Detroit will not finish in front of the Raptors this season.
People are excited about Greg Monroe, but let’s get real here. He’s not anywhere close to a game changer, and I’m not ready to bet on Brandon Knight as a successful player in the NBA. The rest of the Pistons are not that good or completely unproven.

I see your point about Washington – I’d put them on par with Toronto. Ariza and Okafor are nice pickups, but are both not legitimate starters in the NBA. Wall and Beal are unproven at this point. To me, it’s 50/50 regarding who finishes with a better record between TOR and WSH.

And I like Milwaukee for their defensive toughness inside, but besides for their 2 ball-hogging guards, they have no scorers. Brandon Jennings is not a good NBA player btw. His only skill is scoring, which he doesn’t do efficiently. There’s no doubt in my mind that Toronto has a brighter future than MIL. But I’d say they are better now as well.
MIL will all apart soon enough. Jennings and Ellis were bad together on the court last season…why anyone would think it would get any better is beyond me.

Toronto won’t make the playoffs, b/c there is a sizeable jump in talent from teams 1 thorugh 8 in the East from the rest of the pack. But a 9 or 10 seed is perfectly within reason.

Even the 76ers and Nets, while much closer to being locks, still arent guarantees as theyll both need some time to gel with all the new players. Of course this applies to the Raptors too, and as a result I also expect them to finish around 9-11th, likely sneaking into the playoffs the following season.

in no particular order: Bos, Phi, NYK, Nets, Mia, Ind, Chi, Atl

That’s 8. now here are the teams that i think SHOULD finish in front of them:
Mil, Was, and possibly Det

I think Washington is going to be much improved. They now have a much more mature group, a defensive minded group. I think Wall, Beal, Ariza, Nene, Okafor is a pretty solid starting five. Milwaukee has good scoring from the backcourt and a defensive minded coach. they should be fighting for a playoff spot. Detroit is a question mark, but I think they’re talent is better than Toronto. Greg Monroe is a very underrated center. If people are going to mention Hibbert with Bynum, I think they need to mention Monroe as well. They’ve also got young talent in Knight Jerebko, and Drummond that could be something special if they play well this year. Detroit has a high ceiling but also a really low floor.

If all of those teams turn out to have better records than Toronto, that puts them at the 12th spot in the East. I think 9 is stretching it a little too far.

Lottery team.