OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread
- Thread starter hockeylover
- Start date
axlsalinger
Well-known member
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Yeah. I'm more worried about their net rating together this year than W/L record. This rotation could still be pretty ugly behind them. The starters could be real gud together and we could still only win 30-35 games if all of the kids play like kids, Davion's 2nd half shooting from last year was just a streak, etc.
Wayward DP
Well-known member
Masai's patience can be pretty frustrating as a fan
The Green Hornet
Well-known member
Masai's patience gave us the one good thing in Toronto sports since most of us were little kids. Hard to call that frustrating
Wayward DP
Well-known member
that part was epic. the past couple years, less so.
A healthy team will be top 6 in the east
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Dunno if I'm there with it. Will take a few other things happening imo (in no particular order)
- Davion needs to be 2nd half Davion with the pressure D & the 40+ 3pt%
- Kelly needs to have not lost a step and be effective off of the bench
- The real Bruce Brown needs to show up
- Improved Dick. As happy as some were with his in season improvement, he went from bad G League player to back of the bench NBA'er aside from a handful of flashes. He had a 6-7 week stretch in Jan-Feb where he played like an okay bench option but then went back to getting crushed (along with everyone else) at the end of the season.
Those 4 things are non negotiable if we're going to even challenge for top 6 imo. We can't have the starting unit go out there and play like a 45-50 win group and then get caved as soon as bench players start coming in. That's how the Pascal-Fred-OG era failed so hard. BBQ has a higher ceiling than those 3 did imo, but not so much that they can drag a dogshit rotation to 50 wins.
Volcanologist
Well-known member
meh, especially when you compare to the Leafs, I'm still in the glow of the title
org hasn't impressed since that title though tbh
org hasn't impressed since that title though tbh
Good post but I am not sold on the other teams besides Boston and Knicks
Philly is banking on George and Jo who have beat up bodies
Bucks have no depth and an aging core
The rest dont scare me at all
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
Yeah, I think the value of the title gets undersold. Also, we were assured that we were going to be terrible because Kawhi left and the rest of that team was a top 5 team in the league. It's not like we collapsed into shit immediately after the title, and that era didn't end with the title season.
18-19: Title
19-20: Elite, 2nd best record in the NBA
20-21: Tampa Bay season was terrible, but that's being set up to fail tbh
21-22: 48 wins, 5th in the east
22-23: 41 wins, play in team
23-24: Tear down of the FredScal core, 25 wins
How bad the team has been since the title is being vastly over stated. 2 bad seasons of 5, with one of those being a literally unprecedented situation that the team immediately bounced back to a 48 win team after.
MindzEye
Wayward Ditch Pig
I think you're underselling them hard in the regular season.
- Bucks started looking real gud in the 2nd half before the injuries. Giannis/Dame with a year under their belts is going to be really good. Middleton is expected to be fully healthy to start the year as well. Their bench will be better this year as well imo between kids (Green, Beauchamp) and additions (GTJ, Delon, Prince). More spacing, more shooting and Giannis/Dame sorting their 2 man game out? 55 wins
- Philly will flop in the playoffs, but Embiid-PG-Maxey is fucking dirty. They've added to their rotation as well. Martin, Martin, full season of Lowry, Reggie, Eric Gordon, the french euro they just signed is interesting as well. Just swapping out Tobias Harris for PG is probably 5-7 win improvement.
- Indy will probably shock some people in the regular season and could win 55+. That offence is just going to keep getting better for the time being. If either Mathurin or Jarace take steps forward as core scoring options, Indy leads the league in offence by a lot. This is the modern NBA's version of the 7 Second Suns.
- Orlando is more or less the opposite of Indy and while I'm not sold on them as being actually good, it's hard to ignore how athletic and good that defence was. I'm also not sold on Banchero ever being a #1 scoring option for a contender (efficiency issues that need fixing, and have needed fixing since college) but ~45 wins is probably a safe bet.
I don't see a good argument for the Raptors being better than any of those 4 without some crazy jumps from the young guys. My expectations for this year is back to .500, firm position in the play ins and BBQ establishing themselves as a dangerous 2 way, top 10 starting unit.
Good post , I see BBQ taking off this year and some yutes exceeding expectations
MyNameIsJonas
Well-known member
Playin team imo
Amazing how other players are treating her when Clark is the single reason attendance is up across the league
League is getting much needed exposure and players now have chartered flights and a new TV deal because of her
WNBA players actively act against their own league's interest. Another thing is lowering the rim. They hate the idea, and shut down any conversation about it as soon it's discussed. Few more dunks would do them well.