UJIRI SEES GOOD THINGS, BUT STRESSES PATIENCE
Masai Ujiri knows what he wants. He also knows what he has.
What he wants is another NBA championship. What he has is a team that is still building to that point.
So Tuesday's year-end state of the franchise address was a mix of declarations of win at all costs and admonitions that building a winner takes time and requires patience.
Ujiri talked about expecting to win every time his team takes the court, but recognized the need to let the young roster develop and learn.
The two are not mutually exclusive events, but doing one while doing the other is difficult.
Suffice to say the Raptors' top executive sees a winner in these Raptors. He just doesn't see that happening right away.
“It's patience,” Ujiri explained. “When you have young players,
I think we have to always be patient, we have to be, and it's not going to go good all the time. I sat here (at the beginning of the year) and told you it's not going to be pretty. It's going to be up and down. That's just how development works, how building works, but, the mindset has to be winning. However you look at it, last year, in the Tampa tank year, we won. You know why we won? Scottie Barnes. We won. Our whole mindset has to be winning, you have to think about it that way.”
So yes, winning has to be the goal all the time.
Ujiri though admitted he too had to be reminded now and again just how much patience is required to build that team that can compete for a title. He recalled head coach Nick Nurse having to remind him earlier this season the steps required before the unfinished product becomes finished.
“He explained it to me with Precious (Achiuwa),” Ujiri said. “I was like, `Why is he doing that? Why is he doing this?' And it's the patience of getting them to make mistakes sometimes and, yeah, sometimes we'll say, `How does it fit into ... the timelines of Pascal (Siakam) or Fred (Vanvleet) or OG (Anunoby) and these guys?'
“Those guys are young, too,” Ujiri said. “... I think we're the third or second-youngest team in the playoffs and (veteran) Thad Young messed it up for us, by the way,” he joked. “We have to build, we have to grow, and I know that sometimes when you win, the
expectations start to become a little bit higher from fans, from media, from everybody, just sets a tone, but inside we have to see it, we have to have the vision of what we feel, what we project these guys are going to be.”
And that is why when Ujiri is asked where he sees the best avenue to growth this summer, his answer is “from within.” That might not get the competitive juices for the fan base firing as they look ahead to free agency, but that is the plan.
“We are going to make little changes here and there, obviously we have the mid-level exception that we can use, and we'll try to find some flexibility, be it trades, or to add players if that comes about,” Ujiri said.
“The core is the core and barring injuries and things that you feel hinder your team along the way, we feel that there is going to be growth internally ...
“I think players like Dalano (Banton), Justin (Champagnie), those guys will make a jump, they'll get better,” Ujiri said. “They need to be given opportunity, too, because if we call our program a developmental program, we have to give those guys opportunity, too.”
That last line sounds like a bit of a dig at Nurse, but Ujiri later defended Nurse's limited use of the end of his bench by saying the young starters' and front end of the bench need to be pushed.
“They needed it,” Ujiri said. “There's no question about it. We needed to see Pascal in these situations, we needed to see Fred in these situations. You have to do it intensely, you have to do it to be intentional about these things and that was an understanding with all of us.”
Ujiri was giving every indication that to expect that this summer, would be premature.