I have the Raptors at 50-32 with home court advantage in the 1st round.
Here's my break down.
My 50 (ish) win is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I think we're going to surprise a lot of people, including some in the Nest. And I am not suggesting we're going to be some elite team like 50 wins or more might suggest. First I think , I KNOW we played possum through large portions last season. That's one of the reasons it was one of my least enjoyable Raptors seasons since 1995, and I mean that sincerely. We had acted like an upper echelon NBA franchise for so many years, seeing us intentionally tank in such disgusting methods , I felt it was absolutely unethical and it made me sick to my stomach ( as a die hard old school basketball fan from the 70's).
So not only do I have confidence we had another gear, then you factor in our injuries (legit, stretched out, and fake) and there's potentially another level of play/record. Speaking of injuries, let's talk Brandon Ingram. He instantly becomes one of the better off-season-mid-season acquisitions in the entire NBA, IF he is healthy and plays up to his standards. Do I believe he'll stay healthy? Are you **** nuts? Hell no. But it's one of those quagmire paradox thingies. A healthy Brandon who produces like he should will add wins to this roster. If everything falls into place there will be nights when we look back and say "we won because of Brandon Ingram, he was that dominant". That's the type of player he was (and likely still is). There will be more nights when he will win us games, than cost us a victory. The problem is there will be more nights he sits in street clothes than the other two combined. I Kid , I jest, kind of, sort of.
I could go on about internal growth, how much I feel IQ is undervalued here (by some), why Scottie will look better, how we have the capabilities to be a top 10 defensive team, but I'll just add one last point, and that is, the Eastern Conference is wide open (during the regular season) from #3 on (Cavs will take #1, unless Darius continues to ail and others' fall prey to the injury bug). I have the Knicks at #2. They'll have a full season with KAT and whatever you think of him (especially defensively) he'll be a legit #2 guy and put them in that 55 win category. Brown can do **** in the reg season, not a diss on the coach, just being real here. It's Finals or bust for their team next season, after firing coach Thibs following their first ECF since before Masai joined us (lol). We have a legit chance of being better than Hali/Turner-less Pacers and half-their-team-less-Celtics, and I'm legit serious about that. In fact, I'm quite confident Celtics tank this season (they own their 1st in 2026), and it pisses me off, but that's another story for another Dallas-1st-overall-time.
If healthy I see the Hawks making the largest leap this season in the East (not counting the Raptors). This is coming from someone who can't stand watching (or looking at) Trae Young, everything about him annoys me. That being said I'm HUGE stans for Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu, basically since they entered the league.Clearly they need to be healthy, which is still a question mark.They added the Unicorn.He's another NBA player I've felt was overhyped (and often injured).Injury will always be an issue with him, but you can't argue that he wins, plays defense, a legit 40% threat from deep (shooting 41.2% last season) and gives the Hawks a legit efficient 20ppg two-way-player.Add in NAW as a defensive specialist theoretically , who shot .38.5% from 3 over the last 223 NBA games, and decent efficiency over that stretch for a SG (.576).I'd consider him a liability on offense, overall though, but with Trae, Porzingis, JJ, 2nd year Risacher and whomever else I'm forgetting, they'll be much improved with GOOD health. Hawks were 18th last season in defense. They'll be top 10 this upcoming season (health). And a 17th on offensive RTG will definitely see a bump (possibly top 10 as well).
Most people would toss Orlando in that upper tier. I'm sold on them defensively, and maybe on offense (by adding Bane, mostly, but mega overpay imo). I was listening to Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine (don't laugh) on SiriusXM on the road today, and i think they said some goofy stat, like (paraphrasing) "Orlando has had a below NBA average offense for 18 straight seasons", but I may have heard wrong. They may break that streak this season, and they'll need their health (mostly Suggs) and if they ace those, they are above us.
I'm not sold on:
Pistons (low ceiling, no slight on Cunningham), or Duren.They lose THJR (and Malik 7-card-stud Beasley), but re-signed Reed (yawn), added Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert.Too bad they didn't draft the better Thompson twin. Oh, hold me now.
