As long as you're going for it, why not predict 85 regular season wins?

 

Both Blazers are Nuggets are good in the regular season, similarly to the Rockets.

However, they dun have that electric superstar like Harden, their stars look pedestrian but they are still more than solid.

 

Blazers lost a lot of talent. Their starting C is a question mark to when he will return and the guy they are replacing him with for now(Whiteside) is the type of player I love if they are on the team we are up against. Loser basketball player.

Portland will not be as good as last year.