ESPN's BPI Now Projects Celtics with 60 wins, and go to NBA Finals

[footey]

62.8% chance to go to finals.

21.7% chance to win it all.

Mentions that our strength of schedule so far has been about average; not as bad as some have claimed.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/21317900/nba-bpi-odds-favor-celtics-win-east-cavs-sink

I'm not one to put a lot of stock in these models, but thought it fun to post, and get some good debate going.

[cltc5]

Lol.  Sloooow down.  Although if it keeps this way, it could be.  We just really need a consistent jaylen

[billysan]

Too many times has Lebron 'righted the ship' when it matters most. I love our team, but these guys are way ahead of themselves with the predictions.  If we are being wildly speculative about pure potential then I might say we have a good chance at a deep playoff run. We haven't seen most of the top tier playoff teams yet.

Part of my skepticism is due to the loss of Hayward  for the season. If we were in the same spot with a healthy roster them I might not feel the same. All that being said, the OKC  win was a nice barometer if it carries through against some more top teams.

Just too early for me.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

We were always the favorites with Hayward, but the talking heads need new topics and someplace to go in the narrative of the season.

Without Hayward, we were at least on the same level as the Raptors, Wizards, and Cavs. With Brown's and Tatum's unexpectedly starter/fringe all-star play, we inch ahead of them. But its a long season.

[fairweatherfan]

As usual, just take this as a nice testament to how well we've played so far, and not a projection we should be putting stock in. Tougher times will come, but the team's been incredibly resilient and defensive-minded in the young season.

[JBcat]

We were always the favorites with Hayward, but the talking heads need new topics and someplace to go in the narrative of the season.

Without Hayward, we were at least on the same level as the Raptors, Wizards, and Cavs. With Brown's and Tatum's unexpectedly starter/fringe all-star play, we inch ahead of them. But its a long season.

This.  Plus I’ll add Tatum might hit the rookie wall at some point later on in the season.  He hasn’t played at all close to the amount of games previously he’ll play this year over 30 minutes a game.  I still feel a lot better next season than this one, that’s if Horford doesn’t have some steep decline in play which I don’t think he will.

[CelticsElite]

No such thing as a rookie wall. Some rookies aren't advanced  and need time to learn. Others get it. Bird never hit a rookie wall is first year

[footey]

We were always the favorites with Hayward, but the talking heads need new topics and someplace to go in the narrative of the season.

Without Hayward, we were at least on the same level as the Raptors, Wizards, and Cavs. With Brown's and Tatum's unexpectedly starter/fringe all-star play, we inch ahead of them. But its a long season.

Actually, pre-season, we were not the favorites with Hayward. Many projected that we would regress slightly short term. No one saw this coming, with or without Hayward.

I predicted pre-season that we would win 60.  As much as I love our start, I doubt we will win that many without Hayward.   At some point the good teams will figure out our weaknesses and exploit them better.  Right now we are a bit of a puzzle to teams, given the complete turnover of our roster.  I also feel that as much as I like Tatum, he is bound to play more like the rookie he is. 

The BPI is really just a testament to how much better we are playing so far than pre-season expectations, with or without Hayward.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

As usual, just take this as a nice testament to how well we've played so far, and not a projection we should be putting stock in. Tougher times will come, but the team's been incredibly resilient and defensive-minded in the young season.

right. without GH we will have a nice bridge year.....with him we will make finals next year. Who knows though crazy things happen. will pull for them until the end however that may be.

GREEN RUNS DEEP!

[Erik]

We should have done a pick swap with Cleveland18 with our BRK18. It's looking like Brooklyn will have a better record than the Cavs 

[celticsclay]

Too many times has Lebron 'righted the ship' when it matters most. I love our team, but these guys are way ahead of themselves with the predictions.  If we are being wildly speculative about pure potential then I might say we have a good chance at a deep playoff run. We haven't seen most of the top tier playoff teams yet.

Part of my skepticism is due to the loss of Hayward  for the season. If we were in the same spot with a healthy roster them I might not feel the same. All that being said, the OKC  win was a nice barometer if it carries through against some more top teams.

Just too early for me.

i have seen this talking point a lot of places and it is really missing a key point. All the times Lebron has "righted the ship" for the last 7 seasons he has done it on teams that have two fellow all-stars (and in most cases a lot of people would say at least one other superstar). This year Lebron has one other all-star (for the time being at least) and Love is not even playing like an allstar (he is averaging 16 and 10 on 40% shooting with even worse defense than normal).
The last time Lebron was playing with zero other legit stars he was losing to the Celtics in the playoffs... .

[playdream]

Too many times has Lebron 'righted the ship' when it matters most. I love our team, but these guys are way ahead of themselves with the predictions.  If we are being wildly speculative about pure potential then I might say we have a good chance at a deep playoff run. We haven't seen most of the top tier playoff teams yet.

Part of my skepticism is due to the loss of Hayward  for the season. If we were in the same spot with a healthy roster them I might not feel the same. All that being said, the OKC  win was a nice barometer if it carries through against some more top teams.

Just too early for me.

It becomes clear it's Irving and Wade who "flip the swicth" and "right the ship" not Lebron, look at his team without them, they aren the one who got ass-kicked in the playoffs and Lebron tend to fold from pressure is not a news