Can Raptors compete for #1 seed in east this upcoming season?

[stooley]

I would actually put money on them being the favorite for that division. I don't get the love for ATL by some people, Miami is definitely taking a few steps back and Charlotte is a wild card.

Wall still goes for 20 and 9 basically, maybe not the best fg%, but I believe that's bound to improve with better teammates, where he's not chuckin, but facilitating. And the "Beal is small" argument just doesn't have any merit to it. The guy can flat out play, and he's only entering his third season.

Again, I don't love these guys and I think the Raps will beat them out by 2 or 3 games, but they are better than last year from my point of view.

Well the Beal is small argument applies mostly to defense.

And I think Pierce is a significant downgrade from the way Ariza played last year. Ariza was a top notch defender and shooter. I'm not sure Pierce can provide either of those things against SFs anymore.

[BigCamB]

Wall did make significant strides in his shooting last season though. Two years ago he made 12 threes only, @ 26%. Last season he made 108 @ 35% which is pretty decent to be honest. Certainly far better than DeMar. If he gets even just a little better overall then he will be incredible.
Beal will continue to get better. Gortat is a very good pick and roll big man who will continue to thrive playing with Wall, just like he did when he played with Steve Nash in PHX. Nene can be formidable. They will be good, I do agree though that the Pierce acquisition could be a little overrated, compared to what Ariza produced last season.
Should be interesting. I think the raptors are slightly better, will be very confident if Terrence and Jonas come back much better. Starting to feel quite confident about Terrence given what's been said of his training this summer.

[iblastoff]

I said our young players will improve for a lot more years, not next year.

so what argument are you trying to make here? you already said beal/wall are the future best back court in the east. doesn't that mean they have the better future then? especially when they can surround themselves with vets and not just a bunch of young dudes with 'potential'?

No doubt Washington has the best future backcourt in the East, but what other young pieces do they really have? Otto Porter is a question mark to me because I know nothing about him since he got injured. But is he really as good as Wall & Beal? When I watched him in college he wasn't anything spectacular and the only reason he was selected so high was because of the weak 2013 draft.

if this thread were about "whos team is going to be the youngest in 2015" then maybe it'd be relevant. obviously they're not clearing the slate and fully rebuilding by re-signing andre miller, paul pierce and kris humphries. like i said, if otto porter is a question mark then so is bebe/bruno/deandre daniels. we didn't even get the 1st round player we wanted in the draft.

Blair and Humphries will help but won't be anything special, Pierce helps them a lot but I'm not sure if he'll play to much this season, but if he does it's not like he's gonna carry them.

blair and humphries were pivotal pieces for dallas and the celtics. blair is only 25. very complimentary pieces for holes that the wizards needed to fill. and if people think chuck hayes is 'great for vet/locker room' then paul pierce has to count for 10000x more than that.

I was trying to prove a point that we have a better team than them, like I said we have guys who will improve next year, DD, PPatt, Ross, JV. And guys who will improve for the next couple years, our Brazilians.

except you just admitted wall/beal are the future best backcourt in the east ie. better than kyle lowry and derozan, our two BEST players. and if i go by some peoples arguments about certain wizards players being undersized and can't shoot, ummmm hello ross's size and hello derozans overshooting shitty mid-rangers. if players like ppat are supposedly going to improve, i don't see why dejuan blair can't, whos also the same age.

People keep saying the Wizards will be at a higher seed than us but I really don't believe that. We beat them 3-1 last year and people (Americans) are saying we won't get better because we just brought back the same team? Players improve, and it's not like Wizards added star power, they replaced Ariza with Pierce, added Blair and Humphries, will Blair and Humphries be enough to replace Nene if he gets hurt again?

people (Canadians) talk about the raptors like they play in a bubble and no other teams can improve while only we do. who cares if we beat them 3-1 last year? charlotte also completely destroyed us last year. by your logic they will be higher seed than us next season then.

and if we're just talking about random things in the future, what if another MVP decides to go home? KD to the wizards. they hired his high school coach. if that happens in 2016, who cares what young pieces with potential we have.

