Is this officially the best Raptor season ever?

[Scraptor]

It just goes to show how even the Raptors' best seasons have ended with heart-breaking failure. We The Abysmal.

I don't want to remember all that goddamnit! How do I get my memories erased?



If we beat the Heat it's a cinch for best season ever. If we don't it probably ties with 2001.

[golden]

Beat the Heat and make the ECF or 2001 is still tops. Pretty cut & dry, IMO.

[CNinja26]

Win at least three games in this series and yes.

[blackjitsu]

2001 - Vinsanity helped the Raptors take the collective step to the 'next level' on the NBA stage and Raptors fans everywhere enjoyed the ride

2007 - CB4 and the Raptors shocked the NBA world and had no expectations as they reminded so many around the world that the NBA still had a Canadian team, and it was an unexpected joy to watch them keep winning (should have beat the Nets)

2016 - the Raptors were expected to be a top team in the ECF after having won back-to-back division titles, only to drop the ball in the playoffs, including a record-setting debacle last season (first favorite to be swept by a lower seed in the first round); second round (at least) is what this team was required to do just to avoid having the head coach fired and core blown up, so it's hard to get too excited at struggling to beat a #7 seed in 7 games

2016 - I think things will change drastically, for this season and historically for the Raptors, when they knock off the Heat and make it to their first Eastern Conference Finals... then the excitement will be through the roof, and rightfully so!

The bold is false. Almost every prognostication had the Raps regressing this year. The more positive people out there had the Raps losing more games but doing better in the post season.

ESPN:

6. Toronto Raptors*
Proj. record: 44-38
Last season: 49-33

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13...east-standings

NBA.com's preseason GM survey had the Raptors ranked 6th.

Heck, the IB Times had Boston winning the Atlantic.
http://www.ibtimes.com/nba-2015-2016...etball-2154756

Only one person at CBS Sports picked the Raps to improve their record, instead of getting worse.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-...on-predictions

Let's just all accept that this is the best team in the pathetic history of the club. Other teams had superstars, hall of famers, significantly better lineups on paper. It says something about the poor management, and poor coaching that this is the Raps greatest team ever. Kids will respect Demar, but none of them will dream to be him like they did for Vince. Maybe Kyle will inspire some of that, but the biggest contribution this team can give to future generations is wins.

We hate Casey, but the one thing I admire about the guy is his willingness to grow. He's gone from paint-by-the-numbers coaching to small ball lineups, benching his "star" in the 4th quarter and playing rookies in important roles. If the Raps progress further than this round it will be because of his growth. For that I have to show him some...SOME respect.

[KHD]

Win at least four games in this series and yes.

fixed

[CNinja26]

fixed

That's ideal, but with three wins they still get the title. They win three, then they tie the 2001's team playoff success. The tiebreaker is the 56 wins.

[Maury]

fixed

I'd rather win 5

[slaw]

Yes. And I don't think it's a particularly close race, though, I guess I'd entertain the 2001 team if you were basing it solely on playoffs.

[S.R.]

It was the best regular season, for sure. It hasn't been the best postseason - 2001 was a he'll of a lot more fun. We'll see what the second round brings.

Also, if the first round were still 5 games, this team would have won it in serious style, we would have avoided the horrendous game 6 and the game 7 meltdown that was almost as severe as game 5 comeback. It would have been a better series if it had been a 5 gamer.

[Miekenstien]

while we are in the shit i don't think it is "the best". i do think it is the most successful. all encompassing this season ended up being huge for the club. after the post-season, because unless we win it all we will be disappointed, in a couple years it will be graded better. it will be easily the best if we beat the heat and arguably if this is a tight series.

[DanH]

while we are in the shit i don't think it is "the best". i do think it is the most successful. all encompassing this season ended up being huge for the club. after the post-season, because unless we win it all we will be disappointed, in a couple years it will be graded better. it will be easily the best if we beat the heat and arguably if this is a tight series.

For me, it would be tough for any tight series to match the insanity that was Vince and Iverson trading 50 point games.

That's my cut-off - if we win this round, this year takes the cake. Otherwise, a close second.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

The bold is false. Almost every prognostication had the Raps regressing this year. The more positive people out there had the Raps losing more games but doing better in the post season.

ESPN:

6. Toronto Raptors*
Proj. record: 44-38
Last season: 49-33

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13...east-standings

NBA.com's preseason GM survey had the Raptors ranked 6th.

