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  • #76
    After doing a ridiculous amount of homework in preparation for this I have come to the following conclusions

    We will be first in the East with 60 wins

    We will eventually face the Clippers in the Finals and repeat as Champions.

    What am I basing this on you ask?

    It's none of your damn business but I'm going to tell you anyway

    1.) Siakam will get even better

    2.) Time to setup the offense to run through Gasol in training camp

    3.) OG will take a huge step forward

    4.) Fred and Norm will take another step forward.

    More team focused play will and familiarity will allow us to start hot out of the gates and settle into a nice health 800 win percentage.

    Raps in 7 over the Clips beating the Clips at Staples Centre.
    For still frame photograph of me reading the DeRozan thread please refer to my avatar

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    • #77
      thead wrote: View Post
      Raps in 7 over the Clips beating the Clips at Staples Centre.
      If I may be so bold to suggest a re-eval ... Raps in 5 at Scotia Bnk.

      Comment


      • #78
        3rd to 5th with the roster as is. If one or two out of Lowry/Gasol/Ibaka is out by the trade deadline, 7th to 9th. Either way it will a good re-calibration year after the championship

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        • #79
          thead wrote: View Post
          After doing a ridiculous amount of homework in preparation for this I have come to the following conclusions

          We will be first in the East with 60 wins

          We will eventually face the Clippers in the Finals and repeat as Champions.

          What am I basing this on you ask?

          It's none of your damn business but I'm going to tell you anyway

          1.) Siakam will get even better

          2.) Time to setup the offense to run through Gasol in training camp

          3.) OG will take a huge step forward

          4.) Fred and Norm will take another step forward.

          More team focused play will and familiarity will allow us to start hot out of the gates and settle into a nice health 800 win percentage.

          Raps in 7 over the Clips beating the Clips at Staples Centre.
          Fuck yeah optimism for the win
          The name's Bond, James Bond.

          Comment


          • #80
            Okay, so:

            Last year's Eastern conference standings:

            1. Bucks (60 wins)
            2. Raptors (58)
            3. Philly (51)
            4. Boston (49)
            5. Indiana (48)
            6. Brooklyn (42)
            7. Orlando (42)
            8. Detroit (41)
            9. Charlotte (39)
            10. Miami (39)
            11. Washington (32)
            12. Atlanta (29)
            13. Chicago (22)
            14. Cleveland (19)
            15. New York (17)

            That's 588 wins, total, out of 1,230 available wins in the league as a whole. The West did not get worse so it's fair to assume that inter-conference play will produce about the same number of wins in the East as it did last season. Looking at a lot of other people's projections, I am honestly kind of shocked because, well: they assume both that the Raptors will win many fewer games and the rest of the East will win many more. So, in order from last year, an estimation of whether the other teams will do better, worse or about the same as last year.

            Milwaukee: WORSE. Lost Malcolm Brogdon and Tony Snell and Nikola Mirotic, who were three of their best perimeter shooters, and this team's entire purpose is "put shooters around Giannis" and now they can't do that. Replaced those guys with Robin Lopez (who is good but not a distance threat at all), Wesley Matthews (good, can shoot) and Thanasis (LOL). I really don't see them being as good as last year.

            Philly: SAME. Al Horford and Josh Richardson are both good, but they don't replace Jimmy Butler's offensive prowess or JJ Reddick's shooting. But Philly will be able to absolutely body other teams now - their starting lineup is the biggest in the league and it's athletic too - so maybe it'll balance out.

            Boston: WORSE. Kemba is basically a sidegrade from Kyrie - not as good a player, but probably the chemistry evens it out. But as constructed, this team has no go-to big. Enes Kanter is their best big and that is a problem.

            Indiana: BETTER. Every one of their free agents left, but the guard and wing replacements (Brogdon, TJ Warren and Jeremy Lamb) are probably about as good. The big replacements aren't - this team lost Kyle O'Quinn and Thaddeus Young and that hurts, because now TJ Leaf is probably their starting PF unless they exclusively run Turner./Sabonis together? - but the most important thing is that Oladipo will be back.

