FiveThirtyEight has come up with a new projection system, which bases a player's future performance on the most comparable players from the past (which seems an awful lot like the way Baseball Prospectus projects players in MLB).
Their preview has the Celtics pegged for 48 wins --
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/nba-boston-celtics-preview-carmelo/For some real fun, plug in the names of your favorite players here:
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/carmelo/#kelly-olynykKO, for example, has a bizarre selection of comps. Rick Robey as No. 1, Rodney Rogers No. 2, Robert Parish (?) No. 3. The one I like is Detlef Schrempf.
Terry Rozier has five former Celts on his top ten comps (also Jeff Teague, Kemba Walker), ranging from Joe Forte to Tony Allen.
Marcus Smart's top comp is James Harden, and he's also got Paul George, Chauncey Billups, Joe Johnson, Baron Davis. Not to mention Vlad Radmanovic, Jordan Farmar, Leandro Barbosa.
Fascinating, entertaining stuff ...