what have you been wrong about so far this season?

[perks-a-beast]

i'll start...

- I thought the Kings would be trash, couldn't have convinced me they wouldn't be a bottom 5 team in the NBA.

- Thought Victor Oladipo would be having an MVP type season.

- Had no idea Toronto would be this good, figured this would be the year Lowry and Ibaka show their age. Didn't see the productivity of Siakam/Anunoby coming.

- Jakob Poeltl was my pick for breakout player of the year

- Thought the Bulls would be a promising young team with playoff aspirations a la the 15-16 Celtics.

[PhoSita]

I was wrong about Toronto, too.  I thought it would take them longer to get up to speed, given that they had a new coach and they had a new offensive centerpiece to integrate.  Also that new offensive centerpiece barely played last season.


I expected the Celts to be a notch above the other teams in the East.  I was wrong about that, clearly.  I expected Hayward to be closer to his old form by now, I expected Jaylen Brown to take another step forward rather than a step back, and I didn't think Horford would look like a guy on the wrong side of 30.


Lots of other things I didn't expect but those are two big ones.

[Moranis]

I loved Doncic's potential but thought the speed of the game would overwhelm him a bit and that he would struggle this year.  As a result, I thought the Mavs would be the 2nd worst team in the West (only ahead of the Suns).  They still might end up only ahead of the Suns, but Doncic has been amazing.

[Celtics4ever]

I thought we would be an elite team....

[Who]

I thought we would be an elite team....

Me too. I thought 65 win territory.

[Who]

The Clippers = I thought that they would be a bad team this year. Struggling with around 30 wins. I thought the loss of DeAndre Jordan would hit them hard, that the wheels were coming off for Gortat (correct), that they had no other big men (wrong - Montrezl Harrell has been huge for them), that Tobias Harris had peaked (wrong), that Gallinari's best years were behind him and would settle into a 15-17ppg scorer (wrong).

The Bucks = I thought they were only a 45-48 win caliber team. I thought they had underachieved the past two years and would continue to underachieve this year. I did not think Brook Lopez would fit in (wrong). I thought Lopez would create the same defensive & rebounding issues that Monroe caused. I never expected Lopez to open up the offense (especially for Giannis) to the extent that he has. Ilyasova has been a more valuable addition than I expected too.

Giannis (Bucks continued) = I didn't rate him as a top 10 player in the league because he was a forward who could not make a jump-shot but he has proven he can dominate at an MVP level while making around 90% of his made FGs in the paint / not having a legit jump-shot.

Vucevic = I thought he was an empty stats big man who had peaked but he has kept working and improving and has made huge improvements in his 7th and 8th seasons. He is a legit low level star on a contender now.

Denver = I thought they would be battling for a late playoff spot. Not leading the West.

Kings = I too thought they'd suck this year. I thought Bagley would start alongside WCS and screw up all their spacing. Kudos to the coach for handling Bagley and their big man rotation so well. Fox has been a major surprise too.

Rockets = I thought they'd still be the 2nd best team in the West without Ariza and Mbah a Moute. I thought the Rockets would have enough offense and could replace those two well enough to continue going strong. Wrong.

Paul George = I thought he was on the downward slope of his career. Wrong. Enjoying the best year of his career.

[BringToughnessBack]

Rozier I was wrong about so far. He has not been the contributor I was expecting after his good run last year. Brown would be a close 2nd for me.

I am close to on with where I thought Hayward would be and that is not fully back and confident enough to do the things he is capable of doing. I did say give him until the end of this year though and I might be off on that prediction but January is another month...maybe it will click then but now I am thinking post all star break if we are lucky. The mental image of what happened to him is something that will not be easy to shake. I would be paranoid as well if I were him. When I broke/shattered my ankle playing tennis, it was hard to get back on the court and do the things I was used to doing after the recovery. It is not easy to shake the image of a brutal injury. It will happen but when is the question.

As for the record we have, it is about where I was expecting it to be. I expect our bigger winning streaks to happen in 2019 and for it to really click going into the playoffs.

The Kings I am way off on as well. WTH are they doing with a plus 500 record. Kudos to their coaching staff.

[SHAQATTACK]

everything and more

[Phantom255x]

Oh man... where to begin...   

I honestly thought we'd be a Top-2 team in the East. So far we look 3rd best in the East (and yes, regardless what the closet Sixers fans tell me here about "talent differential" and such, BOS > PHI still)

Hopeful for a turnaround but the inconsistency is our biggest problem. We can beat any elite team on any given day, then next game come out 100% flat against a mediocre team. Very frustrating.

[cons]

I thought we would be an elite team....

Me too. I thought 65 win territory.

yup. obviously the debate about the reasons rages on but whatever the reason the end result is the most disappointing season in recent memory.

[KGs Knee]

I thought Utah would make the jump to being an elite team. If anything, they've regressed.

[Jvalin]

I thought Utah would make the jump to being an elite team. If anything, they've regressed.

Yep, me too. Not exactly elite though, more like at the level of Denver/OKC.

A few more:

- didn't expect the Clips to be that good
- didn't expect the Kings to contend for the playoffs
- didn't like the idea of putting Smart in the starting lineup

(among many others)

[hodgy03038]

I thought we would be the #1 seed from the get go. Now I see there are two clearly better teams in the East in Toronto & Milwaukee. We are an "okay" team that will make the playoffs in the 3-6 seed and probably get bounced in round 1. I expected big things from Kyrie and Hayward. Kyrie hasn't disappointed but Hayward seems to be our version of Chandler Parsons. If we fail in round 1 or don't get to the ECF I am very afraid that Kyrie will walk.

[PhoSita]

I loved Doncic's potential but thought the speed of the game would overwhelm him a bit and that he would struggle this year.  As a result, I thought the Mavs would be the 2nd worst team in the West (only ahead of the Suns).  They still might end up only ahead of the Suns, but Doncic has been amazing.

I liked Doncic but I also thought that he would have some struggles adjusting to the speed and athleticism of the NBA game.  Highlights I'd seen of him playing overseas gave me some skepticism about his ability to create shots at the NBA level.

Boy was I wrong.  He's the most fun and exciting young player to enter the league in a long time. 

[SparzWizard]

I thought we would be like a 60/70-win team number 1 seed, but soooo wrong. I thought Hayward would be putting up 20-30 a night, super wrong.

I didn't think Jimmy Butler would be traded to the 76ers of all teams.

I didn't think the Lakers would have an even record with the Celtics at the moment.

The Kings was definitely the explosion killer to my face.

I sure as hell hope Hayward returns back to his Utah 2015-2016 performance days, or that $200M max contract would be the worst signing of all time.