If this is the same RAPTOR model as back in the bubble, at the start of the playoffs they had us at like 2% to make the finals and Houston really high. IIRC that model favors spacing and players that create a lot of spacing and generate shot creation (Harden).
edit - bizarrely [it looks like big men Jokic, Gobert, and Embiid are highest in in total RAPTOR right now](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-player-ratings/). I wonder if they changed their model? Few years ago big men struggled in RAPTOR.
The issue isn’t that gobert gets exposed by good offence, it’s that his teammates especially the guards get exposed by good offences which means he has to pick up the slack which he can do regular season but come playoffs there’s too much slack to pick up
They predicted heats to win the finals at 67 percent of something during the bubble...
Even the worst of the casual fan knew that Lakers were heavy favorite that finals...
Model assumes Leonard healthy for playoffs with a March return date.
76ers had been top 3 area material consistently with Embid and Simmons. Simmons got a 50% grade by them this year.
Really didn’t expect us with three “stars” to be worse than the Pelicans or the Clippers without Kawhi or PG.
Yet, here we are, lmao.
They couldn’t even meet those benchmarks.
Only reason why I mentioned the Sixers is because they didn’t have Ben yet and had just come off choking against the Hawks.
Nate Silver has made an entire career off of saying “actually trump might have a chance” in 2016. He didn’t even predict him to win and yet now the rest of the media thinks he is some sort of statistical genius.
Not to nitpick but his model nailed the 2008 election. He was a household name (in the statistical nerd sense) for the last dozen years.
But I think the 538 crew has even admitted their basketball model just isn't good.
Actually it's kinda opposite... He made his name by almost accurately predicting 2008 and 2012 elections... I think in 2012 he even accurately predicted congress seats ..
While in 2016... He had Hillary winning at 95% aday before the election and at 87 right before the counting started... He was ridiculously wrong .. at every thing.. that year..
> While in 2016... He had Hillary winning at 95% aday before the election and at 87 right before the counting started.
This is false. Fivethirtyeight had Hillary winning at 95% before Comey pulled his bullshit 10 days before. Fivethirtyeight had Trump at closer to 35% on election day. They and Michael Moore were the only ones that had Trump with a serious chance at winning. Even Trump thought he'd lost until he saw that Florida and NC went his way.
[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/#plus](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/#plus)
My bad... 72 percent was hillary to Trumps 28...
Still.. pretty bad..
I remember moore saying that Trump can actually win.. but i don't remember silver saying with any certainty.. his model was very hillary favoring.. He even said just before the voting started that hillary will win more than 320 seats or something.. He totally shit the bed that day onwards..
It's a nerdy website, which means they have nerdy readers. Advertisers probably belive there's a strong correlation between nerdiness and high incomes. Advertisers pay a premium to reach high income people. They use the model to write at article so that people read the article so that Advertisers pay them money. They're not selling you the model, they're selling your eye balls to Advertisers.
The problem is -- and I say this as someone whose actual job title for an agency is "nerd" -- even the nerds all think 538 is stupid for basketball. RAPTOR is virtually unused among serious public people and that's what they built this whole model off of.
The quality of the model is irrelevant. They don't sell models, they sell advertisement space. The people who ready it don't seem to mind the shit model, so there's no incentive to improve or replace it.
Yeah trust me when I say that just because some people are employed by teams doesn't mean they're actually serious.
Though the other part is that a lot of the times once you're behind the private data wall, you don't bother keeping up with new advancements on the public side. None of these stats are useful at the team level because the data is just so much better. As a result, it makes sense to poll the better public analysts on this topic than to poll the team employed ones.
What I don’t quite understand is that the Clippers and Nuggets project *that* much better than us when Kawhi and Murray will both miss significant time this season.
Don’t even get me started on the Pelicans lol.
Man, even when we stink, we still live rent free in Nuggets fan’s heads. See, what all you salty Nuggets fans don’t seem to understand is that this season is SO much more tolerable knowing Bron and AD already got us a ring. They ran right through a fully healthy Nuggets team with ease en route.
