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I'm wondering if they are good enough for 6th in the east

The east is tough to gage this year. All the injuries makes it a gigantic crapshoot.

If everything goes right, we’re likely in the blown out 4-0 range at the bottom of the playoffs.

We were a 35-38ish win team that tanked to 30 wins, we have added Ingram, cmb and hopefully the youth is 1 season better. No reason we aren't 44ish wins.

I was sure they make the POs next season directly, but with Masai gone and pending moves i am not so sure anymore. As now the upper Management can throw a wrench in any plan that the GM and his staff might have.

with the roster as-is, we're probably not going to avoid the play-in. But we are in an ok position to make some good moves this offseason. Though I'm not sure how this current president search might affect things

The Duke wrote:If everything goes right, we’re likely in the blown out 4-0 range at the bottom of the playoffs.

Sounds about right to me.

Top end, maybe 45 wins? That'd be a nice turnaround after this year, honestly. 65 games from BI, 70ish from Quick, everyone contributes reasonably well, we could look reasonably nice.

We should be in the low 40s with health being a factor

41-41

Or 47-35 depending on jumps from guys and health

I'm not sure if the Raptors can make the Top 6, it's hard to know what we have because we haven't even seen this group play together. It's been a very strange 1.5 years, the starters are never all on the court at the same time.

Cleveland, New York, and Orlando should all be better than the Raptors (barring injury) almost certainly. As it currently stands, I would pencil these three teams to be at the top of the East with all the injuries to the other teams.

Boston (61-21), Indiana (50-32), and Milwaukee (48-34) were all in the Top 6 last year, but they're dealing with the Tatum (9.5 WS), Haliburton (10.4 WS), and Lillard (7.6 WS) achilles injuries. It's hard to know the impact of not having those stars on their respective teams, I added their win-shares for reference, but we can assume that each of those teams will be worse next year. The Celtics also traded Jrue and KP, Horford might leave, so it will be a very different group in Boston

How bad will those three teams be next year? Will they play around .500 ball with their stars out? Or will they drop further than that?

I haven't even mentioned Detroit, Atlanta or Philly yet. Detroit was 44-38 last year, they're young and Cade is still improving, so they will look to have another strong season. Philly is the ultimate wildcard, I haven't heard much about Embiid's knee lately, but if he's healthy for 50-60 games, they'll look to be in the mix again. Atlanta will probably be around 40-44 wins again.

For the Raptors

Quickley / Shead
Barrett / Dick / Walter
Ingram / Agbaji / Battle
Barnes / CMB
Poeltl / Mogbo

Seems like a pretty decent group, CMB gives the team a much needed forward coming off of the bench, but once again the roster is lacking big depth. Still, I would like to think these guys can win 41-45 games

xb3at band1tx wrote:I'm wondering if they are good enough for 6th in the east

I think it comes down to Ingram. If he stays healthy then I’d say yes. His ability to be a primary scorer is significantly better than anyone else we have had in that role, which has been a big limitation in the half-court. I expect he will make the game a lot easier for other guys, especially Scottie when he has less pressure to carry offense.

The Duke wrote:If everything goes right, we’re likely in the blown out 4-0 range at the bottom of the playoffs.

If everything goes right,

Team is healthy
Ingram is healthy
Barnes took a all nba step
Dick is a positive player

That team can win 1 game in the playoffs!

Actually think the east will be deeper than last year. We might miss the playin. Atl got better

The Duke wrote:If everything goes right, we’re likely in the blown out 4-0 range at the bottom of the playoffs.

Wrong. Better than that. Easy 6 seed. Don’t sleep on them getting home court in the first round. As is this is a 45 win team. And they might still improve this offseason.

tsherkin wrote:

The Duke wrote:If everything goes right, we’re likely in the blown out 4-0 range at the bottom of the playoffs.

Sounds about right to me.

Top end, maybe 45 wins? That'd be a nice turnaround after this year, honestly. 65 games from BI, 70ish from Quick, everyone contributes reasonably well, we could look reasonably nice.

45 wins would put them in a good position in the weak East. Pacers, Celtics and Bucks will take a step back. Don’t know why they’d be an easy sweep if they finish in that 4-5 range.

Team will be good. Top 6 east.

Free agency in a few days..just wait until then for these threads?

I think they can do it if they are healthy. That should be the goal anyway.

This is the East. This team if healthy is equal to the Hawks, Heat, Bulls and will likely hover around that 6-12 range.

Yes