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Predict the number of wins for your Cavaliers

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Number of wins

  • Total voters
    144
rabman_gold said:
As a fan of the team, I always wish for them to go to the highest levels possible...

But then that's even a stretch since "perfect" teams usually had at least 65+ wins during the season and won the championship (except the Mavs, god they're a bunch of stupid people...).

In the Cavs' case, we're looking at our STRONGEST team probably since the old early 90s teams. We've upgraded each time for the last 4 years:
We went from having Gooden, Marshall, Hughes, DJ to Ben, Smith, Wally, West to Mo and good leftovers each year.

Our team simply has better quality despite added age and the main star is still here. Assuming the rotation stays healthy, I say we get anywhere from 53-59 wins. But I also feel there's factors that still need to be ironed out that still may haunt this team this year:

1. Do we play to the LEVEL of our freaking competition?!
Everyone's just assumed that we figured this out just 'cause the Celtics were taken to 7 games in the semis... But how can we be sure that the Cavs will finally get it? You'd be surprised... Once you see the Bobcats leading by 10 points after the third, you'll be screaming at your TV: "What the **** is wrong with you guys?! Stop screwin' around!"

It's a possibility... There is such a thing as mental lapses. And a thing called stamina (for those back-to-backs).

2. We may run into minor HEALTH issues...
Now I know this is based on the regulars being healthy, but strange things do happen in the midst of 82 games. Freak accidents that hit for 5 games, maybe? If LeBron's gone, you better hope these guys don't repeat last year and they have a natural leader helping out. Z and Ben's backs may act up again due to the wear of long seasons. Or mid-ankle sprains by either tripping over another's foot or someone else landing on our boys...

3. Those late game situations.
Last year, we had the most games with 5 of less points difference at the end. And what's bad is that even though the previous year we won most of those, last year there were plenty that didn't go our way (Paul to West anyone?). We're not always gonna be lucky if we can't blow the other team out. Fighting back. Pressure. You name it. Just pray that LeBron doesn't start to take plays off during the course of the season.

But I think that if we're healthy this season, it'll be a FIRST in a freakin' long time! That's really pushing it and everything will go our way since someone ALWAYS bites the dust eventually on OUR team. That means we could finally have the greatest season ever, but nothing ground-breaking due to our schedule.

4. I hope you guys remember to pack your bags, 'cause we're goin' WEST in January AGAIN!
I think some of you may have forgotten that last year was the first time ever in a long time that we had the West trip as early as we did. I guess it's back to January Trips then... It could be the turning point of our season, like from before, since it plays mind games on the team.

5. Basketball is a game of streaks. Of going back and forth all season long.
We could hit our best basketball of 5 straight wins as quickly as we hit bottom with 3 straight losses. This does tend to happen every time, so don't get too comfortable too easily until the season winds down. We do sometimes lose many guys at the same freakin' time.

If Danny deems our team not strong enough to challenge to the fullest, he has "THE TRUMP CARD"!
Just like it affected the Lakers by trading for Gasol, we have a weapon in Wally's contract that may finally push us over the edge. That psychological boost will affect everybody by getting that key player, so be ready for anything. Plus, Danny's been known to make trades that have nothing but positives, so he will make the PERFECT deal.

This season does have a lot of potential rewards, even the Championship. But let's see the team in action first because there's too many factors that could boost us, or derail the psyche of the team...

MAN! I can't WAIT for the season to start!
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theres so many things that can go right and so many things that can go wrong that it plays mind tricks with u. i really hope a good pf is available mid season and we get him. that is all our team is missing. some type of offense from the pf position. trading wally for a pf is pretty much imo what will happen
 
There's really no telling how many games this team can win. we had 45 wins last year despite never having our whole team healthy for even a full game. We lost a half dozen because LeBron was out, a few more because he wasn't 100% when he returned. Being semi-healthy, we certainly could have pushed 55 wins last year. This year's team should be better.

I expect Andy to have a much better year than last year. I think the ankle never quite healed an that was a factor in his erratic play down the stretch and into the playoffs.

I think we'll get a lot more from Wally this year than last as he has a full offseason to adjust to playing here. He clearly pressed too much last year, but he also showed a strong desire to win. I expect that he's really working hard this offseason to get ready as he knows this is probably his last shot at playing for a contender.

Mo gives us another guy who can create.

And LeBron is really going to be playing at a high confidence level after the olympics where he pretty clearly established himself as the best player in the world.

The main concern right now is depth up front - we are pretty much depending on Hickson to be our 4th big fairly early in his career. Give him significant playing time and you have to accept rookie mistakes that may cost us a game here or there.

