1. Patrick Beverley - 12 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds, 1.5 steals I think that Beverley will be asserting himself more on offense this year, given the departure of Parsons. As a result, I expect his overall D to drop a bit. However, with my expectations of Harden trying harder on D, I do also expect Beverley to gamble the passing lanes or sneak up on Harden's target a few times. 2. James Harden - 24 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 1.75 steals With greater effort on D comes less effort on O. That said, Harden is such a playmaker that I expect him to pass more to conserve energy and with the absent of Parsons in the starting unit now, he should see a modest bump in the assist category. Rebounding and steals should improve as well. 3. Trevor Ariza - 16 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals I think this 2nd time around will be a lot better for us. With all the attention that Harden and Howard will get, Ariza will be seeing a lot more open looks and slashing opportunities than in Washington. That plus our transition O will involve a lot of fast break points as well. He should benefit from our run and gun O. I see his rebounding suffering however as Dwight Howard is on our team. 4. Terrence Jones - 13 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2 blocks I will admit, I am really not that high on T-Jones. I know he's young and has a lot of talent, but he just seems... dumb. Guy has the defensive awareness of a traffic cone. That said, he is young. Being the homer optimistic that I am going to choose to believe he gets better and seems a small improvement across the board. 5. Dwight Howard - 20 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks Yes, I seriously think that we will be seeing an even better and hungrier Dwight this year. He should be a lot healthier and dedicated after the disappointing end to last season. I will choose to hope that he also runs the PnR more this year, though I am probably wrong. We won't see playoffs Dwight as that is not sustainable throughout the season, but I do see a bump across the board.
??? He averaged 6.9 last season. You think a .7 increase is out of the question? To the OP, I mostly agree with your projections. I would bump Harden up to around 26 a game though with 7 assists. And I don't think Ariza will have that many PPG. More like 14.
Jones had 6.9? Oh I thought he had low 6. Every game I watched he threw up a dud. I guess it averages out. ha ha. Ok fine 7.5 it is then, but that's still NOT GOOD for a 4 spot.
ok i'll play: dwight - 21ppg, 13rpg, 2apg, 1stl, 2blks the increases are mostly due to the idea that he will play 36-38mpg this season since there is no real backup center. jones - 15ppg, 8rpg, 2apg, 1stl, 2blk another increase in minutes inflates the stats. i'm guessing tj gets around 34mpg this year. he's also the 3rd best player on the team at creating shots for himself now that parsons and lin are gone. this should lead to extra plays being called for him to score. ariza - 14ppg, 6rpg, 3apg, 1.5stl ariza is a solid vet at this point. you know what you're getting at 34mpg. harden - 25ppg, 4rpg, 6apg, 1.5stl i think harden has maxed out his production stat-wise. he'll continue to get 38mpg and all the shots he wants just like last year. beverley - 12ppg, 5rpg, 4apg, 1.5stl a weak bench means yet another starter with increased minutes and increased stats.
3 rebounds a game for Ariza is way too low! Parsons average around 6 a game so there shouldn't be any reason why Ariza can't follow suit. My Predictions: Patrick Beverley: 13 ppg - 5 rpg - 4 apg - 1.5 spg on 44/37/81 shooting Bev said himself that he is going to look for his shots more and look to play make more and he has shown that in the preseason. He looks a lot more cofident driving and taking 3 point shots. He will have another All NBA Defensive season. James Harden: 27 ppg - 6 apg - 5 rpg on 48/37/86 shooting James already looks like he is in midseason form and he looks more sure of himself than I can remember. This team is going to need him to score and make plays on offense more than ever before and he looks ready to do so. He is going to solidify himself as a top 3 offensive player and a top 5 NBA player. Trevor Ariza: 12 ppg - 6 rpg - 3 apg - 2 spg on 45/40/79 shooting Ariza is going to be a beast defensively this year. He looks like he fits in beautifully with the starting lineup. He will have a All NBA Defense caliber season as well. Terrence Jones: 13 ppg - 6.5 rpg - 3 apg on 50/32/65 shooting I was really opening that Jones would have taken that next step this offseason and solidify himself as a third option, but I haven't seen it so far. He will be good though, like last year. Hopefullly he finds his stride soon. Dwight Howard: 22 ppg - 13 rpg - 2 apg - 2 bpg on 54/63 shooting. Dwight looks great. If he can keep up the dominance he showed in the playoffs, the NBA need to watch out. I believe Hakeem and Dwight will have a MVP / DPOtY type season.
Yeah he was Mr. inconsistent last year, he had some monster games though. I'd like to see at least 8 from him but he'll prob get like low 7s.
His starting numbers for last season: 12.7ppg 7.3rpg 1.3bpg 1tpg He's already managed low 7s a a starter - it's just the 5 games at the start of the season which pulled his overall average down. I'd expect him to average at least low 7s in rebounds (which is a pretty good number - Marc Gasol was at 7.2rpg as a starter last season).
It was more than the first few games. there were a handful of games in each month where he had like 6 points and fewer rebounds. Look at the stretch in april..4 games where it was bad for him. Bottom line this is his 3rd year. It's time to take the next step or be shipped out. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/6597/year/2014/terrence-jones
Bev- 10ppg 5asst 2 steals Beard- 26ppg 5asst 5reb 1.50 stl Ariza- 14ppg 5reb 2stl Jones- 12ppg 7reb 1.50blk D12- 19ppg 12reb 2.50blk
Oh - I'm not denying he could use some consistency. However his statline as a starter is impressive (he outrebounded Marc Gasol last season). The handful I was talking about were the 'non starter' games. I think he's a lock for 13 and 7 this season. If he improves on that to 15-8, then we're in possession of something special.
