Bragging rights, Predict Celtics Season Record

[hwangjini_1]

53-19 with a 2nd round loss. First round takes 7 to win. That is my most optimistic prediction barring a February trade where a true end of game shooter comes back to us..than put us vs. the Cavs in the conference finals.

My most pessimistic prediction is 46-26 with first round loss at the hands of the Pacers.

So, you are predicting some sort of labor dispute that shortens the season?
 

[Moranis]

Everyone is in the 50's range so I'll play devils advocate and say the injury bug will hit some of our key players for longer stretches this season.

47-35
5th in the East

There is the possibility that Horford, at 30, has some crossings with the hated injury bug, and the team struggles in his absence.  Also possible Isaiah has one of his seemingly annual lower back injuries after a fall following a tough layup, and misses some time at an inconvenient place in the schedule.

The team might also have some issues with inconsistency in bench scoring, after letting Turner go.

Even with all of those possible concerns, I'd be surprised if they finish significantly below 50 wins.  But I agree it's a possibility.

I'm with you on this. Hard to envision this squad below 50 wins even with injuries. However playing Devil's Advocate doesn't require logic just opposite opinion of others.

No way this is a sub 50 win team with just normal annoying injuries throughout the season.

I've said it before in other threads, but last year the Atlantic Division had the 3 worst teams in the Eastern Conference.  It appears that Brooklyn and Philly may be in that range again (though they should be better than 31 combined wins), but NY should be a good bit better and Toronto will still be very good (and the likely favorites in the Atlantic).  Thus, Boston might be a better team but end up in the same general win range just by virtue of not playing such terrible competition.

You are also absurdly pessimistic when it comes to discussing the Celtics and overly optimistic when discussing our competitors and other teams/players so it is hard for people to really take these points seriously.

On July 7th, I put the Celtics win total range as 47-52 wins which is pretty much the consensus in this thread.  That win total range had them anywhere from 2nd to 8th in the East and I had them at 5th right where they finished this year. 

The reality is the team failed to address its major weaknesses and actually became a worse rebounding team by virtue of losing Sullinger.  Horford is a very solid all around player, but he isn't a go to scorer, doesn't protect the basket, and isn't a very good rebounder.  Those are the three areas that Boston had some issues with last year and none of the offseason moves corrected those deficiencies.  Bradley, Thomas, and even Crowder (to a lesser extent) are all pretty close to finished products at this time, so you can't expect all that much improvement.  Horford and Johnson are on the down slope.  So if Boston is going to make a big jump it will have to be because Smart puts it all together or Brown is an impact player as a rookie.  I don't see either of those as that likely.  Boston was also pretty healthy last year, which may not happen again.  Thus I think my range of 47-52 wins (I guessed 49 in this thread) is a pretty realistic prediction for the current team.  It isn't optimistic, but it certainly isn't pessimistic either.

Kind of interesting you left out the player the Celtics seem the most high on to make a significant jump (Rozier) and that seemingly they could have a healthy KO. Sullinger really did not play a significant role for the Celtics in the playoffs and was a minor player in the second half of the year. By April he was down to 19 minutes a game and averaging 4.5 rebounds. By the playoffs he was down to 13 minutes a game. I don't really see how adding a 4 times all-star in Horford isn't a massive upgrade.

Rozier is the 4th (or 5th depending on what you call Green) guard.  Even a significant improvement isn't going to move the needle.  KO is what he is.  He isn't all of a sudden going to become a great defender/shot blocker or rebounder. 

Horford is a lot better than Sullinger, but it doesn't mean he is going to correct the team's deficiencies.  Boston will be a better defensive team with Horford and will improve its big man outside shooting, but neither of those is going to move the win total meter all that much because the team was already very good on defense and had some solid big men shooters.  The team still needs the rim protector, still needs better rebounders (and that is the one area Sullinger is better than Horford), and still needs a Paul Pierce esque finisher from the wing/guard spot.  IT is just too small to consistently be that guy and he needs help anyway.  Brown could certainly develop into that player, but I wouldn't expect it this season.

[vjcsmoke]

52 wins 30 losses.  That's a significant improvement with Horford aboard.  I also expect to see Smart and Rozier make serious strides.

[flybono]

With or without Okafor?

[Greyman]

57-25. Predicting a very good season. Additions plus being a year more experienced for younger players equals 9 extra wins.

[ThePaintedArea]

 48 wins last year.
 56 wins this year.
 Who's next.

