With all the improvements made by eastern conference teams this off season and with many of the raptors division rivals improved from last season i.e philly, new york, boston? seeing as the raptors have not really upgraded from last season what chance do they really have of making the playoffs. This year the east is even tougher than last season, not even to throw atlanta into the mix...
Well, the Raptors have a talented bench and are set at PG (if they get Duhon), SF, and PF. They lack depth at SG and C. I see the Raptors contending in the Atlantic for a few months, but I think they will fall off at the end and end up as the 10th or 11th seed.
I'm not carrying high expectations this year. I see it more as a year for the "New Era" to learn to mesh together and have some team chemistry. I predict around 38 wins, and 11th or 12th in the Eastern Conference.
We won 33 games last season. We improved this off-season, but are stil very young and inexperienced, and still have some holes to fill. In addition to that, about every other team in the East also improved just as much or more than we did. The chances of us making the playoffs are slim, let's be realistic here, though it's possible. The Raptors will likely be a 10-12th seed in the East. These teams at the moment can be considered better than the Raps: Indiana, Miami, Detroit, Cleveland, New Jersey [even without Reef], Boston, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Orlando, and sadly New York. That's 12 teams, take away 2 teams, let's say one has chemistry problems, and the other injury problems, their's still 10 teams that can be considered better than the Raps.
We are not trying to have a chance this year if you don't notice. Our whole lineup is consisted of young guys that might get us to a 500% record in 2 years, and that I am still pessimistic. I don't really care if we make it to the playoffs or not this year, just if we progress from last year and see that all the young ones are developing well. I just hope we can get some more supporters though, who are actually die hard fans so we don't eventually become the Las Vegas Raptors....
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">We won 33 games last season. We improved this off-season, but are stil very young and inexperienced, and still have some holes to fill. In addition to that, about every other team in the East also improved just as much or more than we did. The chances of us making the playoffs are slim, let's be realistic here, though it's possible. The Raptors will likely be a 10-12th seed in the East. These teams at the moment can be considered better than the Raps: Indiana, Miami, Detroit, Cleveland, New Jersey [even without Reef], Boston, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Orlando, and sadly New York. That's 12 teams, take away 2 teams, let's say one has chemistry problems, and the other injury problems, their's still 10 teams that can be considered better than the Raps.</div> I personally wouldnt say Boston, Orlando or the Knicks are "better" than the Raps. I think the Raps have a 50/50 chance of beating any of those teams in the standings. Boston has holes and inexpierenced players like us, Orlando seemed to of fallen apart and who knows how the Francis thing is going to go. The Knicks have a great coach yes....a coach that stresses defence and gets results..agreed. But he's never had anything like the sad sack of offense only players as he has now in NY. Getting Marbury, Crawford, Nate, Q, Tim Thomas, Penny to any kind of defence let alone GOOD defense might be asking to much of him. Then to try and ask them to manage in the frontcourt with Jerome James the cancer like foul machine, Mr. "Ok, I'm soft" Frye, and 5 very undersized powerforwards is crazy. Have the Knicks improved over us in roster moves...no i'll take Graham, CV, Calderon, Duhon(if we get him) over Frye, Lee, Nate and Q. Even without Duhon i might. I do think the Knicks will finish above us, but only because half way through the season we'll be trading for next year, giving up on the playoffs, while Brown try's to get more pieces to continue is reign as Mr. Amazing.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting the_rap:</div><div class="quote_post">We are not trying to have a chance this year if you don't notice. Our whole lineup is consisted of young guys that might get us to a 500% record in 2 years, and that I am still pessimistic. I don't really care if we make it to the playoffs or not this year, just if we progress from last year and see that all the young ones are developing well. I just hope we can get some more supporters though, who are actually die hard fans so we don't eventually become the Las Vegas Raptors....</div> Raps do pretty decent in attendance compared to alot of other teams. They've also got solid financial support from big name companies such as Air Canada, Sears, Bell Canada and Rogers. I dont see them going anywhere.
I think the raptors will continue to suck forever. Being from Toronto, its not like I wanna see this happen but i gotta face the facts. It just seems every year the Raps have managed to get worse than they were the year before. I think maybe we should just sell the Raps to some place in the States
NO F***ING WAY... WE have GREAT attendance, Toronto fans are awesome. YES, we have improved, going from 24 wins to 33 IS improvement. In two years we will be contenders for the first time because we will have Magloir, Chris will be a superstar and our young players will have developped into awesome players. MARK MY WORDS
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting jtam101:</div><div class="quote_post">I think the raptors will continue to suck forever. Being from Toronto, its not like I wanna see this happen but i gotta face the facts. It just seems every year the Raps have managed to get worse than they were the year before. I think maybe we should just sell the Raps to some place in the States</div> That will never happen because the Raps actually have a great fan base, since they are the only NBA team from Canada. I don't expect much from them this season; probably will miss the playoffs for the 4th consecutive year, but they got some good players this off-season in Joey Graham, Charlie Villanueva (who has got a lot to prove for being picked so early). The Raps are still missing a few pieces, but I'm sure it will come...if not later this season, then next off-season. I don't see the Raps getting more than 35 wins, and may finish in the bottom 5, which means a good chance to earn some top picks for next summer's draft lottery.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting 02civic:</div><div class="quote_post">The Knicks have a great coach yes....a coach that stresses defence and gets results..agreed. But he's never had anything like the sad sack of offense only players as he has now in NY.</div> I think you answered yourself here ? ?A coach that stresses defense and gets results.? Brown has dealt with players like that before. I?m not in the mood to go through all the teams Brown has gone through and the players he?s made better defenders, but I think both you and I know he?ll enhance their defense. