2024 NBA Season and Playoffs

[JSD]

The Timberwolves are sitting at 20-5 , tied with us for the best record in the NBA. Who would have predicted that, and are they a legit title contender?

Have they won even one playoff series in the last 10 years?

[Celtics2021]

The Timberwolves are sitting at 20-5 , tied with us for the best record in the NBA. Who would have predicted that, and are they a legit title contender?

Have they won even one playoff series in the last 10 20 years?

Fixed it for you.

[SparzWizard]

It would be pretty cool if both the Clippers and C's could maintain their winning streaks going into their game on Saturday.

Clippers have 2 road games @Dallas and @OKC
Celtics have 2 road games @GS and @SAC

Clippers would be on a 10 game streak and C's on a 7 game streak. Make a good match up on Saturday that much better.

I'd say Clippers will lose at Dallas.

C's road woes will sneak up on them at Sacramento.

[SparzWizard]

So Lakers unveiled their "championship" banner and the night was spoiled by the Knicks. Lovely. Now I can make fun of my boss tomorrow that Lakers hang irrelevant banners and still lost to the Knicks.

It'll be the last banner they'll be hanging. 

[Neurotic Guy]

So Lakers unveiled their "championship" banner and the night was spoiled by the Knicks. Lovely. Now I can make fun of my boss tomorrow that Lakers hang irrelevant banners and still lost to the Knicks.

It'll be the last banner they'll be hanging. 

And the Pacers were blown out. Not sure I got this right but the Pacers and Lakers are 1-7 since Vegas (the win a 3-point LAL victory over the Spurs) while the Cs are 5-0 since the IST.  Coincidence?  My fear with the IST was that there’d be a letdown post-Vegas that would be costly in seeding.

[cman88]

Down goes Philly.  They had been teeing off on the bottom-feeders of the league before dropping this one to Chicago at home.  Pretty bad loss.

Yep, their performance was greatly inflated playing four games out of five against the Pistons and Wizards, and also a game against a bad Hornets team down 4 of its top 7 players.

celtics are finishing up the 5th toughest schedule in the NBA so far. 20-5 against 5th toughest schedule. and the Bucks/sixers have had one of the easiest and are about to start their tough schedule.

http://powerrankingsguru.com/nba/strength-of-schedule.php

so, wonder if they'll start to drop a few more.

[Celtics2021]

Down goes Philly.  They had been teeing off on the bottom-feeders of the league before dropping this one to Chicago at home.  Pretty bad loss.

Yep, their performance was greatly inflated playing four games out of five against the Pistons and Wizards, and also a game against a bad Hornets team down 4 of its top 7 players.

celtics are finishing up the 5th toughest schedule in the NBA so far. 20-5 against 5th toughest schedule. and the Bucks/sixers have had one of the easiest and are about to start their tough schedule.

http://powerrankingsguru.com/nba/strength-of-schedule.php

so, wonder if they'll start to drop a few more.

I don’t know how that website calculates it, but the Celtics have had the toughest schedule by opponent winning percentage (.540), while the Sixers and Bucks are 28th and 29th (.475 and .465).

Going forward, the C’s have the easiest remaining schedule by opponent record (.469).  The Sixers luck out, however, and still
Have a relatively easy schedule going forward (.499 opponent winning percentage).  The Bucks have the 8th most difficult remaining schedule, however.

[Vermont Green]

The Timberwolves are sitting at 20-5 , tied with us for the best record in the NBA. Who would have predicted that, and are they a legit title contender?

Have they won even one playoff series in the last 10 years?

People had the same narrative about Denver.  Not good in the playoffs.  Team built for the regular season, and all of that.  Turned out all they needed to do was keep Murray healthy and they win a title.

I don't know if MIN will keep this up but I would not just write them off.  They have a good team.  Towns is really good.  The West this year has a lot of "if they stay healthy" teams.  LAL, DEN, PHX, LAC and so on.  MIN has a better chance of staying healthy than these other teams.

And to follow on with the SOS theme, MIN has 0.506 opponent winning %, ranked as 11th toughest (per ESPN).  Remaining is 0.489, 8th easiest.  MIN is going to be right there at the end I predict.

[Vermont Green]

Down goes Philly.  They had been teeing off on the bottom-feeders of the league before dropping this one to Chicago at home.  Pretty bad loss.