56, good choice. Expected Wins this past year was 50. That included some "young team" breakdowns in losses to such opponents as Brooklyn and the Lakers, which predictably will be minimized. Maturity, a year of most of the core guys being together, and the addition of a bona fide star point toward a heaping handful of more wins.

Slow starts for some rotation players last season likely depressed the win total, both explicable (Smart) and difficult to explain (Jerebko and Olynyk), but you can't predict such things.

[Celtics4ever]

54.  We are going to run.  I think this may help us win a few.   Horford is an upgrade over Sully.

The reality is the team failed to address its major weaknesses and actually became a worse rebounding team by virtue of losing Sullinger.

Yeah, he was a hot commodity on the free agent market, not!   Get real, we played ATL better with him on the pine this year, we played better without him last year for a long stretch.   I think we will be fine.   The free agent market pretty showed what the rest of the league thought about Jared.   Someone could have paid big and we would not have matched it, so that ought to show you the reality of how little he was valued outside of this forum.

I think Horford could get more boards than Sully last year.

  Horford is a very solid all around player, but he isn't a go to scorer, doesn't protect the basket, and isn't a very good rebounder.

He scores more PPG than the player your whining about, on higher FG% and 3p%.   He also gets 1.5 BPG.   Here are the stats

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/sullija01.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/horfoal01.html

Answer one question for me.   Can you  read a statline?   That might explain losing a guy who scores 10 PPG on  .435% FG and thinking it is worse than a guy who scores 15 PPG on 51% shooting.  Sullinger only got one more RPG.

The sky is falling.... ack, we are doomed.  We got a guy with one less rebound.   Run Chicken Little Run!

[BringToughnessBack]

53-19 with a 2nd round loss. First round takes 7 to win. That is my most optimistic prediction barring a February trade where a true end of game shooter comes back to us..than put us vs. the Cavs in the conference finals.

My most pessimistic prediction is 46-26 with first round loss at the hands of the Pacers.

So, you are predicting some sort of labor dispute that shortens the season?
 

Lol, I fat fingered a 2 instead of 3..fixed

[mgent]

61-21

[CoachBo]

Everyone is in the 50's range so I'll play devils advocate and say the injury bug will hit some of our key players for longer stretches this season.

47-35
5th in the East

There is the possibility that Horford, at 30, has some crossings with the hated injury bug, and the team struggles in his absence.  Also possible Isaiah has one of his seemingly annual lower back injuries after a fall following a tough layup, and misses some time at an inconvenient place in the schedule.

The team might also have some issues with inconsistency in bench scoring, after letting Turner go.

Even with all of those possible concerns, I'd be surprised if they finish significantly below 50 wins.  But I agree it's a possibility.

I'm with you on this. Hard to envision this squad below 50 wins even with injuries. However playing Devil's Advocate doesn't require logic just opposite opinion of others.

No way this is a sub 50 win team with just normal annoying injuries throughout the season.

I've said it before in other threads, but last year the Atlantic Division had the 3 worst teams in the Eastern Conference.  It appears that Brooklyn and Philly may be in that range again (though they should be better than 31 combined wins), but NY should be a good bit better and Toronto will still be very good (and the likely favorites in the Atlantic).  Thus, Boston might be a better team but end up in the same general win range just by virtue of not playing such terrible competition.

You are also absurdly pessimistic when it comes to discussing the Celtics and overly optimistic when discussing our competitors and other teams/players so it is hard for people to really take these points seriously.

On July 7th, I put the Celtics win total range as 47-52 wins which is pretty much the consensus in this thread.  That win total range had them anywhere from 2nd to 8th in the East and I had them at 5th right where they finished this year. 

The reality is the team failed to address its major weaknesses and actually became a worse rebounding team by virtue of losing Sullinger.  Horford is a very solid all around player, but he isn't a go to scorer, doesn't protect the basket, and isn't a very good rebounder.  Those are the three areas that Boston had some issues with last year and none of the offseason moves corrected those deficiencies.  Bradley, Thomas, and even Crowder (to a lesser extent) are all pretty close to finished products at this time, so you can't expect all that much improvement.  Horford and Johnson are on the down slope.  So if Boston is going to make a big jump it will have to be because Smart puts it all together or Brown is an impact player as a rookie.  I don't see either of those as that likely.  Boston was also pretty healthy last year, which may not happen again.  Thus I think my range of 47-52 wins (I guessed 49 in this thread) is a pretty realistic prediction for the current team.  It isn't optimistic, but it certainly isn't pessimistic either.

