2017-2018 predictions

[Fully]

1. How many wins will the Raptors get?
54.

2. What seed do the Raptors end up with in the Eastern conference?
2nd seed.

3. Who will the Raptors face in round 1 of the playoffs?
Philadelphia

4. Who will be representing Toronto in the NBA all-star game?
Derozan and Lowry

5. Will Masai make a trade before the deadline? If so who's a goner?
Yes... one of Bebe or Bruno in a very minor deal.

6. Who will start on opening night? Powell or Miles?
Powell.

7. What will DeMar's 3pt% be by the end of the season?
31%

8. How many regular season games will JV start in?
72

9. Who averages more mpg? FVV or OG
Anunoby

10. Who of KJ McDaniels, Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer will remain on the roster after January 10th?
Mckinnie.


Some NBA predictions:

1. Who wins the 2017-2018 title?
Golden State

2. Who's representing the East in the NBA Finals?
Cleveland

3. Who wins MVP?
Lebron James

4. Who wins ROY?
Donovan Mitchell

5. Do Kyrie and Melo get traded? If so where are they going?
Yes, I'll go out on a limb and say Boston and OKC.

[DogeLover1234]

1. How many wins will the Raptors get? 53

2. What seed do the Raptors end up with in the Eastern conference? 2

3. Who will the Raptors face in round 1 of the playoffs? Nets (!)

4. Who will be representing Toronto in the NBA all-star game? Demar

5. Will Masai make a trade before the deadline? If so who's a gonner? No trades

6. Who will start on opening night? Powell or Miles? Powell

7. What will DeMar's 3pt% be by the end of the season? 32%

8. How many regular season games will JV start in? 74

9. Who averages more mpg? FVV or OG - OG

10. Who of KJ McDaniels, Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer will remain on the roster after January 10th? McDaniels


Some NBA predictions:

1. Who wins the 2017-2018 title? GSW

2. Who's representing the East in the NBA Finals? Toronto Raptors

3. Who wins MVP? Giannis

4. Who wins ROY? Simmons, but the best true rook will be Dennis Smith

5. Do Kyrie and Melo get traded? If so where are they going? Neither are traded

Bonus Bold Prediction:
-After a tough 6 game series against the Miami Heat, the Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the Toronto Raptors in 6 as Demar DeRozan averages a triple double in the series and OG Anunoby blocks LeBron James' game winning shot attempt in a game.

[JamesNaismith]

I'm really surprised by the amount of 50+Ws projections.

Not that it isn't possible but I think a lot will need to go right in order for that to happen and to me there are some key elements that I just don't have a lot of faith in.

1. Of course is majority of this roster is YOUNG and MAJORITY have not even PROVEN themselves. Right now the only young guy that I really have faith can be a solid rotation player night in and night out (with some upside) is Powell. I think maybe FVV is showing it somewhat but he's also undersized, nothing he can do about that. Delon and Siakam haven't been consistent and Yak to me isn't looking world's better than the Brazilian benchwarmers. Especially a concern because last year Kyle broke down (as usual but this time by near mid-season) from Casey giving him Thibs' like minutes running Kyle who hasn't shown durability for the past 4 years right into the ground...a worst case scenario I have a hard time seeing either guy keeping us a float.

2. We're trying to completely change our style of play which isn't a bad thing but here's problem...

3. Pretty sure I read that 20 of our first 33 games are on the road...

As a young, inexperienced group outside of "the core", it's tough to get Ws on the road to begin with. Now you add inexperience and asking a young group to do so around 2 guys who have known iso play their whole careers. There just has to be some "growing pains" and is this team equipped to potentially face "Dog Days" like last year?! We asked a lot of Patterson defensively which I think is realistically a part of why PP has some damaged knees. Is old man Ibaka going to be able to keep up with that?!?

There's just too many questions floating around this team for me to feel confident that we will be a 50+W team but it is possible....only thing is the young guys will need to be able to respond fairly quickly and hopefully a couple of old dogs learnt new tricks, Casey included.

Most unpredictable season I can remember in awhile.

[DanH]

Why would 50+ wins be surprising? We have more unproven youth overall, but not significantly so, and we actually have less unproven youth in more important roles. Last year we won 51 with a) Pascal Siakam starting half the season when he had no business doing any such thing, b) Lowry missing 20 games, plus DeMar and Pat suffering injuries during the worst stretch of the schedule, and c) no Ibaka until the last stretch of games, and basically never at the same time as Lowry.

Meanwhile, the East got weaker, and the schedule, as much as it is tough early on, is marshmallow soft later and overall is one of the easiest in the league.

