50 wins seems like the optimistic-yet-reasonable outcome to predict.
I would probably take the under, just because of what could go wrong. But 50 wins seems very realistic given how weak the bottom third of the conference is.
yeah I think this win total is more about the bad teams in the bottom of the east than it is about the C's.
It is usually shocking how close some of the vegas oddsmakers are...so 45-50 wins I think is reasonable.
They have Orlando winning less games then they did last year and they are basically the same team (and a young one so presumably they will improve). Brooklyn they have as barely improving despite at least on paper getting a fair amount better (Irving, Jordan, Prince, Chandler, Temple > Russell, Crabbe, Carroll, Dudley, Davis). So it seems the weak bottom only applies to Boston. It just seems very strange.
I am not sure how young Orlando is, at least in terms of players that will improve next year specifically.
Their top 5 players in minutes were Vucevic, Ross, Fournier, Gordon and Augustin. All of those guys were over 28 minutes per game. I think it is safe to say Vucevic, Fournier, Augstine and Ross are not going to make big leaps because of their age (all 26 or over). Even Gordon at 23 has been a pretty similar player the last few years.
They definitely have some wild cards in Fultz, Bamba and Isaac, but I don't think anyone would expect those guys to play over 25 minutes.
On the flip side it seems like we obviously expect Brown and Tatum to play over 30 minutes a game next year and be in line for pretty steady improvements...