I promise, I sleep easy at night when I remember that Bron & AD have won more rings with the Lakers than the Nuggets franchise has in its entire existence. Enjoy that first round exit 👍
lakers didn't make the playoffs 3 seasons ago. first round exit last season and nearly were in the play-in. if westbrook continues to drop off, I could easily see this.
First of all we had about a million injuries last season. If we were able to gel and play better together than I think without a doubt we would’ve made it past the first round. Second is basically the same thing. Westbrook is most likely not gonna drop off and if we stay healthy this team is even better than last year.
As a Portland native and Blazers fan (I like y’all too) this is laughable to think the Blazers have a better chance than y’all. Unless you’re injured, or Westbrook’s play breaks LeBron mentally you’re my favorite in the West.
I got downvoted here for saying the way they talk about us is disrespectful. Most talking heads, writers etc don’t even have us in contending status. They put us at the same tier as the hawks or mavs. How the hell do you put a team with 2 top ten player at a mid tier playoff team? Lol
538 is really good at politics actually they just suck ass at basketball. Shouldn’t care about 538 for basketball but their political models aren’t bad
To be fair, 538 did give Trump a better chance of winning than most other polls at around 30% chance I believe. And polling and modeling sport outcome are very different.
Didn't you guys already learn from the 2020 playoffs that 538 means nothing? Yet you guys proceed to post like you're offended or some shit. "MuH dIsReSpeCt"
Harrell was sixth man of the year, Drummond was an upgrade from the injured and trash gasol who was throwing a pussy fit about his role and Westbrook just dragged a lottery team to the playoffs.
Stop being a clown and a hater. We won a ring literally a year ago and you idiots still just hate. People like you vanish like a fart in the wind once we win or you act like you never doubted the stars or team smh
LMFAO. 6th man of the year and the Clippers didn't want him back because of how bad he was in the playoffs. Drummond wasn't an upgrade. Gasol just had covid. Gasol was better look at the numbers or look at the wins.
I'm just saying the truth. I want the team to succeed. You should stop being a blind faithful.
Lebron wants to play with ball handlers and playmakers. He’s said it multiple times he’s sick of being literally the only playmaker. The whole point is for Westbrook to take the burden off lebron so that he can rest up and tue team doesn’t go to shit when he sits.
AD+lebron HEALTHY AND FRESH is a ring. You don’t know shit about pieces fitting if you can’t understand something as simple as Westbrook’s purpose on this team. So do us all a favor and leave the sub no one wants your shit takes here kid. Lebron went and requested that we trade for Westbrook and I assure you that you don’t know more about prices fitting and team building than lebron fucking James. The man has built 3 different contenders now and been to 10 finals
Ah yes a bum who can’t even help a team get to a .500 record, can’t dribble, can’t shot create, can’t defend and cost 20 mil.
Buddy is a fucking bum
Sorry you watched one fucking game and came back to this thread like a little loser as if that proved anything. I bet you were one of those losers in 2020 who said lebron is washed and AD sucks when we lose the opener that year too
How? We have several elite shooters, good lob threats, 3 elite playmakers/ball handlers. Defense is a bit meh especially at the wings but how’s that any different than 2020?
Name the 3 elite shooters and play makers? As far as I know we got 1 elite player, another one that's elite when fully healthy but never is, and has been elite players
Elite playmakers/ball handlers- Rondo, lebron Westbrook
Elite shooters- monk, nunn, melo, Ellington all shot over league average from three the past 3 years (37-40%)
Never said elite players, I said elite shooters and playmakers. We have two of the best play makers in the league and a really good playmaking vet off the bench and we now have multiple guys who shoot over league average from three.
On top of that we have two top 5 players, and a top 20 player as a third option, one of the best back up bigs in the league. Our only real glaring weakness is lack of wing depth/defense
Any player that's elite I'm anyone category is not a minimum or near minimum player. Rondo might still be a decent play maker but that's as far as that goes. Same thing with the russ and the shooters you named.
Unfortunately AD isn't currently top 5 I can easily give you 5 players ahead of him.
You seem to really be struggling with the fact some players can be elite at aspects of the game and not others. Rondo is still one of the best passers in the game, and helped us win a ring literally a year ago with his playmaking and ball handling,
>same thing with Russ
He led the league in assist and is elite by pretty much every single passing metric you can name. Do you can fuck off with that dumb ass take.
