Turns out the rest of the NBA don’t think too highly of the Toronto Raptors off-season or their chances this season.
Decision-makers around the league voted the Raptors as the sixth best team in the East, according to the poll released by NBA.com on Tuesday. Only 2.4% of GMs said the Raptors would finish as a top-four team in their conference, and the team did not receive any top-four votes in a major category.
However, new small forward DeMarre Carroll did receive a bit of praise. He received at least one vote in a few categories, including the most underrated player acquisition, the most surprising addition, and as one of the top perimeter defenders.
Carroll signed a four-year deal with Toronto as a free agent after a career-best season with the Atlanta Hawks.
Other Raptors to receive nominations included Normal Powell (biggest draft steal), Nick Nurse (best assistant coach) and Luis Scola (active player to make the best head coach).
It was also notable that head coach Dwane Casey did not receive one vote for any of the coaching polls, including best defensive scheme and best motivator.
On the other hand, GMs had plenty to say about reigning Rookie of the Year Andrew Wiggins, who was tops in the polls when asked “Which player will most likely have a breakout season in 2015-16?”. The 20-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves forward received 17.2 per cent of the vote.
Some of the other breakout-player candidates were a bit peculiar including last season’s defensive player of the year Kawhi Leonard.
(Image: NBA.com)
Wiggins averaged 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 43.7 percent from the field in 82 games with Minnesota as a rookie and should be more comfortable as a sophomore with an improving young team.
NBA GMs also predicted that the Cavaliers will win their first NBA championship and LeBron James will claim his fifth MVP award in the process.
The Cavaliers received 53.6 per cent of the votes from those responding to the poll, beating out San Antonio (25 per cent). Cleveland reached the finals last year before falling to Golden State, which finished third in the poll with 17.9 per cent of the votes.
James got 39.3 per cent of the MVP votes to outpace New Orleans’ Anthony Davis (25 per cent). Davis got an astounding 86.2 per cent of the votes as the player executives would want to build a franchise around now.
— With files from Canadian Press
