I saw the other guy start the Washington Wizards thread...
I would caution that I hold myself out as an nba, basketball or raptors expert but I do read up on them every day and go to the #1 fanboard regularly... so I thought i'd give this a shot....
I see pinnacle has raptors at 36.5 wins... I think they were 32.5 last year. people thought it was good value but they got off very slowly. not sure where they ended but got close again.
here are pinnacles win total (and I rounded up half a game usually):
Miami 61
Chicago 57
ind 55
Brooklyn 53
nyk 49
Detroit 40
Atlanta 40
wash 41
Cleveland 40
Toronto 36.5
Milwaukee 28.5....
kind of funny that Toronto is stuck by itself in the eastern win totals.
as to the team. nice preseason but we had one last year and then went 4-19 out of the gate..
our Lithuanian centre Vallenciunas is the key building block. seems to be considered one of the best young talents in the league. and the raptors have had terrible defense for quite awhile (I think... never improved a ton)
PF amir Johnson.... great +/-. very underated player. i'm sure a contending team would love him.
SF rudy gayyy..... picked up from Memphis for calderon and ed davis last year.... very poor scoring efficiency. continued a declining trend.... apparently had laser surgery in the off-season. it may help.. gay is player option for 2014-15 season and is massively overpaid so he'll take it i'm sure.
SG Derozan..... kinda similar to rudy gayyy.. neither is a good 3-point shooter. they do slash but they both take a lot of longer 2 pointers... one should be traded but of course no one will want gay and his contract...
PG Lowry...... started out great last year (one of the best statistical players in the league the first 10 games). but got injured and never seemed to get actively involved later on. didn't take that many shots or have that many assists. hard-nosed guy but people complain about his (small stature lead-guard mentality??)... calderon leaving should have been good for him as the PG status was fairly unclear before that..
bench: hansborough, aaron gray, augustin, fields, steve novak, ross. buycks, daye....
bench was a big problem last year.... Alan Anderson did hit quite a few shots that helped a poor team win some games and now he's gone. but I think they need to win games in a more efficient manner.
I think at the end of the day this is a middling team. not good enough to make the playoffs and not bad enough to get a good draft pick..... gay has a player option for next year, lowry is a free agent after this season. so perhaps the thought is to see if this is a decent team and then get into trade mode later in the season if that's not the case..... lots of enthusiasm for Andrew wiggins tank but they aren't nearly bad enough for that.
biggest thing I would stress is we need more 3 point baskets. either from the starters or ross/novak. we were poor 3 point team last year statistically and that included calderon (who was good, high volume 3 point guy) for at least half the season.... gay and derozan are the same non-efficient scorers. need to jettison one of them and get a decent 3-point shooter (I realize that good players who can hit the 3 are pure gold)