Philly (No-one in their right mind should trust their health, ever. Have you heard of Paul George Da Third?).
Bucks:
Lillard plays 0 games instead of 58.Kuzma had a -0.7 VORP, 0.18 wS/48, negative defensive and offensive BPM, below average PER and TS for his position. Congratulations on that acquisition, just by being on your team he's made you worse.Say what you will about 36-year old Brook Lopez but he was your 2nd best VORP (next to Lillard), a net positive defender, and positive OBPM, and 2nd most efficient scorer. Thank goodness you basically spent over 200 mill signing (including eating Dame's contract) overrated Myles Turner (yes I typed that).I guess they had to do whatever they could to keep the Freak there.He's not a bad addition, but I believe they'll be worse, and hand-tied, such as it is when you desperately hold off a rebuild, but that's another, you guess it...
...and I think teams like the:
Heat (will need a big trade or they're first round fodder at best)
Bulls (play-in until new upper management?)
Celtics (1st overall pick or play-in , 8th seed-sh fodder)
Pacers are beneath us, at least for one season.
If this was a normal season, without a weak East and without that BI trade, I'd probably have the Raptors at a middling .500 ish team. But the
East is noticeably missing some stars and normally strong teams (lately), and there's a home seed or two up for grabs.
On a side note, and not to get any charity +1's, but I live out in Newfoundland and my wife has been battling inoperable cancer. Her only treatment (forever) is chemotherapy, which she has been doing off and on since last year. She has 10+ tumors and is mostly ben-ridden, so it's been tough on both of us, for different reasons.Well, we were in St.John's, our provincial capital, on Canada Day, as it turns out, and we found out that the specialists reversed their decision, and she is finally eligible for radiation treatment.There was a specific large cancer tumor on her liver that didn't respond to chemotherapy and has continued to grow.It mostly causes her to be bed-ridden most of the time, so finding out we have a new weapon in the proverbial arsenal was more uplifting than I could ever adequately put into words on RealGM.
Well, long story short, we love the Raptors dearly, and have been fans of hoops decades before Toronto (where I was born) obtained their franchise. We used to go to their road games, and recently before the Pandemic, we were in Indiana, Philly, Florida, and so on. They're the only sport we're both into , and the Raptors long surpassed hockey in our household, but I digress, again. And I'm likely using my wife's positive news at the hospital to create added hype and positive predictions when it comes to our favorite franchise, the Toronto Raptors. I am sticking to my guns though, as delusional as I may sound to some, I think we're in a bit of a weird spot in a very unlucky/lucky Eastern Conference. We have the capabilities of being lotto-to-play-in if bad stuff happens (BI continues to get injured every 3seconds, CMB shoots 11.2%.,Scottie knocks up lady #2,IQ no longer stands for intelligence quotient and RJ has to be packaged with "sweetener" if traded) or a legit threat to at least win round 1 of the playoffs and maybe more if we're lucky with seeding and health.
So I had to make a choice. Do I choose the likely, which is at least some injuries and either meander into a 1st round match-up, likely lose and end 2026 that way. Or things go much further south, and injuries only tell one half the story.We're in the lottery and questions who the heck we even are at that point.Boy that sounds like fun!(not).Whether that's legit practical or not, it doesn't seem enjoyable at all.So I was feeling good and in a better place in our lives, and that probably played a role in my version of heads, tails,spin-the-bottle- season, I decided I'll go ahead and put myself out there and go with a really high end optimistic approach to the 2025 Toronto Raptors NBA season.I stand firm on 50-32!
We can agree on one thing, even though we're heading into the Dog Days of Summer, this 2025 is going to be one hell of an upcoming NBA season, with the Raptors stories and all the incoming draft picks.Let's kick off Summer League and have a blast!
This is all in good fun. Let's go Raptors!
What is your predictions, if you have any yet?
(below: yes this is me, during the 2019 season, at COSTCO 6'7 dude, super hyped over our Raptors, days before we played Golden State. These were random people my wife and I met. Everyone wanted to get a picture with the weird giant Raptor dinosaur man child, being a goofball)
..don't get caught up in personalities. we can all see he is an engaging person. 
