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OT: The Official Toronto Raptors Thread

MindzEye said:
I guess it depends on your definition of "contend". They're definitely a threat, or even a favourite to make the ECF's. I'd call that a contender now. Are they good enough to beat the winner of the West? No, probably not, but they're good enough to win the East.
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I'm honestly not sure they are a favourite to make the ECF's.....won't be surprised in the least if they don't make it that far year one.

Lebron-Bosh-Wade won 58 year one.....Im doubtful Lebron-Kyrie approach 55 in their first go around, personally.
 
I think there is very little seperating Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, Indiana and Washington at the moment.

With Miami, Charlotte and Brooklyn in that next tier of playoff teams.
 
Montana said:
I'm honestly not sure they are a favourite to make the ECF's.....won't be surprised in the least if they don't make it that far year one.

Lebron-Bosh-Wade won 58 year one.....Im doubtful Lebron-Kyrie approach 55 in their first go around, personally.
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The Cleveland rotation of next year is a fair step up from the rotation behind Bron-Wade-Bosh in yr 1.
 
And once again, Lebron is a lot better of a player this time around with a chip on his shoulder. I would also argue that Kyrie has the potential to be > Wade from year 1 of the Lebron era. Just a whole lot of athleticism, depth and talent on that team. Definitely see at least an ECF appearance for them, health permitting.
 
Metalleaf said:
If I'm Cleveland and I want to win a championship this year...yes.
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If I'm Cleveland i wait out the Wolves as long as i can.

Love wants out, and i want to be forced to beat someone else's offer if i have to include Wiggins.

Bennett, Waiters 1st whatever might be best deal Kahn gets, as Love controls where he is willing to extend.
 
And once again, Lebron is a lot better of a player this time around with a chip on his shoulder. I would also argue that Kyrie has the potential to be > Wade from year 1 of the Lebron era. Just a whole lot of athleticism, depth and talent on that team. Definitely see at least an ECF appearance for them, health permitting.
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I love Kyrie but Wade is absolutely one of the best players to ever play in the NBA. I mean he has had some ridiculous seasons with PERs of 28 and 30, those are legendary numbers from an advanced stats POV. Numbers that other legendary guards of his generation like Kobe, TMac, Vince, Ginobli, AI can't even match. Can't believe how underrated Wade has become. Even last year's broken down D-Wade had a better season than Kyrie has ever had both in terms of PER and WS and WS/48. If Kyrie has 13 WS next year, I'll eat my shoe.
 
Wade is breaking down though. 55 games last year IIRC, and looked finished by the end of the playoffs. Great career no doubt, but LeBron needs a more dependable sidekick.
 
Kyrie isn't better now then Wade was in year one of the Big Three.

....and Bosh in year one, was significantly better than any 3rd option Cleveland currently has.
 
Yeah, kyrie's definitely not better now than Wade was then.

A Wiggins/Love deal makes a lot of sense for both sides. Rumour mill suggests that Minny and Love are down, but Cleveland's refusing to move Wiggins at this time.
 
They aren't as good as big 3 Miami, but fortunately for them they don't have to compete with big 3 Miami.

It will be interesting to see what Lebron can do without the help though. At the end of the day the NBA is still a star driven league and he is the biggest. He'll make Kyrie and Wiggins better just by being there.

The East is certainly more wide open now though, which is only a good thing for the Raps.
 
Montana said:
Kyrie isn't better now then Wade was in year one of the Big Three.

....and Bosh in year one, was significantly better than any 3rd option Cleveland currently has.
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I think you're completely ignoring just how trash that entire rotation after the Big 3 was. Just going by PER

Bron - 27.3
Wade - 25.6
Bosh - 19.4
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Ilgauskus - 12.6

and it got a lot uglier from there.

In Cleveland, assuming Lebron performs identical to what he did last season:

Bron - 29.3
Kyrie - 20.1
Varejao - 17.0
Thompson - 14.9
Waiters - 14.0
Carrick Felix - 13.3

Plus Wiggins & a 20-25 pound lighter Anthony Bennett (dude played at 260+ last season...)

and they have cap room to add more hangers on.

It's silly to suggest that you only have to compare 3 players on respective teams to determine their quality.
 
And there's no way wade posts a per that high last year if he was playing starter's minutes and playing every game.
 
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