Is this the year the Toronto Raptors (o/u: 37.5) take a PLAYOFF LEAP?! | Game Theory Predictions
Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.
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31 Comments
This team is finishing in the top 6, Sam is spot on. It's an entire team of guys who have a chip on their shoulder
As a Raptors fan, I’ve rewatched this a few times now. Let’s just hope we stay healthy! 🤞
i love yalls draft stuff but the nba takes always feel off to me lol. the raptors have an overpriced team of mid-good talent who do not fit together. iq has not taken a leap to match the contract he got – rj/ingram/scottie – maybe their three best players – occupy similar spaces/roles as guys who like to create for themselves and others (all of who are limited shooters) – and they have no real big man depth. its just a hodgepodge of stuff. none of which makes sense together or are really great at anything lol.
Great discussion. One thing that gets confused when extrapolating 30 wins from last year and what that means this year is that aside from the sheer number of games "lost" (ahem tanking), key guys played different roles than what they'll be playing this season. A couple of quick examples were Scottie having the green light to fire 3s from ATB and leaving Gradey on an island to defend the other team's primary scoring threat (that was painful to watch but intentional).
We've already seen Darko get very specific on role with a player with RJ came over, he basically cut out his middy game and pushed him to drive and pass more, which really opened a lot of eyes in terms of his potential as a secondary offensive hub (I think he was brutally miscast in NY and often wanted to occupy the same space as Randle).
The team is going to look AND play much differently this season. They called it "emphasizing development" last season, but it was hilarious how they'd just stunt their own runs or give away games at the end because they were committed to developmental reps for one of their guys. This is Scottie's 5th season. There's going to be a lot of scaling down of role and scope for each guy as the team optimizes around winning, which apparently begins this year.
I agree, around .500 and in play for the 6th seed.
They dont have any shooters though, except quick
I like you now, Sam. You're going places. 😉
As a Raptors fan who wathed a lot fo Rap games, you should know that they got 30 wins last year while trying to tank. Their bench won them games, as the starters were subbed off late in games on purpose.
The Raptors are going to surprise a lot of people.. shocked Sam gave us that much credit, kudos to him
Sam, your Canadian citizenship should be arriving in the mail any day now!
🇨🇦
6:06 – Scottie is a "Power-Point", Brandon can play "Point-Forward", and Quickley can be pseudo Point-Guard.
There is a lot that confusion for the defence.
_______
The main thing will be the "Power Trio" of Scottie, Ingram, CMB… It's better than a traditional big three, because it allows Darko to alter play styles on the fly, Darko can call on ANY 2 players, maximize their strengths, and confuses opposing defences, every few minutes if he wants to.
-Scottie can play 1-5
-Ingram can play 2-4
-CMB can play 3-5
1/2/3
2/3/4
3/4/5
1/3/4
1/3/5
2/3/5
2/4/5
Darko can look at the bench, and pick any 2 players, and change the game style on the fly, on both sides of the ball. Even if Jakob is in the lineup, I don't think spacing will be an issue.
We'll have smart movement, and smart 3 point shooting.
I would have CMB attempt 3s from the top of the arc, with Scottie or Jakob having a foot in the paint.
At worst, CMB is the first one back on defence.
There's a lot of intrigue here.
Im betting my life savings on the over. The raptors are going to make me both very proud and rich like a happy parent
The raps won 30 games trying to lose and playing 4 rookies in 4th longer and longer
This is a completely different team than last year and no one really has any idea what to expect. I think Raptors finish 5th or 6th in the East, baring any big injuries (which no team can predict). This is a great year to be moving forward in the East, such a toss up below the top 3 teams. 9th is a completely embarrassing prediction and I hope you folks look back on this video in April with some humility.
Sam knows what he’s talking about… for once.
Damn, Sam is more up than a lot of us. I hope you are right hahaah
That third guy talking about RJ and Quick from their play in NY obviously doesn’t know what he's talking about and didn't watch any games last year. 🙄 So tired of lameass takes. If you don’t watch them then just stay quiet man. And not very good on defence? They were 3rd in the league on defence in the second half of the year. Christ almighty pay attention.
Finally someone with sense
Everyone was injured last year, they were limiting mins from starters, and still got 30 wins. This is a 60 win team if healthy
I'm way more concerned about their offense than their defense
Mark my words, the Raptors are going to win the Atlantic Division
People are so comfortable with these RJ takes lmao 21 6 n 5 is just an everyday occurrence huh 🤔 The Raptors will make the playoffs and might go on a run like Indiana just did. You need jumbo wings to win it all and Toronto have a few of them… Watch!! 😌 * health will be the key *
Great Analysis but you guys forgot one key prediction for Canadian, especially Toronto fans… the Raptors still have way better odds to win the Stanley Cup than the Leafs this year and the foreseeable future
Only Orlando, Cleveland, and NY are guaranteed to be better than the Raps.
There are absolutely concerns but this team couldn't out-tank the worst team even with their best players not playing.
They can make a consolidation trade and still maintain great depth.
Im at a point where I would be shocked if they didn’t cruise to the over here. Im with Sam on this one. Looking around the East I think they have a very good chance to be a top 6 team.
Darkhorse team
win east in a cake walk
would be funny if toronto go crazy and get almost 50 wins
It’s an easy over. Raps are FOR SURE a 42 win team at MINIMUM! I put $100 on the over already.
this year being how bad the East is, I put the Raptors in top 4. Remember a lot of star players on the East side are injured and we havent even seen what the Raps look like with BI and they were I believe a top 5 defensive team in the 2nd half last year so if they keep that up and BI jells with the roster, there's no reason why this team cant compete this year.
I wonder what the odds are for the Raps trading Quigly, and who would take him – he seems to be the odd man out in terms of his skillset with Ingram in. Plus he's a sick bay commando. Either injured or traded, I'd think his personal O/U for gmes played with the raps this season is 29.5
Barrett Barnes and Ingram are all injury prone and Jakob keeps getting rumoured for trades
You're gonna rely on Dick and a rookie
No playoffs