[Mem-fizz]

Last season Memphis won 23 games.

How many wins next season?

We had a lot of injuries (Dickerson played just 4 games, Wright played 43 games, Reeves retred...). I think with healthy Dickerson and Wright we coud win at least + 5 games.

Battier and Gasol were Rookies, next year they will have 1 year experience, they will be better. I think it means +5 wins.

Next season Memphis will have more depth, better bench players (Person, Giricek, Gooden, maybe Owens and Archibald...), a good 2nd unit... We can add +5 wins.

Let´s see... 23 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 38 wins

We can expect good moves from FA market, and, maybe, another good (starter?) player from trades. +3 wins?.

About 40 Wins... That´s my prediction.

What´s yours?.

 

[UofMark]

We will have some injuries next year. That's just the nature of the game plus an 82 game season is almost like the 'Tour de France', a long marathon. Hopefully the injuries this season won't be as devastating as they were this past season. I think we can expect 35-38 wins. I would really be pleased with that. It's critical we don't start 0-8 again though. If we're around .500 after 25 games or so we'll be in good shape. Plus we need to move our team stats up to the middle of the pack at least. Last year all our team stats were in the mid to low 20's out of 29 teams. There's more ways to show improvement than just the win column although statistically improving helps the bottom line, ie.....wins.

 

[grizzfan]

Well i would love to see 40 wins but I dont think it is realistic though. I think 30-33 is more realistic right now. It is going to always be tough against the western conference teams...maybe we can squeeze through some more wins against the eastern and maybe a few of the weaker teams in the western conference as well.

 

[Mem-fizz]

Originally posted by grizzfan
Well i would love to see 40 wins but I dont think it is realistic though. I think 30-33 is more realistic right now. It is going to always be tough against the western conference teams...maybe we can squeeze through some more wins against the eastern and maybe a few of the weaker teams in the western conference as well.

30-33 wins?

I really hope a little bit more!!.
7-10 more wins could be a good improvement for any team, not for Grizzlies...
Heinsley said he wants a good team as soon as it´s posible. He hired the best GM ever, spent a lot of money with him and gave him total power in Grizzlies team. He said Lowe job will be evaluated in terms of winning games, not in develope players like last season.

Heinsley is thinking big: less than 30 wins will be a big failure, less than 35 means Lowe fired, 35-40 will be not so bad for Heinsley, over 40 means success... and playoffs is his secret aim.

(BTW, I think Lowe will be fired if the team is not over .350 at mid-season).

 

[Shadows]

I agree Lowe's got some big time pressure to do something big this year, If the team is not showing early signs of improvment from last year he is gone IMO.

I really think 35 wins in reachable but im gonna say 30 wins. If they played in the East I really think they would be a 500 team and battling for the playoffs till the end but when I stack them up against the cream in the west it's gonna be difficult to get wins against the big top guns.

Lakers, Kings, Spurs, Mavs, T-wolves. There's is at least 12-15 games between those guys. A record like 2-13 against them wont be good to make a serious run at the post-season.

 

[bdachakeya]

Even with all of the injuries last season, there were alot of games we still had the chance of winning. We ended up with a total of 23 wins, but there were at least 10 that we gave away. We played the Spurs to the wire 3 out 4 games last season. The game we gave away to the Pacers last season because of an error by the refs of calling a 2 pointer by Miller a 3. There was the game we had against the Rockets in Houston where we fell apart in the last 5 minutes of the game and let it slip away. There is also another that comes to mind, when we gave away the game in the final minutes to the Pistons in Detroit. And who can forget the home game we played against Boston where we actually kicked butts the whole game, but completely stopped playing the last 5 minutes of the game to help the Celts walk out of here with a half court shot at the buzzer. Hopefully with the new team that's being assembled, they learn how to put a team away when it's on the ropes, which can result in alot more wins.

So, even with a depleted team most of last season, we still could have walked away with at least 35 victories, so my expectations will be at least 40 for the upcoming season.

 

[w-h-i-t-e-b-o-y]

10+

I believe with a new and improved JWill and an experienced Battier and Gasol, with an almost injury free MikeD and LoDaddy(lorenzen Wright), plus with the supporting cast already semi-intact with a good free agent or two I think we can realistically look for approx 35 W's. Next year JWill avg 15 and 8 but shooting 45%. MikeD 15pts shooting similar, Battier 17pts and 5rbs and 3asts, Gasol 18 and 10 and LoDaddy 12 and 8 and 2blks. The bench will be a huge part to the team though...hopefully avg approx 25pts a game off the bench giving us totals of approx 102pts per game that will be good enough to give us almost 35 this year....What do ya think?!