I'm Just Fine With Predictions of a 50 Win Raptors Season
By RaptorTalkLook, I know we haven’t seen the new look Toronto Raptors play even a single pre-season game, never mind one that counts. But I just have a good feeling about the 2009-2010 edition of the Raptors.
The Raptors certainly look good on paper and GM Bryan Colangelo is cautiously optimistic that his dinos can win 50 games this year.
You know what? Count me in.
I am ready to join the Raps' GM bandwagon and make the bold prediction that the men in red will win 50 out of 82 games and finish 4th in the Eastern Conference behind Orlando, Cleveland and Boston.
Maybe it’s the inner-Swirsky in me that’s clouding my judgment, but I don’t think so.
Sure, a lot has to go right this season. Having said that, the Raptors have the raw talent to win fifty – so barring injury and assuming that the right chemistry is there, the team should be able to achieve this lofty goal.
A solid core with depth = 50 wins
For starters, last season's remaining core of Bosh, Bargnani and Calderon are a very stable and solid group to begin building a contender with.
The addition of vets like Turkoglu, Evans and Nesterovic bring much needed experience, scoring and tougnhess. Jack is the perfect complement to Calderon. Belinelli promises to have a breakout year now that he’s out of Golden State. Amir Johnson is another guy ready to blossom, while Wright will surprise with his perimeter defence. DeRozan is eager to learn and I believe this is the perfect situation to accelerate his development.
Jay Triano has benefitted from his stint with USA Basketball and seems determined to make his team play solid defence with the help of Marc Ivaroni. We know the Raptors can score, so an improvement in defence will go a long way to helping them improve on a dismal 33 win season.
This year’s starting five may be as good as any group of starters we’ve seen in the last 15 years of Raptorball.
Make no mistake that the depth on this team will be the difference maker. How many times did Raptor fans see the starting unit play well over the past two years only to see the bench cough up the lead or fall behind miserably in an otherwise close game?
The days of Solomon and Ukic running the point are over. No longer will Kapono be first or second guy off the bench. The Raps will not have to rely on Humphries to be their best non-starting big. No, that’s all changed. In fact, the Raptors bench is likely to be as good or better defensively than the starting five.
This Raptor team has vastly improved
Maybe I’m missing something. Who knows? My wild optimism may be completely unfounded.
I will say this - if the Raptors don’t win fifty this year, I guarantee they win at least 48 games and become the winningest squad in franchise history. But, I’m still pushing for 50 wins!
This Raptor team will definitely contend and they will be fun to watch - after two very disappointing seasons.
Book it.
Posted by RaptorTalk at 9/30/2009 9:51 PM 
Categories: General Raptor Talk
Tags: Bosh Raptors Bargnani Colangelo
Categories: General Raptor Talk
Tags: Bosh Raptors Bargnani Colangelo
Here's the thing: the Raps have talent, but these guys aren't defensive players. If they're going to get 50 wins, the team defense is going to have to be GREAT.
Triano's said this is his focus for training camp, which is a good sign. At least he knows what he has to do. It definitely won't be an easy task, though.
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50 Wins was not a prediction he thought the team would achieve.
What BC said was that the team OBJECTIVE he had in mind was to win a playoff round, and the best chance to do that would be a 4/5th playoff rank, which would probably need a finish of 50 games won to achieve, and that was a good target as he had won 47 once already.
RAPTORTALK: Thanks and I agree. That's why I wrote Bryan is "cautiously optimistic" that Toronto can win 50 games.
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