Masai Ujiri not swayed by public opinion
In the recency age we now live in, it is funny how quickly people forget.
Case of point.
Masai Ujiri is being maligned for his inactivity at the National Basketball Association (NBA) trade deadline.
Just under four years after bringing a championship to the city, journalists and fans are questioning the 2013 NBA Executive of the Year ‘stand pat’ approach for not making more than just the move in reacquiring centre Jakob Poeltl who was sent to the San Antonio Spurs in July 2018 in the trade involving DeMar DeRozan that brought Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to the Raptors.
That trade for a superstar paid instant dividends with the Canadian franchise defeating defending champions Golden State Warriors in the final.
Who would forget the celebrations and the millions who flooded downtown Toronto for the massive parade on June 17, 2019?
Let us be clear about a couple of things.
Of the 30 teams in the NBA, 12 have never won a title and all of them have been in the league before the Raptors began play in the 1995-6 season.
Since Ujiri became President of Basketball Operations in 2013, the Raptors have made the play-offs every year. On five occasions, they reached the conference semi-finals and twice they were in the conference finals.
In the last decade, the team has been very competitive which should not be taken for granted.
The same cannot be said of several other franchises.
In their 53-year history, the Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers/Los Angeles Clippers have made the Conference finals once. Yes, just ONE time.
Of the 10 times the Phoenix Suns have been to the conference finals since the franchise started play in the 1968-69 season, the ‘Valley of the Sun’ team lost all three finals they appeared in.
Since 1976-77, the New Jersey Nets/Brooklyn Nets have been to the NBA finals twice. That is the same team that had Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden who were supposed to lead that franchise to the Promised Land.
The Indiana Pacers have made it once to the finals in its 47-year history. In that same period, the Denver Nuggets has never appeared in an NBA final.
You get the drift.
This seems, It seems much is expected of the Raptors that does not have a superstar which, in basketball, is very instrumental if you are seriously contending for a championship.
For this collection of players to be consistent and win regularly, the starters have to play at a high level every night and get some support from the bench. If this doesn’t happen and key players are injured, the Raptors will be where they are in the standings. Plain and simple.
Ujiri knows that. It is his team and he is there with the guys all the time. We aren’t and are in no position to decide what is best for the franchise. Having said, we are allowed to voice our opinions. That is our right.
Ujiri believed it made no sense to trade OG Anunoby who still has a year left on his contract and, if we are to believe reports, is coveted by many teams.
If he wants to move him, it can be done at the end of the season when the returns may be more significant than right now.
We know that Fred VanVleet and Gary Trent can enter free agency at the end of the season if they decline their player options for the 2023-4 season. Poeltl is in the final year of his contract.
Ujiri knows all of this. You can bet he will not allow these players to walk, as most people fear, without getting assets back in return that he feels will help the team.
I was at Skydome 28 years ago for the NBA draft when the majority of the then record 21,300 crowd were rooting for the Raptors to draft Ed O’Bannon who was that year’s NCCA Final Four Most Valuable Player.
He left the University of California, Los Angeles as its fourth leading scorer and the PAC-10 Co-Player of the Year.
To chants of ‘We want Ed, We Want Ed’ when the Raptors turn came to make the seventh pick, late NBA Commissioner David Stern stepped up to the podium and announced the franchise had used its first ever selection on Damon Stoudamire who went on to win the Rookie of the Year Award and spend 13 years in the league.
O’Bannon played two seasons and is best known for being the lead plaintiff in an anti-trust class action lawsuit against the NCCA that resulted in the discontinuation of NCCA video games.
Stoudamire was the best point guard in that draft and then Raptors’ Executive Vice-President of Basketball Operations Isaiah Thomas – a former all-star guard – knew the importance of having a quality playmaker to build a franchise.
He was not swayed by public reaction. So too is Ujiri.
With the acquisition of Poeltl, he wants to see if this group will gel and play to the level he expects before making rash moves.
For now, just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