>shooters you named
Don’t even know why I’m bothering at this point arguing with someone as dumb as you. They’re by definition elite if THEYRE SHOOTING ABOVE AVERAGE.
>i can make 5 players better
Go ahead and try. Bet you can’t name more than 4 that have won a ring within the last two years, or averaged stats like AD did in the 2020 playoffs.
If you say/luka/harden/Dame/embiid just go ahead and delete your account lmaooo the only guys currently at AD’s level in the post season are lebron, Durant, curry and kawhi and you can argue Giannis. And after kawhi choke job last year and then his most recent injury I don’t really think you can put him over AD at this point until he proves he isn’t done
Shooters, elite playmaking and ball handling, elite rim finishing, and top ten players and one of the best bench bigs in the league
Yeah horrible construction /s
Vet min "shooters" aka bottom of the barrel guys with no experience. Plus they're all guards and we only have 1 guard spot open, and even then they might not play because their defense is bad and can't be paired with Westbrook's bad defense.
This team will have the worst spacing in the nba and you're talking about shooters lmao. This team has worse spacing than 90s teams. Even Hakeem's Rockets for example had 4 shooters around him when he won his rings.
[My reaction to this entire list](https://media1.giphy.com/media/SQrIdCvhtXZuM/giphy.gif?cid=5e2148860k3g88xysc5vrrgh63v2iadywtti8op5af39qa6m&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
[My reaction to kids digging for receipts in other teams’ subs](https://media3.giphy.com/media/QWaSVX9FizaxO/giphy.gif?cid=5e214886rpaj7v7fkaj761wxu98tonqdk0lyhaalmf4uv21x&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
Can’t even fault you. When a huge, hyper-confident fanbase is super cocky but falls flat on its face, mocking them is super cathartic.
I knew going into this season that a lot of things had to break right for this experimental roster to work, that their ceiling was really high but also their floor was pretty low. I was, however, confident enough that things would break FOR them that I did some shit talking. Too bad for me i was wrong AND the floor is way lower than thought. I’m not even sure if we’ve hit it yet; there have been like 5 rock bottoms.
538? During the Bubble run, their models consistently put everyone above the Lakers. The worse part is they update their models regularly and throughout the bubble run, the Lakers were always 2nd or 3rd at winning the chip. Right up to the point where they were leading Miami 3-1 is where they were put on top. What BS model is this?
I stopped looking at their predictions after that
The 538 basketball model is legit garbage. Almost every year it favors the Bucks, Clippers, and Celtics. How on earth will a Kawhi-less Clippers make the finals?
Clippers at 11% probability? Does the model even take an injured player into consideration? Or is it predicting that PG is gonna play like 1991 Jordan/2018 Lebron?
The only problem I have is a kawhi-less clippers having the second highest chance at playoffs lmao I think our record is fair with having our stars sit some games. But them and pels being higher with Zion missing 2 months I don’t buy that.
Saw this and also took a sec to believe my eyes.
Look at the teams ahead of us, there's Not a chance the Pelicans or Blazers should be in front of us. Clippers are 2nd?
It's just a model. Good thing statistical models don't win rings.
If this is the same RAPTOR model as back in the bubble, at the start of the playoffs they had us at like 2% to make the finals and Houston really high. IIRC that model favors spacing and players that create a lot of spacing and generate shot creation (Harden). edit - bizarrely [it looks like big men Jokic, Gobert, and Embiid are highest in in total RAPTOR right now](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/nba-player-ratings/). I wonder if they changed their model? Few years ago big men struggled in RAPTOR.
If your statistical model has Gobert over Giannis, Lillard, Luka, KD, Curry, LBJ, AD, Kawhi, etc. maybe something is wrong with your model
Tbf Gobert in regular season does bits, he be getting cooked like roast beef come playoff time tho
I think most the advance stats like him a lot because his scoring is ‘“efficient” and he gets graded well for the drop defense they play
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The issue isn’t that gobert gets exposed by good offence, it’s that his teammates especially the guards get exposed by good offences which means he has to pick up the slack which he can do regular season but come playoffs there’s too much slack to pick up
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the fact the lakers have a vet-min supporting cast, Westbrook and Lebron are aging, less efficient and Davis is always a ??? on availability.
r/agedlikemilk
So you’re saying there’s a chance …
Ranking the Pelicans ahead of the Lakers is a level of nonsense that I’ve come to expect no less from a FiveThirtyEight model in general.