I'll feel better, too, when we get West signed. There are also concerns over Z and Ben's backs as well as what we decide to do about Andy's expected opt-out at the end of the season.

But if things fall into place, our win total should certainly go to another level than we've seen in the past. The franchise best win total is 57 wins. I think we can top that this year.
 
51

It would be more if you have better bigs. But aging Z and Ben + role player AV is just not enough for big things.
 
Can we start a fresh poll now that everything has changed with the Lorenzen Wright signing? It's only fair.
 
Karma said:
Can we start a fresh poll now that everything has changed with the Lorenzen Wright signing? It's only fair.
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This signing won't improve our chances of winning games, it only insures that we are more likely to maintain the status quo throughout the season: good rebounding when other bigs are hurt/resting, trash points from Lebron, and the occasional jumper to remind us that at one point in time he had some game.
 
Last year this team, minus Mo Williams, won 51.9% of their games which translates to a 42-43 win season. I'd say that the same team wins about 45 with a full training camp under their belt added to Z and Ben getting older.

The 2 guard spot was abysmal last season. Wally was awful and Pavlovic was...Pavlovic. However, they're going to be better this season. One would hope that Wally can at least be a serviceable spot up shooter and Pavlovic is playing for his NBA career this year. While they're still going to be one of the worst SG duos in the league next year they won't be as bad and that should be good for a couple more wins.

Mo Williams, if healthy, could really help in the win column but that's a pretty big if. Also, if Daniel Gibson proves to be injury prone again and they both miss time at the same point in the season we could end up losing just as many games during that stretch as we gain with a healthy Mo Williams. I'm going to say that he's good for another 5 wins though, depending on how healthy he and Gibson are, this could go up or down by about 5.

Lorenzen Wright is good for 1 or 2 wins. Not because he's any good but because when we're scraping the bottom of the barrel and we pull him out instead of Dwayne Jones that's a good thing.

All in all I think it comes down to LeBron's attitude. Two seasons ago when he came back from Japan he kind of coasted through the first half of the season. While him coasting isn't really a big deal statistically the rest of the team seemed to pick up on that and play with the same lack of urgency. When younger guys like AV, Pavlovic and Hickson start to play like that it can create a problem. Then again, we went to the Finals that season.

I'm going with 51 wins because it sounds like a good number. I think we're going to struggle with injuries at some point and may end up really cutting the minutes of guys like Z and Ben late in the season. But, Mike Brown and LeBron have made it a habit of getting this team to peak at the right time over the past 3 seasons and that's all that matters.
 
Im gonna say 48 due to us coasting. I feel like the past 2 seasons our team hasn't even come close to giving full effort during the regular season. I think this is stupid too because last year proved how much we need home court advantage.

If LeBron played defense all season long the way he does in the playoffs I could honestly see us winning 57-60 games. But honestly I dont agree with everyone saying he improved so much defensively. Well actually I wouldn't say that because I feel that he is a DOMINANT defender when HE WANTS TO BE. Thats the problem. During the regular season, he only wants to dominate defensively for the last minute or 2 of the game. The rest of the game you will often see him not even putting a hand up to challenge a shot.

Hopefully with the scoring of Mo and if Wally and or Sasha can get back to form, LeBron can play harder defense for a longer period of time. I honestly feel like it makes the biggest difference in the world when he is giving full effort on D.
 
LeBron may not have it turned up to full intensity for 48, but the kid is only human. He had to carry even more of the play making and was less rarely protected by other players as the core of our backcourt D (Snow, Hughes, and Pavs) missed a lot of games, were hurt, and/or got traded. West and Gibson weren't about to help LeBron out and cover SFs.

So while our team D wasn't up to the snuff it was the previous year, LeBron still HELD his opponents to a 13.5 PER. That's still pretty darn good.
 
I dont know if that stat is opposing SF's or opposing players he actually defended. It is impressive but remember he usually guards the worse of the two players at SG or SF.

Even in the playoffs he defended Deshawn for most of every game. I don't expect him to go all out on D every night because of the load he has to carry on offense. What I was trying to say is if Mo and others can take a good amount of pressure off LBJ on offense this year, then hopefully we will see a more committed LeBron on the defensive side of the ball.
 
Gimme Some Mo said:
I dont know if that stat is opposing SF's or opposing players he actually defended. It is impressive but remember he usually guards the worse of the two players at SG or SF.
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Not so much last season ... and by the end of the game he was generally covering the #1 threat.
 
Obviously health and trades will affect this total

But with the current team 50+ is definitely not being too optimistic
 
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