Your 2012/2013 Toronto Raptors

[Miekenstien]

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/p...719/daily-dime

a little espn positivity. hope morrison can get picked up by a team. too bad he is so slow.

[Matt52]

dub

Please tell me the raps arent done with moves? They have a disgruntled backup pg that they owe 10 mil for this season, they got rid of their best wing defender in johnson, and they still do not have a starting calibre sf. They went into the offseason with nearly the most money to spend and still made little movement.

Yannis Koutroupis

Colangelo told us point blankly they’re working on making some more moves, so no they’re not planning on this being it for them this offseason.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-chat-with-yannis-72012


The cynicism in my says, "More bullshit from BC."

However, what is he going to say? GM's job is to keep working to improve the team.

Personally though, if the Raps go in to 2012-13 with this lineup below, it is not from a lack of trying by BC to get something done:

PG: Lowry, Calderon, JL3
SG: DD, TR
SF: Fields, Kleiza
PF: Bargnani, Amir, ED, Acy
C: JV, Gray

(Andersen, Magloire likely final additions with above)

[ebrian]

Assuming health, I think the playoffs are a real possibility this year.

3 teams that were playoff calibre last year are now worse, in my opinion: Philly (no bigs and minus leading scorer), Atlanta (minus 1 all-star), and soon-to-be Orlando (do not even want an established player in return and gunning for worst winning % of all time as Charlotte breathes a sigh of relief).

Yes, 3 teams are worse, but not all 3 teams are worse than the Raptors. And 2 teams that weren't playoff teams got better. Brooklyn being the obvious one, and I think Milwaukee has a real shot at the playoffs. They practically got Dalembert for free, Ilyasova is getting better, scoring from Ellis and Jennings, and have some quality young big men in Udoh and Henson. The Hawks are definitely worse, but I think they're still better than us at this point.

Orlando -- either they fail to trade Dwight and they're still a playoff team (though a poor one, and fights Atlanta for that final spot), or Orlando takes back nothing then we'll be watching for who becomes that lucky 3rd team involved. The teams I think who will be absolutely worse than us are: Philly, Charlotte, Detroit.

Teams that I feel are definitely better than us: Miami, Boston, Indiana, Chicago, Brooklyn, New York, Milwaukee, Atlanta. That's 8 teams, 8 playoff spots.

Teams on the bubble: Washington, Cleveland, Orlando and us. Cleveland has been rumored as the 3rd team to help broker the Dwight Howard deal, so if that happens at some point either in the next few weeks or during the season, then Cleveland has a chance to make big strides depending on who they end up with (Bynum, for example, would vault them into playoff contention). I agree that Washington on paper are similar to us, except they have more veteran experience. I could see them knocking off Atlanta if they can pull it all together.

[Matt52]

Yes, 3 teams are worse, but not all 3 teams are worse than the Raptors. And 2 teams that weren't playoff teams got better. Brooklyn being the obvious one, and I think Milwaukee has a real shot at the playoffs. They practically got Dalembert for free, Ilyasova is getting better, scoring from Ellis and Jennings, and have some quality young big men in Udoh and Henson. The Hawks are definitely worse, but I think they're still better than us at this point.

Orlando -- either they fail to trade Dwight and they're still a playoff team (though a poor one, and fights Atlanta for that final spot), or Orlando takes back nothing then we'll be watching for who becomes that lucky 3rd team involved. The teams I think who will be absolutely worse than us are: Philly, Charlotte, Detroit.

Teams that I feel are definitely better than us: Miami, Boston, Indiana, Chicago, Brooklyn, New York, Milwaukee, Atlanta. That's 8 teams, 8 playoff spots.

Teams on the bubble: Washington, Cleveland, Orlando and us. Cleveland has been rumored as the 3rd team to help broker the Dwight Howard deal, so if that happens at some point either in the next few weeks or during the season, then Cleveland has a chance to make big strides depending on who they end up with (Bynum, for example, would vault them into playoff contention). I agree that Washington on paper are similar to us, except they have more veteran experience. I could see them knocking off Atlanta if they can pull it all together.

Worse than the Raptors remains to be seen.

I put the Raptors right in there with Milwaukee and Atlanta - along with possibly Cleveland and Washington. Not sold on Dalembert - another year older and he has only averaged 23 minutes per game the last 2 years. Atlanta is tough to figure out and I'm not going to make an opinion that I don't have any faith in. Cleveland is similar to Toronto and Washington has a lot of vets. I am 100% convinced Dwama will be played out by training camp and Orlando is going to stink.

Raps went from worse defensive team to an average one in a lockout shortened season, no training camp, and limited practice time. Add in the players they have, and I expect a better defensive squad. Raps were the only non-playoff team in top 10 of oppFG %. I think that is an important stat and bodes well for the team moving forward.

What I am most excited about is the Raps have (at least on paper) become better and what I am hoping for is no injuries resulting in major lost time to Bargnani or Lowry (fingers crossed, knock on wood, throw some salt/pepper over the shoulder, kiss a leprechaun, whatever else is good supposed to be good luck).

[theycallmeZZ]

Pumping me up for next season

[thead]

that was awesome lol

[Quirk]

Sorry, I don't care what Wins Produced indicates, I don't see Fields as any sort of upgrade over what was there.

Fair enough, can you fill me in on your methodolology?

Also, Lowry may not be a significant upgrade over Calderon indivudually, but probably fits a Casey team much better.

[NoPropsneeded]

Yes, 3 teams are worse, but not all 3 teams are worse than the Raptors. And 2 teams that weren't playoff teams got better. Brooklyn being the obvious one, and I think Milwaukee has a real shot at the playoffs. They practically got Dalembert for free, Ilyasova is getting better, scoring from Ellis and Jennings, and have some quality young big men in Udoh and Henson. The Hawks are definitely worse, but I think they're still better than us at this point.

Orlando -- either they fail to trade Dwight and they're still a playoff team (though a poor one, and fights Atlanta for that final spot), or Orlando takes back nothing then we'll be watching for who becomes that lucky 3rd team involved. The teams I think who will be absolutely worse than us are: Philly, Charlotte, Detroit.

Teams that I feel are definitely better than us: Miami, Boston, Indiana, Chicago, Brooklyn, New York, Milwaukee, Atlanta. That's 8 teams, 8 playoff spots.

Teams on the bubble: Washington, Cleveland, Orlando and us. Cleveland has been rumored as the 3rd team to help broker the Dwight Howard deal, so if that happens at some point either in the next few weeks or during the season, then Cleveland has a chance to make big strides depending on who they end up with (Bynum, for example, would vault them into playoff contention). I agree that Washington on paper are similar to us, except they have more veteran experience. I could see them knocking off Atlanta if they can pull it all together.

Brooklyn is not that much better than us and i think they'll be fighting for the 8th spot too. Who did they really add besides Joe Johnson(who is starting to decline). We should be whooping their ass's, Lowry will be all up in D Will's face

[Blacklash2k4]

Pumping me up for next season

That made me so hyped