            Brooklyn: BETTER, but not super-better, because they added Kyrie and kept all their most important players but lost a fair amount of depth, and KD won't play this season at all. Next season is Brooklyn's season, not this one.

            Orlando: SAME. Their big free agent signing was Al-Farouq Aminu. Running it back an okay 42-win team and relying on the kids to get better is a strategy, I guess, but honestly, unless Johnathan Isaac makes a huge leap, this team is treadmilling.

            Detroit: SAME. Added Markieff Morris and Derrick Rose, which: sure, okay. Fine. They're fine. They'll contend for a #8 slot. They're not gonna be anything more than that.

            Charlotte: Much, much WORSE. Like, maybe twenty wins worse. Terry Rozier is their best player now. Terry. Rozier.

            Miami: BETTER. Jimmy Butler makes them better, and Bam Adebayo should improve. But they aren't top-tier better unless something really unexpected (like Justise Winslow becoming a solid shooter) happens. They'll be contending for #3-6 at best and could be much less impressive than that.

            Atlanta: WORSE. Granted, they're going to be worse on purpose, and that's fine. But they traded away both of their reliable wings (Taurean Prince and Kent Bazemore) and replaced them with rookies. They lost Dewayne Dedmon and replaced him with a rookie too. Their vets are Jabari Parker, Chandler Parsons and Evan Turner. Ugh.

            Chicago: SAME. Maybe a little better, but, like, not five to ten wins better, you know? It's still basically the same bad team of rookies learning to play ball and middle-tier young vets like Otto Porter and Zach LaVine.

            Cleveland: SAME. They were bad last year and they'll be bad this year.

            New York: SAME. Lost Porzingis, loaded up on mediocre power forwards. Poor RJ Barrett.

            So by my reasoning, the rest of the East has three teams that I think will be better, four teams that I think will be worse, and the rest about the same.

            What does that mean for Toronto? It means that although Toronto will be worse (I mean, come on, we lost Kawhi, obviously we're not as good as we were), we're still going to mostly be pretty good and the dropoff won't be as severe, at least not in the regular season. People have already said it, but: this team went 17-4 without Kawhi last season, and a fair number of those wins were against good teams. Yes, we don't have Danny Green either, and DG is a good player but he's not irreplaceable. Yes, the veterans will probably regress at least a bit, but that should be compensated for by improvements from the younger players.

            Bottom line: I don't think we win less than 50 unless something dramatic happens, and 50 should be good for at least third place and possibly second depending on how the season goes.

            Comment


            • #81
              magoon wrote: View Post
              Okay, so:

              Last year's Eastern conference standings:

              1. Bucks (60 wins)
              2. Raptors (58)
              3. Philly (51)
              4. Boston (49)
              5. Indiana (48)
              6. Brooklyn (42)
              7. Orlando (42)
              8. Detroit (41)
              9. Charlotte (39)
              10. Miami (39)
              11. Washington (32)
              12. Atlanta (29)
              13. Chicago (22)
              14. Cleveland (19)
              15. New York (17)

              That's 588 wins, total, out of 1,230 available wins in the league as a whole. The West did not get worse so it's fair to assume that inter-conference play will produce about the same number of wins in the East as it did last season. Looking at a lot of other people's projections, I am honestly kind of shocked because, well: they assume both that the Raptors will win many fewer games and the rest of the East will win many more. So, in order from last year, an estimation of whether the other teams will do better, worse or about the same as last year.

              Milwaukee: WORSE. Lost Malcolm Brogdon and Tony Snell and Nikola Mirotic, who were three of their best perimeter shooters, and this team's entire purpose is "put shooters around Giannis" and now they can't do that. Replaced those guys with Robin Lopez (who is good but not a distance threat at all), Wesley Matthews (good, can shoot) and Thanasis (LOL). I really don't see them being as good as last year.