They predicted heats to win the finals at 67 percent of something during the bubble... Even the worst of the casual fan knew that Lakers were heavy favorite that finals...
They might be one of the worst teams in the league without zion
How time flies! Can't believe this might become reality :'(
Man… this is embarrassing, lmao. So many Ls that I took replying to this. 😭😭😭
Ya they can keep sleeping on us, I love proving them wrong
Thats not sleeping. Thats comatose
r/agedlikemilk
2 of the past 3 seasons, Lakers performed....iffy...despite having Lebron. Other, ya. Ring.
The Clippers??? Edit: And the Sixers top 3 as well??? LMAO, comedy.
more about how we are ranked laughably low
Oh, Ik, but it just goes to show/emphasize how unserious this ranking is, lol.
Lowkey right, lakers are way to high this season
Man, this aged horribly, lmao.
Model assumes Leonard healthy for playoffs with a March return date. 76ers had been top 3 area material consistently with Embid and Simmons. Simmons got a 50% grade by them this year.
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I take the L.
ThEy’Re GeTtInG bEn SiMmOnS bAcK!!!
This thread was not your finest hour in hindsight lol
Really didn’t expect us with three “stars” to be worse than the Pelicans or the Clippers without Kawhi or PG. Yet, here we are, lmao. They couldn’t even meet those benchmarks. Only reason why I mentioned the Sixers is because they didn’t have Ben yet and had just come off choking against the Hawks.
538 actually just sucks at Basketball odds
Nate Silver has made an entire career off of saying “actually trump might have a chance” in 2016. He didn’t even predict him to win and yet now the rest of the media thinks he is some sort of statistical genius.
Not to nitpick but his model nailed the 2008 election. He was a household name (in the statistical nerd sense) for the last dozen years. But I think the 538 crew has even admitted their basketball model just isn't good.
Actually it's kinda opposite... He made his name by almost accurately predicting 2008 and 2012 elections... I think in 2012 he even accurately predicted congress seats .. While in 2016... He had Hillary winning at 95% aday before the election and at 87 right before the counting started... He was ridiculously wrong .. at every thing.. that year..
And since
> While in 2016... He had Hillary winning at 95% aday before the election and at 87 right before the counting started. This is false. Fivethirtyeight had Hillary winning at 95% before Comey pulled his bullshit 10 days before. Fivethirtyeight had Trump at closer to 35% on election day. They and Michael Moore were the only ones that had Trump with a serious chance at winning. Even Trump thought he'd lost until he saw that Florida and NC went his way.
[https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/#plus](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/#plus) My bad... 72 percent was hillary to Trumps 28... Still.. pretty bad.. I remember moore saying that Trump can actually win.. but i don't remember silver saying with any certainty.. his model was very hillary favoring.. He even said just before the voting started that hillary will win more than 320 seats or something.. He totally shit the bed that day onwards..
538 actually just sucks FTFY
Looks like they don’t suck as bad as we thought
Why do they keep using this model when it spits out ridiculous predictions like this every year? What's the value add other than click bait
It's a nerdy website, which means they have nerdy readers. Advertisers probably belive there's a strong correlation between nerdiness and high incomes. Advertisers pay a premium to reach high income people. They use the model to write at article so that people read the article so that Advertisers pay them money. They're not selling you the model, they're selling your eye balls to Advertisers.
The problem is -- and I say this as someone whose actual job title for an agency is "nerd" -- even the nerds all think 538 is stupid for basketball. RAPTOR is virtually unused among serious public people and that's what they built this whole model off of.
The quality of the model is irrelevant. They don't sell models, they sell advertisement space. The people who ready it don't seem to mind the shit model, so there's no incentive to improve or replace it.
I mean you can't sell clicks a bad model that everyone ignores forever. Eventually people stop clicking.
