Uncle perk still riding with Toronto

[Roco14]

has us 3rd in the East

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[Oakville_Raptor]

I guarantee every "expert" on ESPN will have the Raptors finish 7th, 8th or 9th in the East

[Zeno]

I guarantee every "expert" on ESPN will have the Raptors finish 7th, 8th or 9th in the East

They are all hedging by saying that they are assuming we trade off Lowry, Gasol and Ibaka.

[ruckus]

I'd flip Milwaukee and Houston as I'm not sold on the Westbrook/Harden pairing. Otherwise, Perk's list is accurate.

It's ridiculous how much talent is in the Western Conference yet again.

[Bankai]

For anyone who is really paying attention, it's not farfetched to put the Raptors close to the top. The clear cut better teams are the Bucks and Sixers, after that it's hard to guess. The few who are not full haters will pick the Raptors because they are simply the proven commodity out of the bunch. As long as they are not broken up that is.

[Southward1]

The raptors are a borderline top 10 team, glad to see Perk still riding them. The way this team is now constructed and coached they would be a nightmare matchup if they finish 6th-8th in the east. They defend, pass and execute at an extremely high level even without Kawhi and Danny. Talent and athleticism will hold them back.

[team edward]

No-Kawhi Raptors had the best regular season winning percentage in the league last year. I see no reason this can’t continue this year.

[Duffman100]

No-Kawhi Raptors had the best regular season winning percentage in the league last year. I see no reason this can’t continue this year.

Well a lot of those games were against sub 500 teams plus we also lost Danny Green which is regular season huge.

Our wing rotation might be the one of the worst in the league...

I still think we'll win close to 50 games though.

[Yallbecrazy]

Raptors> Lakers

[Raps in 4]

Bring him home

[Johnny Bball]

That’s where I think we are. Just means perk doesn’t listen to the trash that’s the same every single year. Then again...he does have the Lakers first. And they definitely are not close.

[2019nbachamps]

We are NBA champs and we still care about what basketball analysts think of it. Much of our fanbase still has the losing team mentality. BTW, we shouldnt even care what analysts think even when their comments are positive.

[Tor_Raps]

We are NBA champs and we still care about what basketball analysts think of it. Much of our fanbase still has the losing team mentality. BTW, we shouldnt even care what analysts think even when their comments are positive.

I'd be with you if we still had kawhi on our team.

[Tor_Raps]

I'd actually put us 4th in the East behind Boston. In a wing driven league, we're just too weak in those spots. I want to believe OG will break out this season but I'm a bit skeptical.

Also, I think Philly is easily the best team in the East. Bucks losing Brogdan was a massive hit. A motivated Embiid and Simmons with their learning curve should be enough to put them there. I want to see how they close games offensively but if they can sort that out, I'd bet on them winning it all. Come playoff time when the game slows down, their massive lineup will bully teams while still being quick enough to hang with any team.

[And1Skip]

No-Kawhi Raptors had the best regular season winning percentage in the league last year. I see no reason this can’t continue this year.

Well a lot of those games were against sub 500 teams plus we also lost Danny Green which is regular season huge.

Our wing rotation might be the one of the worst in the league...

I still think we'll win close to 50 games though.

I did a quick an dirty analysis of last year's record with and without Kawhi. I categorized all other 29 teams based on Contender (6 teams in the West, 2 teams in the East), Playoff team (2 teams in West, 4 in the East - not counting Det) and Sub-500 (7 teams in West, 8 teams in East including Detroit).

Overall because the East quality is signficantly worse, and the Raptors play double the amount of games in the East than West, in total, they played 24 games vs Contenders, 15 games vs Playoff Teams, 43 teams vs Sub-500 teams.

Without Kawhi, Raptors were 2-2 vs contenders, 2-2 vs Playoffs, 13-1 vs sub-500 teams (also most of the games were Away but home/away splits not analyzed here).

With Kawhi, they were 10-10 vs contenders, 8-3 vs Playoffs, 23-6 vs sub-500.

If take the W% without Kawhi and apply it to all 82 games, Raptors would have won 59 games. Of course, the 22 games Kawhi was out for is still too small of a sample size, but if you somehow adjust for that downwards, the Raptors should still have been a 50 win team. The main point of this is the East is still not that good compared to the West, and the Raps play way more games vs Sub-500/Playoff teams than any West teams do.

[HolyMage110]

drake has to apologize to this man

[NeoDragonKnight]

Raptors playstyle even without Kawhi will still net them a decent regular season record as it is predicated on ball movement and taking the best available shot or person in the best position for them to score based on their skillset, it is just in the playoffs they wont have that guy that can score from anywhere and take over a game like Kawhi, or even Vince Carter.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Well a lot of those games were against sub 500 teams plus we also lost Danny Green which is regular season huge.

Our wing rotation might be the one of the worst in the league...

I still think we'll win close to 50 games though.

They also gain OG back, hopefully. Still not a particularly good wing rotation but also not one of the worst in the league - more middling or slightly below average, though I can understand people doubting until they actually see it happen. 50-ish wins does seem about right, though. And they still have Pascal Siakam (pictured below) to rule them all.

[dagger]

I'd actually put us 4th in the East behind Boston. In a wing driven league, we're just too weak in those spots. I want to believe OG will break out this season but I'm a bit skeptical.

Also, I think Philly is easily the best team in the East. Bucks losing Brogdan was a massive hit. A motivated Embiid and Simmons with their learning curve should be enough to put them there. I want to see how they close games offensively but if they can sort that out, I'd bet on them winning it all. Come playoff time when the game slows down, their massive lineup will bully teams while still being quick enough to hang with any team.

Philly will have to show me they have the outside shooting, as well as backcourt ball handling. They lost Butler and Reddick and picked up Josh Richardson and Al Horford. So are they stronger, weaker or unchanged as an outside shooting team? If teams feel comfortable collapsing on them, then their interior advantage is reduced. Also, is Simmons really a good substitute for a quality point guard?

[TheBoi10]

Portland is insanely overrated, they're the poster child of a mediocre squad for a half decade