              Philly: SAME. Al Horford and Josh Richardson are both good, but they don't replace Jimmy Butler's offensive prowess or JJ Reddick's shooting. But Philly will be able to absolutely body other teams now - their starting lineup is the biggest in the league and it's athletic too - so maybe it'll balance out.

              Yeah.. different but stil the same. This a very good team. They can be the favourite in the East and a good pick for the FInals. I have said this a few times in different threads. if Joel Embiid drops the class clown act and show up in shape Philly is going to one tough out.

              Boston: WORSE. Kemba is basically a sidegrade from Kyrie - not as good a player, but probably the chemistry evens it out. But as constructed, this team has no go-to big. Enes Kanter is their best big and that is a problem.

              Indiana: BETTER. Every one of their free agents left, but the guard and wing replacements (Brogdon, TJ Warren and Jeremy Lamb) are probably about as good. The big replacements aren't - this team lost Kyle O'Quinn and Thaddeus Young and that hurts, because now TJ Leaf is probably their starting PF unless they exclusively run Turner./Sabonis together? - but the most important thing is that Oladipo will be back.

              Brooklyn: BETTER, but not super-better, because they added Kyrie and kept all their most important players but lost a fair amount of depth, and KD won't play this season at all. Next season is Brooklyn's season, not this one.

              Orlando: SAME. Their big free agent signing was Al-Farouq Aminu. Running it back an okay 42-win team and relying on the kids to get better is a strategy, I guess, but honestly, unless Johnathan Isaac makes a huge leap, this team is treadmilling.

              These guys need a point guard in the worst way. If magic were to happen and Chris Paul wound up in Orlando i think he makes this a much better team. He would make guys like Aaron Gordon better and he could pick and roll with Vuc for a big uptake in offense for hte Magic. Its pretyy unlikely at a price of 40M for 4 years. Still though Orlando would be good again with Paul at the point with Steve Clifford coaching. But too high a price to pay.


              Detroit: SAME. Added Markieff Morris and Derrick Rose, which: sure, okay. Fine. They're fine. They'll contend for a #8 slot. They're not gonna be anything more than that.

              Charlotte: Much, much WORSE. Like, maybe twenty wins worse. Terry Rozier is their best player now. Terry. Rozier.

              Miami: BETTER. Jimmy Butler makes them better, and Bam Adebayo should improve. But they aren't top-tier better unless something really unexpected (like Justise Winslow becoming a solid shooter) happens. They'll be contending for #3-6 at best and could be much less impressive than that.

              i think the lower end of the range for the Heat. Had to give up Josh Richardson in the trade. The Heat were a pretty thin 3 point shooting lineup to start with. Yep they get Jimmy Butler but there isn't much else from the arc to help the Heat score. I think if Chris Paul gets to South Beach he gets them to 6 or 7 range. If he doesn't ...then the Heat might be the last team in.


              Atlanta: WORSE. Granted, they're going to be worse on purpose, and that's fine. But they traded away both of their reliable wings (Taurean Prince and Kent Bazemore) and replaced them with rookies. They lost Dewayne Dedmon and replaced him with a rookie too. Their vets are Jabari Parker, Chandler Parsons and Evan Turner. Ugh.

              Chicago: SAME. Maybe a little better, but, like, not five to ten wins better, you know? It's still basically the same bad team of rookies learning to play ball and middle-tier young vets like Otto Porter and Zach LaVine.

              Cleveland: SAME. They were bad last year and they'll be bad this year.

              New York: SAME. Lost Porzingis, loaded up on mediocre power forwards. Poor RJ Barrett.

              So by my reasoning, the rest of the East has three teams that I think will be better, four teams that I think will be worse, and the rest about the same.

              What does that mean for Toronto? It means that although Toronto will be worse (I mean, come on, we lost Kawhi, obviously we're not as good as we were), we're still going to mostly be pretty good and the dropoff won't be as severe, at least not in the regular season. People have already said it, but: this team went 17-4 without Kawhi last season, and a fair number of those wins were against good teams. Yes, we don't have Danny Green either, and DG is a good player but he's not irreplaceable. Yes, the veterans will probably regress at least a bit, but that should be compensated for by improvements from the younger players.

