Opening 2019-20 NBA Win Totals: Clippers Projected to Win Most Games & Hornets the Fewest

• The LA Clippers have the highest win total for the 2019-20 season at 55.5
• The Charlotte Hornets have the lowest number at 23.5
• Could there be value with the over on the New York Knicks at 27.5?

The NBA win totals are out for the 2019-20 season and there are a few surprises. The Los Angeles Clippers’ uncontrollable hype-train continues to maraud through the countryside with oddsmakers giving them a league-high win total of 55.5.

Meanwhile the Charlotte Hornets have the lowest at just 23.5 in the first year of the post-Kemba Walker era.

Let’s take a look at the board and see where there’s value for some early action on the regular-season win totals.

2020 NBA Regular Season Win Totals: Top 12

Champion Raptors Have Lofty Win Total

A lot of people feel like the Raptors won’t fade into the abyss after losing Kawhi Leonard. After all, the rest of the cast (minus Danny Green) returns and the team was 17-5 without Leonard in the lineup last season.

At the same time, under 45.5 looks like a fantastic bet here. Consider that Toronto knows that they can’t compete for a championship next season and that guys like Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka are all on the final year of their deals. The Raptors would be wise to trade them away for draft picks and start the rebuild.

Expiring contracts will make those players attractive commodities on the trade market. With so many teams considering themselves title contenders in 2020, there will be many buyers at the trade deadline looking to shore up their roster with a final piece or two. Look for the Raptors to wave the white flag early, dump their veterans, and go under 45.5 as a result.

2020 NBA Regular Season Win Totals: Bottom 5

Charlotte Hornets Have Lowest Number

The Hornets are coming off a 39-win season, so it’s not as if they were terrible. However, after an embarrassing offseason, they’ve been tagged with the lowest number on the board at 23.5 wins.

Of course, the Hornets lost Kemba Walker – their lone All-Star – and also waved goodbye to Jeremy Lamb (their second-leading scorer). They brought in Terry Rozier for big money and drafted P.J. Washington.

Maybe the Hornets didn’t want to overpay Walker but they lost him for nothing and then overpaid Rozier. I expect them to be bad but I’m not sure they’re the worst team in the league. I’d slightly lean to the over.

Don’t forget that the East is going to be the weaker conference next season. The Hornets will play 16 games against other Southeast teams (Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, and Washington), 36 against the rest of the East, and just 30 against the stacked Western Conference.

Value With The New York Knicks?

While it sounds kind of funny, I do like over 27.5 with the Knicks. This is a team that won just 17 games last year and whiffed on a number of superstars in the offseason; but they should still be quite improved.

If they were planning to tank this year, they made some huge mistakes. Guys like Julius Randle, Marcus Morris, Bobby Portis and Elfrid Payton will bolster their lineup. These are decent veterans who hustle. On top of that, they added R.J. Barrett in the draft.

If players like Mitchell Robinson, Dennis Smith Jr. and Kevin Knox take a step forward, this is a team that could be in that No. 8, 9 or 10 spot in the Eastern Conference. That would mean being in the 30-win range and hitting the over. It’s bad for the franchise as it would be better to tank but this team is good enough to hit the over.