Lunchbox Links

In a late edition of the Lunchbox Links, allow me to get my Fu-Schnicken on and Ring the Alarm about Hedo Turkoglu. Reports that he appeared tired and injured at EuroBasket 2009 don't bode well for the upcoming season, with training camp less than one week away. In order to ward off a potential slow start to the regular season, the Raptors plan to give their marquee acquisition some strategic rest during the preseason.

Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference.com takes a first pass at a Win Shares-based projection system that has the Raptors at 43.4 wins and fourth place in the Eastern Conference. While I'm not sure 43-44 wins is good enough for fourth place in the East, AltRaps over at Raptors Republic lays out what the Raptors have to do to reach the 45-win mark. And in a glass-is-half-empty take on the upcoming season, ESPN "experts" see the Raptors winning 39 games and barely missing the playoffs.

Predict the 16 NBA playoff teams over at Rufus on Fire.

Eric Smith keeps it Real(GM) in this question and answer session.

If you had one pickup game for all the marbles, who would you choose? Chris Bosh gets some consideration.