Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images The PtR crew discusses whether the team and the individuals will be as impressive as expected and gives their predictions for NBA champion. The betting market has set the Spurs’ over/under at 36.5 wins. Do you think they’ll hit the over and fight for a play-in spot? Marilyn Dubinski: The optimist in me wants to say the over, but it’s just hard to visualize at this point if for no other reason than the West will be a gauntlet. How often has the 13th seed in a conference, which is where the Spurs’ over/under puts them, had 36-ish wins? Without researching, I’m guessing very few, possibly none. The Spurs definitely have the potential to surprise, push for 40 wins and make the play-in, but if I had to actually put any of my hard-earned money on the line, I’d bet the under. Now if they were in the East, this would be a different discussion... Mark Barrington: I think the Spurs are going to be a lot better than last year’s 22 win team. But not THAT much better. Chris Paul will be great in teaching the young guys how to play winning basketball, but he’s not going to make that much of a difference on the court in limited minutes. Harrison Barnes is going to have to play a lot better than he did in preseason to move the needle. I think the Spurs could win as much as 33 games, which is a massive 50% increase in wins. I just don’t think they get close to the play-in tournament with a roster that is this much of a work in progress. Jacob Douglas: No. It’s too big of a jump for a team that didn’t add all that much this summer. Chris Paul, Harrison Barnes, and Stephon Castle provide a talent upgrade, but not one great enough to be in the play-in conversation. The Spurs still need more advantage creators on the offensive end to be a winning team. I have them somewhere around 30 wins this year. Jesus Gomez: Just like everyone except the eternal optimist below me, I doubt it. The Spurs won 22 games last year. A 15-win jump seems like a lot in a season with not many awful teams, especially in the West. Looking at the first 10 games, the only opponent expected to be truly bad is the Trail Blazers. The Spurs have the talent to beat good teams, but they are still young despite adding a couple of veterans and will probably still be inconsistent. I think a win total in the low 30s seems more realistic and would still represent a step in the right direction. J.R. Wilco: I’m the only one, eh? Ok, then. I’ll play the shameless homer. Only I’m not playing. I’m on record saying that last season’s club was better than their record. So if we figure that Chris Paul will steady their clutch time offense (the biggest problem with the team last year, IMO) and we note the fact that fully half of their games last season qualified as clutch time games (within 5 points with 5 minutes left) then ... then, I wouldn’t be surprised at a .500 season. Now, I’m not predicting one either, but I’m at least ready to take the over! Bill Huan: 36.5 for the Spurs might be the craziest over/under this year, and I’m the biggest Wemby homer out there! He’s going to enter the season as a top 10 player and could finish in the top 5, but even that won’t catapult the Spurs to 37 or more wins. J.R. is right when he says that this team played better than their record showed last year, but keep in mind that the West is deeper than ever and there are 12 teams who are clearly better - in my humble opinion. With that in mind, I believe an over/under of 32.5 is much more appropriate (please don’t banish me, Mr. Wilco). Do you think Victor Wembanyama will win Defensive Player of the Year? Will any other Spurs get close to getting an award? Dubinski: If he’s even the same defender as last season, he should win it. I believe Rudy Gobert won on merit more than anything, and some voters simply couldn’t get themselves to vote for a rookie on a bottom 10 defense regardless of his individual accolades. If the Spurs can move into at least the middle of the league in defense, there will be zero hesitance to vote for Wemby, Beyond him, Stephon Castle has as good a shot as anyone in his class at Rookie of the Year if he gets enough playing time, and I could even see a world where Keldon Johnson contends for Sixth Man. If he does, it will be a big boost to the Spurs' winning chances. Barrington: If he stays healthy, it’s very likely. Some teams will send guys at him in an attempt to draw fouls and use physical inside play to negate his length. It’ll be interesting to see how the Spurs respond. About the only other Spurs this year who could be in the running for individual honors would be Stephon Castle, who could be in the running for Rookie of the Year if Pop gives him a regular rotation spot for the whole season. I think it’s definitely possible, because Castle has proven that his game is already NBA-ready on defense and his shot is better than expected coming out of the draft. There are several other rookies that would provide stiff competition, but it could be a competitive race. Douglas: The Defensive Player of the Year award is