Wins from the first 9 games?

That's a brutal opening schedule, but may be a blessing in disguise because it gives the young guys a chance to go on the road, bond, and get the toughest part of their schedule out of the way early. They'll be lucky to pull off 2 wins, though.

8 games.

1. With Harden gone from OKC and Charlie completely sauna-ized, I think the advantage goes to Detroit.
2. The Rockets now have Harden, but without the rest of the OKC team to back him up, I don't expect him to be able to out box Charlie V. Advantage, Detroit.
3. The Sixers got younger by ditching AI, and picked up the talented Andrew Bynum. However, their EBISM numbers (Exercise Bike In Sauna Minutes) are abysmal. Advantage, Detroit.
4. Sacramento Kings. Whatever. Advantage Detroit.
5. Phoenix is in the desert, and the desert is hot. I think this team takes away the sauna advantage and comes away with the upset.

If the Pistons really were a .500 team wouldn't at least a couple of the games on this list look like locks? I suppose the trip out West skews things.

Plus he can rent a car and drive from Phoenix to LA which will allow him to stop in Palm Springs where it is uber warm for a bit. LA is looking like a win now.

What's so bad about using .500 as a prediction?

Knight/Stuckey/Prince/Maxiell/Monroe... i.e. the exact same lineup is back. Nobody should be any worse than they were last year.

Arguably, the coach's system should be more established now and we have better bench support, especially with Drummond.


What is the best explanation for why our post all-star game stats were better than pre and why wouldn't that improvement still be valid?

B+

Without knowing the exact numbers, was the schedule easier and were the results therefore skewed?

the positive for this team is that this survey didn't include "0 wins"

Good point. (after researching)... Yes, the SOS was harder at the beginning. And the true split isn't pre and post all-star game, it is 1st 24 games and last 42 games.

Here is how it went down.

1st 24 games (average opponent eventual winning percentage = .527). 11 home games and 13 road games:
4-20 record

last 42 games (average opponent eventual winning percentage = .469). 22 home games and 20 road games:
21-21 record

Given all that, I'd guess that we really stabilized at about a .455 win rate (slightly lower than our opponent average, since we had a bit of home advantage and could only bat .500 against them). That's not good enough to make the playoffs.

A slim victory over Sac and that's it.

My vote is for 3 = 1 Houston + 1 Phoenix on road + Sac on road

Which Houston game do you think they will win?

Should have picked zero the way we are playing

There's no way that you could have known that Stuckey was going to have a headache.

I still feel good about my pick of two wins. There is time to gel.

I'm thinking four was risky with all these potatoes.

It would be pretty fun if we ended up with 0 wins so noone is right.

three as my choice is pitiful enough.......sad to think they're actually worse.

I picked 3 but I thought we were picking for the year. Can I re-do my vote?