khandor’s sports blog

Reasonable forecast for Raptors this season

While certain basketball “stats gurus” have projected the Raptors to finish at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference this season, given the current configuration of their roster …

2010-2011 Forecast: Toronto Raptors [Insider access required]

ESPN Insider: Hollinger’s Raptors Outlook

Turkoglu is gone, so is “Ball”

other NBA observers actually think that Toronto … sans:

1 Chris Bosh [C/PF]
2 Hedo Turkoglu [PF/SF]
3 Antoine Wright [SF/OG]
4 Marco Belinelli [OG/PG]
5 Rasho Nesterovic [C], and
6 Patrick O’Bryant

may not be that bad this season, with the arrival of 7 new players:

1 Ed Davis [PF, injured]
2 Solomon Alabi [C]
3 Linas Kleiza [SF/PF]
4 Leandro Barbosa [OG/PG]
5 David Andersen [C]
6 Julian Wright [SF], and
7 Ronald Dupree [SF, training camp invite]

and, the continued growth and development of still youngish hold-overs like:

9 Andrea Bargnani [C/PF]
10 DeMar DeRozan [OG/SF]
11 Sonny Weems [OG/SF]
12 Amir Johnson [PF], and
13 Joey Dorsey [PF],

especially, if/when they decide to use their TPE …

2010-2011 NBA Season Preview: Toronto Raptors.

This corner, however, is not in agreement with either of these two “extreme positions”, as being the most likely outcome for the Dinos this season.

When you examine how each of the current Eastern Conference rosters look, in comparison with the Raptors, on an individual-by-individual basis:

WHERE THE RAPTORS ARE MOST LIKELY TO FINISH THIS SEASON, BASED UPON AN INDIVIDUAL-BY-INDIVIDUAL MATCH-UP ASSESSMENT OF TEAM ROSTERS

09-10	1^ST	2^ND	3^RD	4^TH	5^TH	6^TH	7^TH	9^TH
Pos.	Cle	Orl	Atl	Bos	Mia	Mil	Cha	Tor
PROJECTED STARTERS
PG	Williams	Nelson	Bibby	Rondo	Chalmers	Jennings	Augustin	Calderon
OG	Parker	Carter	Johnson	Allen	Wade	Delfino	Jackson	DeRozan
SF	Moon	Lewis	Williams	Pierce	James	Salmons	Wallace	Kleiza
PF	Jamison	Bass	Smith	Garnett	Haslem	LRMAM	Diaw	Johnson
C	Varejao	Howard	Horford	O’Neal	Bosh	Bogut	Mohammed	Bargnani
PROJECTED KEY SUBS
PG	Sessions	Duhon	Teague	Robinson	Arroyo	Dooling	Livingston	Jack
OG	Green	Redick	Crawford	West	House	CDR	Henderson	Barbosa
SF	Williams	Pietrus	Evans	Daniels	Miller	Maggette	Brown	Weems
PF	Hickson	Anderson	Powell	Davis	Anthony	Ilyasova	Thomas	Evans
C	Powe	Gortat	Pachulia	O’Neal	Ilguaskas	Gooden	Diop	Andersen
PROJECTED RESERVES
PG	Gibson	Williams	Delk	Bradley	Beverley	Boykins	Collins	Banks
OG	Eyenga	Richardson	Crawford	Wafer	Hasbrouck	D-Hobson	Crittenton	Dupree
SF	Graham	Robinson	Sy	Gaffney	James	Brockman	Carroll	Wright
PF	Samuels	Allen	Thomas	Harangody	Howard	Gallon	McGuire	Dorsey
C	Hollins	Orton	Collins	Erdin	Magloire	Sanders	Brown	Alabi
PROJECTED EXTRAS/OUTS/INJURED
				Perkins	Pittman	Redd	Najera	Davis
							Miles
COACHING
HC	Scott	Van Gundy	Drew	Rivers	Spoelstra	Skiles	Brown	Triano
SUMMARY
+	2	0	2	0	1	2	2
0	9	7	8	8	7	7	7
-	4	9	6	8	8	7	7

09-10	8^TH	10^TH	11^TH	12^TH	13^TH	14^TH	15^TH	9^TH
Pos.	Chi	Ind	Nyk	Det	Phi	Was	Njn	Tor
PROJECTED STARTERS
PG	Rose	Collison	Felton	Stuckey	Williams	Wall	Harris	Calderon
OG	Brewer	Jones	Walker	Hamilton	Iguodala	Arenas	Williams	DeRozan
SF	Deng	Granger	Gallinari	Prince	Young	Thornton	Outlaw	Kleiza
PF	Boozer	Hansbrough	Randolph	Jerebko	Brand	McGee	Murphy	Johnson
C	Noah	Hibbert	Stoudemire	Wallace	Hawes	Blatche	Lopez	Bargnani
PROJECTED KEY SUBS
PG	Watson	Ford	Douglas	Bynum	Holiday	Hinrich	Farmar	Jack
OG	Korver	Rush	Fields	Gordon	Turner	Young	Morrow	Barbosa
SF	Johnson	Posey	Chandler	Daye	Nocioni	Martin	Ross	Weems
PF	Gibson	Dunleavy	Turiaf	Villanueva	Songaila	Jianlian	Favors	Evans
C	Thomas	Jones	Mozgov	Monroe	Speights	Armstrong	Petro	Andersen
PROJECTED RESERVES
PG	Lucas	Price	Mason	White	Quinn	Hudson	Uzoh	Banks
OG	Weaver	Stephenson	Rautins	McGrady	Meeks	Palmer	Graham	Dupree
SF	Bogans	George	Ewing	Summers	Kapono	Booker	James	Wright
PF	Scalabrine	McRoberts	Williams	Maxiell	Brackins	Seraphin	Humphries	Dorsey
C	Asik	Foster	Curry	Wilcox	Battie	Marks	Smith	Alabi
PROJECTED EXTRAS/OUTS/INJURED
	Powell		Azubuike			Howard	Gill	Davis
	Richard		Jordan			Morrison	Zoubek
						Ndiaye
COACHING
HC	Thibodeau	O’Brien	D’Antoni	Kuester	Collins	Saunders	Johnson	Triano
SUMMARY
+	1	3	2	1	0	5	1
0	7	8	8	8	11	9	7
-	8	5	6	7	5	2	8

LEGEND:
	- Advantageous match-up for the Raptors;
	- Neutral match-up;
	- Disadvantageous match-up for the Raptors;
	- Should be in the mix for 11^th thru 15^th position;
	- Injured at the moment.

what you should be able to see is that there are 4 teams, in addition to the Raptors, that should all be in the mix for positions #11 thru #15 in the Final Standings this season.

As always, where these mid-to-lower tier teams will actual finish … as far as exact win and loss totals are concerned … will actually be determined, in large part, by specific factors which are beyond their own control, including, for example:

i. Injuries;
ii. Unforeseen, anomalous circumstances [e.g. suspensions or arrests, etc.]; and,
iii. Blind [either, good or bad] luck.

Tags: Amir Johnson, Andrea Bargnani, David Andersen, Ed Davis, Jarrett Jack, Joey Dorsey, Jose Calderon, Julian Wright, Leandro Barbosa, Linas Kleiza, Marcus Banks, Reggie Evans, Ronald Dupree, Solomon Alabi, Sonny Weems, Toronto Raptors

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Analytics, Basketball, NBA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Reasonable forecast for Raptors this season

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