Heck, the IB Times had Boston winning the Atlantic.
http://www.ibtimes.com/nba-2015-2016...etball-2154756

Only one person at CBS Sports picked the Raps to improve their record, instead of getting worse.
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-...on-predictions

Let's just all accept that this is the best team in the pathetic history of the club. Other teams had superstars, hall of famers, significantly better lineups on paper. It says something about the poor management, and poor coaching that this is the Raps greatest team ever. Kids will respect Demar, but none of them will dream to be him like they did for Vince. Maybe Kyle will inspire some of that, but the biggest contribution this team can give to future generations is wins.

We hate Casey, but the one thing I admire about the guy is his willingness to grow. He's gone from paint-by-the-numbers coaching to small ball lineups, benching his "star" in the 4th quarter and playing rookies in important roles. If the Raps progress further than this round it will be because of his growth. For that I have to show him some...SOME respect.

Most of those idiots also had the Knicks way up there. I don't care what some reporters said, it's what Raptors fans and the franchise itself expected. This team won back-to-back division titles and had home-court advantage, and they improved in the offseason (ie: Carroll, Joseph, Scola, Biyombo, Wright, Powell).

What Raptors fan, or posters here on RR, didn't expect the Raptors to finish in the top-4 in the ECF? Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, Miami and Atlanta were all in the discussion, but all those teams but Cleveland had question marks. I'd have to go back through old threads to see the poll results, but even if the win total was expected to decline, I still seem to recall Toronto being a consensus top-4 ahead of the start of the season.

Lets not pretend that Toronto was somehow a bubble-team in the preseason. Toronto was widely regarded by those who actually follow the Raptors to be a front-runner for home-court in the playoffs, which comes with the expectation of getting past round 1.

[Miekenstien]

Most of those idiots also had the Knicks way up there. I don't care what some reporters said, it's what Raptors fans and the franchise itself expected. This team won back-to-back division titles and had home-court advantage, and they improved in the offseason (ie: Carroll, Joseph, Scola, Biyombo, Wright, Powell).

What Raptors fan, or posters here on RR, didn't expect the Raptors to finish in the top-4 in the ECF? Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, Miami and Atlanta were all in the discussion, but all those teams but Cleveland had question marks. I'd have to go back through old threads to see the poll results, but even if the win total was expected to decline, I still seem to recall Toronto being a consensus top-4 ahead of the start of the season.

Lets not pretend that Toronto was somehow a bubble-team in the preseason. Toronto was widely regarded by those who actually follow the Raptors to be a front-runner for home-court in the playoffs, which comes with the expectation of getting past round 1.

yeah, outsiders penciled us in to do worse this year. they had a bunch of teams above us and us fighting to make the last couple seeds. there were a few posters who expected us to do worse this year as well. i also remember in december they had already extrapolated to next year when every team in the east would get better and we wouldn't.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

yeah, outsiders penciled us in to do worse this year. they had a bunch of teams above us and us fighting to make the last couple seeds. there were a few posters who expected us to do worse this year as well. i also remember in december they had already extrapolated to next year when every team in the east would get better and we wouldn't.

From what I can recall, lots of people expected the East to be much more competitive this year, especially for the last 2/3 playoff spots, which is why the Raptors win total was expected to stay the same or decline. However, I do think they were still widely expected to finish in the top-4, even with the changes to the importance of winning the division.

Considering that both this season and last, MU publically stated that the goal was to improve upon the 2013-2014 season (last second loss in game 7 of the first round), the only way it could possibly be interpreted is for the team to get into the 2nd round. That is MU setting the bar for what the minimum expectation is for this team, not what would be considered some sort of fantastic success.

That's why it's hard to get too excited about a 1st round win, especially one that took 7 games against the #7 seed. The Raptors should have won 1st round series the past two years as well, so this is really just a matter of them simply taking care of business, two years late. If not for the futile history of the Raptors franchise, this would just be another typical season, with the real excitement just starting to build as 'we' enter round 2!

[ebrian]

Nostalgia wins out for me so the '01 team still remains my favorite. But even if throw nostalgia aside, the troubling for me is the struggle we had beating the Pacers. Barely beating a team can be exciting but not when you were supposed to easily beat them. I think that's what I struggle with this season. We beat Pacers but we were supposed to win and it wasn't supposed to be hard. The Heat, we don't know yet but it's again a team that we should be able to beat.

That old team overachieved and that's what makes it so special.