Picking every NBA over/under win total
By Brad Rowland
The NBA is back.
Well, almost.
The 2015-2016 NBA season has already begun in the form of preseason action, but with the regular season around the corner, there is an important piece of business to address. Each year, the great folks of Las Vegas release numbers in an attempt to measure how each team in the NBA will perform in the standings. These numbers are released in over-under form, meaning that amateur and professional handicappers are given the opportunity to “guess” whether a team will win more or fewer games than the stated projection suggests.
That, of course, is the extremely technical definition of what we’re doing in this space. The more accurate reflection of the purpose of this column is to try to make you some extra gummy bears (interpret as you will) by examining each NBA team at this juncture. The playing field is leveled by the over-under total, meaning that the best teams in the league (Warriors, Cavs, Spurs, etc.) are playing against themselves, rather than expressly against the rest of the league. That also allows the lowly Philadelphia 76ers (over in back to back years!) to win at something. It isn’t exactly fun to allow your hard-earned jelly beans (or something of the sort) to be tied up in a season-long wager, but as anyone who had the Atlanta Hawks over last year (ahem) can tell you, it is a profitable exercise if you know how to read the situation.
Without further delay, let’s get to the teams, and for the sake of clarity, we will roll them out in alphabetical order. Best of luck to us all.
Next: Hawks and Celtics