Yep, their performance was greatly inflated playing four games out of five against the Pistons and Wizards, and also a game against a bad Hornets team down 4 of its top 7 players.

celtics are finishing up the 5th toughest schedule in the NBA so far. 20-5 against 5th toughest schedule. and the Bucks/sixers have had one of the easiest and are about to start their tough schedule.

http://powerrankingsguru.com/nba/strength-of-schedule.php

so, wonder if they'll start to drop a few more.

I don’t know how that website calculates it, but the Celtics have had the toughest schedule by opponent winning percentage (.540), while the Sixers and Bucks are 28th and 29th (.475 and .465).

Going forward, the C’s have the easiest remaining schedule by opponent record (.469).  The Sixers luck out, however, and still
Have a relatively easy schedule going forward (.499 opponent winning percentage).  The Bucks have the 8th most difficult remaining schedule, however.

I wonder if any SOS calculators take in to account home vs. away.  A 0.500 team overall may be a 0.600 team at home and a 0.400 team on the road.  Right now, the Celtics have played 14 home games and 11 road.  That will even back out after this road trip but they should adjust SOS somehow for how many home or road games a team has remaining.

[Celtics2021]

Down goes Philly.  They had been teeing off on the bottom-feeders of the league before dropping this one to Chicago at home.  Pretty bad loss.

Yep, their performance was greatly inflated playing four games out of five against the Pistons and Wizards, and also a game against a bad Hornets team down 4 of its top 7 players.

celtics are finishing up the 5th toughest schedule in the NBA so far. 20-5 against 5th toughest schedule. and the Bucks/sixers have had one of the easiest and are about to start their tough schedule.

http://powerrankingsguru.com/nba/strength-of-schedule.php

so, wonder if they'll start to drop a few more.

I don’t know how that website calculates it, but the Celtics have had the toughest schedule by opponent winning percentage (.540), while the Sixers and Bucks are 28th and 29th (.475 and .465).

Going forward, the C’s have the easiest remaining schedule by opponent record (.469).  The Sixers luck out, however, and still
Have a relatively easy schedule going forward (.499 opponent winning percentage).  The Bucks have the 8th most difficult remaining schedule, however.

I wonder if any SOS calculators take in to account home vs. away.  A 0.500 team overall may be a 0.600 team at home and a 0.400 team on the road.  Right now, the Celtics have played 14 home games and 11 road.  That will even back out after this road trip but they should adjust SOS somehow for how many home or road games a team has remaining.

Some might do that, but it gets less relevant as the season wears on, because most teams tend to be only a couple games away from an even split once you get near Christmas (although I just noticed the Bucks will have a 17-10 split after Thursday, so they’ve had the second easiest schedule by winning percentage and a massive home/road split.  They might have some bumps in the road before too long.

[Vermont Green]

Down goes Philly.  They had been teeing off on the bottom-feeders of the league before dropping this one to Chicago at home.  Pretty bad loss.

Yep, their performance was greatly inflated playing four games out of five against the Pistons and Wizards, and also a game against a bad Hornets team down 4 of its top 7 players.

celtics are finishing up the 5th toughest schedule in the NBA so far. 20-5 against 5th toughest schedule. and the Bucks/sixers have had one of the easiest and are about to start their tough schedule.

http://powerrankingsguru.com/nba/strength-of-schedule.php

so, wonder if they'll start to drop a few more.

I don’t know how that website calculates it, but the Celtics have had the toughest schedule by opponent winning percentage (.540), while the Sixers and Bucks are 28th and 29th (.475 and .465).

Going forward, the C’s have the easiest remaining schedule by opponent record (.469).  The Sixers luck out, however, and still
Have a relatively easy schedule going forward (.499 opponent winning percentage).  The Bucks have the 8th most difficult remaining schedule, however.

I wonder if any SOS calculators take in to account home vs. away.  A 0.500 team overall may be a 0.600 team at home and a 0.400 team on the road.  Right now, the Celtics have played 14 home games and 11 road.  That will even back out after this road trip but they should adjust SOS somehow for how many home or road games a team has remaining.

Some might do that, but it gets less relevant as the season wears on, because most teams tend to be only a couple games away from an even split once you get near Christmas (although I just noticed the Bucks will have a 17-10 split after Thursday, so they’ve had the second easiest schedule by winning percentage and a massive home/road split.  They might have some bumps in the road before too long.

Yes, a few more home or road games at this point in the season doesn't make that much difference and tends to even out.  I just like to over analyze things, not take things at face value.  Interesting on MIL.  14-2 at home, 5-5 on the road to this point.  That is about what you expect for good teams.  Usually win at home, around 0.500 on the road.  Championship teams need to be better than that on the road.

