I DON’T SEE THIS ROSTER WORKING. THE ROSTER BUILD MAKES NO SENSE!!

Raptors had to return for Toronto sports fans’ sanity after the Blue Jays losing that heartbreaker of a Game 7

I love that the Number 1 Pick and the Rookie of the Year from the 2021 Draft Class are leading their similarly underestimated teams to the top of their conference. Both after some pretty stinky seasons.

I’m so excited for the future of these teams.

Thst was only two years ago? Jeez they’ve improved

Wow that’s so poetic

I went to that game in Detroit. Fun times.

Wasn’t OG traded earlier that day, too?

Cade damn near broke that season

Basketball

Parity

Legitimately think I’d take like 5 or 6 West teams over any East team in a playoff series 

weird

BETTER

thankfully the first game is in February.

We don’t have that super physical center that can deal with Duren/Stewart.

Hoping to trade for one next month (maybe Day’Ron Sharpe)

Raptors home games are not a neutral site for Pistons. Toronto a 4 hour drive and games sold out. However, Detroit has been a neutral site for Raptors for a while because Canada right across the river from Detroit and Pistons have been playing to a half empty arena for years.

plus when was the last time that first sentence was ever uttered and actually true? lol it’s been a loooong time since both were good

idk what this guy is smoking but Toronto games are not even close to neutral for Pistons fans

Are yall tickets still dirt cheap? Might have to make a trip to Detroit for the raptors game

Pistons aren’t surprising was pretty much Cavs, Knicks, Magic and Pistons to be the top teams with Boston dead and Bucks are just 1 man. Raptors are surprising though they been playing really well.

It’s a win win for me. I love me some Cade and Scottie

Tatum and Hali getting injured broke the East.

That game felt like magnet ball at times lol

Aaron Holiday*

context?

I see what you did there

Next Monday should be a lot of fun, genuinely speaking

I think we caught y’all off guard a couple times this year but we’re on the radar now. Y’all are gonna bring it next week.

Scottie will make it, but there’s not a big enough gap between Ingram and RJ to choose one. Plus Quickley is playing great, and Poeltl might actually be our second most important player even if the stats don’t show it.

If every top 4 team got 2 All Stars you’d be leaving out a ton of more deserving players.

The top 1 or 2 seed sometimes get a nudge on their 2nd guy. But even that’s not automatic.

And the East is a logjam right now.

This ^. I find this the craziest part as well

I was aware

I knew before the game started.

They were also one of the most injured teams last season and then went I think 22-24 or something over the last 46 games despite tanking for the last month of the season and BI not playing a single game. I was pretty high on them coming in and so far feeling good about that

Nobody actually watches the Raptors they just go off whatever the NBA media is saying about them, which a majority of the time is that they suck. Which to be fair we have the last few seasons, but there was a lot of context missing around the discussions.

We were insanely injured to start last season, and then we blew the team up to retool for this year. Even with us legitimately tanking, we were almost a .500 team for the last ~45 games of the season. On top of that we had something like a top 5 defense in the league during that time. Our young players have continued to improve and our signings actually helped the team a lot even though the fit is weird on paper (BI to help the half-court offense and Mamu as a stretch 5). We have a team of young players who are bought into playing the same way which in this league can be hard to achieve.

This is to say I was a truther for this roster and I hope we can continue to be good for the next 30 games and solidify a top 5-6 spot in the East.

We weren’t underachieving, we were just trying to tank for Flagg or Harper lol

I mean the determination is that we make the playoffs. Need some injury luck but making the playoffs is about all I expect. I also think we’ll be dogs in the playoffs with this roster but you never really know with a group til you get there.

Similar to the Spurs really

We may slip from the 2 seed, but we’re locking ourselves into the top 6 ideally.

It’s real, nothing the raptors have been doing is unsustainable and have been winning games against both good and bad teams

The Raptors have a roster full of good players without any superstars. They’re playoff bound for sure but I think their ceiling is limited. So far it’s been clicking though.

It’s real in the sense that they have 1 less loss than the 8 seed. People are getting way over excited about being in 2nd place though - two games separate 2-11 in the East right now.

We also haven’t dealt with any major injuries which is arguably the biggest factor.

It’s not just the east. The whole league is pretty weak right now outside of the Thunder. It’s a battle ground out there. Raps could make some noise

please dont talk about the blue jays

Please no I can’t take another loss like that

People always think that teams that were good last year will be good this year and so on. Lots of people on Reddit predicted the Raptors could be good but not good enough to supplant one of the other teams they thought would still be good.

Of course, most of those ppl are full of shit and have no idea about the Raptors at all, thinking that last year was us actually trying to win.

And we didn’t even tank the end of the year… That was us tanking the whole season. Guys were sitting out the max time with minor injuries.

Man I hated playing the pistons when he was yall head coach

Theme of “2nds”

Jays 2nd in finals

Raps 2nd in east

Leafs 2nd last in division

100%. if he can continue how he’s been playing, and stay healthy he’s FMVP locked for this season

They’re separated by two games because other teams lose more than us bc they’re worse than us. It’s not some natural circumstance

i used to pray for times like this 🥲

They have been ravaged with injuries. Garland has only played 2 games, Strus has been out the whole year, Merril, Tyson, Mitchell, Allen have all missed at least a few games each and Lonzo doesn’t play back to backs.