Sitting at 4th seed in the West after statistically one of the top 3 most difficult schedules to start the season. Some things to consider: 1) We have been relatively healthy. Statistically speaking, we have lost fewer games to injury than we should on average. 2) We are in a mini group right now with the Clippers, Grizzlies and Thunder. Records very similar. Grizzlies are playing great but they lost Conley for a while, I imagine it will impact their performance and they have the lowest point differential of the 4 (at -0.4). Thunder seem to be extremely similar to us. Clippers are leading the pack right now, sitting at 3rd seed with the biggest point differential at +8.3 (we are +5.3, Thunder are +2.6). Very raw simple stats but year in year out, point differential is a decent indication of long term performance. How we compare to and play against these 3 teams is likely to be important. 3) We just added D-Mo. I think the average view of D-Mo is he can be a good bench player, with optimists expecting less and pessimists expecting more. If we consider his injury concerns and his performance last season vs the $$$ market for FA's this year, $8m/per from the Nets says to me the 2 GM's are expecting at least a competent rotation player. How much will it help to have D-Mo on nights when Anderson's shot is not falling at all? I see him as insurance against a downswing in chemistry. 4) On average, our remaining schedule is easier than the schedule we've had so far. That typically translates to a better winning %. 5) This is really subjective, but I can't see the offense or defense getting worse, but I can see the defense getting very slightly better. So where are you thinking we end up in the West with what we know after 22 games?
We just need to make it into the playoffs with home court advantage. 1st seed is impossible, 2nd seed is improbable. I think if we can snatch the 4th seed we can afford to have one or two off nights on shooting/offense. If we don't have home court, it's not going to be pretty if the shots aren't falling.
Just a reminder that last season home court in the playoffs was a disadvantage. Or am mixing something?
One can argue that last year's postseason was more of an anomaly than the standard. If you were to ask coaches and GMs if they prefer to have home court advantage versus not having, I'm sure it would be the former.
Why would we not have major injuries? Our 2nd and 3rd best players are among the most injury prone in the NBA.
Way too early for this thread. This is a March thread, making this now will only hurt peoples feelings
We are likely going to get the third seed. I'm hoping for a second seed. We did it two years ago, I believe our team now is as competitive as that old team.
How much does it matter that we've had 3-4 games that came to the last possession (Dallas, Spurs, Celtics) or overtime (Warriros)? Our margin of victory is solid so maybe not much
A lot of the optimism in the poll. People are expecting 3rd/4th. Surprising considering how much negativity I generally see around the board.
