On August 27, ESPN published a piece titled "NBA Summer Forecast 2025-26: Predictions for East and West conference standings," credited to various NBA insiders as the authors. As the article title suggests, it would cover those predicted to be at the top of the food chain, middle-tier (or play-in category), and finally the bottom five to round out the group, for both conferences respectively.
And unfortunately for the Toronto, it doesn't look like this crop of NBA insiders could justify placing them in a favorable category, as the Raptors were projected to be the Eastern Conference's 12th seed with a record of 33-49.