narrative-based. I think that played in Wembanyama’s favor last season. If he has a major impact season and the Spurs really are competitive, I think the award is his. I just don’t think the NBA can give the award to a player that doesn’t lead a top-10 defense. He’ll face stiff competition from Rudy Gobert and Bam Adebayo. I don’t think Castle will play enough to win Rookie of the Year. I do expect Wembanyama to make an All-NBA team and the All-Star game this season. Gomez: I think he will, but it won’t be easy. Wemby will be scrutinized more this season, which could lead to voters overthinking things. If the Spurs show improvement on that end and none of the other candidates has a career year, I think Wemby has a good chance of getting some hardware. Castle could have a shot at Rookie of the Year if he gets the minutes, but I’m not as confident as others that he will get the minutes and role to get it. Wilco: I see this award going the way last season’s ROY went: ESPN crowns him the presumptive favorite for the award while selling bets on ESPN BET. Then, they instruct a bunch of their talking heads to start touting someone else (or several players) over him. Then they sell lots of bets on ESPN BET against Wemby. Then toward the end of the season, after Wemby does something awesome in one of the games ESPN covers, they declare him the winner, while selling lots more bets on ESPN Bet for Wemby while having their writers and announcers all agree that he’s the hands-down winner of this media-based award while raking in more $ from ESPN BET while somehow continuing to fly under the radar and undetected for the complete and utter racket they are. Huan: He should definitely be the heavy favorite, although I’m not sure if the Spurs’ defense will be good enough for him to actually win. Either way, there’s no question in my mind that Wemby is already the best defender in all of basketball, and I think he’ll make 2nd team All-NBA too. Who do you think will come out of each conference and who will win the NBA Championship? Dubinski: I don’t see anyone usurping the Celtics. The Knicks upgraded a bit with the KAT trade, but they aren’t very deep, and there’s the Thibs factor to consider. I also don’t think the 76ers’ stars are capable of staying healthy long enough to carry them that far. In the West, it’s anybody’s game. The Nuggets will always have a chance with Jokic but have lost a lot of depth. The Mavs made it last year and very well could again, but it will require Klay Thompson to have a better shooting season than he has had in a few years, and it will have to be done on offense. The Thunder are the immediate favorites off the top of my head because they are the most complete team and made some good offseason moves, they just need to learn from last season’s playoffs and overcome the youth factor. Barrington: The Celtics are going to be the favorites to repeat. There are at least six contending teams in the East, but the Celtics are still the best. A lot of people are picking the Thunder to come out of the West, and they certainly have the talent to do it. I just don’t think they’re experienced enough yet, I think they’re still a year and a playoff disappointment removed from a finals trip. I think that the Mavericks have improved themselves with the addition of Klay Thompson, and maybe this is the year we will see Luka Doncic start the season in basketball shape. I think it’s likely that we’ll see a rematch of the 20-24 finals, with the same result. It gives me no joy to say this, but it seems likely that the Celtics will raise the trophy again at the end of the season. Douglas: Celtics over Thunder in the finals. They are the two most talented teams in the NBA. OKC fixed their flaws, and it’s hard to even find one on Boston’s roster. I like Philadelphia’s team, but I don’t trust Joel Embiid nor Paul George to be available, let alone effective in the postseason. Gomez: Repeats are hard, but I don’t see anyone beating Boston in the East unless injuries ravage the Celtics and I’m not surprised to see them get picked unanimously here. The West is trickier because all the contenders have at least one flaw. I’ll go with the Nuggets, because they have the best player in the world. And if Denver gets to the Finals, I think they can win the whole thing. Wilco: As long as Jokic is alive and in his prime, I can’t predict anyone beating them until I see it with my own eyes. What he did in the Olympics with a few guys from his hood was beyond all superlatives. Serbia had no business being in that game against the USA, and he nearly took them down. So it’s the Nuggets for me in the West, and Boston again from the East — and the Celts to repeat. Ugh. Huan: I’m going out on a MASSIVE limb here and predicting the Celtics to win over the Thunder. Who saw that coming, huh? Jokes aside, these two teams should be pretty heavily favored in their respective conferences, and their combination of fire power and depth should be too much for other teams to handle. That is, unless Jokic decides to get some people from his “hood” to join the Nuggets, of course.