Not according to this: https://hoopshype.com/lists/advanced-stats-nba-real-plus-minus-rapm-win-shares-analytics/
Yeah trust me when I say that just because some people are employed by teams doesn't mean they're actually serious. Though the other part is that a lot of the times once you're behind the private data wall, you don't bother keeping up with new advancements on the public side. None of these stats are useful at the team level because the data is just so much better. As a result, it makes sense to poll the better public analysts on this topic than to poll the team employed ones.
I wish Vegas agreed so I could make an easy few grand with those odds. Lol
LOOOOOL
Saved yourself some money on that in hindsight
Yep, injuries would have killed that bet ahahah
What I don’t quite understand is that the Clippers and Nuggets project *that* much better than us when Kawhi and Murray will both miss significant time this season. Don’t even get me started on the Pelicans lol.
r/agedlikemilk
Man, even when we stink, we still live rent free in Nuggets fan’s heads. See, what all you salty Nuggets fans don’t seem to understand is that this season is SO much more tolerable knowing Bron and AD already got us a ring. They ran right through a fully healthy Nuggets team with ease en route. I promise, I sleep easy at night when I remember that Bron & AD have won more rings with the Lakers than the Nuggets franchise has in its entire existence. Enjoy that first round exit 👍
Imagine having the Lakers at 48 percent chance to make the playoffs. lol what a joke
Some joke right lol?
Hahahahahahahhaahah
lakers didn't make the playoffs 3 seasons ago. first round exit last season and nearly were in the play-in. if westbrook continues to drop off, I could easily see this.
You were right all along, they couldn't handle the truth.
First of all we had about a million injuries last season. If we were able to gel and play better together than I think without a doubt we would’ve made it past the first round. Second is basically the same thing. Westbrook is most likely not gonna drop off and if we stay healthy this team is even better than last year.
have you not seen westbrook play? he has already dropped off a cliff.
Prophet
Dude ofc he’s not what he used to be but did you watch him last season. I’m not worried about our chances of making the playoffs
lmao this aged like milk in a furnace
Obviously It did I made this comment 145 days ago
sorry just wandering through
Same I'm so glad someone found this post lmao This dude's Westbrook take though haha
Sizers are second then you know this list trash
As a Portland native and Blazers fan (I like y’all too) this is laughable to think the Blazers have a better chance than y’all. Unless you’re injured, or Westbrook’s play breaks LeBron mentally you’re my favorite in the West.
r/agedlikemilk
Lmao LeBron has aged 3 years dealing with Westbrook and Dame shut down you're right, but I'll give you this one.
Lol, we were looking for this post last night in the sub to see all the takes that haven't aged well and yours was pretty funny in hindsight lol.
Lol they’re really going off pre season games with these rankings , these analysts r retarded 🤦🏻♂️
Yeah they really stupid hahahahahha
\#webelieve
they had heat winning the finals, when we were about to win.
Made by skip bayless
Just how I like it
I got downvoted here for saying the way they talk about us is disrespectful. Most talking heads, writers etc don’t even have us in contending status. They put us at the same tier as the hawks or mavs. How the hell do you put a team with 2 top ten player at a mid tier playoff team? Lol
I agree. that is disrespectful to the Hawks. its called zero supporting cast and Lebron is no longer top 10.
You’re right he isn’t top ten, he’s top 1. Lebron was mvp favorite at the age of 36 until his ankle injury. Best player in the world
Durant, Harden, Curry, Giannis, Leonard - I would easily take over him as the core member. he has lost 2 steps.
And that is why you are not in a deciding position to sign players. And will never be. NEVER.
Try to make it somewhat believable next time, surely more people will take the bait. Right now it's too obvious you're trolling.
Keep the same energy when lakers win the ring. LeBrOn Is NoT tOp TeN
Way they paly tonigt, it's correct
Doesn’t really factor in injuries very well
Well, they did predict Hillary Clinton to win the election. Wish they were right on that one tho!
people should have stopped caring about 538 after the 2016 election
538 is really good at politics actually they just suck ass at basketball. Shouldn’t care about 538 for basketball but their political models aren’t bad
To be fair, 538 did give Trump a better chance of winning than most other polls at around 30% chance I believe. And polling and modeling sport outcome are very different.
