Raps are Good But CAUTIOUSLY optimistic thread

[anotherhomer]

So Happy Raptors are good and competitive, currently in 2nd place, everyone's excited, yay!
We seen this happen before where there's a lot of excitement then injuries happen, ppl fall back down to earth, raps go on a slump.
Then TEAM NEGATIVE comes out in full force.

Michael Grange acknowledge raps are really a 5th-6th seed team in East, and should be getting some easy wins right now for buffer
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/raptors-face-tremendous-opportunity-as-softer-schedule-approaches/

this article captures the question marks, and what's ahead.
https://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2025/11/19/cautiously-celebrating-the-toronto-raptors-winning/

1) Weak opponents or good teams injured
Also not to take away the legitimate wins against good teams but consider some of them happen with teams missing key guys like Darius, Embiid, team Cavs missing all their starters

2) On the opposite side, - Raps healthy
Raps been really lucky to be healthy and don't necessarily have the depth to sustain injuries to key guys.
Lose Quickly, you only have shead as point guard.
Lose Jakob, how you doing to deal with bigs like Embiid.
Lose Ingram, where's your half-court offense.

So when team start facing the top 8 western teams (16 times at least), injuries pile up, struggles happen, just don't be surprised, raps fall back to earth.
Hopefully Team negative doesn't come back with vengenance

P.S. if Raps end up being 5th or 6th to avoid play-in and make it competitive in 1st round, i'll consider raps season a success.

[Duffman100]

The only injury / depth I'm concerned about is Poeltl.

[djsunyc]

how you feel will, more often than not, be in tune with your personality.

one game at a time. anything can happen.

[MiamiSPX]

Team Negative won't read this because they have mostly disappeared, for now.

[TheGeneral99]

Obviously health is a critical component, but I also think this is the best depth we've had since 2019.

[Psubs]

This feels like the Blue Jays run. Bad last year but the Raptors have floated up quicker than the Jays. Need to make a Bieber type of trade.

Pre-season, with all the injuries in the East, I thought they would be a 5-6 seed with a chance at #3 behind Cleveland and NY.

Stay healthy and win all the games they should win and secure the playoffs!

[anotherhomer]

This feels like the Blue Jays run. Bad last year but the Raptors have floated up quicker than the Jays. Need to make a Bieber type of trade.

Pre-season, with all the injuries in the East, I thought they would be a 5-6 seed with a chance at #3 behind Cleveland and NY.

Stay healthy and win all the games they should win and secure the playoffs!

What's a Bieber trade to you?

I love if raps got cason Wallace for cmb

[Psubs]

This feels like the Blue Jays run. Bad last year but the Raptors have floated up quicker than the Jays. Need to make a Bieber type of trade.

Pre-season, with all the injuries in the East, I thought they would be a 5-6 seed with a chance at #3 behind Cleveland and NY.

Stay healthy and win all the games they should win and secure the playoffs!

What's a Bieber trade to you?

I love if raps got cason Wallace for cmb

OKC wouldn't do it as they need the perimeter defense.

Hmmm, first. I guess a Varland trade would be Agbaji and 2nd for Day'Ron Sharpe to shore up the backup C and allows Mamu to play PF or they platoon, depending on the matchup.

I mean, maybe the Ingram trade was the Bieber trade but done earlier? OKC would be the Dodgers that aren't under-performing during the regular season. Do we have enough to beat OKC? Maybe they just need experience playing together for chemistry and to stay healthy?

Maybe a Marc Gasol type trade would be akin to the Bieber trade?

[_MidNight_]

The only injury / depth I'm concerned about is Poeltl.

Yep! This is it. If he goes down we are out of size, which means we most likely lose the rebounding battle, which then leads to disaster amongst other things like paint protection from the 5.

[kwajo]

The next time we lose two in a row will make everyone fall back down to earth faster than Icarus.

[Psubs]

The next time we lose two in a row will make everyone fall back down to earth faster than Icarus.

Waiting for the Pistons to lose and the Raptors float up to #1.

[OakleyDokely]

13/14 team vs 25/26 team


OFF rating
13/14: 9th
25/26: 7th

DEF rating:
13/14: 10th
25/26: 15th

NET rating
13/14: 9th
25/26: 9th

[kalel123]

Yep, easy schedule and health is definitely helping. I don't think any serious fan would be delusional about current success while still being able to enjoy it fully after the down years. At this point, you just hope they build up enough momentum to carry them through tough times and persevere.

In the meantime, the things that's concerned me about this team still persists. Lack of depth in front court impacting us more than it should when injuries happen at those positions. Namely Poeltl. And too many mediocre backups at SG's and resulting lack of focus that might end up hurting everyone and nobody really developing in a meaningful way beyond marginal improvements. Starting lineup could also use upgrade but the other two concerns are more immediate and can be fixed a lot more eaisly in comparison. Just gotta avoid the trap of being too eager and ending up giving up valuable future assets (i.e. picks) for backups. Those should be reserved to upgrade starting lineup.

[Zeno]

The only injury / depth I'm concerned about is Poeltl.

Yep! This is it. If he goes down we are out of size, which means we most likely lose the rebounding battle, which then leads to disaster amongst other things like paint protection from the 5.

Yak is huge but I think his absence is slightly overstated because he has been absent or playing injured in the exact matchup you wouldn’t want him to miss. Spurs, Rockets, Dallas, Bucks and Philly(AD and Embiid played). So while they have been lucky with injuries, the timing has been unlucky as far as Yak goes. Still we really need him to stay healthy and get a backup with real size.

[NinjaBro]

Why do we need to be overly cautious? This is the place for hot takes!

[Morris_Shatford]

They are beating the teams they should be beating.

Good teams should beat bad ones, it may artificially inflate the early record which based on winning percentage would be like 55 - 27 which I don't think will be the case, but they are winning where they should, they aren't blowing games they have in previous seasons, and I look forward to seeing how they play against teams they shouldn't be beating.

[OakleyDokely]

There's levels to this.

The goal should be to become a relatively consistent team that wins 45-50 games. Even if that entails losing in the 1st or 2nd round so be it. You can learn a lot about players from tough games and it makes it easier to decide who to build around longterm.

You evaluate your weaknesses and make moves to address those issues with the goal to become a 50+ win team. If you can get to this level, then you might just be one key move away from really making things interesting.

Very few teams go from 30 wins to title contender in a season. It's a process.

[SFour]

Can't expect Raptors to go from a tanking team to a real contender within a season....this is a solid stepping stone.

It's starts with regular season success and then you build from there.

[kalel123]

The only injury / depth I'm concerned about is Poeltl.

Yep! This is it. If he goes down we are out of size, which means we most likely lose the rebounding battle, which then leads to disaster amongst other things like paint protection from the 5.

Yak is huge but I think his absence is slightly overstated because he has been absent or playing injured in the exact matchup you wouldn’t want him to miss. Spurs, Rockets, Dallas, Bucks and Philly(AD and Embiid played). So while they have been lucky with injuries, the timing has been unlucky as far as Yak goes. Still we really need him to stay healthy and get a backup with real size.

Poeltl's absence having huge impact, much more than it really should, is not a new thing. It's been happening for a few years now. This isn't timing thing. It's a matter of roster imbalance and lack of ability or willingness from FO to properly address it.

[OakleyDokely]

The Raps have had some favorable games lately but their first 10 games or so were pretty tough. They've played a lot of road games early and they've only played 5 home games all season so far. Schedule just stating to balance out now.