Where Do The Raptors Rank In The East?

[bertarapsfan]

The Sixers are 100% overrated.

Listen, they lost their BEST player in the playoffs last year. The ONLY guy on their team who can create his own shot. I believe that in order to win a championship, you have to have that all star perimeter player who can create his own shot. They don't have that.

Look at the past NBA Champions. They all have a perimeter guy who can create their own shot. The 2011 Mavs was an exception. But they had Dirk. He's a big but really plays in the perimeter. And he's one of those rare big who can create his own shot.

Raptors
Warriors
Heat
Cavs
Lakers
Celtics
Spurs
Bulls

They all had that special perimeter player who can create his own shot.

Saw a interview clip of a reporter asking ben simmions about his shot. He said something along the line of asking why he hasn't hit a 3 in a game yet. Simmions response was "ya i haven't but i was a all star last year". That kind of attitude concerns me about the sixers ceiling. Like ben do you not remember being shut down and completely ineffective in the playoffs? One of the main reasons your team got bounced in the 2nd round? The dude has no shot and if he is your number 2 and ball handler it make defending the team alot easier. Sixers will be a good regular season team but once the playoffs roll around if you have someone who can do a decent job on embiid 1 on 1 they are going to struggle.

[golden]

Bulletin board material right here....

[The Great One]

Saw a interview clip of a reporter asking ben simmions about his shot. He said something along the line of asking why he hasn't hit a 3 in a game yet. Simmions response was "ya i haven't but i was a all star last year". That kind of attitude concerns me about the sixers ceiling. Like ben do you not remember being shut down and completely ineffective in the playoffs? One of the main reasons your team got bounced in the 2nd round? The dude has no shot and if he is your number 2 and ball handler it make defending the team alot easier. Sixers will be a good regular season team but once the playoffs roll around if you have someone who can do a decent job on embiid 1 on 1 they are going to struggle.

The Sixers are going to finish 1 or 2 in the reg season. But they're going to struggle in the playoffs bec they don't have that perimeter player who can create his own shot. Joel Embiid is their best overall player but who was their best player in the playoffs? it was Butler.

Is Embiid one of those special bigs like Hakeem and Duncan where he can drag his own team to a championship without a top end perimeter player on his team? Hakeem won a championship in 93/94 season in Houston without a top end perimeter player. They won it again in 94/95 but they had Clyde Drexler on that team. Duncan in 99 won a championship without a top end guard.

Ewing is one of the greatest C of all time. He never had a top end guard to play in NY and he never won a championship. Shaq has 4 championships. He won 3 of them with Kobe. 1 with Wade. Would've been intereting to see if Shaq could win a championship without Kobe or Wade on his team.

[The Great One]

Bulletin board material right here....

Sam Mitchell should know better. He works for TSN. The Raptors last year was 17-5 without Kawhi and they were a perennial 50 win team without Kawhi. I know DeMar is not here anymore but Siakam = DeMar.

Bottomline - I think the Raps will finish 3, 4 or 5. Can't see them finishing lower than 5.

[KeonClark]

Bulletin board material right here....

The biggest offense is homeboy who has pistons at 5..what? Switch raptors (not even on the board) with pistons and he has a decent board.

[bertarapsfan]

I think orlando, bulls, hawks and heat are going to be the 4 teams fighting for the last 2 playoff spots.

We had a preseason standings prediction thread last year. that could be fun again...

[The Great One]

Of all disrespectful things they've said this year after Kawhi left and also the past 5-6 years, this is probably the most disrespectful of them all. Putting the Pistons, Heat, Bulls and Nets ahead of the Raps is embarassing.

[SkywalkerAC]

Of all disrespectful things they've said this year after Kawhi left and also the past 5-6 years, this is probably the most disrespectful of them all. Putting the Pistons, Heat, Bulls and Nets ahead of the Raps is embarassing.

For them.

[Scraptor]

Sixers strike me as overrated (not that they shouldn't be slotted in at #2). They're counting on internal development to compensate for losing two key players (one allstar).

Not just internal development. They added two key pieces, Horford and JRich. They're both really good two-way players, and JRich was borderline all-star material at times last year.

Their bench is garbage as usual though. And Simmons not having a jumper fucks up their offense a ton.

[DogeLover1234]

Not just internal development. They added two key pieces, Horford and JRich. They're both really good two-way players, and JRich was borderline all-star material at times last year.

Their bench is garbage as usual though. And Simmons not having a jumper fucks up their offense a ton.

I believe they could be great, I just have to see it first. They are going to be a monster defensively, but I don’t trust their offense. A lot of above average ball handlers and playmakers but no true lead ball handler for crunch time, and suspect shooting. Maybe it works regardless, maybe they score enough on putbacks and in transition that it doesnt matter, I just have to see it.

[Demographic Shift]

More than a few of the pre season media POWER RANKINGS have the Raps finishing behind both the Nets and the Chowders and Pacers by a considerable margin... When the Raps finish ahead of all those stiffs this year.. we can finally put to bed the objectivity of the US NAB MSM.

[golden]

More than a few of the pre season media POWER RANKINGS have the Raps finishing behind both the Nets and the Chowders and Pacers by a considerable margin... When the Raps finish ahead of all those stiffs this year.. we can finally put to bed the objectivity of the US NAB MSM.

Feels good to be legitimately disrepected again, doesn't it? We're baaack.

[inthepaint]

More than a few of the pre season media POWER RANKINGS have the Raps finishing behind both the Nets and the Chowders and Pacers by a considerable margin... When the Raps finish ahead of all those stiffs this year.. we can finally put to bed the objectivity of the US NAB MSM.

I think we can do that already. I couldn't find it online, but the other day I was looking for historical ESPN "projections" over the past 5 years (not the power rankings, the projected number of wins and seeding). I think the Raptors outperformed their "predictions" every single year (I know at least the last 2 yrs they have for sure).

These guys are in the business of generating clicks, real analysis is secondary. It took unconventional guys like Chuck and Perkins last year (who just plain speak their minds) to really see the Raps for who they were. Some of these "analysts" like I hear on Sirius NBA radio can't even pronounce our guy's names right, and we're supposed to believe they really know the real strenghts/weakness of the players on the floor? I flat out laugh out loud in my car listening to these guys sometimes.

[S.R.]

I think we can do that already. I couldn't find it online, but the other day I was looking for historical ESPN "projections" over the past 5 years (not the power rankings, the projected number of wins and seeding). I think the Raptors outperformed their "predictions" every single year (I know at least the last 2 yrs they have for sure).

These guys are in the business of generating clicks, real analysis is secondary. It took unconventional guys like Chuck and Perkins last year (who just plain speak their minds) to really see the Raps for who they were. Some of these "analysts" like I hear on Sirius NBA radio can't even pronounce our guy's names right, and we're supposed to believe they really know the real strenghts/weakness of the players on the floor? I flat out laugh out loud in my car listening to these guys sometimes.

That would be really interesting, take a 10 year look at predictions vs. performance and see which franchises are disrespected the most and which are the most overhyped.

Probably wouldn't be any surprises but you never know.

[chris]

That would be really interesting, take a 10 year look at predictions vs. performance and see which franchises are disrespected the most and which are the most overhyped.

Probably wouldn't be any surprises but you never know.

i dunno about espn projections specifically, but if the preseason vegas odds are a reflection of the collective hivemind informed largely by mainstream media "experts" then the raptors have hit the over on win totals for 8 straight seasons according to basketball reference.