Toronto Raptors are coming off the best season in franchise history. And when you have a season like that, it’s always hard to top it. They have a pretty much the same team that they had last year and are loaded and ready to go. But can they at least repeat what they previously achieved, if not top it?
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are the All-Stars on this team and two best players on the Raptors squad. They have found the balance on offense and even though they are score-first players, they are effective in the same backcourt playing together. Both players are coming off two successful seasons and are still looking to improve.
Jonas Valanciunas is the x-factor on this squad. He was great against the Pacers, and this man needs to get the ball. He can be efficient, but he just doesn’t get the touches that he needs. Lowry might want to find the way to feed the ball to his big man on a constant basis. Valanciunas can do the damage down low and elevate this team. He just needs to get the ball.
Luis Scola is not a part of the crew anymore, but Jared Sullinger is, and he is ready to produce. All the other guys from last year are still on the roster. Patterson, Joseph, Ross, Carrol, all ready and healthy.
image source: jceusebio.sportsblog.comThis team is pretty much intact. They haven’t had any big additions, but they haven’t lost anybody that can’t be replaced. Including Biyombo. They should win more than 50 games this season as well, and we are going to predict that they will win 53 times and go 53-29. That will be good enough for the 2nd seed in the East. They could very well make it to the Conference Finals, but they need to worry about the Celtics and the Pacers. Raptors will for sure make it to the 2nd Round, possibly the Conference Finals. But, this team is still not good enough to beat the Cavaliers.