[Moranis]

The Timberwolves are sitting at 20-5 , tied with us for the best record in the NBA. Who would have predicted that, and are they a legit title contender?

Have they won even one playoff series in the last 10 years?

People had the same narrative about Denver.  Not good in the playoffs.  Team built for the regular season, and all of that.  Turned out all they needed to do was keep Murray healthy and they win a title.

I don't know if MIN will keep this up but I would not just write them off.  They have a good team.  Towns is really good.  The West this year has a lot of "if they stay healthy" teams.  LAL, DEN, PHX, and so on.  MIN has a better chance of staying healthy than these other teams.

And to follow on with the SOS theme, MIN has 0.506 opponent winning %, ranked as 11th toughest (per ESPN).  Remaining is 0.489, 8th easiest.  MIN is going to be right there at the end I predict.

Denver won 4 playoff series including a WCF appearance before winning the title last year.  The Bucks before winning had won 3 playoff series also with a ECF appearance.  The Warriors before breaking through the 1st tine, had just 2 playoff appearances making the semis once.  So maybe the Wolves will be more like the Warriors and win the thing with just the 2 appearances and 0 series wins, but that would definitely be a rarity.  Most teams do take years of playoff appearances with decent post season success before breaking through.

[Vermont Green]

The Timberwolves are sitting at 20-5 , tied with us for the best record in the NBA. Who would have predicted that, and are they a legit title contender?

Have they won even one playoff series in the last 10 years?

People had the same narrative about Denver.  Not good in the playoffs.  Team built for the regular season, and all of that.  Turned out all they needed to do was keep Murray healthy and they win a title.

I don't know if MIN will keep this up but I would not just write them off.  They have a good team.  Towns is really good.  The West this year has a lot of "if they stay healthy" teams.  LAL, DEN, PHX, and so on.  MIN has a better chance of staying healthy than these other teams.

And to follow on with the SOS theme, MIN has 0.506 opponent winning %, ranked as 11th toughest (per ESPN).  Remaining is 0.489, 8th easiest.  MIN is going to be right there at the end I predict.

Denver won 4 playoff series including a WCF appearance before winning the title last year.  The Bucks before winning had won 3 playoff series also with a ECF appearance.  The Warriors before breaking through the 1st tine, had just 2 playoff appearances making the semis once.  So maybe the Wolves will be more like the Warriors and win the thing with just the 2 appearances and 0 series wins, but that would definitely be a rarity.  Most teams do take years of playoff appearances with decent post season success before breaking through.

I don't disagree with this.  Teams tend to need to make a few runs in the playoffs before winning a title.  I don't expect MIN to win the title this year, but I do expect that they will make a legitimate run. 

[SparzWizard]

How about a surprising stat...Kawhi Leonard has not missed a single game so far this season.

[Moranis]

The Timberwolves are sitting at 20-5 , tied with us for the best record in the NBA. Who would have predicted that, and are they a legit title contender?

Have they won even one playoff series in the last 10 years?

People had the same narrative about Denver.  Not good in the playoffs.  Team built for the regular season, and all of that.  Turned out all they needed to do was keep Murray healthy and they win a title.

I don't know if MIN will keep this up but I would not just write them off.  They have a good team.  Towns is really good.  The West this year has a lot of "if they stay healthy" teams.  LAL, DEN, PHX, and so on.  MIN has a better chance of staying healthy than these other teams.

And to follow on with the SOS theme, MIN has 0.506 opponent winning %, ranked as 11th toughest (per ESPN).  Remaining is 0.489, 8th easiest.  MIN is going to be right there at the end I predict.

Denver won 4 playoff series including a WCF appearance before winning the title last year.  The Bucks before winning had won 3 playoff series also with a ECF appearance.  The Warriors before breaking through the 1st tine, had just 2 playoff appearances making the semis once.  So maybe the Wolves will be more like the Warriors and win the thing with just the 2 appearances and 0 series wins, but that would definitely be a rarity.  Most teams do take years of playoff appearances with decent post season success before breaking through.

I don't disagree with this.  Teams tend to need to make a few runs in the playoffs before winning a title.  I don't expect MIN to win the title this year, but I do expect that they will make a legitimate run.

I think they could as well with the right matchups, but that seems more like the precursor season as opposed to the ultimate season.  Right now the Lakers are the 8th seed though and I'd pick the Lakers over the Wolves if they met in the playoffs.