Last season, the Detroit Pistons finished 39-43 and missed the playoffs for the second straight year. The year before that they went 37-45.
The trend among those two seasons were injuries affecting the team’s performance on the court. Starting point guard Reggie Jackson missed a large chunk of games in both of those seasons.
It’s no coincidence they missed the postseason without their starting point guard in the lineup. The NBA is a point guard-driven league.
Many popular sports media sites have have come out with win projections throughout the summer. It’s even more common now that schedules have been released.