ESPN projects Raptors at 6th in the Eastern Conference

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty ImagesIt’s not nothing to note the Raptors have lost Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka for the coming season. We’ve mentioned it almost every time we’ve written about the team in advance of their first game on December 23rd. But there are two ways to think about that, and in those two ways of thinking we arrive at how the Raptors will play out the 2020-21 season. ESPN has clearly made their choice — which we’ll get to in a second — but let’s first unpack those two ways.

First, the negative: losing Gasol and Ibaka means the Raptors have lost two veteran frontcourt players who bring a lot of know-how to the team in terms of executing a gameplan on a nightly…