[Senator Clay Davis]

Well here we are, a world in which the Raptors are the defending NBA Champions. Obviously it's gonna be tough to repeat after losing Kawhi, but this is still a very good team and if guys like Anunoby and Boucher can add something to the roster this can still be one of the top 3 teams in the East this year. Siakam needs to take another step forward for that, but given his development so far in his career that's not a huge ask at all. The Raps have become one of the very best organizations in the league at drafting and developing talent. Even without Kawhi I don't see a huge fall off, at least in the regular season

And with how many moveable contracts there are on this team, even if they do fall back to being maybe a fringe playoff team Masai will have the ability to accumulate assets for a quick rebuild. I would think after his masterstrokes last year he's earned the confidence to believe he will get things back to a championship level sooner than later. It sucks not having Kawhi back to take another run since the East is basically the same as last year, but obviously we'd all still do that trade again in 0.0001 seconds.

As for the league as a whole this is, I would hope, what the league office dreamed of having one day: A wide open league where 8-10 teams can win the title in a season, although the one thing that hasn't changed is the West is far more brutal to get through than the East. Should be a very fun season outside of watching guys like LeBron and Harden bow to totalitarianism in order to make even more money, as if they aren't rich enough.