Toronto Raptors should be strong in 2013-14 and make the playoffs

The Toronto Raptors who ended up 34-48 and 10TH in the Eastern Conference in 2012-13 and now everything looks rosy as the Atlantic division is a train wreck as both the Boston Celtics (41-40) and Philadelphia 76ers (34-48) have sold off their talents in the off-season. So the weaker Celtics and 76ers makes the 2013-14 season looks more tasty for the Raptors in the 2013-14 as it looks more like another 2006-07 season where they went 47-35 and made the playoffs. Dwayne Casey is in the final year of his Raptors contract and he will drive home his defensive first mandate to his players because if they buy into the system the games will be tighter and less scoring i.e. 95-94 and those are more winnable than a 109-108 game. If they do not buy into Casey's system is a goner and they bring in another coach who will bring in another system and bring back the non-defensive system and they go back to playing the offensive end but not the defensive end and it will suck royally. Rudy Gay will be a strong player and put up big games and help win games for Raptors and he has been on strong defensive teams before (Grizzles) and hopefully bring that to the Raptors defensive and will like to have a great season to cash in as a free agent at the end of the season. Just like Tyler Hansbrough (Pacers) who wil bring his tough D off coming the bench and put his heart and sole on the court. Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas have a season under their belt and have an idea of what to expect in the NBA and hopefully take another couple of steps forwards while Amir Johnson who is now in the starting lineup and hopefully will be some much better than Andrea Bargnani with stick backs and rebounds. Kyle Lowery would be wise to pass more than shoot because the team success will help him more in the free agent market than jacking up shots. Then there is the rest of the Atlantic division which are burrows of New York as in the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets who the cream of the crop but they have warts starting with the Knicks as they now has Andrea Bargnsni and he will not help Carmelo Anthony keep his cool and will lost it on Andrea and Amar'e Stoudemire may continue to be hurt just Carmelo Anthony as he has not played a full in any of his three seasons of the Knicks while Carmelo has sent a lot of time in the past two seasons not playing on the court. While The New York Knicks point guard last season Jason Kidd now has to get guys like Joe Johnson, Deron Williams, and Brook Lopez to mesh with Kevin Garnett, Reggie Evans, and Paul Pierce and it will be fun the explosions will be specular and that thing could go down in flames as u got so many different strong personalities for a young Kidd to try to handle. So I feel that everything in the Raptors favor this season and for conference where a losing records make the playoffs that the Raps if they come to play on both ends of the court something like 45 w's could happen and maybe a second appearance (just hoping). I am Casey guy so I hope he is able to figure everything out and take this team to the promise land Tom Mehegan