After just seven games, the Milwaukee Bucks already have on-fifth of their win total from last year. The blatant tanking of the Philadelphia 76ers was a major storyline last season, but the Bucks actually ended the year with the worst record in the league at 15-67.

Are the Bucks suddenly better than they were last season?

Looking at their Pythagorean wins from last year, they were expected to finish with 20 wins based on their point differential, although they actually finished with five fewer than that. Point differential has shown to be more predictive of future success than the actual previous year’s record, so the data said we should have already been expecting a better Bucks season just based on regression.

Also, the Milwaukee roster had some bad luck all season, regardless of whether they manufactured it themselves (see, Larry Sanders in night clubs), or if it happened naturally (see, Larry Sanders breaking his face). It was a season where everything went wrong, but it was just one season. This year brought renewed health, a future franchise player, a new owner group, and a new head coach – many reasons for optimism.

Speaking of nbawowy.com.

This roster still has a ways to go on the offensive end, but young point guard Kevin Pelton's article yesterday, the Bucks have had the third-easiest schedule so far this season. However, Sanders and Henson should continue to be forces in the middle, and if they can manage their foul trouble, there is no reason the Bucks can’t continue to be much better on the defensive end than they were a year ago.

Our algorithms predicted the NBA would get more balanced this year – the win difference between the lower teams and the upper teams would be less than last year. This is proving true through the first couple weeks, and gives hope that perhaps the Bucks can have meaningful games well into the new year. Could they perhaps be the Suns of last year?