May be hack job but I for one think Toronto is going to be really good this year. Leonard is twice the player DeRozen was, even if a one year rental. Don’t understand others’ flippancy.
I’m there with you. The Raptors were a terrific team last year. Yes, they choked in the playoffs against LeBron (and LeBron hit a crazy shot to win another game as well). My gut says if we had played Toronto in the postseason we wouldn’t have beaten them. Yes, we were down some key players, but Toronto didn’t win 59 games by accident, and they are a better team this year than last (assuming Kawhi actually shows up). Anyone taking them for granted is going to be sorely disappointed. I think we should come out ahead of them, but the margin for error isnt very large. They are a far greater threat than Philly.
- People are discounting the effect of going from Dwayne Casey to Nick Nurse. Maybe that's an upgrade, but that's far from guaranteed.
- We have no idea if Kawhi is the player he was two years ago.
- The Raptors as constructed prior to the Kawhi trade had several years worth of evidence that they were not a good playoff team. It was not simply a matter of choking against LeBron. They consistently underperformed in the playoffs.
- Ibaka another year older, and in these playoffs he looked washed.
I do not see the Raptors as on the same level as the Celtics. No other team in the East is. They will be a threat in the playoffs but the Celts should be a clear favorite.
the Raptors lost to the Cavs each of the last 3 years in the playoffs. They lost badly 2 of those years, but no other team in the East could beat them in the playoffs. So it is really hard to say they underperformed overall. They couldn't beat James, but now they don't have to worry about that.
This Lowry/DeRozan core's history is:
2014: Lost a home series to BRK in 7
2015: Got swept in a home series by WSH
2016: Won a home series vs IND in 7; won a home series vs MIA in 7; lost a road series to CLE in 6
2017: Won a home series vs MIL in 6; got swept in a road series by CLE
2018: Won a home series vs WAS in 6; got swept in a home series by CLE
There's only one run there that the team can be happy with; otherwise they got beat by lower-seeded teams 3 times and swept by a higher-seeded team once. That's 3 dud playoffs, one decent series win followed by getting steamrolled by a better team, one actual good run where they went down swinging to LeBron. They never once overperformed their seed and underperformed it 3 times. They earned their reputation.