This is part of a continuing series we are doing here at Raptors Republic where we do a fly-by with our partners in the TrueHoop Network. Nothing fancy, not going entirely in-depth since (in my opinion) it’s pretty worthless to do so until the season starts. When the games that count do start, we have some plans up our collective sleeves.
What better place to start than the team that stopped us going further in our best season ever, the Philadelphia 76er’s. I touched base with the guys over at Philadunkia a site that might have the best banner I’ve ever seen. They need to make a Fathead out of it.
Looking back at last season, we won in Philly (tell me THAT headline didn’t come back to haunt us), lost by 10 at home, lost when we returned to Comcast Country and finished off the series with a mediocre win at the ACC. So, 2-2. .500. Better than most of our opponents last season. Achem.
Actually, in perusing the archives over at Philadunkia, this commentary speaks to our hearts as Raptors bloggers.
On to their thoughts for this year:
predicted starting 5 – Williams, Iguodala, Young, Brand, Dalembert
best offensive player – Brand
best defensive player – Iguodala
best new player – Jason Kapono
player that will be missed – Andre Miller
weakest link in your top 8 rotation players – Anyone who comes off the bench after Jason Kapono who is projected to be the 6th man.
greatest weakness as a team – Perimeter defense
biggest question heading into the season — Why do we have no proven true point guard on this team? Apparently that’s not a big deal because Eddie Jordan claims his version of the Princeton offense doesn’t require a true point guard to be effective. When was the last time an NBA team won a title without a solid to great point guard in the starting five?
if I was GM for a day, I would – Blow the whole thing up and start over with Thaddeus Young as my center piece. The Sixers in their current form don’t have the right pieces to be anything more then a 40 win team over the next couple of years in the highly competitive East. Plus they are cap strapped for the near future.
your opinion of the Raptors – They are a mystery to me. I thought they would have been much better then they were last year and on paper they look greatly improved for 2009-10. Turkoglu will help a lot. I love the move to get Belinelli because I wanted him so badly for the Sixers. Jarrett Jack was also a nice pick up. But after watching them flop last year, I can’t believe anything I see about the Raptors on paper. I have to wonder if something isn’t fundamentally wrong with the franchise. I don’t know if it’s maybe that I over estimate Bosh’s abilities as a player and a team leader, the coaching or that the personnel they bring in doesn’t fit together well, but something is amiss. From down here in Philadelphia it seems like they should win more games then they have over the last two seasons.
if you had to assign a "movie title" to your expectations of the season, what would it be? – Falling Down (Michael Douglas). The Sixers will win less games then last year, not make the playoffs and the Brand signing will prove to be a huge mistake and the Iguodala can play the two experiment will continue to be a disaster. Basically it will all go to hell.
w/l prediction for your team – 35 wins
Big thanks to Carey for sharing his thoughts and some early insight. Great blog about a team that has a GM that actually cares enough about bloggers to talk with them. Pretty rare.