[yabadabayolo]

so what argument are you trying to make here? you already said beal/wall are the future best back court in the east. doesn't that mean they have the better future then? especially when they can surround themselves with vets and not just a bunch of young dudes with 'potential'?



if this thread were about "whos team is going to be the youngest in 2015" then maybe it'd be relevant. obviously they're not clearing the slate and fully rebuilding by re-signing andre miller, paul pierce and kris humphries. like i said, if otto porter is a question mark then so is bebe/bruno/deandre daniels. we didn't even get the 1st round player we wanted in the draft.



blair and humphries were pivotal pieces for dallas and the celtics. blair is only 25. very complimentary pieces for holes that the wizards needed to fill. and if people think chuck hayes is 'great for vet/locker room' then paul pierce has to count for 10000x more than that.



except you just admitted wall/beal are the future best backcourt in the east ie. better than kyle lowry and derozan, our two BEST players. and if i go by some peoples arguments about certain wizards players being undersized and can't shoot, ummmm hello ross's size and hello derozans overshooting shitty mid-rangers. if players like ppat are supposedly going to improve, i don't see why dejuan blair can't, whos also the same age.



people (Canadians) talk about the raptors like they play in a bubble and no other teams can improve while only we do. who cares if we beat them 3-1 last year? charlotte also completely destroyed us last year. by your logic they will be higher seed than us next season then.

and if we're just talking about random things in the future, what if another MVP decides to go home? KD to the wizards. they hired his high school coach. if that happens in 2016, who cares what young pieces with potential we have.

Having the best backcourt is not proportional to having the best team.

Bruno and bebe are question marks. They don't even know English

Blair is just as constantly injured as nene is. No doubt he will be better if he isn't injured

Ross is known to be a defensive player and it looks like he can become a defensive stopper. Beal does not whatsoever

What if another potential MVP wants to come home. Prime Andrew wiggins baby. Dude us and Washington are in the same boat. It all depends on the internal development and being a raptors fan. Imma say the raptors are the better team

[GLF]

so what argument are you trying to make here? you already said beal/wall are the future best back court in the east. doesn't that mean they have the better future then? especially when they can surround themselves with vets and not just a bunch of young dudes with 'potential'?



if this thread were about "whos team is going to be the youngest in 2015" then maybe it'd be relevant. obviously they're not clearing the slate and fully rebuilding by re-signing andre miller, paul pierce and kris humphries. like i said, if otto porter is a question mark then so is bebe/bruno/deandre daniels. we didn't even get the 1st round player we wanted in the draft.



blair and humphries were pivotal pieces for dallas and the celtics. blair is only 25. very complimentary pieces for holes that the wizards needed to fill. and if people think chuck hayes is 'great for vet/locker room' then paul pierce has to count for 10000x more than that.



except you just admitted wall/beal are the future best backcourt in the east ie. better than kyle lowry and derozan, our two BEST players. and if i go by some peoples arguments about certain wizards players being undersized and can't shoot, ummmm hello ross's size and hello derozans overshooting shitty mid-rangers. if players like ppat are supposedly going to improve, i don't see why dejuan blair can't, whos also the same age.



people (Canadians) talk about the raptors like they play in a bubble and no other teams can improve while only we do. who cares if we beat them 3-1 last year? charlotte also completely destroyed us last year. by your logic they will be higher seed than us next season then.

and if we're just talking about random things in the future, what if another MVP decides to go home? KD to the wizards. they hired his high school coach. if that happens in 2016, who cares what young pieces with potential we have.

You make very good points. I'm going to say we are both on the same level at this point. They can be better than us and we can be better than them. Raptors fans do tend to overrate their team and underrate others though. But I guess most fans do. Look at New York fans thinking they are going to be better than us. But anyway I'm going to wait until the season starts before I say Washington is going to be better than us, but there is a good chance they will be.

[raptors999]

You make very good points. I'm going to say we are both on the same level at this point. They can be better than us and we can be better than them. Raptors fans do tend to overrate their team and underrate others though. But I guess most fans do. Look at New York fans thinking they are going to be better than us. But anyway I'm going to wait until the season starts before I say Washington is going to be better than us, but there is a good chance they will be.

But Raptors were better than the Wizards last season and improved by adding Lou and JJ. Wizards lost Ariza and Booker and added Pierce, Hump and Blair making them worse. On paper Wizard drops and Raptors rise. Wizards won 44 games last season just over .500

[planetmars]

The difference between the Wiz and the Raptors next season is the division they are in.. you play division teams 4 times. The Raptors therefore get to play the 76ers, Celtics, Knicks, and Nets 4 times each.. where as the Wiz has to play the Heat, Hornets, Hawks and Magic 4 times (3 of those teams will be battling for the playoffs).

Raptors have always played to the level of their competition though.. so maybe this isn't an advantage.

Despite how well or poorly they do in the regular season, it comes down to match ups in the playoffs.

