Raptors
When I look at their lineup I would say that they are as good as any team outside of the top 3 in the east. With Bosh, Calderon, Jack, Turkoglu, Bargnarni, and Derozan they have a solid group of players. I think they can challenge for the playoffs and maybe the 4 seed.
Rasho never wanted to leave Toronto so it's nice to see him go back to Toronto. the deal is supposed to be for the bi-annual exception.
The raps look more solid with depth as a result of the off season. I think they could be top 4. Mark Ivaroni giving them a defensive presence from the coaching staff should help. Rasho will help to guard some of the bigs of the East.
1.Calderon(great turnover/assist ratio)
2.Wright(good defender doesn't need to score)
3.Hedo(clutch)
4.Bosh(beefed up readu to play)
5.Bargnani(one of most improved last year)
Bench
Jack(provides scoring)
Derozan(athletic)
Delfino(if he doesn't go back to Russia)
Evans(toughness and defence)
Rasho(nice game 10ft and in)
Looks solid.
Da guru your a Fake Guru.......Leave me to spit the truth , you don't even have them making the play-offs your crazy....Philly have no PG and i don't call louis williams a point guard i call him a undersized SG.....
Raptors have a nice starting line-up of
PG- Calderon
SG- Derozan ( Yikes)
SF- Hedo
PF- Bosh
C- Bargnani
They have one of the tallest starting line-ups out there......all of them can score.....well if they have a real starting Sg they can do good but jack wright and derozan coming off the bench will be pretty good, and i hear delfino is coming back so that will probably mean 4 out of the 5 players starting will be international players
Well they certainly have to improve from last seasons major disappointment. Lots of potential on the team, and I think they will make the Playoffs this season, however they aren't in the top 4 in the East.
Orlando, Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta are the top 4. However 5th is a good possibility, the only problem I have with Toronto is that they aren't physical enough to play with the top teams of the East come playoff time. The Raptors will be forced to bank on their midrange game, which doesn't seem to pay off well come the playoffs.
Philly is not better than Atlanta or Chicago. Andre Miller provided the one thing they needed the most, a veteran PG who could run the point. They are going to miss him alot. They were struggling without him and with him they surprised alot of teams in the season. The 76ers experienced an increase of wins with him every season he was there. I'm not saying he is the sole reason they were successful, but he was a big part of that success. He was the assist man on what possible could be the most athletic team in the league.
Miami Will probably not make the play-offs they have no-offseason signings. They have that same starting line-up , with the injury prone Oneal starting....they lost moons defensive presence, and there bench is horrible.......This All Equals to Wade leaving
You guys are overrating Hedo...yes he can handle the ball well for his size, yes he can shoot, but he like Bargnani is soft. Hell I'll bet that he will have more rebounds than Bargnani and Bargnani plays Center. They will strickly be a perimeter team, with Bosh being the only real threat inside to score.
Bargani can beat Centers with his speed.....Why Learn Post Move When He Has A more effective way of beating them.........lots of center have bad footwork and speed, so he uses this to his advantage....
Hedo averaged 18 5 and 5 how much players can do that in the league??? well we know lebron and kobe wade and thats probably it....who can give you the rebounding assist and pts.....and now they have reggie evans to do the dirty work....
And that's all Bargnani brings to the table. His scoring is great, he can shoot, he does have some semblence of speed and has nice footwork, but he is weak on the defensive end and gets easily pushed off the low block on defense. Plus, he has shown no interest in improving his skills boxing out has he has a career high of 5.3 boards per game. He is a SF in a centers body.
As far as Hedo goes, he averaged 16.8 and his numbers dipped from last season, I think he came back to Earth since winning the Most Improved Player award two years ago IMO. I don't think that he will be the reason for any success that the Raptors have, I don't see it going that way.
I'll admit bargnani isn't all that great on the defensive end, but he has improved and he's not as soft as you're making him seem. this past season he's learned to use his height a lot better and it resulted in him averaging a little more than a block a game. not great but better than half a block he was averaging the year before.