              Bottom line: I don't think we win less than 50 unless something dramatic happens, and 50 should be good for at least third place and possibly second depending on how the season goes.
              Good Post... Sets the bar for the way to early post draft and free agency predictions for next season....
              Last edited by Demographic Shift; Sat Jul 13, 2019, 09:45 PM.
              There's no such thing as a 2nd round bust.
              - TGO

              Comment


              • #82
                Thing about Philly is they have two crazy contradictory play styles with their bigs who want to play in the half court and Simmons who thrives in transition. They really lack spacing to make the halfcourt work super effectively, interested to see how it plays out.

                Comment


                • #83
                  DogeLover1234 wrote: View Post
                  Thing about Philly is they have two crazy contradictory play styles with their bigs who want to play in the half court and Simmons who thrives in transition. They really lack spacing to make the halfcourt work super effectively, interested to see how it plays out.
                  Defensively, they'll be stellar. Offensively, they took a big hit losing Butler and Redick. Butler has the mentality and competitive edge that can lead a team through the Playoffs.

                  Comment


                  • #84

                    Is there any one team in the East that is a candidate to be a "where did those guys come from... Never saw that coming" kind of team this coming season ?.

                    There's no such thing as a 2nd round bust.
                    - TGO

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      Demographic Shift wrote: View Post
                      Is there any one team in the East that is a candidate to be a "where did those guys come from... Never saw that coming" kind of team this coming season ?.
                      Pacers and Heat

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        inthepaint wrote: View Post

                        Pacers and Heat
                        agree with the Pacers I honesty think they can be your their challenging Sixers and bucks for top of the East. Miami I almost think the opposite I can see them being massively disappointing maybe even missing the playoffs
                        To be the champs you got to beat the champs

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Demographic Shift wrote: View Post
                          Is there any one team in the East that is a candidate to be a "where did those guys come from... Never saw that coming" kind of team this coming season ?.
                          The Raptors

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Demographic Shift wrote: View Post
                            Is there any one team in the East that is a candidate to be a "where did those guys come from... Never saw that coming" kind of team this coming season ?.
                            Also if things role the right way Atlanta could be fighting for a playoff spot IMO. They finished the year off strong and trae young despite his defensive futility has to me shown that he can run an NBA offence pretty effectively. John Collins is really good, like dark horse MIP good, and if even one of the rookies they drafted can be a solid rotation and potential starter for them, they could be good. I feel really good about Deandre Hunter especially his fit next to young and Collins. If Reddish figures it out they could be really good. He’s got a shot at being one of the best shooters and shot makers in the league.

                            Watch out for the Hawks.

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Maury wrote: View Post

                              Also if things role the right way Atlanta could be fighting for a playoff spot IMO. They finished the year off strong and trae young despite his defensive futility has to me shown that he can run an NBA offence pretty effectively. John Collins is really good, like dark horse MIP good, and if even one of the rookies they drafted can be a solid rotation and potential starter for them, they could be good. I feel really good about Deandre Hunter especially his fit next to young and Collins. If Reddish figures it out they could be really good. He’s got a shot at being one of the best shooters and shot makers in the league.

                              Watch out for the Hawks.
                              The Hawks have a couple of very good young players, some replacement-level-at-best vets and a ton of totally unproven talent. Unless there's an incredible surprise revelation among the rooks, they're not going to be anywhere near a playoff spot. They've designed this to be a development year and it will be.

                              Comment


                              • #90
                                magoon wrote: View Post

                                The Hawks have a couple of very good young players, some replacement-level-at-best vets and a ton of totally unproven talent. Unless there's an incredible surprise revelation among the rooks, they're not going to be anywhere near a playoff spot. They've designed this to be a development year and it will be.
                                The question was about a surprise team. I think the Hawks could be that team. Obviously it’s more than possible that the Hawks are gonna royally suck. We’ll see.

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