Everyone else is doing it: 12 fearless predictions about the season

12 things that may or may not happen during the course of the season:

1. Utah Jazz will win the champions - these guys are better than people are giving them credit for, Boozer is a monster and the supporting cast is very good. Ak-47 is the x-factor, if his fragile ego holds up this team will be tough to beat.

2. The Sun will have the best record - Their up-tempo style and skill will win a lot of regular season games, but they will not be able to translate it into playoff success, yet again.

3. Chicago will win the east - They have the most talented roster and one of the best defensive systems in the conference. That will be good enough for a number one seed and eastern conference championship. Unless they trade for Kobe, in which case they're fucked.

4. The MVP will go to KG - The Celtics are going to be a lot better this year and KG will get all the credit. Every sports writer is the country has a giant man crush on this guy.

5. Andrea Bargnani will have a lot less doubters by the end of the year - he's got the natural skills, the aggressive and the willingness to learn to take huge strides in his development.

6. Raptors will win the same number of games as last year - well give or take two. They have gotten better, but so has the rest of the conference.

7. Raptors will make the playoffs as a fourth or fifth seed and lose in the second round - This will make everyone fairly happy.

8. Baston, Moon and Martin will spend most of their time on the inactive list

9. Chris Bosh's body will hold up - everyone is getting way too excited about his potential health problems, he will play more than 70 games this year.

10. Washington won't make the playoffs - Agent Zero's knee won't be 100% for a good chunk of the season and the rest of the team is not good enough to take up the slack. Especially since they still won't play defense.

11. Boston will make the playoffs - But they won't be higher than fifth seed.

12. New Jersey will win the Atlantic division - I don't like it either, but they have Jason Kidd and a good supporting cast. They would have won it last year too, if they hadn't been hit so hard by the injury bug.

Thoughts on Raptors preseason

So much for posting more frequently... but I am back again.

The Raptors preseason is half over and we've had a chance to kinda see how the new players are fitting in. Yesterdays game seemed to be a step in the right direction, but they still have a lot of work to do if they're going to repeat as division champs.

Things I like

They finally look like they're learning to rebound. Out-rebounding 47-43 Zalgiris without Bosh in the lineup is a definate positive.

Despite shooting only 20% from three point range they still managed to put up 105 points, a lot of which came from the charity strip. Its good to see that kind of aggresiveness in attacking the basket.

They have gotten back to the team scoring that made them one of the more efficient offenses last year. Six players were in double figures and no one scored more than 13 points.

T.J. Ford seems determined to prove that he can be an all-star and the way he's playing he might be right.

Things I don't like

Bosh is hurt. Why does Toronto always seem to get injury prone stars?

Garbajosa might have come back too early from his injury. He certainly looks like his injury is bothering him. How long until he regains last years form? or did he screw himselft permanently?

Sorry about the long hiatus, assuming someone was reading to begin with, classes and personal life snuck up on me. I am going to give this thing another try, we'll see how that works out.

So, training camp is almost upon us, anyone excited yet? I have never really understood why team would hold their camps overseas, see the Raptors. All that travel, plus the distractions of Europe just don't seem to be a recipe for productive training.

Anyone else worried about the potential injury woes for the Raptors this season. Bosh's foots kinda iffy, as is Garbajosa's ankle. They also had several players in the international competitions this summer, that extra wear and tear could be problematic. At least they have one of the deepest teams in the league this year, which means that they can weather any injuries, even to some key players, and still come out ok.

On a completely seperate note, my Sun Devils are 4-0 and ranked, which means they are due for an upset. We'll see if the new coach can do a better job of keeping them focused than Kotterer(or however you spell his name) used to. At least they seem to have learn how to play defense and that's never a bad thing.

Well, I'm out, night all.

Chris Bosh's foot injury

News of Chris Bosh pulling out of the US men's basketball team has me pretty worried. He's had this Plantar Fasciitis for almost a year now and it still seems to be given him some problems. There's nothing worse than a promising career that's derailed by lingering injuries. Let's hope that the Raptors brass have enough sense give him the time he needs to fully recover from this, even if it means starting the season without him. Even though he is clearly the Raptors best player, they have enough depth to survive without him, at least for a little while and his long term health is far too important to the team's success to risk bringing him back before he's ready. Even if it means losing a few more games early in the season.

When will this go away already

Any else tired to this whole ref scandal yet? Call it apathy, call it indifference, call it what you will, but I simply don't care that one NBA ref was a little crooked. I mean, when the story first broke it seemed like the end of the NBA world. The whole thing was going to go up in flames on a pyre built by the unbelievers (anyone not a hardcore NBA fan). A ref had cheated, he had fixed games. Then it became, that Donaghy had manipulated the spread, to make money on gambling. Then it was that he was manipulating the over/under for the same purpose, which is not a big deal to anyone unless they were betting. Finally, unless he faces further charges, it turns out that all he did was give some small-time bookies some insider information. Apparently this is a major crime, since he's looking at 25 years and some hefty fines, but from the perspective of a non-betting NBA fan it's pretty meaningless. Really, who cares that he helped a couple of minor criminals make some money, wasn't the important part of this whole fiasco that he was altering the outcome of certain games, which apparently he wasn't. Can't we just move on and focus on more important issue. Like Chris Bosh's foot injury and how it might affect the chances of the Raptors winning the championship this year (in case you think I'm nuts, I don't actually thing their chances are all that great to begin with, but you never know).