1. Cleveland - They added Shaq, Parker and Moon. This makes them a better team than last year. I don't see how they're not the favorites to win the East.
2. Boston - Depending on KG's health, this team could be the top seed in the East. Adding Sheed and Daniels was huge... Two players who'll help them offensively and especially defensively. The improvement of Perkins and Big Baby (he'll re-sign) last season was huge. I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up right where they left off before KG got injured.
3. Orlando - Bass and C.J. Watson are nice free-agent pickups, but it's arguable whether or not they got better by trading Turk/Lee/Alston/Batie for VC/Anderson. We'll see, but they'll miss Turk IMO. He was their go-to player in the 4th quarter. VC can score/create his own shot, but doesn't create for his teammates like Turk. He's also not 6' 10" with point forward skills. We'll see though.
---------------
4. Washington - OBVIOUSLY it depends on their health, but If... IF they're healthy... This team will be a problem. They're loaded. Young, Blatche and McGee will help Arenas, Butler and Jamsion a ton.
5. Miami - D. Wade needs more help... And he'll get it from Beasley next season. Beasley will start at small forward and I expect him to contend for the NBA Most Improved Player Award. Jermaine O'Neal is healthy for the first time in years. If they could sign Odom and/or trade for Boozer, obvioulsy it'd be huge.
6. Atlanta - They'll re-sign Williams. Trading for Crawford was a nice pick-up... We all know he can fill it up. He'll take some of the pressure off of Joe. They need another big or two.
7. Philadelphia - They lose Miller, but Elton Brand returns. Brand and Iggy will do nice things. Expect Young and Speights to step up considerably. They need to sign a veteran point guard just in case Williams struggles.
8. Toronto - They have talent, but are still soft up front. They added Evans, but it'll take more than him to make this team tough. Turk will give them a go-to player in the 4th quarter. The pick and roll with Bosh should be effective. Jack will give them a tough scoring guard who can play both guard spots.
-----------
9. Charlotte
10. Chicago
11. Indiana
12. Detroit
13. New York
14. New Jersey
15. Milwaukee
Here's my predictions ya'llllll
1. Orlando
2. Cleveland
3. Boston
4. Washington-They've got all the talent in the world and will finally stay healthy
5. Atlanta-Still a young team that'll get better with some pickups they made
6. Toronto- They've got talent also, just got to stay tough on D and they will be good
7. Miami-Didn't get Wade any help this offseason and he won't be able to carry them as far this year
8. Charlotte- Were close last year and are a good team but it will be close with Chicago and Indiana
1. Boston- Healthy KG and Sheed's addition, and Big Baby and Rondo's improvement put the celts back on top
2. Cleveland - Shaq's addition with Parker provide Lebron with more help than he had last year, another big regular season
3. Orlando - VC fills the gap left by Turk, different team but still top 3
4. Toronto - yeah, i agree with this post, i think Bargnani comes up huge this season and DeRozen is a solid rookie spark
5. Atlanta - good enough regular season, talented players, they just don't have the coach to get them to the next level
6. Miami - Dwade and Beasly score a lot and Chalmers improves as O'Neal drops off, good enough for 6th in the east
7. Washington - Arenas plays more two games but the Wiz still struggle with injuries
8. Chicago - Bulls will miss Gordon, but Noah, Thomas will improve and a healthy Luol Deng and John Salmons can win the bulls 40 games
9.Philly- Chicago narrowly edges them out, young team will miss Andre Miller
10. Indiana - team on the rise also predicting at 37-40 range, in the race for 8th with Philly and Chicago
Many of you are counting Chicago out?hehe.. Ok, that's cool with me... I mean we'll just see what happens... I used to love the Raptors but since VC left them, I don't take that much of a look at them anymore but I do hope they play well in the East.... Brian Colangelo is doing a tremendous job for the team.
Raptors continued their Off-season by signing former raptor rasho nesterovic....this is his 2nd stint with the team......
Raptors probably made some of the most noise this off-season....Do you think they will be top 4 in the east this year??