2019nbachamps wrote:Scott Hall wrote:I saw on NBA TV Dennis Scott didn't have us making the playoffs and Sam Mitchell picked us 8th and had Atlanta
higher then us (6th)
It's absolutely unbelievable how brain dead so many of these analysts are after last year I lost respect for about 90%
of them. There's hardly anybody in the media who's opinion actually matters. Most of them don't watch enough games
or teams to know what they're talking about and others are just about hot takes to get people to pay attention to them.
I think this board is seriously overrating us this season. We've got a lot of things going against us. Title hangover (players taking longer to get into game shape such as Lowry), potential loss of motivation, huge holes at the 2 and 3, and no player capable of creating his own shot like Kawhi could. Also, a lot of the assumptions here are based on us going the entire season healthy. An injury to any one of our main guys would be devastating since we aren't very deep. We have the hallmarks of a 42-48 win team in my opinion. Regardless of what happens we'll easily make the playoffs though. To me, the win total isn't that important. I care more about Siakam's development, seeing which of our young guys could prove serviceable in the future, and seeing what Masai does with the expiring contracts. Our upside this season is the 2nd round of the playoffs.
I don't think the players will take long to get into game shape... having 3 months off from games isn't gonna kill them
and it won't take that long especially Gasol who's been playing pretty much all year. A few guys are on contract years
so there will be lots of motivation from the core guys.
The way I look at the Raptors is...
Might have the best front court in the East (Gasol/Siakam/Ibaka)
Have one of the best PG tandems in the East (Lowry and FVV)
Still will have an elite defense also one of the best in the East
2 potential All-Stars in Siakam and Lowry
Siakam has potential to be a top 15-20 player
Nurse said Siakam will play some SF which will help with lack of depth/talent there
This Raptor team seems like its close to where they were with DeRozan and Lowry leading the team except
with better role players around them and Siakam should be better then DeRozan was. The East also got a little
worse and there is no elite teams.
As for Playoffs hard to say I could see the ceiling being ECF