Kind of interesting you left out the player the Celtics seem the most high on to make a significant jump (Rozier) and that seemingly they could have a healthy KO. Sullinger really did not play a significant role for the Celtics in the playoffs and was a minor player in the second half of the year. By April he was down to 19 minutes a game and averaging 4.5 rebounds. By the playoffs he was down to 13 minutes a game. I don't really see how adding a 4 times all-star in Horford isn't a massive upgrade.

Rozier is the 4th (or 5th depending on what you call Green) guard.  Even a significant improvement isn't going to move the needle.  KO is what he is.  He isn't all of a sudden going to become a great defender/shot blocker or rebounder. 

Horford is a lot better than Sullinger, but it doesn't mean he is going to correct the team's deficiencies.  Boston will be a better defensive team with Horford and will improve its big man outside shooting, but neither of those is going to move the win total meter all that much because the team was already very good on defense and had some solid big men shooters.  The team still needs the rim protector, still needs better rebounders (and that is the one area Sullinger is better than Horford), and still needs a Paul Pierce esque finisher from the wing/guard spot.  IT is just too small to consistently be that guy and he needs help anyway.  Brown could certainly develop into that player, but I wouldn't expect it this season.

This is a solid analysis. I expect only marginal improvement through Horford's acquisition. We got nothing in the draft that will offer any immediate help, and we are, as the post indicates, significantly weakened in rebounding, and I would contend, ball handling.

I'm not going to get caught up in the fan nonsense pulling for a breakout year from "my favorite player." Smart can't shoot, and I don't expect much improvement. Rosier is green as a gourd.

And we have improved only as much as Horford allows shooting the ball. I don't expect much difference from last season.

50-32, probable first round playoff loss.

[greece66]

Everyone is in the 50's range so I'll play devils advocate and say the injury bug will hit some of our key players for longer stretches this season.

47-35
5th in the East

There is the possibility that Horford, at 30, has some crossings with the hated injury bug, and the team struggles in his absence.  Also possible Isaiah has one of his seemingly annual lower back injuries after a fall following a tough layup, and misses some time at an inconvenient place in the schedule.

The team might also have some issues with inconsistency in bench scoring, after letting Turner go.

Even with all of those possible concerns, I'd be surprised if they finish significantly below 50 wins.  But I agree it's a possibility.

I'm with you on this. Hard to envision this squad below 50 wins even with injuries. However playing Devil's Advocate doesn't require logic just opposite opinion of others.

No way this is a sub 50 win team with just normal annoying injuries throughout the season.

I've said it before in other threads, but last year the Atlantic Division had the 3 worst teams in the Eastern Conference.  It appears that Brooklyn and Philly may be in that range again (though they should be better than 31 combined wins), but NY should be a good bit better and Toronto will still be very good (and the likely favorites in the Atlantic).  Thus, Boston might be a better team but end up in the same general win range just by virtue of not playing such terrible competition.

You are also absurdly pessimistic when it comes to discussing the Celtics and overly optimistic when discussing our competitors and other teams/players so it is hard for people to really take these points seriously.

On July 7th, I put the Celtics win total range as 47-52 wins which is pretty much the consensus in this thread.  That win total range had them anywhere from 2nd to 8th in the East and I had them at 5th right where they finished this year. 

The reality is the team failed to address its major weaknesses and actually became a worse rebounding team by virtue of losing Sullinger.  Horford is a very solid all around player, but he isn't a go to scorer, doesn't protect the basket, and isn't a very good rebounder.  Those are the three areas that Boston had some issues with last year and none of the offseason moves corrected those deficiencies.  Bradley, Thomas, and even Crowder (to a lesser extent) are all pretty close to finished products at this time, so you can't expect all that much improvement.  Horford and Johnson are on the down slope.  So if Boston is going to make a big jump it will have to be because Smart puts it all together or Brown is an impact player as a rookie.  I don't see either of those as that likely.  Boston was also pretty healthy last year, which may not happen again.  Thus I think my range of 47-52 wins (I guessed 49 in this thread) is a pretty realistic prediction for the current team.  It isn't optimistic, but it certainly isn't pessimistic either.

Kind of interesting you left out the player the Celtics seem the most high on to make a significant jump (Rozier) and that seemingly they could have a healthy KO. Sullinger really did not play a significant role for the Celtics in the playoffs and was a minor player in the second half of the year. By April he was down to 19 minutes a game and averaging 4.5 rebounds. By the playoffs he was down to 13 minutes a game. I don't really see how adding a 4 times all-star in Horford isn't a massive upgrade.

Rozier is the 4th (or 5th depending on what you call Green) guard.  Even a significant improvement isn't going to move the needle.  KO is what he is.  He isn't all of a sudden going to become a great defender/shot blocker or rebounder. 

