POLL: The onslaught of the 14 first games

[greece66]

Cleveland and Chicago aren't out of our league? I realize the Cavs are basically a new team and the Bulls had a lot of turnover on their roster, but they're both superior teams by comparison.

My 'prediction' is largely instinctive. Everything I know about the Cavs at this stage, suggests they will have a difficult first couple of months. We can go in detail into this if you want.
Chicago too has a superior roster, as you say, but IMHO they too, are not yet a proven team. (Plus we play at  TD Garden
In general, I think we have our best shots against strong teams that excel in offence but have defensive weaknesses, but I am too lazy to check the 2013-14 stats right now.

[bleedGREENdon]

1. 29/10 Brooklyn (Home).  WIN
2. 1/11 Houston (Away).   LOSS
3. 3/11 Dallas (A).  LOSS
4. 5/11 Toronto (H) WIN
5. 7/11 Indiana (H) WIN
6. 8/11 Chicago (A) LOSS
7. 12/11 OKC (H) LOSS
8. 14/11 Cleveland (H) LOSS
9. 17/11 Phoenix (H) LOSS
10. 19/11 Philly (A) WIN
11. 21/11 Memphis (A) WIN
12. 23/11 Portland (H) LOSS
13. 28/11 Chicago (H) WIN
14. 30/11 SAS (H) LOSS

Well def have an upset win somewhere in there,  maybe that's Memphis and Chicago at home. I expect us to be in every game though, win the division games. If we had Rondo I would say we'd have a shot at winning majority of the games.

[greece66]

In general, I think we have our best shots against strong teams that excel in offence but have defensive weaknesses, but I am too lazy to check the 2013-14 stats right now.

Just looked at the stats and what I said is garbage 
The only 4 teams against which we had more than 50% wins were Cleveland, Orlando, Miami, and Charlotte and it is very difficult (at least for me) to draw any meaningful conclusions from this.

[greece66]

If we had Rondo I would say we'd have a shot at winning majority of the games.

[makaveli]

wow, really difficult set of games, especially for a young team, but i like that, throw them right into the flames and see what comes out of them.
i say minimum 5 games, we are not that bad, i love the way the young guys are playing, like a true team(SAS-like, no superstar, bravo Stevens), the only thing i'm afraid is Rajon Rondo ruining team chemistry and ball movement.

[greece66]

is reminiscent of the Kruschevites vs Stalinists split in the 1950s USSR.
What we need is a decisive and merciless Lavrentiy Beria to take over and restore order, and I think we have him in Danny Ainge.
And seriously now, Rondo is a great point guard and by far the best player of this team, Smart is (and shall remain for the foreseeable future) a promising rook.

[guava_wrench]

wow, really difficult set of games, especially for a young team, but i like that, throw them right into the flames and see what comes out of them.
i say minimum 5 games, we are not that bad, i love the way the young guys are playing, like a true team(SAS-like, no superstar, bravo Stevens), the only thing i'm afraid is Rajon Rondo ruining team chemistry and ball movement.

I'm not sure what "we are not that bad" means. We are better than any college team, sure. But the only team we play in the first 14 games that is not better than us is Philly.

Our best hope is:

1 - Opponents are not in shape at the start of the season
2 - Opponents have bad road habits (staying out late) that allow us to steal a few at home

[Birdman]

I say 4 maybe 5

[greece66]

Our best hope is:

1 - Opponents are not in shape at the start of the season
2 - Opponents have bad road habits (staying out late) that allow us to steal a few at home

Why leave things to chance when we can learn from the masters of swindling?
Let's get Ioannidis to food poison these Edited for profanity.  Please do not do it again.s. 
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/13/sports/13iht-hoops.html

[greece66]

With 2 games remaining (Bulls and SAS), I feel my prediction of 4-5 wins wasn't far off... 

[makaveli]

wow, really difficult set of games, especially for a young team, but i like that, throw them right into the flames and see what comes out of them.
i say minimum 5 games, we are not that bad, i love the way the young guys are playing, like a true team(SAS-like, no superstar, bravo Stevens), the only thing i'm afraid is Rajon Rondo ruining team chemistry and ball movement.

I'm not sure what "we are not that bad" means. We are better than any college team, sure. But the only team we play in the first 14 games that is not better than us is Philly.

Our best hope is:

1 - Opponents are not in shape at the start of the season
2 - Opponents have bad road habits (staying out late) that allow us to steal a few at home

boy, was i right. if rondo went down instead of Smart we would have 7-8 wins today.

[greece66]

wow, really difficult set of games, especially for a young team, but i like that, throw them right into the flames and see what comes out of them.
i say minimum 5 games, we are not that bad, i love the way the young guys are playing, like a true team(SAS-like, no superstar, bravo Stevens), the only thing i'm afraid is Rajon Rondo ruining team chemistry and ball movement.

I'm not sure what "we are not that bad" means. We are better than any college team, sure. But the only team we play in the first 14 games that is not better than us is Philly.

Our best hope is:

1 - Opponents are not in shape at the start of the season
2 - Opponents have bad road habits (staying out late) that allow us to steal a few at home

boy, was i right. if rondo went down instead of Smart we would have 7-8 wins today.

You really think we would have done better with Smart as our starting PG?
I have my doubts, but by all means do make your case.

[makaveli]

wow, really difficult set of games, especially for a young team, but i like that, throw them right into the flames and see what comes out of them.
i say minimum 5 games, we are not that bad, i love the way the young guys are playing, like a true team(SAS-like, no superstar, bravo Stevens), the only thing i'm afraid is Rajon Rondo ruining team chemistry and ball movement.

I'm not sure what "we are not that bad" means. We are better than any college team, sure. But the only team we play in the first 14 games that is not better than us is Philly.

Our best hope is:

1 - Opponents are not in shape at the start of the season
2 - Opponents have bad road habits (staying out late) that allow us to steal a few at home

boy, was i right. if rondo went down instead of Smart we would have 7-8 wins today.

You really think we would have done better with Smart as our starting PG?
I have my doubts, but by all means do make your case.

1. smart would play out-of-this-world defense compared to rondo's
2. he sure couldn't do a worse job than rondo did in closing out games

[greece66]

So, now it's officially over and we ended with 4-10.
If we put numbers aside, in one respect we did better than I expected. We fought 12 out of the 14 games (only HOU and Memphis never gave us a chance). This is not bad at all.
Having said this, this team performed really bad when under pressure. I've been watching basketball for many years and I cannot even recall anything like this.
So, it all comes down to whether you want to see the glass half half full or half empty. Given that this is one of the youngest teams in the NBA and they dare to play so aggressively against some of the best players in the world, I'd go with optimism for now.
Sullinger has really improved his shot (I was quite skeptical about this at the start), Smart had some good plays, KO has showed some promise and Zeller was better than expected. A lot of things have to happen before this squad turns into a legit NBA team, but there are grounds for hope.

[Birdman]

I say 4 maybe 5

Dang hate to say I was right but I was..wish I was wrong and be 10-4..i said this team win 27 before season started and sticking with it