14-15 Atlanta Hawks and 17-18 Toronto Raptors

[The_Toro]

That year the Hawks won 60 games

I have heard a lot of people compare this years Raptor team with that same Hawks team. Good Regular season team, good team work, yet lost to the Cavs in the ECF.

The Hawks were 6th in Off and Def that year, A balanced team, with no true "Star"

And the Cavs destroyed them in the ECF. You can argue that the Cavs team in 14-15 was worse than the one right now (after the trade)

remember in the ECF vs the Hawks the Cavs did not have Kevin Love, and Irving only played 2 games.

The Hawks could have won, but fell apart.

If you hear people compare the Raps to that team, they might have some valid comparisons, but they are very different.

That Hawks team won 38 games the year before and lost in the first round.

The Raps have won 50+ games the past few seasons and played in 5 playoff rounds the past 2 years. The Raps have 2 Legit top 20 players in Kyle and DeMar.


In the Era of the big 3, and hope the bench can just survive the Raps bench is running circles around everyone. Not just bench players, but some starting units as well.

The 2 Stars have become smarter and can change the game in other ways then just scoring. I can see DeMar in the playoffs avg 20 points and 6-7 ast a game. This team can beat you in different ways, this is not your 14/15 Hawks.

[YogurtProducer]

We have more star power than they do. Lowry and Demar are better players offensively than Horford, Millsap, or Teague which should help us more than it did for ATL.

[neurotik]

So you made an argument and counter argument in your OP?

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[RaptorsLife]

We have more star power than they do. Lowry and Demar are better players offensively than Horford, Millsap, or Teague which should help us more than it did for ATL.

doesn't matter if Lowry and derozan regress in playoffs

[PhilBlackson]

It's not a perfect comparison, ATL didn't have a 25+ppg scorer that they could go to like DeMar and their bench was nowhere near as deep. The guard positions are far more important in today's NBA n of course we have 2 legit multiple time all-stars that run n set up our plays...Teague was overrated trash, Korver was simply a shooter, their best guys were 2 post players who were very solid defensively but neither as dynamic of scorers as Kyle or DeMar. We're also slightly higher in both offensive n defensive ratings.

I'm not sure that I would argue that the 2014-15 Cavs were worse because you're talking about a LeBron James that was still in his actual PRIME which makes a huge difference in the amount of energy he can/did give. Keep in mind that same LeBron was able to push single handedly the Warriors to a 6 game series which was a MUCH worse roster than today's team when you consider both Kyrie & Love were out, he'd be lucky to do that with his current team at full force today - that's how good he was then.

While you can make a comparison for the Cavs then to now, we're not really the same as those Hawks n not a fan of putting this narrative out right now because you can bet some lurkers are going to take this over to the GB n we'll start seeing this crappy comparison hang on us smh

[The_Toro]

So you made an argument and counter argument in your OP?

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I do not like the comparison of the Hawks in 14-15 to this years Raptors.

2 different teams, with different skill sets, but you see lots of people comparing the 2 teams.

Basically the argument that no matter what any team does, LeBron will crush you

[DJ_RnC]

Don't disrespect the 14-15 Hawks by comparing them to this team. FOH

[thunderforce]

That year the Hawks won 60 games

I have heard a lot of people compare this years Raptor team with that same Hawks team. Good Regular season team, good team work, yet lost to the Cavs in the ECF.

The Hawks were 6th in Off and Def that year, A balanced team, with no true "Star"

And the Cavs destroyed them in the ECF. You can argue that the Cavs team in 14-15 was worse than the one right now (after the trade)

remember in the ECF vs the Hawks the Cavs did not have Kevin Love, and Irving only played 2 games.

The Hawks could have won, but fell apart.

If you hear people compare the Raps to that team, they might have some valid comparisons, but they are very different.

That Hawks team won 38 games the year before and lost in the first round.

The Raps have won 50+ games the past few seasons and played in 5 playoff rounds the past 2 years. The Raps have 2 Legit top 20 players in Kyle and DeMar.


In the Era of the big 3, and hope the bench can just survive the Raps bench is running circles around everyone. Not just bench players, but some starting units as well.