Horford is a lot better than Sullinger, but it doesn't mean he is going to correct the team's deficiencies.  Boston will be a better defensive team with Horford and will improve its big man outside shooting, but neither of those is going to move the win total meter all that much because the team was already very good on defense and had some solid big men shooters.  The team still needs the rim protector, still needs better rebounders (and that is the one area Sullinger is better than Horford), and still needs a Paul Pierce esque finisher from the wing/guard spot.  IT is just too small to consistently be that guy and he needs help anyway.  Brown could certainly develop into that player, but I wouldn't expect it this season.

@Moranis if we had all that we would be a contender. You set the bar far too high.

Also, I think ppl overestimate how much we have lost in rebounding with Sully's departure. We'll find out soon enough anyway.

[SHAQATTACK]

Everyone is in the 50's range so I'll play devils advocate and say the injury bug will hit some of our key players for longer stretches this season.

47-35
5th in the East

There is the possibility that Horford, at 30, has some crossings with the hated injury bug, and the team struggles in his absence.  Also possible Isaiah has one of his seemingly annual lower back injuries after a fall following a tough layup, and misses some time at an inconvenient place in the schedule.

The team might also have some issues with inconsistency in bench scoring, after letting Turner go.

Even with all of those possible concerns, I'd be surprised if they finish significantly below 50 wins.  But I agree it's a possibility.

I'm with you on this. Hard to envision this squad below 50 wins even with injuries. However playing Devil's Advocate doesn't require logic just opposite opinion of others.

No way this is a sub 50 win team with just normal annoying injuries throughout the season.

I've said it before in other threads, but last year the Atlantic Division had the 3 worst teams in the Eastern Conference.  It appears that Brooklyn and Philly may be in that range again (though they should be better than 31 combined wins), but NY should be a good bit better and Toronto will still be very good (and the likely favorites in the Atlantic).  Thus, Boston might be a better team but end up in the same general win range just by virtue of not playing such terrible competition.

You are also absurdly pessimistic when it comes to discussing the Celtics and overly optimistic when discussing our competitors and other teams/players so it is hard for people to really take these points seriously.

On July 7th, I put the Celtics win total range as 47-52 wins which is pretty much the consensus in this thread.  That win total range had them anywhere from 2nd to 8th in the East and I had them at 5th right where they finished this year. 

The reality is the team failed to address its major weaknesses and actually became a worse rebounding team by virtue of losing Sullinger.  Horford is a very solid all around player, but he isn't a go to scorer, doesn't protect the basket, and isn't a very good rebounder.  Those are the three areas that Boston had some issues with last year and none of the offseason moves corrected those deficiencies.  Bradley, Thomas, and even Crowder (to a lesser extent) are all pretty close to finished products at this time, so you can't expect all that much improvement.  Horford and Johnson are on the down slope.  So if Boston is going to make a big jump it will have to be because Smart puts it all together or Brown is an impact player as a rookie.  I don't see either of those as that likely.  Boston was also pretty healthy last year, which may not happen again.  Thus I think my range of 47-52 wins (I guessed 49 in this thread) is a pretty realistic prediction for the current team.  It isn't optimistic, but it certainly isn't pessimistic either.

Kind of interesting you left out the player the Celtics seem the most high on to make a significant jump (Rozier) and that seemingly they could have a healthy KO. Sullinger really did not play a significant role for the Celtics in the playoffs and was a minor player in the second half of the year. By April he was down to 19 minutes a game and averaging 4.5 rebounds. By the playoffs he was down to 13 minutes a game. I don't really see how adding a 4 times all-star in Horford isn't a massive upgrade.

Rozier is the 4th (or 5th depending on what you call Green) guard.  Even a significant improvement isn't going to move the needle.  KO is what he is.  He isn't all of a sudden going to become a great defender/shot blocker or rebounder. 

Horford is a lot better than Sullinger, but it doesn't mean he is going to correct the team's deficiencies.  Boston will be a better defensive team with Horford and will improve its big man outside shooting, but neither of those is going to move the win total meter all that much because the team was already very good on defense and had some solid big men shooters.  The team still needs the rim protector, still needs better rebounders (and that is the one area Sullinger is better than Horford), and still needs a Paul Pierce esque finisher from the wing/guard spot.  IT is just too small to consistently be that guy and he needs help anyway.  Brown could certainly develop into that player, but I wouldn't expect it this season.

@Moranis if we had all that we would be a contender. You set the bar far too high.

