What's going to happen next season?

[hotfuzz]

I feel like Lowry will hit a wall and with his age catching up to him, his play will deteriorate a little bit. All in all, I think we'll make the ECF and get swept by Cavs.

[Sinbad]

I feel like Lowry will hit a wall and with his age catching up to him, his play will deteriorate a little bit. All in all, I think we'll make the ECF and get swept by Cavs.

I think Lowry will regress a bit too, but how much will depend on whether Casey commits to managing his minutes instead of riding him like a thoroughbred every night. The best case scenario would be another ECF appearance and to play competitive basketball in every game against Cleveland as opposed to getting shellacked in 4 out of 6 games. The worst case scenario would be missing the playoffs entirely due to injuries, but a middling playoff seed and a first round exit would be horrible too.

[Cody73]

Best Case: With some luck going our way, we stay healthy and end up getting back to the ECF and possibly make a Finals appearance with our core. Lowry chooses to accept his Player Option, allowing us to have more cap space. We somehow make a big free agent splash, thus making us even stronger for one last run at the Ring.

Worst Case- Injuries strike hard. We can barely muster ourselves into a playoff spot and get kicked out of the 1st round. Lowry refuses his PO and chooses to leave. DD asks to be traded due to this and we get back a shit deal, leaving us in a rebuild situation.

[SkywalkerAC]

3 allstars

[rightsideup]

3 allstars

that is kinda of a simple statement but a very good one I see it as someone has to emerge to that level beyond kyle and deebo as our all-stars kyle improved from all star to 3rd team all pro last year and deebo was back to an all star after a years absence..
JV is the obvious candidate for me but even if some how we end up with a sixth man that is not a one way player as williams was, could it be cory or even ross or norm. How about a most improved player even out of those three. DC healthy will be imprortant I see us chalanging clevland for conference finals but losing in 6 or 7 without the blowouts that happened. same as last year within 2 games of clevland in reg season

worst case injuries or even no one improving or regressing finishing 4 th and not or barly getting out of 1 st roubd

[TheWaterboy]

Best case is we win a championship. Realistic best case is we make the finals.

Worst case is we miss the playoffs due to significant injuries. Realistic worst case (assuming decent health) we end up taking a big step back defensively (for a variety of reasons) and end up in the 6-7 seed range and flame out again in the playoffs.

I agree that Golden State, if completely healthy, should be unbeatable, or nearly so, in the finals. However, Steph holds the Warriors together to the same extent as Kyle holds the Raptors together, if not more so. If Steph is injured for (or before) the finals, the Warriors are vulnerable - and doubly so given that Durant is likely to revert to his OKC style of play in the absence of a strong leader and facilitator if that happens.

[TheWaterboy]

[Deleted - accidental double post]

[TrueTorontoFan]

I think Lowry will regress a bit too, but how much will depend on whether Casey commits to managing his minutes instead of riding him like a thoroughbred every night. The best case scenario would be another ECF appearance and to play competitive basketball in every game against Cleveland as opposed to getting shellacked in 4 out of 6 games. The worst case scenario would be missing the playoffs entirely due to injuries, but a middling playoff seed and a first round exit would be horrible too.

I think that minute restrictions are important. That said I don't see him regressing if he is managed properly. The guy has his body right and will probably play around the same amount. I think his numbers may change only because they will try to get DMC involved and Sullinger.

[LJ2]

What would help Lowry more, a minutes restriction or games restriction?

[Maury]

What would help Lowry more, a minutes restriction or games restriction?

Minutes restriction for sure. Like no more than 34 minutes on a good night, if it's an easy win it would be amazing if he could be under 30. I don't see either of those things happening and he probably plays 38-42 minutes a night like he did last year. I know it's important to play your best players, but a well rested Kyle would give us a way better chance at making the finals. He's a legit superstar when playing at his best. He won't be able to play at his best come playoff time if he's been playing 40 minutes a game.

[planetmars]

What would help Lowry more, a minutes restriction or games restriction?

I don't have stats to back my claim up.. but it feels like Lowry plays like sh!t when he returns after taking time off. It's better to just keep him on the court but with reduced minutes in my opinion.

Haven't been paying much attention. How does his elbow look? Any flare ups in the Olympics?

[Chr1s1anL]

I don't have stats to back my claim up.. but it feels like Lowry plays like sh!t when he returns after taking time off. It's better to just keep him on the court but with reduced minutes in my opinion.

Haven't been paying much attention. How does his elbow look? Any flare ups in the Olympics?

Don't know about flare ups but, he didn't shoot well.

[Deino]

What would help Lowry more, a minutes restriction or games restriction?

I think games restriction would in a way disrupt his rhythm to maintain a certain level of effectiveness, while minutes restriction should keep his rhythm going.

[JawsGT]

best case: the team is better than last year
worst case: the team is worse than last year

seriously though, I think this team SHOULD be better than last year, barring injury. Not sure what that means in terms of wins and losses or seeding, but we SHOULD be able to get back to the conference finals unless we meet LBJ in round 2. Replacing our biggest weakness in Scola with a solid player like Sully, and hopefully getting a healthy Carroll, as well as likely improvements from Powell and JV, there really is little reason not to be optimistic about this team going into the season. We have depth, and numerous younger players fighting for PT. We are still trending up IMO. The only thing that concerns me is Demar and Lowry trying to carry the team too much, as a result of attempting to live up to the contract and contract year, respectively. Seems unlikely to me honestly, but it is in the back of my head that these guys could derail the whole thing and alienate themselves from the team if they try to do too much.

[Puffer]

best case: the team is better than last year
worst case: the team is worse than last year

seriously though, I think this team SHOULD be better than last year, barring injury. Not sure what that means in terms of wins and losses or seeding, but we SHOULD be able to get back to the conference finals unless we meet LBJ in round 2. Replacing our biggest weakness in Scola with a solid player like Sully, and hopefully getting a healthy Carroll, as well as likely improvements from Powell and JV, there really is little reason not to be optimistic about this team going into the season. We have depth, and numerous younger players fighting for PT. We are still trending up IMO. The only thing that concerns me is Demar and Lowry trying to carry the team too much, as a result of attempting to live up to the contract and contract year, respectively. Seems unlikely to me honestly, but it is in the back of my head that these guys could derail the whole thing and alienate themselves from the team if they try to do too much.

I only hope Lowry doesn't push himself into an injury. With Wright out until at least December, that could put the team into a deep hole. I think losing Lowry for a significant amount of time is the worst thing that could happen to the Raptors, all respect to Val and DD and Carroll.