Coming into NBA training camp, optimism abounds. Staffers and players are excited. Seemingly everyone has had the best summer of their lives. It takes a lot more than a preseason loss to dampen anyone's spirits.

No, dampening spirits is what happens when a team gets punked in the regular season.

Or perhaps when BPI -- ESPN's Basketball Power Index -- says a team might not win quite as much as all the optimism suggests.

This year, BPI's win-total predictions aren't radically different from what Las Vegas projects, so we're going to clue you in on what Vegas doesn't really tell you -- things such as the chances your team will gets a top-six seed in the playoffs, its likelihood of making the Finals, and maybe even the reason.

From the No. 1 team, the Oklahoma City Thunder , down to a

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