How Will The Raptors Do In The 2010-11 Regular Season?

[Buddahfan]

I was able to watch about half of their pre-season games. While some things can be gleaned from the pre-season I am hesitate to put too much weight on it when it comes to how a team might do during the regular season.

Having said that at this point I have more questions than answers about 2010-11.

I won't list them all but here are what I consider some of the questions that depending on the answer could have a material impact on the Raptors play in 2010-11.

Listed in no particular order other than they came to my mind in this order.

1. Reggie Evans - Evans has averaged only 19 mpg for his career. Only twice in his career has he played over 1,400 minutes in a season. Twice he has played 1,880 minutes, give or take one. He has never played more than that in his entire NBA career.

He is only 30 and came into camp in great shape having lost a lot of weight. I think it was a lot more than ten pounds that he mentioned in at least one interview.

So I have no idea how many minutes Evans will log this season. 1,880 minutes for 82 games equals 23 mpg.

So my question regarding Evans is how many minutes will he play over the course of the season? Totally unknown

2. Ed Davis - Expected to be available to actually play in games sometime between late November in early to mid-December. He missed all of pre-season which for a rookie is not good. When he returns the team will be playing full bore and not having an awful lot of practices. When Davis is ready to go live he will have played in only 5 games of about 25 minutes each since Feb 2010 or maybe nine to ten months or more.

So given all of that how effective will he be in 2010-11 and will be be able to contribute meaningful minutes during 10-11? Totally unknown

3. Amir Johnson - Will he be limited to retrieving garbage for 15 mpg for the full season for whatever reason?

If Evans and Johnson only play 1,400 minutes each for the season that comes to a combined 34 minutes per game. If that is all they play where will Triano go to get the additional 14 mpg he needs at the PF slot? That assumes that Johnson and Evans don't share any court time. If they do then there could be as many as 20 minutes a game unaccounted for at PF by Evans and Johnson. Will Davis be able to play those minutes and contribute? Will Kleiza slide over to the PF for 15 mpg thereby leaving at least 30 plus minutes free at SF?

4. Can Weems expand his role and contribute more than one FG attempt a minute and a few rebounds?

5. Can DeRozan up his scoring without killing his efficiency? If DeRozan is getting to the line 10 times a game but only making 6 maybe that is not such a good thing. While DeRozan has shown a lot more aggressiveness and improved shooting during the LVSL and the pre-season how will that carry over once the bell rings? Unknown

6. Can Kleiza take on the scoring load in the NBA that Triano is expecting of him? Unknown.

7. Can Bargnani step it up another notch on offense and improve his defense? Unknowns.

8. Can Calderon stay healthy? Unknown

9. Can Anderson contribute valuable minutes though I expect his time on the court to be erratic? Unknown.

10. Barbosa - How bad is his wrist and will he have to get it operated on during the season? If so how much time might he miss? Unknown.

11. Jack - I think he represents the most known commodity among the Raptors top eleven players. It seems to me that what we saw last season is what we will get again this season. No more nor no less.

12. Can the Raptors as a unit play passable defense night in and night out for 48 mpg? Totally unknown

13. Finally the Raptors talk about playing hard and how hard this team will play. However I have two questions about this?

13A. How hard will they play when the going gets tough on long road trips? Will they get discouraged and lose that pre-season enthusiasm? They are for sure going to have some really bad games this season on the road. How will they respond? Unknown.

13B. Playing hard is great but it is worthless if you don't play smart! Its great to play hard if you are playing smart at the same time. Playing hard but not so smart only means that you are working hard at making a lot of bone head plays. That does not win games

So will the Raptors play smart in 10-11 82X48? Unknown.

Too many unknowns for me to get a feel for how this team will do in 10-11.

No prediction at this time regarding wins or Conference ranking in 10-11

[Mack North]

We've been waiting for your prediction all pre-season long, you've let us down!

I'll predict anyways, 30-52 good for 11th or 12th! Top 6 pick in next years draft, though top 2 would be fine with me!

[Thom]

30-37

[ebrian]

I'm still fairly confident that we can win at least 20 games and as many as 25.

[matt]

How many threads of "predicting win" are we gonna have until it doesn't matter what you think anymore??

[weemsfan]

28-54 3rd overall pick

[JoePanini]

We're gonna win 30+ games this season.

1. Look at Reggie's rebounds in those minutes, in his first 23 minute season he got over 9 boards a game. And he averages 7 rebounds in 19 minutes over his career.

2. Honestly, I don't want Davis to play until he is fully healed. I don't want to risk him getting re-injured for longer.

3. I think Amir will have difficulty playing 15 minutes, especially the way he has been playing. But he will get his game together soon, I hope. I see him getting 12-16 minutes, and Reggie getting 20-40 (depending on foul trouble). When Reggie and Amir foul out, we can try Kleiza at the 4, we can also try putting Dorsey or bringing Andersen.

4. No, he is just a guy who shoots hard shots too much. He got to the line less then 1 time a game last year, so he doesn't know how to use his athleticism properly.

5. He will. As the season progresses. I think he'll be like Jack last year, start slow, end hot. And he won't be going to the line 10 times, maybe 5 or 6.

6. He will have great games. But everyone on our team is a second option.

7. He will have to step up his offense, he can play defense for a little while. Then either he doesn't bother and loses interest or he is fatigued...

8. I hope so, but no he can't.

9. Yes, Andersen is the best 10th man pick up as someone (I forgot) already said. He'll play maybe 10-15 minutes (depending on other players' foul trouble) and he will bring points and a lot of hustle. I love him already. I thought the trade for him was dumb, I love it now.

10. He played with a brace on the first game, I expect him to miss quite little cause he knows how important this season is to him.

11. I think we will see a more aggressive and hopefully smarter more Point Guard-y player this year...

12. Not for 48 minutes, but for short stretches. I noticed that when Bargnani scores/plays well on offense, his defense is a lot better. So better Bargnani offense = better defense. So it's win win? Anyways we are a bad defensive team, so no way 48 minutes.

13A. They will be discouraged if we let loads of points in in the first half. Otherwise I think they will work hard.

13B. They played "quite" smart against NY. You are right, gotta be smarter!