Been waiting for this, thanks nik

A lot of it is frustration over the JB trade. Trading a franchise player is always going to be controversial even when you get a decent return, let alone when the return seems lopsided. That’s not even getting into trading to a conference rival. It can get annoying but I understand it.

Personally I’m excited for the season to start. Maybe it’s just the fact that this summer was shit for me, but it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited for the NBA.

They’ll be very good on defense, but I don’t think they’ll have enough shooting (3 negative shooters on their starting lineup and Kawhi isn’t some high volume 3 point shooter, even though he is pretty good) and they were a pretty bad offensive rebounding team last season and they didn’t make any changes that would make me confident they got better at that. I still think they’ll win a lot of games.

I don’t think Philly is going to be all that good. Everything about that team is clunky as fuck.

The Raptors being able to put out a top 6 of Quickley, Barrett, Kawhi, Barnes and Poeltl with CMB off the bench isn’t bad, but if they swing a trade for a better Center, they clearly have a championship contending lineup

I actually think an upgrade on Barrett is more important than center. Murray-Boyles actually being the next Draymond is their out to be a contender so they sort of have to operate on the assumption that he gets there.

Barrett is a terrible fit with their other starters because he’s such an abysmal shooter for a 2 and mediocre defender. I bet they’ll look better a lot of the time with Ja’Kobe Walter out there in his stead, but he’s probably not a starter quality player yet. But they’ll be too light on shooting for Kawhi/Barnes bully ball to really shine otherwise

The Raptors being able to put out a top 6 of Quickley, Barrett, Kawhi, Barnes and Poeltl with CMB off the bench isn’t bad, but if they swing a trade for a better Center, they clearly have a championship contending lineup.

Think they are aware of that. But some of the centers they’re linked with are wildly different in terms of how they work in the playoffs e.g. the old Pacer center tandem of Domas vs. Turner.

One thing that bodes well for them in the playoffs if they make it is their combination of bruising forwards. But it all depends on Quickley’s health and productivity, he’s been an analytics darling, but he has to stay healthy and be more efficient.

I don’t trust Detroit losing depth and the Duren situation

This is probably only one I’d disagree on, although I can see where you’re coming from. I think their moves in the offseason made them even more of a high floor team, but without Tobias’ shot creation (I can’t believe this is a real sentence) they are worse in the playoffs. Isaiah Joe was a really good pickup as now they have 48 minutes of an elite movement shooter between him and Duncan. And whilst Collins isn’t as good a shot creator as Tobias, he’ll do really well in the PnR with Cade. Paul Reed will also get more of a prominent role as the backup without Stewart. Also still a fan of Kevin Huerter, think he can help off the bench if he ever stays healthy and he’s now settled after a midseason trade.

The one thing they’ll have to contend with is they probably won’t be as healthy as they were last year. Also, everybody is prepared for them now.

I hope I’m wrong about this, but it’s entirely plausible to me that 1 and 2 in the East is still Detroit and Boston in some order, and yet they both fall victim in the first round to bad playoff matchups from teams with previous Finals experience with elite coaches but that aren’t suited to the 82 game regular season in Indiana and Miami.