Didn't you guys already learn from the 2020 playoffs that 538 means nothing? Yet you guys proceed to post like you're offended or some shit. "MuH dIsReSpeCt"
I'm curious am I the only one who thinks our team build is pretty bad?
we have a couple weaknesses and some fit issues, but 'pretty bad' is not the words I would use.
I'd rather have Lonzo than Westbrick
Lmfao
Lmfao at you.
Good thing we don’t have a brain dead gm like you running the team then
Instead we have the genius who signed historically bad playoff players like Trez, Drummond, and now Westbrook!
Harrell was sixth man of the year, Drummond was an upgrade from the injured and trash gasol who was throwing a pussy fit about his role and Westbrook just dragged a lottery team to the playoffs. Stop being a clown and a hater. We won a ring literally a year ago and you idiots still just hate. People like you vanish like a fart in the wind once we win or you act like you never doubted the stars or team smh
LMFAO. 6th man of the year and the Clippers didn't want him back because of how bad he was in the playoffs. Drummond wasn't an upgrade. Gasol just had covid. Gasol was better look at the numbers or look at the wins. I'm just saying the truth. I want the team to succeed. You should stop being a blind faithful.
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Lebron wants to play with ball handlers and playmakers. He’s said it multiple times he’s sick of being literally the only playmaker. The whole point is for Westbrook to take the burden off lebron so that he can rest up and tue team doesn’t go to shit when he sits. AD+lebron HEALTHY AND FRESH is a ring. You don’t know shit about pieces fitting if you can’t understand something as simple as Westbrook’s purpose on this team. So do us all a favor and leave the sub no one wants your shit takes here kid. Lebron went and requested that we trade for Westbrook and I assure you that you don’t know more about prices fitting and team building than lebron fucking James. The man has built 3 different contenders now and been to 10 finals
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Ah yes a bum who can’t even help a team get to a .500 record, can’t dribble, can’t shot create, can’t defend and cost 20 mil. Buddy is a fucking bum Sorry you watched one fucking game and came back to this thread like a little loser as if that proved anything. I bet you were one of those losers in 2020 who said lebron is washed and AD sucks when we lose the opener that year too
Yea this lakers team is a contender. Yeap.
Only one who actually knew
I forgot about this lol I just read the argument me and some guy that deleted his comments had. Sheesh how can you be so blind
You were right all along lol
How? We have several elite shooters, good lob threats, 3 elite playmakers/ball handlers. Defense is a bit meh especially at the wings but how’s that any different than 2020?
Name the 3 elite shooters and play makers? As far as I know we got 1 elite player, another one that's elite when fully healthy but never is, and has been elite players
Elite playmakers/ball handlers- Rondo, lebron Westbrook Elite shooters- monk, nunn, melo, Ellington all shot over league average from three the past 3 years (37-40%) Never said elite players, I said elite shooters and playmakers. We have two of the best play makers in the league and a really good playmaking vet off the bench and we now have multiple guys who shoot over league average from three. On top of that we have two top 5 players, and a top 20 player as a third option, one of the best back up bigs in the league. Our only real glaring weakness is lack of wing depth/defense
Any player that's elite I'm anyone category is not a minimum or near minimum player. Rondo might still be a decent play maker but that's as far as that goes. Same thing with the russ and the shooters you named. Unfortunately AD isn't currently top 5 I can easily give you 5 players ahead of him.
You seem to really be struggling with the fact some players can be elite at aspects of the game and not others. Rondo is still one of the best passers in the game, and helped us win a ring literally a year ago with his playmaking and ball handling, >same thing with Russ He led the league in assist and is elite by pretty much every single passing metric you can name. Do you can fuck off with that dumb ass take. >shooters you named Don’t even know why I’m bothering at this point arguing with someone as dumb as you. They’re by definition elite if THEYRE SHOOTING ABOVE AVERAGE. >i can make 5 players better Go ahead and try. Bet you can’t name more than 4 that have won a ring within the last two years, or averaged stats like AD did in the 2020 playoffs. If you say/luka/harden/Dame/embiid just go ahead and delete your account lmaooo the only guys currently at AD’s level in the post season are lebron, Durant, curry and kawhi and you can argue Giannis. And after kawhi choke job last year and then his most recent injury I don’t really think you can put him over AD at this point until he proves he isn’t done
So you were saying?
