Dr. J. Naismith

With the current rosters Hoopsworld has done their first power rankings of the Eastern Conference this summer. They have the Raps at number 5.

Thoughts?

Source - Click here

dmbphan041

I'd say 4th behind Boston, Detroit and Orlando.

fancylad

That's a good summary of what i feel about this team. There are still a few queationmarks and "what if" scenarios, but 5th in the conference ain't too shabby. Me personally, i see us as no worse than 5th if that means anything.

Apollo

My question would be how in the hell can this guy rank the Raptors fifth in the east and think that they will make it to the second round? Math was never his strong point I guess... 5th in the east will be a disappointment for a team who just added Jermaine O'Neal.

The Cavs are overrated. Outside James that have a bunch or role players, once good players who are on the decline and young guys who have glaring holes.

fancylad

haha. fair enough.

ClingRap

In the playoffs, James is enough to win a series. If he gets on a roll he can win you two-three games. If he's hot and dropping fifty on your head, it opens up things for the roll players who get there's so much easier. I like our chances with a healthy o'neal in the middle.
But I see your point, that it doesn't make much sense to rank us 5th and then say we'll get past the first round in passing. Explain the ranking more in detail, justify the lower ranking and why we would beat the fourth ranked team.

Apollo

You proved my point. The Cavs have nothing to fall back on if defensive schemes are even working marginally on James. If a team can hold him to 30, play good defense across the board and score then the Cavs will fall. James will have a hard time penetrating with Bosh and O'Neal in the paint. If that means he takes a lot of jumpers then all is well. Let him shoot the long ball. Its tough to win with that consistently.

Ugo Ferst

I dont wanna play the Cav's in the playoffs, we always get burned by great guards, always

jeffb

Cleveland #2? WTF is this moron thinking? I personally think that #3 -#6 is a toss up between Cleveland (probably#6),Orlando,Toronto,Phily.

It's rediculous to predict anything now,but it's a slow summer:

Top 6
1.Boston
2.Orlando
3.Detroit
4.Toronto
5.Philly
6.Cleveland

Apollo

Big Z and Big Ben are old. Jermaine and Chris will kill them. Gibson can't hang with Calderon. Calderon will crush him. Its all about James and when it comes down to one guy things can be done to throw him off.

MikeToronto

Yeah, it worked really well against Kobe...

Apollo

I didn't think Jermaine O'Neal, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, Jason Kapono, Andrea Bargnani, Roko Ukic, Nathan Jawai, Hassan Adams, Kris Humphries, and Will Solomon were on the Raptors when that happened and I didn't know LeBron James was an amazing outside shooter who has proven himself to be able to beat a team from long range.

Ugo Ferst

Kobe burns us for 35+ pretty much everytime we play him, even last year with most of those playes on the team.

Not to mention you just said players like Kap, Ukic, Parker, Hassan, Hump and Soloman who either we have no idea what they will bring, or last year brought poor to medicore D at best.

LBJ gets better every year, i know alot of people here dont like him, but his work ethic is there (take notes Bargs), believe me, he knows his outside shot is his weak link, he will work on it non stop til it isnt. By outside i mean 3s, his mid range game is decent. Going to the rim, we have no1 1v1 that can stop him, and he is so strong and big, all JO or Chris could really do is foul him, and he isnt a horrible FO shooter.

Hell nevermind LBJ or Kobe, some players like Crawford burned us last year, we suck against guards

Apollo

My point in listing those players wasn't to gloat about the level of skill on the roster, it was to point out that this is an entirely different team than the team Kobe crushed for 81.

The other point was that James, as great as he is, is not an amazing perimeter player. He's good out there but I don't think he can single handedly beat teams most nights out there if you limit him to that. Everyone around the league keeps talking about how Bosh and O'Neal are the best front court duo in the league. They're going to clog up those lanes, draw fouls and punish anybody who thinks about driving. James will beat them at times but I think they're good enough to limited his interior offense significantly.

souternmost raptors fan

As far as the rankings go, I see us competing with Philadelphia, Cleveland and Washington for spots 4-6, with us most likely landing 5, (not that we couldn't get the 4 spot, I just don't think that it will happen for some unknown reason), with either Cleveland or Philly getting the 4 by a small margin, the other getting 6, and Washington ending up with 7, as Arenas changes their identity, creating a slightly worse version of the team that he played for three years ago in a tougher Eastern Conference.

As far as LBJ goes, the inside presence of JO will do wonders on keeping slashers like Lebron out of the post, and very few, if any, slashers can score the majority their points outside, and Lebron, much to the disagreement of his fans, is not one of them.

As far as Kobe goes, no matter what else we do, we won't hold Kobe to under 30 until we get an absolute lockdown defender at the wings, or he has a rare off shooting night. It is as simple as that.

moremilk

lebron CAN singlehandedly beat almost any team if he puts his mind too. The problem is that he can't do it every night, and even though last season he was UNBELIEVABLE, they still didn't have a great record. I don't think the Cavs are a threat to get 50 wins next season, very very unlikely. However, of all eastern teams, the team you should be most afraid is the cavs ...

Apollo

James isn't getting a ring until he gets a REAL sidekick. Jordan went through the same thing.

Ugo Ferst

like VC?? :P oh man u guys will hate it.

Apollo

Carter isn't the guy to do it,not in my mind. It would be a good duo but Carter isn't tough enough.

the_ raps_analyst

I'm confused why Orlando is ranked 6th. They should be much higher