Also, I think ppl overestimate how much we have lost in rebounding with Sully's departure. We'll find out soon enough anyway.

Good point .   

[Moranis]

Everyone is in the 50's range so I'll play devils advocate and say the injury bug will hit some of our key players for longer stretches this season.

47-35
5th in the East

There is the possibility that Horford, at 30, has some crossings with the hated injury bug, and the team struggles in his absence.  Also possible Isaiah has one of his seemingly annual lower back injuries after a fall following a tough layup, and misses some time at an inconvenient place in the schedule.

The team might also have some issues with inconsistency in bench scoring, after letting Turner go.

Even with all of those possible concerns, I'd be surprised if they finish significantly below 50 wins.  But I agree it's a possibility.

I'm with you on this. Hard to envision this squad below 50 wins even with injuries. However playing Devil's Advocate doesn't require logic just opposite opinion of others.

No way this is a sub 50 win team with just normal annoying injuries throughout the season.

I've said it before in other threads, but last year the Atlantic Division had the 3 worst teams in the Eastern Conference.  It appears that Brooklyn and Philly may be in that range again (though they should be better than 31 combined wins), but NY should be a good bit better and Toronto will still be very good (and the likely favorites in the Atlantic).  Thus, Boston might be a better team but end up in the same general win range just by virtue of not playing such terrible competition.

You are also absurdly pessimistic when it comes to discussing the Celtics and overly optimistic when discussing our competitors and other teams/players so it is hard for people to really take these points seriously.

On July 7th, I put the Celtics win total range as 47-52 wins which is pretty much the consensus in this thread.  That win total range had them anywhere from 2nd to 8th in the East and I had them at 5th right where they finished this year. 

The reality is the team failed to address its major weaknesses and actually became a worse rebounding team by virtue of losing Sullinger.  Horford is a very solid all around player, but he isn't a go to scorer, doesn't protect the basket, and isn't a very good rebounder.  Those are the three areas that Boston had some issues with last year and none of the offseason moves corrected those deficiencies.  Bradley, Thomas, and even Crowder (to a lesser extent) are all pretty close to finished products at this time, so you can't expect all that much improvement.  Horford and Johnson are on the down slope.  So if Boston is going to make a big jump it will have to be because Smart puts it all together or Brown is an impact player as a rookie.  I don't see either of those as that likely.  Boston was also pretty healthy last year, which may not happen again.  Thus I think my range of 47-52 wins (I guessed 49 in this thread) is a pretty realistic prediction for the current team.  It isn't optimistic, but it certainly isn't pessimistic either.

Kind of interesting you left out the player the Celtics seem the most high on to make a significant jump (Rozier) and that seemingly they could have a healthy KO. Sullinger really did not play a significant role for the Celtics in the playoffs and was a minor player in the second half of the year. By April he was down to 19 minutes a game and averaging 4.5 rebounds. By the playoffs he was down to 13 minutes a game. I don't really see how adding a 4 times all-star in Horford isn't a massive upgrade.

Rozier is the 4th (or 5th depending on what you call Green) guard.  Even a significant improvement isn't going to move the needle.  KO is what he is.  He isn't all of a sudden going to become a great defender/shot blocker or rebounder. 

Horford is a lot better than Sullinger, but it doesn't mean he is going to correct the team's deficiencies.  Boston will be a better defensive team with Horford and will improve its big man outside shooting, but neither of those is going to move the win total meter all that much because the team was already very good on defense and had some solid big men shooters.  The team still needs the rim protector, still needs better rebounders (and that is the one area Sullinger is better than Horford), and still needs a Paul Pierce esque finisher from the wing/guard spot.  IT is just too small to consistently be that guy and he needs help anyway.  Brown could certainly develop into that player, but I wouldn't expect it this season.

@Moranis if we had all that we would be a contender. You set the bar far too high.

Also, I think ppl overestimate how much we have lost in rebounding with Sully's departure. We'll find out soon enough anyway.

I'm not sure why you think I set the bar too high.  I predicted 49 wins in this thread.  A one game improvement, which I think is reasonable given the make-up of the team.  The people predicting 55+ wins seem to think Boston is a legit contender, which I just find odd. 

[otherdave]

56-26,  beats Toronto in second rd, makes it to East Finals, wins 2 games there.  My rose colored glasses say everyone will stay reasonably healthy and that the various parts gel fairly well together.   Of course time will tell.  Is it November yet?

[SparzWizard]

I predict that the Cavs will open the season against the Boston Celtics, and that the Celtics are going to spoil their banner night hehe. 

Followed by Warriors @ OKC in the double-header.