Ahead of the 2016-2017 season, the NBA ran a simulation to see how many games each team might win. The computer says the Golden State Warriors will win 83 games.
That sounds too good to be true, and it is. The NBA regular season only has 82 games, so the Warriors will be spotted a game for good measure, it seems.
From Sports Illustrated:
One NBA front office ran simulations, based on player values, for the upcoming season. Cleveland came out with 64 wins, second best in the league. Golden State came out with 83, better than undefeated. They broke the system.
The article is about LeBron James gearing up to lead the Cavs on another run at the title, with the NBA assuming they’ll win 64 games — second best to the impossibly good Warriors.
Technically, it makes sense. The NBA’s simulation uses player values (as in how many points they score, etc.), and the Warriors were already insanely good. Then they picked up Kevin Durant and everyone just kind of went Neil deGrasse Tyson — even the NBA’s computers, it seems.
And if the computer didn’t know there were only 82 games in a season, there’s no reason it would have returned an error for the Warriors’ 83 wins.
Still, I’m looking forward to the team going both undefeated and winning a ghost game.
Via Business Insider
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