I’ve certainly invested no shortage of words in trying to figure out just how much worse the Cavaliers will be this season compared to the last couple years. I’m hardly alone. This is the season of previews and predictions, and everyone seems to have trouble agreeing on what kind of record we should expect from the Cavaliers this season.

For most teams, it seems like most of the predictions are in a general state of agreement with the range of predicted wins often fitting within about a 5 win window, although it extends to 8-10 wins for some teams. The Cavaliers, however, have a much larger window of expected wins across the different sources I’ve read.

Vegas lists the Cavaliers’ over/under at 30.5 wins, with the under paying anywhere from (-130) to (-140) while the over is at an even +100. Yahoo!’s Kelly Dwyer gave his now infamous prediction of 12 wins for this team, setting the floor, while the Plain Dealer’s Terry Pluto posted the ceiling with a prediction of 46 wins. That’s a swing of 34 wins. Heck, even among just the staff of the Plain Dealer there’s a swing of 16 wins, from Bill Livingston’s prediction of 30 wins to Pluto’s 46. [Read more...]