Otherwise known as the annual OKC is going to be great prediction time!! To be fair, 50.5 is only 2.5 over where they finished last year and they did finish 4th... but still, it seems like a running trend now, bet the under on OKC. 43.5 on Spurs seems incredibly low. OUT: Parker, Anderson, Green, Kawhi (but not really from last year) IN: Derozan, Bellineli, Poetl Doesn't seem worse and there's organizational clarity now.
Parker is getting quite past his prime, same with Green. While, Anderson was a good project player, but he was going to need a little more time to develop into really solid NBA player. The West, itself is up for grabs after Houston and GSW, Pretty much alot of low 50 wins to mid 40s teams like 3-10. The Spurs are more likely to finish on the upper half around (46-54 wins)
The Rockets bench is more improved with Gordon, Green, Melton, Ennis, Zhou Qi hopefully gets backup Minutes
Houston Rockets: over 54.5 This line feels very low. Chris Paul missed a ton of games last season, James Harden missed time with a strained hamstring and the Rockets still won 65 games and had the NBA’s best record. Are they going to be 11 games worse this season? It’s hard to see that. Houston is still going to want the best record in the West, and even if the Warriors remain in cruise control, as they quite likely will, it will still require 60 wins to get the top seed. And unless something changes between now and the start of the season, the Rockets are still coached by Mike D’Antoni, who isn’t exactly a believer in giving guys nights off. Yes, the Rockets got worse by losing Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute this summer. But where they got worse was on defense, which will likely regress without those two players. The Rockets’ high-powered offense should remain as such. As long as Harden and Clint Capela are healthy, and Chris Paul plays in 55-60 games or more, it’s hard to see Houston falling below this number.