The 2 Stars have become smarter and can change the game in other ways then just scoring. I can see DeMar in the playoffs avg 20 points and 6-7 ast a game. This team can beat you in different ways, this is not your 14/15 Hawks.

Why do you think we have 2 stars , I think JV is becoming our 3rd star .

[Psubs]

I like the 1st place Pacers team of 2013/2014 more.

Hill and PG are more comparable to Lowry and Derozan. They beat Atlanta and Washington, then lost to Miami 4-2.

[SurgeIblocka]

That team had Carrol as one of its top players talent wise. That should tell u more than enough if they had the talent to beat Lebron, lol.

[The_Toro]

I like the 1st place Pacers team of 2013/2014 more.

Hill and PG are more comparable to Lowry and Derozan. They beat Atlanta and Washington, then lost to Miami 4-2.

That Pacer team was very good.

[SFour]

Raptors took 2 games off the championship Cavs...they have shown they can win when everything is clicking.

[Steelo Green]

We took two from the Cavs in 15-16, 2 more than the Hawks did. We're also a better team now so I don't see the comparison.

[YogurtProducer]

We have more star power than they do. Lowry and Demar are better players offensively than Horford, Millsap, or Teague which should help us more than it did for ATL.

doesn't matter if Lowry and derozan regress in playoffs

I know hating on Demar and Lowry is the cool thing to do but really this narrative needs to stop. Really we have never seen a healthy Lowry in the playoffs, and Demar outside of one game against Milwaukee had a good post season last year.

Demar put up 22/5/3 on 55TS% and Lowry (while hurt) 15/3/6 on 59TS%. Those are not elite numbers but they are not nearly as bad as anyone on this board makes it out to be. Half our problem in years past was our predictability on offense which hopefully is shored up this season.

[The_Toro]

We took two from the Cavs in 15-16, 2 more than the Hawks did. We're also a better team now so I don't see the comparison.

I have heard people on TV/twitter compare the 2 teams

[Chriscross]

That team had Carrol as one of its top players talent wise. That should tell u more than enough if they had the talent to beat Lebron, lol.

Carroll had a TS% of 60.3 that year. He was actually very good. His play just completely fell apart once he arrived and partly due to his injuries

Horford and Millsap was probably one of the best big man duos in the league and they had one of the best coaches as well

Their starting lineup is arguably better than ours + their head coach is better but our bench is better

[RaptorsLife]

We have more star power than they do. Lowry and Demar are better players offensively than Horford, Millsap, or Teague which should help us more than it did for ATL.

doesn't matter if Lowry and derozan regress in playoffs

I know hating on Demar and Lowry is the cool thing to do but really this narrative needs to stop. Really we have never seen a healthy Lowry in the playoffs, and Demar outside of one game against Milwaukee had a good post season last year.

Demar put up 22/5/3 on 55TS% and Lowry (while hurt) 15/3/6 on 59TS%. Those are not elite numbers but they are not nearly as bad as anyone on this board makes it out to be. Half our problem in years past was our predictability on offense which hopefully is shored up this season.

If they play like stars in playoffs they star power narrative in not character.

even those numbers you posted aren't worthy of being considered more star power

[Yeezus_]

Aren't we a much better team than that Hawks team by team stats? Net rating, point differential & SRS?

This team is vastly superior to that Hawks team.

[PhilBlackson]

I like the 1st place Pacers team of 2013/2014 more.

Hill and PG are more comparable to Lowry and Derozan. They beat Atlanta and Washington, then lost to Miami 4-2.

That Pacer team was very good.

As are we which why most people here aren't liking that you created a thread to compare us to the Hawks.

We have much more depth n the Hawks didn't have any dynamic scorers like Kyle or DeMar, not to mention ALREADY did a better job against the Cavs in the Playoffs (like the Pacers did NOT the Hawks) so really it made no sense to make the comparison to begin with.

[shmoosicle]

Well looking at the point differential that year, Atlanta's was +5.4 and Cleveland's was +4.5, so despite their different records they weren't that far off from eachother.

In comparison, this year Raptors are at +8.3 and Cleveland is at +0.1, so I like our chances better. That being said Cleveland just made some big trades so we'll see how things shake out.