So, Ibaka being an upgrade over Siakam is huge. Powell playing instead of Carroll? Huge. Miles replaces Ross' contributions. Poeltl and Nogueira are one year older and more experienced than Poeltl and Nogueira from last year, so backup C should be better. Ultimately the only question marks on the team comparing to the full season last year are a) can Wright replace what Cory Joseph brought in his awful season last year, and b) can Siakam be a functional backup PF (though OG appears to be in the running for this now too) in Patterson's place - keeping in mind that Siakam won't be taking all of Pat's minutes - many of those will go to Ibaka.

So all you need to predict 50+ wins is to decide that Ibaka starting the full season, Lowry maybe not missing 20 games, and various improvement from the young players outweighs the potential downside of the replacements for a couple of role players from last year not quite being up to scratch. Heck, not even outweighs, with the easy schedule and a starting point above 50 wins... Though for the record as do believe those positive changes far outweigh the small risk with the bench. I mean, Casey could always Case, but his usual pitfalls seem to be avoided thus far.

[Scraptor]

I think it's more accurate to say Serge is replacing Patterson, not Siakam.

Patterson played 1600 minutes last year, Ibaka 700 for us. If Ibaka plays 80 games x 30 mpg for 2400 minutes, the increase is basically all Patterson's minutes.

Carroll played 1900. If Miles plays 80 x 25 = 2000 he basically replaces Carroll.

TRoss played 1200 minutes. Powell played 1370, most of his increase will come here.

So those are all improvements in my book. Not huge ones but decent.
Ibaka>Patterson
Miles>Carroll
Powell>Ross

The question is how well that other minutes will get filled:
CoJo played 2000
Tucker played 600

If Delon and OG can fill in well, the team is slightly improved from last year. If they have hiccups, or if Ibaka, Miles, or Powell fail to improve on the minutes they're replacing, we are either the same or slightly worse.

Personally I feel like we have a high floor and well-defined ceiling. I can't see us doing much worse than 44-45 wins without significant injuries, but I have a hard time seeing us getting to the Finals either.

[DanH]

Serge is definitely replacing Pat's minutes, but not against the same competition. Siakam playing against starters is a much bigger issue than him playing in bench units. While Pat showed he was usually equally effective in bench units versus closing units. So it's important that Ibaka takes Siakam's minutes and some of Pat's in that context.

I have a hard time seeing anyone in the East except LeBron getting to the finals. I do think in the hypothetical where LBJ goes down, we have as good a chance as anyone else at coming out of the East.

That said, I agree - we could be slightly worse if some youth struggles - but I also think slightly worse gets you 50 wins in this year's East.

[DogeLover1234]

I would say the bigger concern than youth should be shooting. Raps definitely have the players and athletes to do a lot of drive and kicks, and everyone has been making good reads on passes, but The only established 3 point shooters imo are Lowry and Miles. lack of consistent shooters and more 3s per game willl mean a lot of variance though even if that means a slightly worse regular season The team will be more fun to watch and have more playoff potential imo

[Fully]

I think we're a better team than the version of the Raptors that opened up the season a year ago.

Replacing Siakam in the starting lineup with Ibaka is massive. Powell brings so much more to the table than DMC was ever able to in Toronto. Poeltl is an upgrade over Bebe at the backup centre spot. Miles doesn't have the game to game ceiling of a guy like T-Ross, but he's going to be much more steady and shouldn't be prone to the long stretches of unfocused play like Ross was. Siakam is no 2Pat and Delon still has to be considered a step down from CuJo at this point, but I love that we also have guys like VanVleet and OG in the mix to hopefully patch together the same production we could have expected from Patterson or Joseph in any given game.

JV has also looked great through the preseason and could very well be an improved version of himself compared to a year ago.

Now, on paper we're not as good as the roster that ended last season but I do think the on paper part of that is an important distinction. In the real world, Patterson bottomed out after the all-star break and Lowry was barely healthy after the trade deadline back up arrived and we still reached 50 wins. Maybe I'm guilty of looking at all of this as a Raptors homer but I think if we fall on the right side of the injury luck this season that we could best last season's 51-31 record.

[white men can't jump]

50 wins really shouldn't be an issue. We play 52 games against the East and the East is hot garbage this year.

Many of the teams that were in the bottom of the playoff picture or on the fringe stayed basically the same or got worse. The lower seeded teams will still most likely be garbage.