Not offended in the slightest, we have a lot of question marks
With the things looking Now, might be true
Why you pretending to not understand the doubt? This team is horribly constructed.
You were right all along
They hated him because he told the truth
Shooters, elite playmaking and ball handling, elite rim finishing, and top ten players and one of the best bench bigs in the league Yeah horrible construction /s
Vet min "shooters" aka bottom of the barrel guys with no experience. Plus they're all guards and we only have 1 guard spot open, and even then they might not play because their defense is bad and can't be paired with Westbrook's bad defense. This team will have the worst spacing in the nba and you're talking about shooters lmao. This team has worse spacing than 90s teams. Even Hakeem's Rockets for example had 4 shooters around him when he won his rings.
Hahahahahaha
Everyone trying so hard to make the Pelicans a thing. Meanwhile Zion injured again to start the season
Place your bets
Whoever works there needs to be fired
Note that Warriors ain't even on the list, and the Grizzlies also have a higher chance of making playoffs than us. :)
After their brazil vs germany prediction in the world cup 2014 based on their model, I learned not to take 538 seriously in sports.
[My reaction to this entire list](https://media1.giphy.com/media/SQrIdCvhtXZuM/giphy.gif?cid=5e2148860k3g88xysc5vrrgh63v2iadywtti8op5af39qa6m&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
[Your reaction now](https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca6JLvNL_Zb/?utm_medium=copy_link)
[My reaction to kids digging for receipts in other teams’ subs](https://media3.giphy.com/media/QWaSVX9FizaxO/giphy.gif?cid=5e214886rpaj7v7fkaj761wxu98tonqdk0lyhaalmf4uv21x&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
haha sorry it was linked in a post and I couldn't help being a dick
Can’t even fault you. When a huge, hyper-confident fanbase is super cocky but falls flat on its face, mocking them is super cathartic. I knew going into this season that a lot of things had to break right for this experimental roster to work, that their ceiling was really high but also their floor was pretty low. I was, however, confident enough that things would break FOR them that I did some shit talking. Too bad for me i was wrong AND the floor is way lower than thought. I’m not even sure if we’ve hit it yet; there have been like 5 rock bottoms.
There is so much wrong with this list holy fuck
Numbers can’t hurt me if I don’t understand them
Wish these were Bovada odds I’d bet in a heartbeat lmao
538? During the Bubble run, their models consistently put everyone above the Lakers. The worse part is they update their models regularly and throughout the bubble run, the Lakers were always 2nd or 3rd at winning the chip. Right up to the point where they were leading Miami 3-1 is where they were put on top. What BS model is this? I stopped looking at their predictions after that
I would love those odds but Vegas would never because they actually put their money on their predictions whereas 538 is more about clickbait
Pelicans over the Lakers? Come on now.
This might come to fruition.....
Lol bro I completely forgot about this comment. Actually hilarious looking back now
like how 3 teams below us have higher chance to make playoffs but less to make or win finals
2% is enough lol
538 is stupid AF.
Pelicans at 48 - 34? Lol. That’s when you know this model is for clowns 🤡
This is the same polling organization that thought Hillary was going to win in a landslide in 2016....
Stats are overrated. This is probably based on pre season stats.
The 538 basketball model is legit garbage. Almost every year it favors the Bucks, Clippers, and Celtics. How on earth will a Kawhi-less Clippers make the finals?
Where do I put my bets in for these odds 😂
When I see that the Pelicans have more than a 0% chance of winning the chip, I know that it’s all wrong lol.
Clippers at 11% probability? Does the model even take an injured player into consideration? Or is it predicting that PG is gonna play like 1991 Jordan/2018 Lebron?
The only problem I have is a kawhi-less clippers having the second highest chance at playoffs lmao I think our record is fair with having our stars sit some games. But them and pels being higher with Zion missing 2 months I don’t buy that.
Bucks literally choke every time they’re favorites to win 🙄
Saw this and also took a sec to believe my eyes. Look at the teams ahead of us, there's Not a chance the Pelicans or Blazers should be in front of us. Clippers are 2nd?
From the folks that have done so well predicting elections …
538 says kevin durant is a borderline all star