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Getting Marbury, Crawford, Nate, Q, Tim Thomas, Penny to any kind of defence let alone GOOD defense might be asking to much of him.</div> Nate Robinson doesn?t play defense? I honestly don?t know what you?re talking about here. Nate Robinson is actually a pretty good defender. Anyway, if all of the Knicks players play decent defense, then we will be ok. In addition, Brown can still the right defensive system into the Knicks and try to make them better. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Then to try and ask them to manage in the frontcourt with Jerome James the cancer like foul machine, Mr. "Ok, I'm soft" Frye, and 5 very undersized powerforwards is crazy. Have the Knicks improved over us in roster moves...no i'll take Graham, CV, Calderon, Duhon(if we get him) over Frye, Lee, Nate and Q. Even without Duhon i might. I do think the Knicks will finish above us, but only because half way through the season we'll be trading for next year, giving up on the playoffs, while Brown try's to get more pieces to continue is reign as Mr. Amazing.</div> Jerome James seems to be realizing his potential and now that he?s playing in the East, he should be better off. And if you haven?t noticed, isn?t he just like Rafael Arujao whom you say can be a decent player. And again, you always state the negatives while neglecting the positives about the team. The Knicks have improved more than the Raptors in terms of roster moves. Personally, I feel as if Q, Frye, Lee, and Nate are all better than that young core, but I can understand the bias factor playing a role in both of our decisions. But the fact of the matter is the Raptors haven?t done as much with the roster as the Knicks have, agreed? They both had the same record, agreed? Therefore the Knicks can be considered a better team than the Knicks. Ultimately, the regular season will determine what?s what, but based on the off-season, the Knicks have had a better one therefore for anyone to consider the Knicks a better team isn?t exactly farfetched.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Therefore the Knicks can be considered a better team than the Knicks.</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Brown has dealt with players like that before. I?m not in the mood to go through all the teams Brown has gone through and the players he?s made better defenders, but I think both you and I know he?ll enhance their defense.</div> This many players of this type of magnititude? I'm not one to doubt Brown, but I"m just saying it's goign to be a tough journy.
I think the Knicks and all those teams og15 stated can be considered better than the Raptors. I actually expect the team to have fewer wins than last year, since we haven't improved but actually slid a little bit. We lost Donyell Marshall and replaced him with rookies, a good move for the future, but it will make us a crappier team right now. Later on these moves will help us, but right now I expect us to end up at the bottom of the Atlantic and around 11th or 12th place.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I personally wouldnt say Boston, Orlando or the Knicks are "better" than the Raps.</div> I don't know, even before they got Antione Walker Boston was doing pretty good last year, and those guys are just getting older and more experienced, so I think they're better. They're also young, but most of their young guys have had one season under their belt, and they have Pierce. Orlando, as long as their's no more of Francis crying about Mobley, it's all good. They did get rid of Christie who was whining, so they should be fine. Jameer Nelson started blossoming at the end of the year, and they should have a starting lineup of: PG: Nelson SG: Francis SF: Hill PF: Howard C: Cato/Battie It looks like a pretty good lineup to me. I don't even know who their coach is anymore though, amd their management makes some stupid decisions. One of those was adding Keyon Dooling another untrue PG to the mix. Nelson is nice and all, but he was also looking to score a lot, they need a real PG on the team or Grant Hill is going to have to start playing point forward. New York, it's all about Larry Brown, I don't really like how that lineups fits together. Isiah needs to start thinking about chemistry, and about matching players that will compliment each other as opposed to just getting athletic guys.
Even I'll admit that the Knicks as of a now are a better team than the Raptors, the main reason Larry Brown. Their roster is a mess as og alluded to, but LB could make it work. The Raptors aren't that great of a team. We're average at best at the PG spot, and below average at the C spot, which are two of the most important posistions. I'm hoping for an improvement, and I'll think you'll see that with the additions of a real PG in Calderon, a tough athletic defender in Graham, and a talented versatile big in CV. With the additions and improvements of some of our current players, most notably Bosh, the Raps should end up with a season of about 35-37 wins. Who knows, if Bosh explodes onto the scene and does what Amare did last year in his 3rd year, the we might make the playoffs. I've already taken that into considerationg when making the projection of wins, but I can't ask that much from a 21 year old big.
If we get Duhon and Luke Jackson we definitely can compete on a playoff spot. You guys can't say that we didn't improve the team... Duhon, Jackson, Villanueva, Graham, Calderon. left us Marshall, Bonner, Palacio. We definitely improve.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Mr.Wade:</div><div class="quote_post"></div> I think you can guess that was a typo on my part. You get my drift nevertheless. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">This many players of this type of magnititude? I'm not one to doubt Brown, but I"m just saying it's goign to be a tough journy.</div> True, but regardless of how tough it is, in my opinion, the Knicks are a bette team.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Proz4k:</div><div class="quote_post">If we get Duhon and Luke Jackson we definitely can compete on a playoff spot.</div> I agree that Duhon can help us out, but how can we comment on Luke Jackson. He played 10 games last year, his rookie year. We will see a different team come 2007/2008 season. Rose comes off the books, Magloire is available and we can sign Bosh to a long term contract. Until then, I don't think we will make the playoffs. Hopefully 06/07 season we can come close. That will give Chris something to chew on.
on kinda of different theme, the team that i fear the most over the next few years are the celtics. they have stockpiled an awesome set of young talent, i really think paul piece is going to be expendable with that much talent on their roster. i think the raptors should have the same philosophy by trying to stockpile a whole bunch of talent like the bulls or celtics and make decisions on them when their rookie contracts expire.
I think you guys are missing a point here, true the raptors have a young group but the main focus of the team is chris bosh, in a couple of years when he's close to his prime and a free agent will he want to stick around on a team that has not been to the playoffs and is lacking veterans?
