Last year it was Sports Illustrated's preseason ranking of DeMar DeRozan as the 46th best player in the NBA that ruffled some feathers within the Toronto Raptors organization and their fans.
Now it's an ESPN prediction that could have a similar effect.
On Thursday, ESPN released their 2017-18 win projections for each team in the NBA using the real plus-minus (RPM) stat, which strives to determine a player's effectiveness when he's on the court. Here's a short description from ESPN.com.
RPM estimates how many points each player adds or subtracts, on average, to his team's net scoring margin for each 100 possessions played. The RPM model also yields separate ratings for the player's impact on both ends of the court: offensive RPM (ORPM) and defensive RPM (DRPM).
So after running the numbers, the Raptors were predicted to put up 43.4 wins in 2017-18, good enough for sixth in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics (49.4), Cleveland Cavaliers (49.2), Washington Wizards (47.5), Milwaukee Bucks (46.9) and Charlotte Hornets (44.1).
RPM projected W-L records for next season. How's your team looking?