I've picked 10 NBA teams that I think have the best potential to improve their win total the most. This doesn't mean the most wins, but the biggest win differential from last season to this upcoming season. 1. Pacers (Getting Paul George back, drafted Myles Turner who looked good in summer league, signed Monta Ellis) *38 wins 2. Heat (They get healthy by virtue of not playing all summer and incorporate Goran Dragic more into the team) *37 wins 3. Charlotte Hornets (They got deeper in the offseason, Batum, Hansburough, Lin) *33 wins 4. Pistons (Addition and subtraction, is Illysova a better fit than Monroe?) *32 wins 5. Magic (Guard heavy, got one of the better big men in the league in Vucevic, young team that could make the leap) *25 wins 6. Sixers (They have a pretty shrewd GM and amassed the best young front court in the league...potentially) *18 wins 7. Knicks (Drafted well, they might have a good coach, hard to tell with these guys) *17 wins 8. Kings (They have talent, but will it gel under Karl?) *29 wins 9. Lakers (only way is up unless it's down, they have room for either) *21 wins 10. Timberwolves (Great young talent, but youth makes mistakes) *16 wins Where is your money if it's on one team?
So you have picked the bad teams to be not sucking as much as last year, and not only that, you picked all of them so at least you can hit a few?
I picked the Knicks, they won 17 games, they are talented enough to win 20 more in the East, maybe even more if no injuries. The Heat won 37, Pacers 38, there's no way either of them can add 20 wins to that.
Correct, that's kind of the point. If you win 20 games, winning 15 extra becomes a lot easier. Also, it's a poll, I'm interested in your opinion, but if I'm picking and I already did, I'd say the Knicks. I think the Afflalo and Lopez signings were really really smart and the drafting was excellent. Pair that with a young coach who 'might' be good, that's the best bet for me. I could see them adding 20 wins. The Heat aren't going to add 20.
If you add 10 wins to every team on your list, Well you then I can tell you right now there is zero excitement about it. If the Knicks will win 27 games and the Lakers will win 31, well they still suck. Even if the Pacers and Heat will win 10 more games and make the playoff in the east, noboday will actually be surprised or excited because the east is so bad. Now if you say the Jazz or the Pel or even the Thunders will win 10 more, thats a totally different situation, and it could change the landscape of the west completely.
Wolves with 16 wins last season have potential. If they get 30 wins, that will be 14 more and I don't think anyone else on that list will get more than 14 compared to last season. But Magic, Heat and Pacers & Phily should all take wins from other east teams and do much better.
Of all the poll options? Heat to have the best record. Timberpups to have the biggest jump in wins, from last year.
If Paul George returns reasonably healthy, Pacers will be back in the playoff hunt. Add Ellis, and they could be a pretty good team. Timberwolves and Sixers could show significant improvement as well, but mostly because they were so terrible last season.
misunderstood what the poll was saying before voting and after reading the comments I realized that it should definitely be the Knicks... if you are talking about biggest differential in wins clearly the Knicks have the best chance to improve by getting Melo back healthy, adding Lopez/Afflalo, and drafting Grant/Porzingis. The heat would improve most in terms of being actual contenders IMO though
This poll is about most win improvement. Not who will have the best record. I voted Magic because of Skiles. He will force them to play defence. They had one of the worst defence in the league last year and only by improving their defence they can add a lot of wins in the East. Their backcourt has the potential to be elite in defence with Payton and Dipo. Their frontcourt will have problems though playing the defence Skiles demands. Gordon hopefully can take a step forward this season. The Knicks won't improve as much as the Magic in my opinion because of the triangle. Rolo doesn't fit in the triangle plus it takes a lot of time for players to get accustomed to it. But they will certainly add a lot more to their win totals (doesn't take much after such a catastrophic season). The Pistons SHOULD also improve because yes, Ilyasova is a much better fit than Monroe. But having watched him so long I can tell you that he's consistently incosistent and gets freak injuries every year like concussions etc. So I wouldn't bet on Ily on his own to improve the Pistons as much as Skiles will with the Magic. Also the Kings have potential to win this poll, but how their chemistry is with Karl, Cousins and Rondo at the same team is anyone's guess. They also have the potential to be the worst record in the league at the same time I guess. Now if someway somehow Exum breaks out then the Jazz will be in the playoffs for sure.