[JordanMariam14]

so what argument are you trying to make here? you already said beal/wall are the future best back court in the east. doesn't that mean they have the better future then? especially when they can surround themselves with vets and not just a bunch of young dudes with 'potential'?



if this thread were about "whos team is going to be the youngest in 2015" then maybe it'd be relevant. obviously they're not clearing the slate and fully rebuilding by re-signing andre miller, paul pierce and kris humphries. like i said, if otto porter is a question mark then so is bebe/bruno/deandre daniels. we didn't even get the 1st round player we wanted in the draft.



blair and humphries were pivotal pieces for dallas and the celtics. blair is only 25. very complimentary pieces for holes that the wizards needed to fill. and if people think chuck hayes is 'great for vet/locker room' then paul pierce has to count for 10000x more than that.



except you just admitted wall/beal are the future best backcourt in the east ie. better than kyle lowry and derozan, our two BEST players. and if i go by some peoples arguments about certain wizards players being undersized and can't shoot, ummmm hello ross's size and hello derozans overshooting shitty mid-rangers. if players like ppat are supposedly going to improve, i don't see why dejuan blair can't, whos also the same age.



people (Canadians) talk about the raptors like they play in a bubble and no other teams can improve while only we do. who cares if we beat them 3-1 last year? charlotte also completely destroyed us last year. by your logic they will be higher seed than us next season then.

and if we're just talking about random things in the future, what if another MVP decides to go home? KD to the wizards. they hired his high school coach. if that happens in 2016, who cares what young pieces with potential we have.

Just because you have the future best backcourt doesn't mean you're the better team, two players don't win games. Of course they can add more vets to surround their players, but so can we so they don't really have an advantage there.

My point wasn't to talk about who'll be the youngest team, I was saying Toronto is already a better team than them, and have a better future as well.

Blair averaged only 9 minutes in the playoffs, in the season he averaged 18 minutes with 2.5 fouls per game and shot 63% from the line. I like Blair, but it's not a great addition, especially if Nene goes down again. Humphries isn't too much of an addition either, I'd rather have Patterson and Hansbrough.

I said they are the future best backcourt, did I say they currently are? No. Our two best players, KL and DD are still better than them.

Beal is worse defensively than DD was my point. Wall is a decent shooter.

There's more to just winning a season series against a team. Will a team of Lance, Walker, MKG, Vonleh, Zeller, Al, Biyombo going to be a better team than us next season? No, but they have a lot of young pieces that just need to improve.. They'll be a scary team in the future

And what if he doesn't? We don't know so it doesn't matter.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[Primer]

The Wizards could realistically end up 4th in their division. The Raptors are pretty much a shoe in to win their division.

I think it's fair to say whoever wins the Southeast will be competing with the Raptors for a top 3 seed, but not to point to the Wizards specifically. They haven't separated themselves from the Heat, Hawks, and Hornets, and they were barely above .500 last year. Hawks and Hornets got better, and the Heat got worse, but not 10 games worse, which would put them even with the Wiz.

[psrs1]

This is not an attack on your post psrs1 but the above phrase just tweaked me (note: not twirked).

I wonder what people mean when they say this? I assume that most pro ballers play to a very high level. They try their best. The good ones work within the team concept. And at the end of the game, one team wins and one team loses. Does the outcome of the game make half of the guys on the floor "winners" and the other half "losers?"

What about guys who make it to the finals? Are guys like Stockton, Barkley, Malone, etc. not "winners" because they haven't wond the trophy? Do "winners" have some genetically gifted, or environmentally developed switch they throw when the game gets close? Is Kobe now a "loser" because he team has been shit for years?

Sorry to go on and on but saying a player has to "prove he is a winner" or that a certain player "is a winner" seems like one of the most tired cliches in sports.

(Apologetically stepping down off of soap box)

Peace psrs1 and thanks for the opportunity to get that one off my chest.

Yikes!! Hopefully that was therapeutic. My point was simple and true--Kyrie Irving has not won anything yet. That could change. Same for Kevin Love.

[psrs1]

Based in Cleveland's loss to Knicks time to revive this thread? Is this our year?

[psrs1]

Yikes!! Hopefully that was therapeutic. My point was simple and true--Kyrie Irving has not won anything yet. That could change. Same for Kevin Love.

Still yet to prove anything ....

[psrs1]

If LeBron goes to West sure. If he stays no chance. They're good enough to compete for the #2 seed though i think.

The way LeBron has looked yesterday and today I don't know. And yes I understand we are only 4 -5 games into the season.

[Fully]

The way LeBron has looked yesterday and today I don't know. And yes I understand we are only 4 -5 games into the season.

Do you?

[psrs1]

Do you?

You don't win 50+ by losing frequently in November. Raps have talent and chemistry . But given upcoming schedule if we could be 7-1 going into Thursday night TNT game nov 13 that would great for our city, fans and country .

LeBrons body language says to me that Cavs have huge issues.