Boston Celtics* (1) 53 29
Cleveland Cavaliers* (2) 51 31
Toronto Raptors* (3) 51 31
Washington Wizards* (4) 49 33
Atlanta Hawks* (5) 43 39
Milwaukee Bucks* (6) 42 40
Indiana Pacers* (7) 42 40
Chicago Bulls* (8) 41 41
Miami Heat (9) 41 41
Detroit Pistons (10) 37 45
Charlotte Hornets (11) 36 46
New York Knicks (12) 31 51
Orlando Magic (13) 29 53
Philadelphia 76ers (14) 28 54
Brooklyn Nets (15) 20 62

I look at this from last year, and Atlanta, Indiana and Chicago should all be much worse this year. They should all struggle to win 30+ games, and of the teams that weren't in the hunt at all, I think Philly only has a shot at being legitimately in the playoff hunt. Of course, they are depending on a guy who's only played for a couple of months over 3 seasons, and they're still really young so they'll have growing pains either way.

So yeah, that bottom of the conference could be even more crowded and worse than a usual year in the East, especially if Philly has health issues.

[SkywalkerAC]

Anyone expecting a sharp decline for this team is severely under rating our youth's readiness. Bruno and OG aside, these guys aren't question marks. Critics focus in on the uncertainty of youth but discount the positive effect of continuity.

[Fully]

50 wins really shouldn't be an issue. We play 52 games against the East and the East is hot garbage this year.

Many of the teams that were in the bottom of the playoff picture or on the fringe stayed basically the same or got worse. The lower seeded teams will still most likely be garbage.

Boston Celtics* (1) 53 29
Cleveland Cavaliers* (2) 51 31
Toronto Raptors* (3) 51 31
Washington Wizards* (4) 49 33
Atlanta Hawks* (5) 43 39
Milwaukee Bucks* (6) 42 40
Indiana Pacers* (7) 42 40
Chicago Bulls* (8) 41 41
Miami Heat (9) 41 41
Detroit Pistons (10) 37 45
Charlotte Hornets (11) 36 46
New York Knicks (12) 31 51
Orlando Magic (13) 29 53
Philadelphia 76ers (14) 28 54
Brooklyn Nets (15) 20 62

I look at this from last year, and Atlanta, Indiana and Chicago should all be much worse this year. They should all struggle to win 30+ games, and of the teams that weren't in the hunt at all, I think Philly only has a shot at being legitimately in the playoff hunt. Of course, they are depending on a guy who's only played for a couple of months over 3 seasons, and they're still really young so they'll have growing pains either way.

So yeah, that bottom of the conference could be even more crowded and worse than a usual year in the East, especially if Philly has health issues.

That's something else I wanted to mention. The bottom half of the Conference is as bad as it's ever been. Chicago, Atlanta, Brooklyn, New York and Orlando all appear to be amongst the worst of the league with Indiana and Detroit only a small step above. Philly is talented but no one would be shocked if injuries keep them in the 30 win range. The Raptors get to play ~10% of their schedule against the Nets and Knicks alone. The good teams of the East will get to inflate their record against the bad ones.

[DogeLover1234]

I wouldn't underestimate Miami either. They didn't add anyone but they were legit the second half of the year. Wouldnt be surprised if one or two of Wiz, Bucks, Heat end up being legit with the 6ers as a wild card

[SkywalkerAC]

Yeah, I watched one game of Heat in the preseason and that's a pretty well-balanced squad these days, nice and long like us. Even moreso than us, they look just a little light on shooting. Light on shooting unless their young guys really step it up - again like us I guess.

Kelly's going to shoot a lot of 3s.

[SkywalkerAC]

I wouldn't underestimate Miami either. They didn't add anyone but they were legit the second half of the year. Wouldnt be surprised if one or two of Wiz, Bucks, Heat end up being legit with the 6ers as a wild card

I'd argue that they top 6 of the East are actually quite strong, not better than the West, but pretty damn good.

[planetmars]

I'd argue that they top 6 of the East are actually quite strong, not better than the West, but pretty damn good.

Top 4 in West are easily going to be: GSW, SA, Houston and OKC (although OKC will have some chemistry issues I'm sure).

The teams battling for the playoffs will be some combo of Minny, Denver, Utah, LAC, Portland, Memphis and NO.

I say the Cavs, Celtics, Raps and Bucks (not including Wizards since I think they're overrated) are arguably better or just as good as those other teams in the West. Cavs are probably in that second tier (with SA, Houston and OKC).

Stars went out West, but if the Raps had to play either Minny, Denver, Utah, LAC, Portland, Memphis or NO in a best of 7.. I could see the Raps coming out on top against each one of those teams.